Bike Paths Everywhere!!!

We knew that biking was a big deal in the Netherlands.  (Fun fact:  there are more bikes than people in the Netherlands).  In some areas, like Amsterdam, bike congestion has become a problem just like auto congestion.  But in areas like 's-Graveland, where we are living, biking is great for transportation and fun.  There are lots of separated bike paths and when there's not a bike path, cars and bikes share the roads. 

One of our first priorities when we arrived was to buy used bikes for our entire family.  Our airbnb rental came with the use of two adult bikes so we just had to get bikes for the kids.  We found a great bike shop ~2km from our house. 

The two guys that work at the bike shop were so nice and helpful ... and so funny!  They reminded Rick and I of the two guys on Car Talk, the radio show about repairing cars.  They're constantly teasing each other and us. 

Bikes for three of the kids.  We came back later with Danika and Lydia to pick out a bikes for them.  However, most of the time Lydia rides on the back of my bike.  Five used bikes, two additional bike locks, the additional child cushion/seat on my bike & clear plastic spoke covers for both sides of my back tire cost us $345USD.  And, they will buy back the used bikes for 50% of their value when we leave in a few months. 

They have baby/toddler seats here but Lydia is large enough now that she's really too big for these.  Unfortunately, because we don't bike that often in the states, she doesn't yet know how to ride a bike.  The guys at the bike shop suggested we put this type of seat on the back of my bike along with pegs that can flip down and up for her feet.  

That black tubing on the back of the bike is our second bike lock.  Every bike here has a tire lock on the rear tire.  You can just barely see the one on this bike at the front of the cushion on the rear tire.  There is a key on the other side.  You turn the key, push down the lever and a piece of metal slides through the spokes of the rear tire, take out the key and your rear tire is locked.  One lock is good but two is better!  So, we bought two extra bike locks. Also standard on most bikes here are bells on the handlebars, front and rear lights, and fenders.  Most of the modern lights run off batteries but my lights are "old style" and run off the energy created from the movement of the front wheel.  

Since we often bike to the store for small grocery trips we really wanted to get some saddlebags.  Most of the bags we've seen are pretty expensive (30-100Euros/bag) but I saw these on clearance at Ikea the other day so I picked up two of them for 12Euros each.  They are insulated too. 

One Sunday afternoon while I was making dinner, Rick took the kids for a long bike ride to find a park.  This was the park they found.  As you can see the kids had a lot of fun.

The little kids are especially good at making friends.

The funny part about the little kids is that they don't have to speak the same language.  Play can happen in any language.  After they play, Rick and I will often ask our kids what their friend's name is and they'll just shrug their shoulders.  Why would you need to know someone's name?  You can play without that.

Many people have asked us why we would choose to live in 's-Graveland instead of closer to Utrecht where Rick is working.  The truth is that housing was not just difficult to find for our situation, but almost impossible.  The average price for airbnbs that fit 7 people was $10,000/month!!! I looked into lots of other options for our family (Pararius & Funda websites - the Netherlands version of ksl.com/craigslist where people list available housing), short term housing with the university, serviced apartments, etc.  They were either really expensive, too small for our family, unfurnished or required a 12 month contract.  There are so many people moving to the Netherlands that there is a huge demand for housing and not nearly enough supply.  After talking with someone who used to work in the real estate industry here, her advice to us was to not be picky and as soon as we found a place that remotely fit our needs just take it.  

This was the cheapest, closest, furnished place I could find to Utrecht with a short-term lease that fit our large family.  It costs us $3800/month (including utilities) and it's about a 30 minute drive from Rick's work (1- 1 1/2 hrs by transit or bike).  It's in the countryside but we've found that it actually suits us really well.  There are lots of BEAUTIFUL biking paths and a forested nature path 1-2 kilometers away as well as two shopping centers 2-2.5 km from us.

This picture was taken on an afternoon bike ride with the kids.

Photos just don't do it justice.

And this is another nature path we discovered when we tried to meet up with Logan's international scout troop for a hike.  We never did find them but we found some beautiful places to walk and bike!

A Bishop, a ward - many shepherds

Yesterday was our first Sunday in our new ward (congregation) in the Netherlands, the Almere Ward.  We LOVE our new ward! Once we had found a place to live I contacted the ward we would be attending to let them know we were coming and to ask a few questions about translation (this is a Dutch speaking ward) and about the youth and primary programs for our children.  Not only did they answer all of our questions but they sent us a lovely package with letters, photos and messages for each person in our family from the different organizations.  We have felt so welcomed and so loved!

After church we had another experience that reminded me of this quote from a recent General Conference talk "Becoming a Shepherd" by Bonnie H. Cordon:

"As we strive to follow the Savior’s example, we must first know and number His sheep. We have been assigned specific individuals and families to tend so we are certain that all of the Lord’s flock are accounted for and no one is forgotten. Numbering, however, is not really about numbers; it is about making certain each person feels the love of the Savior through someone who serves for Him. In that way, all can recognize that they are known by a loving Father in Heaven."

First, let me give a little background.  For those who have read our earlier blog posts, coming to the Netherlands was a little bit of a leap of faith.  We felt like it was the right decision but how to make it all work financially was not completely clear.  It became an even bigger leap of faith when we learned that the cost of housing was significantly more than we expected.  In order to afford housing we realized that we would not be able to pay for a vehicle while we are here.  It is just too expensive to rent a large van that could fit 7 people for six months ($8000-9000USD !!!).  We knew that riding bikes was very common in the Netherlands as well as taking public transit.  We've used public transit as our main mode of transportation in other cities like Xi'an, China and London, England so we figured it would be fun to combine transit and biking while in the Netherlands.

Fast forward to our first night in the Netherlands.  We had just arrived at our airbnb and got the kids mostly settled and then Rick and I set off on bikes to the grocery store as the sun was going down.  It was quite cold and there was snow on the ground as well as ice in a few places.  The cold wasn't nice, we could live with it, however having broken my ankle two years before after slipping on ice I was quite concerned about riding on snow and ice.  Also, the amount of energy and time we had to spend to get a small amount of food was rather daunting.  After this experience Rick and I were both pretty concerned about how we would do all that we need to here in the Netherlands, especially with needing to bike 5-6 km to the train station so we could make it to church on time each Sunday (the buses don't start early enough for us to make it to church on time going by bus).  That night we decided to lease a small 5 passenger car for one month just until the weather warmed up a bit and we didn't have to worry about biking in snow and ice. 

After our first bike ride in the Netherlands

For the most part, the five passenger car has worked great since most trips only a few people are usually traveling.  For those times when all seven of us need to be somewhere (like church on Sunday), we drive two people to the train station and then go back to get the other five people and drive to our destination.  It's costing us a little more on gas but the rental for a 5 passenger vehicle was about 1/3 the price of a 7 passenger vehicle. As we've gotten accustomed to the buses and trains we're also realizing how very expensive transit is in the Netherlands so it's often worth the backtracking and extra gas to avoid the additional transit fees.  We've also started to realize that there are going to be frequent, regular trips that will cost quite a bit (~15 euros round trip per person) for trips that will happen each week (church, youth activities, scouts, etc). In addition, these will require a lot of transit time (1 1/2 hrs each direction) and often be late in the evening (arriving home about 10:30pm).

We had already made a reservation to rent a van for our travels in May down to Slovenia and back to the Netherlands.  As we thought about all of our transit options we knew there was no way we could financially afford to rent a van for the entire time we are here in Europe but, maybe we could purchase a used van and then sell it when we leave ...  After adding in the cost of transit and the money we've already set aside for our minivan rental in May ($2550 USD) and comparing it to the cost of purchasing (including taxes, registration fees, insurance and fuel) and then selling a vehicle, we figured it was worth looking into the possibility.

So, today, heading to church, Rick and I planned on asking some of our new friends about the process of buying a car in the Netherlands and how hard it would be for us to do that.  After church, as we were saying goodbye to the Bishop and before we had even asked about purchasing a car, he told us that he had been concerned about our situation living here with a large family and no vehicle.  He said he had been praying about the situation when the name of another church member had come to mind.  This person buys and sells cars.  He had called him earlier and asked whether he had a minivan he was selling.  Unfortunately, he had just sold his only minivan.  However, even though he didn't have a minivan for us, he would be an ideal person to help us sell a vehicle after our time in the Netherlands if we decided to do that.

I was so touched that our new bishop was not only in tune with the Spirit enough to know of a challenge we would be facing even before we were aware of it but that he was praying for us personally to know how he could help.  I'm so grateful for the wards and good people we have been blessed to know (both here in Almere and our previous wards) that love the Savior and desire to follow His example by being His hands here on earth.  I know that we have a loving God in heaven, our Heavenly Father, who knows us individually.  It's quite amazing to me to see the many ways God is aware of our circumstances.  

Traveling with a large family

We get asked a lot how we have managed traveling as a large family.  We don't really feel qualified to do a post on how to travel with kids because we feel like we make a lot of mistakes and things are rarely perfect. We asked our kids to tell us some of the positives and negatives that come from traveling as a large family.  At first, they came up with a lot of cons and very few pros.  When things are challenging it can be hard to find the positives.  We asked them to keep thinking and they were able to find as many positives as they listed negatives.  I guess this tells us a lot about perspective ...

Pros and Cons of traveling as a family of 7 (2 parents & 5 children)

Pros
1.  Getting moved to the shorter line when coming through immigration at Heathrow airport
2.  People volunteering to let you sit down on the Underground
3.  There's more people to enjoy things with.  Some things are a completely different experience when enjoyed with multiple ages.  Matilda would not have been nearly as much fun without our little kids and Wicked and Hamilton would not have been so enjoyable without our teenagers.
4.  Getting to use the handicapped entrance to the London Underground because you have little kids that don't need a pass
5.  There are little kids that don't mind sleeping on the hard sofa beds leaving the more comfortable beds available for the "older" members of the family
6.  The little kids give you an excuse to come home and rest in the afternoon
7.  Life as a large traveling family can be fun, entertaining, aggravating, and challenging but never boring
8.  Group/family discounts on entrance fees
9.  Experiencing life through the eyes of Pup Pup and Lydia

Danika shrieking for joy before Hamilton!

Family made platform 9 3/4 magical.

Leake street graffiti art was a request from our teens!

Pup Pup and Uni have enjoyed experiencing all of London!

Coming to see Wicked fulfilled a promise to our kids, and is probably the main reason we came to London.

Cons
1.  Trying to find housing big enough to fit all of us.  Options are much more limited and usually quite expensive whether you're looking at hotels or airbnb/vrbo.
2.  Managing the interests of so many people of different ages.  It's rare to find activities that are good for the whole family so we do our best to mix activities for everyone with activities just for older kids or just for younger kids.
3.  Laundry ... laundry ... and MORE laundry.  We average 2 loads a day, which gets really tricky when you have a washing machine, no dryer and no place to really dry anything.  We use the radiators, backs and sides of chairs and the ironing board without its cover and it still takes forever to finish the laundry.
4.  Packing for seven people (6 large suitcases, 5 small suitcases & 5 backpacks) and it still feels like we can barely fit all our stuff in our luggage
5.  Trying to get through the crowded London Underground and not lose anyone
6.  Sharing one bathroom.  This gets quite tricky but especially so when there's no shower curtain.  With a shower curtain you can at least have one person bathing and still have the toilet available for use.  Without a shower curtain it gets much more challenging.  On a positive note, one bathroom also means only one bathroom to clean ...
7.  It takes longer to get out the door in the morning
8.  Everything is more expensive
9.  You can't fit into a single taxi but require a large van or two taxis

This was us on our good day.

They had cages for the animals at the Tower of London. Can we keep them in there ... please?

Our bilingual children at the Rosetta Stone at the British Museum ... before one ran away and got lost temporarily.

Doing laundry with no dryer ... 

When we were preparing for our travels with 5 children (ages 4-16), it was helpful to read other parents' blog posts.  We don't claim to be pros (far from it) but figured we could share here what has helped us.  Below we've included a few things we've done to make traveling as a large family and/or with young children manageable.  Some are things we've done on this trip and others we did when we went to China a couple years ago.  This is definitely not an exhaustive list and we will continue to add to it.  Feel free to comment suggestions that you have found helpful in your own travels as well.

Things that have been helpful for us:

1. For the plane, we picked up cheap old kindle fires at a local school that was upgrading their technology. One for each kid with over-the-ear headphones to block sound, and then we load them with movies ripped from our DVD collection. This has worked awesome for us. The kids get hooked on them quickly, so we put them away once we reach our destination so that they are "just for traveling."

2. We average about one backpack for every two people on the plane for travel activities and treats.

3. This isn't really unique to traveling, but it's so much more important when traveling: fewer choices. Instead "what do you want to eat" or "what do you want to do today?" go with "do you want X or Y?" Otherwise, the answer is always going to be "fries" and customized hamburgers, even when you are doing high tea in London.

4. Buddy system ... every small child is given into the responsibility of a parent or an older sibling.

5. Soft structured carriers for the little ones. Stephanie made ours, but you can buy them too. When they are older, they don't like being in them for long, but it's still a welcome break for their tired feet. We used these a lot when walking on the road particularly to prevent running away.

6. When not in the backpack, we use a leash on our youngest almost always.

7. Dog tags and bluetooth call buttons (we use Tile). The dog tags have their name and our phone number in case they are hurt and somebody finds them. The Tile buttons allow us to track them within 300 feet, which is handy for a museum to give them some mobility.

8. "Everyone gets to do one favorite activity." This has been a useful trick for us ... everyone gets to choose something to do, and as a family we all go along with their choices. This may mean a park one day and a musical or shopping the next.

9.  Make room for "down" time.  This is a helpful tip not just for large families but it can be especially helpful when you're dragging a lot of people across the globe.  We found it best to schedule one or two activities at most each day.  Those activities were the ones that were chosen as the "favorite activities" in #8 above.  The rest of the time was either down time or could be filled with optional activities if we found we wanted to go out again.  Down time gives time not only for resting but also for getting ready in the morning, doing laundry, going to the store, etc.  Along with this, realize that doing necessary, simple activities (like laundry or going to the store) can be an adventure and a lesson in a different culture themselves.  Even the mundane can be an adventure!

Rick's pre-Europe trip to ... Europe

[This post was written after I got back in November, but we've been so busy getting the family ready for our move to Europe that this didn't get posted until just now!] 

November 13, 2018

Preparing professionally for this sabbatical has been a long road for me, but a good one. In the area of interest to me, open education/open credentials, I have been impressed with the approach that many in the European Union take, and I could perceive that they thought about the issues differently than we do in the United States. I wanted to understand their perspective, so I knew I wanted to do my sabbatical somewhere in the EU. This was reinforced for me in 2016 when I attended a conference in Bologna, Italy, and met many great colleagues there. That conference started a two year journey for me of serving on the IMS Global Digital Credentials Executive Board and developing many connections.

I knew that I wanted to apply for a Fulbright award, which would help to pay for travel and housing. I had heard about the Opening Up Slovenia initiative, and so I contacted the Slovene embassy about contacts for a potential sabbatical in their contract, and was put in contact with Viktorija Florencic, a faculty member at the University of Primorska in Koper. She was very excited about the possibility of me coming to her department, so Stephanie (who was accompanying me) and i visited her department as part of the Bologna conference trip. They threw down the red carpet (actually the Slovene beach towel, but that’s another story) for us, and it seemed like a really good opportunity to work with them.

This week I was able to go to Europe to begin some of the work for my sabbatical that I will be doing in January. The main event was to present at the IMS Europe conference, as IMS is one of the main venues for discussions on my research area of open credentials for open education (I am currently on the IMS Executive Board for Digital Credentials). The conference happened to be in Utrecht, where we will be living in January, so it was an excellent opportunity for me to scope out the area for the family ahead of time and also start conversations with my Dutch colleagues about the research I would like to do. However, how to fund a trip to Europe when I’m going to Europe for real in just a couple of months? I had some travel money at BYU, but did not feel I could justify a $1200 plane ticket. A blessing came, though, when Stephanie was coming back from her girls weekend trip to Boston and was able to get bumped to a later flight and pick up an airline voucher for $450. We then found a killer deal on a flight to Amsterdam for just a little more than the voucher cost. I was in business!

But cheap flights are not always, er, desirable. It came with a 12 hour layover in Philadelphia on the way out and a 17 hour layover in Helsinki on the way back—and I had to fly out of San Francisco, which was convenient because I was taking a group of students to San Francisco on a field trip to visit IDEO and the Stanford d.School the weekend before the conference. So it made sense to package it all together. But this meant in order to get the cheap tickets that I would be gone a total of 9 days from the family for an IMS conference that was only 2 days. I needed to make those other days professionally useful. After making some emails and requests, I was able to visit with some colleagues in my discipline at the Open University in the UK and at TU Delft in the Netherlands, as well as my colleagues at the University of Utrecht. All told, it has been a VERY helpful trip for me professionally with excellent learning opportunities, good networking, and I think good opportunities and ideas for research.

So it all worked out well, but the schedule was a bit nuts. Here was my itinerary:

Friday, Nov. 3: Fly to San Francisco and visit the d.School and IDEO

Saturday, visit the Children’s Creativity Museum in the morning, say goodbye to my students, and work on my laptop in the hotel lobby for another 8 hours. Then catch a
midnight flight (remember, these were cheap, but yucky times!) to Philadelphia.

But where to sleep when I’m arriving in the middle of the night? Well, I read up on how to sleep in airports, and brought along my camping mat and pillow and actually slept pretty well underneath the seats in the farthest terminal! I might have scared he lady sitting on the bench when I emerged in the morning however. ;-)

My Sunday flight to Amsterdam didn’t leave until Sunday evening, so I took the train downtown and had a lovely day visiting patriotic sights and the Edgar Allen Poe Home in Phillie. I also got to eat a Sammy’s original cheesesteak sandwich “wit”, or in other words, with peppers/onions. I wanted mozzarella, but they wouldn’t let me get away without getting the cheese whiz speciality, which was surprisingly good. That’ll teach me — always go with what the locals say.

I arrived in Amsterdam on Monday and immediately caught a flight to the UK. I then had to catch an hour long bus ride to Milton Keynes. Then I had to drag my luggage through the weeds on the side of the highway while walking over a mile to the campus dorms, where I was staying the night. This is the exotic life of the traveling professor on the cheap! Anyway, I got there at midnight, crashed, and slept in.

Tuesday was spent visiting colleagues at the Open University, and the visit was just wonderful. They are doing such good work there! I then caught an 8 p.m. flight to Amsterdam, and crashed, again around midnight after the time zone change, in a budget hotel.

Wednesday I took a train to TU Delft to meet some colleagues there and learn about their work in open education. I also got a tremendous tour of the Interdisciplinary Industrial Design and Engineering building and got to talk shop and curriculum with one of their excellent teachers. That was very inspiring, and I took home some ideas for my own design teaching. I then caught a train to Utrecht and crashed, exhausted into my airbnb bed.

Thursday-Friday I presented and attended the conference. It was nice to stay in one place for once!

Saturday I didn’t fly out until 7 p.m. so I spent the day touring Amsterdam! What a quirky city! I’m excited for my family to learn more about it with me. I spent much of the time in the Dutch Resistance Museum, which was about what Holland was like under Nazi occupation and how many fought against the Nazis in their own way and methods. An excellent museum about heroes, spies, sacrifice, and history. I absolutely loved it. I then flew into Helsinki and arrived at midnight. Where to sleep now? I walked around trying to find a place but that airport has the lights on WAAAAAY too bright. I tried a nice bench near some other airport sleepers, but it was too noisy and bright. I then found a couch in a closed restaurant. Perfect! I slept awesome there … until 4:30 when they started cleaning and getting ready to open. I then dragged my tired body to the sleep pods (I didn’t know where they were before, but I was desperate now, so I asked for directions and finally found them). I found that I could get them 1/2 off by waiting until 6 (it was almost 5:30 now) so I did some work until 6 and then slept another solid 4 hours. Heaven!

Sunday I took a train to the center of Helsinki. I wasn’t going to let a chance go to visit another country! I drive my family crazy with how much I try to cram in my sightseeing, rushing from place to place, but that’s how I enjoy doing it on my own! So in 3 hours I visited the Lutheran Cathedral (pic 2), the Catholic Cathedral, the Kampii Reflection Church (pic 1), and the Stone Lutheran Church (pic 3, this is the inside). They were all simply stunning examples of design, which is what Finland is known for—design acumen. I fought the father’s day crowds at Frazers (it’s father’s day for them that day!) and bought some Frazer’s chocolates, which were awesome, maybe the best I’ve ever had. Then realizing I was short on time, I ran, literally, through town with my luggage backpack to catch the train back to the airport.

Which means now, as I write this on the shuttle home to Orem, that I’m seriously exhausted. This trip home began on Friday, and it’s now 12:30 on Monday morning. And I teach today! Yikes! But I’m glad I went on the trip as it was of course fun personally to visit these sights, but it was also very helpful and awesome professionally. I feel I learned many things that will make our family’s transition easier in January.

Packing ... packing ... and MORE packing!

The last few weeks have been a roller coaster ride of fun times with family and friends and LOTS of packing.

1st - we packed for our time in Europe and China - figuring out what was essential (I use this term lightly since it seems to keep changing) for us to take for the next seven months.

2nd - we packed up ALL the rest of the stuff we had accumulated from our four months in the same airbnb - moving it all back to the basement of our house.  (Thanks to the Websters for being so accommodating with all of our visits to the house over the holidays!)

3rd - we packed our six large suitcases, five small suitcases, four backpacks and whatever else we felt like we couldn't live without into our minivan along with seven people!  It was a VERY tight fit!  It was a little like trying to fit everything into a very large hard shell suitcase.  Lots of Tetris-like finagling, pushing, squishing, laughing, swearing and door slamming.  We all fit ... not so comfortably.  On the bright side, I think we got a great workout in before our trip!

Packed to the extreme and leaving Utah

4th - we unpacked our stuff in the pouring rain at Rick's cousin's home in Tucson/Sahuarita.  These are the kind of cousins everyone should have.  When we asked if they would be willing to let us stay with them for part of our time in Tucson, they didn't hesitate and even gave us the code to their garage so we could make ourselves at home for a couple nights while they were traveling during the holidays. If that wasn't enough to qualify them for sainthood they even let all of my kids sleep in their kids' beds instead of just throwing them on the floor like I suggested.  I suppose stealing their yogurt when we left wasn't a very charitable way of saying "thank you."  We just wanted them to know how much we appreciated their hospitality and food ... or maybe we didn't read the flavor on the package and thought it was ours.

5th - after a few days of playing games, learning to make ebelskivers, and lots of playing with cousins we packed up again to move to the land of bunk beds (AKA - grandpa & grandma's apartment in Tucson).  Grandpa & Grandma West have been serving as missionaries in the Arizona Tucson Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since January, 2017.  Their time here is almost over and we have been blessed to be able to visit them two Christmas holidays in a row.  Because missionaries entering or leaving the mission come to stay in their home (AKA - the land of bunkbeds) once a month, they are lucky to have an extra bedroom and loft with not one ... two ... three ... or four bunkbeds ... but FIVE of them!  Perfect for hosting family that might be visiting ... or missionaries that just need a bed to sleep in for the night.  This year, Rick's brother, Adam, and his family came to visit, which is why we chose to stay a few nights with Rick's cousin.  Five bunkbeds might seem like a lot but a two-bedroom (plus loft) apartment is still a bit of a tight squeeze when you have ten children and six adults. So we stayed with Rick's cousin and came to visit each day.  We loved seeing their family, especially the wee one, Victoria, that we had only seen in photos.  And, of course, our kids LOVED playing with their cousins.  In the end, although sad to see them go, we were excited for our turn in the land of bunk beds.

6th - Unfortunately, our turn didn't last long and we were booted out in favor of transferring missionaries who needed a place to stay.  Although we tried to convince Grandpa and Grandma that tossing us in the street wasn't a good example of Christian charity they insisted the missionaries wouldn't appreciate sleeping on the street either.  So, we found some other local friends willing to take in poor wandering souls - giving us a home and feeding us.  We packed up our stuff again and moved down to Vail (the one in Arizona, not Colorado) for a couple nights.  Really, we have some awesome friends and family!  They take us in, they feed us and let us use their wi-fi.  They even let us use their bathrooms!  I mean, they really had no idea what kind of people they might be letting into their home.  We could put the toilet paper rolls on with the toilet paper going under rather than over the roll!  Luckily, at least one member of our family knows that the ONLY way to put on the toilet paper roll is to have the sheets going over the top of the roll and she (me) is willing to fix it if someone does it wrong.

7th - missionary transfers only take a couple nights so we quickly found ourselves taking our rightful place in the land of bunk beds again.  But not until we'd played a mean game of monopoly with the Pratt kids in Vail.  There is still some contention over who actually won this game but after several hours we thought it best to end the game by any means necessary.  The Pratt's also gave us the low down on German food, the Rhine Valley and gelato.  Definitely true friends and our kind of people!

8th - Today was our last day of packing before leaving the country tomorrow.  As I mentioned before, our definition of what is "essential" has changed quite a bit after moving our stuff all over Pima county.  Each packing was a painful process of culling more and more stuff from our suitcases.  We are still going to look like a bunch of pack rats with our six large suitcases, five small suitcases and four backpacks but, hopefully we won't burst any zippers or have to pay any over weight charges at the airport! We've loved seeing Grandpa and Grandma and our friends and are feeling excitement and trepidation as we approach our next move.  I can't believe that we leave the country tomorrow!

I feel as if we have been packing and moving for months ... oh, wait, we have!  I did say in my first post that I was going to share the good, the bad and the ugly in this blog.  Packing has definitely been the worst part of this sabbatical so far. We moved a lot in the first 13 years of our marriage (13 moves in 13 years) so you would think that moving seven people in suitcases would be a piece of cake.  But when you're moving multiple times in a month it can be rather trying.  Partly because each time we moved we rearranged things and got rid of stuff so we could fit better in the luggage we had.  Partly because moving it just hard.

Since we should at least leave this post on a positive note, I will share some photos of the fun times we've had since we left Utah:

Visiting with Steph's family in Mesa on our way to Tucson

Biosphere 2

Biosphere 2

Watching movies at Grandpa & Grandma's 

(AKA the adults need some quiet time)

If looks could kill! @ the Arizona History Museum in Tucson

Is there room for some more?

Dress up at the Arizona History Museum

"Making dinner" at the Arizona History Museum

Dressing up at the Arizona History Museum

You can even ride a horse at the Arizona History Museum!

When you're bored you can rearrange the stuffed animals 

and play "Where's Pup Pup?" in the gift shop

This photo was taken not long before the little child 

on the left took a fall/leap/jump/whatever you want 

to call it into the water

Sonoran hot dogs - bacon makes everything better, right?

At the playground (AKA peace and quiet for moms and grandma)  

A GREAT BIG thank you to the dads for taking the kids!

Playing with the easy bake oven

Just chillin'

Titan Missile Museum

Giddy up, cowgirl!

New Years Eve and homemade pizza

Pup pup always looking for a photo op

Stylin' in our Sunday clothes (notice Pup Pup in the photo too)

I think we have an artist in the family ...

Our last Arizona sunset

Pup pup learning to fly

Can't leave without his passport