Idaho bound

Alright, it may be time to start blogging again.  My last blog was 10 months ago!!!
Everyone kept telling us that we were starting a new adventure together when they found out we were moving to Idaho so Sean could attend the University of Idaho's law program.  Well... turns out they were quite right!!!
We left on Saturday, the 2nd of August.  Friday night our awesome ward & amazing family helped us pack our Uhaul up & clean the house.  That was an adventure all in itself.  I'm pretty sure I may have had a mental breakdown if everyone hadn't been there helping us!!! Thanx for every person that helped us pack & clean. Michelle, JoDee, & Nancie & their families- pretty much all of Sean's family.. all the guys from our ward! We could never say thanx enough!!!

 Wednesday was my last day at work. I pretty much walked in the door crying & ended up leaving early because Joe was throwing up at home.  Everyone at work brought awesome food to share & it was hard to say goodbye to everyone I've worked with for 8 years.  I'll miss being there & seeing each one of them!!!

This was either Wednesday afternoon, or Thursday morning.  Either way.. chaos in the torn up Johnson home.  Sean told me today that this move may be easier on him because his normal life has been disrupted since May.  Mine has too, but my home life has been more normal than his. 

We got our UHaul on Thursday afternoon.  That night Sean's family threw Joey an early birthday party & kind of a going away for Sean too.  After the party Ben & Brandon came & helped load all of the packed boxes.

On Friday morning, searching the backyard for anything left... man I miss that big backyard!!!!

Friday evening Phil & Wendi came over with their families to say goodbye.  I think it was easier to not totally cry when I said goodbye just a little at a time, like Friday night.  Saturday morning, not as easy.  Maren looks like she knows she is surrounded by a circus!! :) She & Senny gave lots of hugs to each other, hopefully enough to last til they see each other again. I'm sure Maren will be running around by then.

 Friday night we finally finished cleaning after midnight.  The carpets took alot of work & we would have been there all night if Sean's family, the Palmers, Brandon & Michelle, Joc& Jen hadn't been there to help!!!  They all tackled different parts of the house & we spent the night at my Mom & Dad's house since ours was a vacant shell :(  Thanx a ton Chelle!! She took the boys over to moms & stayed with them til we got there.  I can't say how much every little thing like this meant  to Sean & me!!!

 Saturday morning the Dillards brought donuts over to Mom's & Nancie came by to say goodbye too.  Of course, I was a wreck.  How can I hold it together when they all gang up on me like this?!! I've been so busy trying to piece our house together again, missing home hasn't hit me like a ton of bricks just yet.

 After we said goodbye to my family, we went back over to the house to finish mopping, spraying down the porches, tying things down & hooking up the trailers.  That may have taken a tad longer than expected (what else is new)....

 Senny was ready to get out of that heat!!!

We ate lunch with Sean's family & then I had another cry fest saying goodbye to all of them.  
We finally got on the road after 2pm.  We had to drop our keys off at the management company, gas up, air up... add on more time before we actually left.

 We made it to Flagstaff on Saturday.  It rained on us from the time we got out of Phoenix, til Monday afternoon.  Awful.  It's bad enough hauling everything you own in 2 trucks hauling trailers, but add on awful rain & fog & it is a prayer marathon, seriously.  I know God was truly watching over us & that the prayers of our friends & family were felt!!!  When we pulled off to a gas station in Flag, the power steering on the Uhaul was acting crazy. We decided to eat dinner & try & see if we could fix the problem. The prospect of having to have UHaul send us a new truck & repack our stuff into it was awful!  It rained on us while we sat in the parking lot of Little America, trying to figure out what to do.  I felt like Heavenly Father was giving us an obstacle to keep us from a disaster.  We decided to stay in Flag & started looking for a hotel. Not as easy as it sounds!  They were pretty much full almost everywhere!!  Crazy, right?  It was like a bad movie.  We found an overpriced hole & settled in.  Good thing. It crazy poured rain all through the night.  We had planned to try & make it into at least southern Utah. I'm pretty sure we would have gotten in an accident had we continued.  God was truly watching over us that night.
The next morning the truck seemed to work just fine, So we continued on driving through the rest of AZ & into Utah on Sunday.  It poured rain & there was crazy fog all morning. It was nuts!! When it was only drizzling & I felt like I could take my eyes off the road for a few seconds, I was able to enjoy the insane beauty we passed through.  Utah is so beautiful!!! I can still picture every corner we took on this trip, wishing I was the passenger so I could take a billion pictures!
We missed the turnoff for Page & had to turn around.. again, not the easiest feat in giant trucks hauling trailers... when there is 2 of you.  I did everything in my power to make sure I would never have to back up on this trip ( I did though.. & I rocked it :) !!! )

We stopped in Alton Utah for lunch with Sean's Aunt & Uncle.  They made us an amazing roast lunch & the kids where loving being out of the car & playing with their toys too.  Even Senny felt at home in their house & played with the boys & didn't fuss around at all.. a small miracle.  Alton is so beautiful & green!!   We also stopped by to see Sean's cousin Harmony & say hi for just a minute.  I loved that all of their stop signs looked like this!

We made it to Salt Lake that night & I may, or may not have had a small breakdown after having enough of driving in insane rain.  I'll leave it at that.  We stayed in Sandy that night & the hotel was a palace compared to the one in Flag the night before!!  The kids were loving the hotels.  The next morning Sam woke up & the first thing he said was " I just had the best nightmare!  A big bear was eating a shark!" Sean  & I just looked at each other & laughed!!

 Seriously.. this was a nice place!  The breakfast was super awesome too.  Sam loved the french toast sticks, which he kept calling breadsticks, & has been asking me for them every day since.  Senny ate a ton of food that morning & was super happy alot of the trip... who knew!

We made it to Boise on Monday & stopped & had pizza near the University.   Piehole tuck.  It was a tiny hole in the wall pizza place.  There was an old spray painted truck in the back.  This past summer when we were in NM, I told a scary story around the campfire about old man Jimmy.  I don't remember specifics, but just a little while ago I heard Sam & Joe talking about old man Jimmy in their bedroom. It made me laugh so hard that they even remembered.  They kept asking if they could explore around this old truck, so I told them old man Jimmy lived in there to keep them out.  Joey was pretty convinced he lived in there & would barely even walk by it to leave.  I'm such an awesome mom... traumatizing my children.

I was so grateful for Monday. It didn't rain at all & I felt like God was telling me He was gonna take it easy on me that day.  We drove through the most beautiful desert, the most amazing canyons with creeks running along side them & through the most quaint little cities that made me smile with their pretty light posts & flowers hanging all down main street.
We drove on to Cascade ID that evening & stayed in this old log motel with vintage signs inside.
The next day we drove through all those fun little towns I was talking about.  I took this picture cause every once in awhile when Sean turned the UHaul I caught a glimpse of the lady on the back of the truck. It always made me laugh for some reason.

 Driving right next to another river.

 Tuesday left us with a few serious mountain grades that were insanely slow going when you are hauling alot of weight.  I'm glad there was no overheating vehicles!!

We made it to Moscow around 3ish on Tuesday afternoon.  I was getting a little nervous, cause we were close & all I could see was field after field of wheat.  The reality of a small city was finally hitting me.. not sure how I'm feeling about this!!!!

 We picked up our keys & drove straight to our new place...

We were greeted with a sign on the door telling us the yard was overgrown & had too many weeds & needed to be taken care of by.. 2 days ago.  Nice. Whatever.

We had called ahead to our new ward in hopes of finding help unpacking the UHaul.. cause there was no way I could help with some of the big things!  We had an amazing welcome & tons of people showed up, super friendly & ready to help!  We are so excited to already have received such an awesome welcome from them!!  They all gave us lots of advice, & assured us that the hot weather usually only lasted a week every year.. & we just happened to move in that week. Of course.  We made a Walmart trip that night to stock up on window fans!!!  Air Conditioning apparently doesn't exist in the homes here.
So when we turned on the water in the house there was this crazy horrible rotten egg smell.  Awesome.  Now what? The management company said- we'll email the owners & get back to you on that. So very helpful! Luckily, my husband is the handiest man in the world!  We tried to get enough unpacked that we could sleep & have clothes that night.  It was late by the time everyone in the ward had left & we had emptied the UHaul & the cars.
The next morning Sean emptied out the hot water heater, which proved to be the culprit of the awful smell.  It poured out black crap for a good 30 seconds.  So he spend the day draining, flushing out, and bleaching our pipes & water heater.  Literally took all day.  That morning the White's in our ward came back over to help unpack.. So nice!!!  We spent the day working hard & doing it dirty.  I gave the boys baby wipe baths that night & Sean & I were finally able to feel safe using the water at about 10pm that night.
The place we rented wasn't quite as clean as I'd like, so we've been trying to settle in, unpack, clean alot & do this with 3 crazy kids running around. It has been an adventure to far, that is for sure!
Yesterday I went & registered Sam for kindergarten & we drove by the school they said he will most likely attend. It is right next to the University & Sam likes that he gets to go to school right next to Dad.
We are slowly getting our house together & the boxes are very few now.  I got an email a day into the trip from Red Robin telling me Joey has a free birthday meal. He was so excited, he has been asking about it every day.  His birthday is Monday, so I think we will drive to the nearest Red Robin in Spokane & spend the day checking everything out there.
I can't say the last time I prayed so much as I have in the past week.  I know my Father in Heaven answers prayers, he has truly been guiding us in our adventure so far.
They say home is where your heart is.  My heart is with my husband & my children & because we are together, I feel happy.