Moving from Columbus, Ohio

First, the story and all the boring stuff. This is mostly for me so I can remember how things happened. This is a HUGE part of our summer and year, so it justifies another LONG entry.

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OK, let's see if I can remember how this all went down. I hope I get all the details right, and if I miss anything about all the wonderful people who helped us out, I'm sorry. We truly do appreciate everything that you all did to help us get ready for this move.

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When we got back from camping, we had just over a week to get our house packed up and ready to move. Thank goodness for Jodi's Summer Camp. The boys were at camp with Jodi through the Columbus Rec Center from 9:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. Monday thru Friday that last week in June. Especially with me not feeling well, this is one of the things that saved us and allowed us to get our house packed up. So, Nate and I packed, ran errands and tied up loose ends in Columbus all week (and got LOTS of time alone with Linz - that was really fun!!!)

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Friday night, Dave and Jennett came up from Cincy to help us out for the weekend!!!! They were a HUGE help and it was great to have them there with us for our last moments in Ohio.

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Saturday - Packing Day

We pretty much spent ALL day Saturday packing. Dave and Jennett were such troopers and really helped out a lot. Nate picked up the truck around 10 a.m. and he and Dave started loading it up. Our good friend Ammon also came over Sat. morning and helped with loading up some of the big stuff and boxes. A HUGE thanks to Ammon (and Kirsten for letting Ammon come) for sacrificing his time on Saturday to come help us out.

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Three or four men from the Elder's Quorum came around noon to load a few more boxes and heaving items. They really were only there for about half an hour. Nate, Dave and Ammon had done most of the loading of our stuff already. It helped that we didn't have to get our whole house in the truck on Saturday. We wouldn't be heading out until Monday night (I'll explain that one in a minute) so we had time on Sunday and Monday to finish packing up the last minute stuff (which always take FOREVER!!!)

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Side note here - At church on Sunday, it was a combined meeting with the Elders and RS. The Elder's Quorum president got up to give his announcements and announced that the Noakes were the winners of the 2008 Best Movers Award. He said that was the quickest move he's ever helped anyone with and he wanted to make sure we received that award. Well, that certainly made our day!!!!

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Our next huge thank you goes to my cousin Rachel. Rachel came over on Saturday morning and also was a HUGE help with getting us packed. Rachel and Jennett basically packed up my entire kitchen for me. They were so good to help us out, I really don't know how we would have made it without everyone's help.

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Saturday night

Kirsten and Jeannette (and their families) were SO wonderful to have a BBQ for us. It was nice not to have to worry about dinner than night and was wonderful to get to spend some last minute time with two incredible women (and their families.) These girls have truly been an inspiration to me and have done so much for me and my family. They will truly be missed!!!! If it wasn't for blogging, I'm not quite sure how I would cope with not being able to see them all the time.

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Sunday

Sunday was a little more relaxed. We went to church and said goodbyes there and Dave and Jennett had to head back home. We were left with an empty, messy house but with a lot of work still ahead of us.

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Monday

Monday was filled with cleaning and packing everything else in the van and truck. Jennett drove our Accord back home with her so she could drive it out to Illinois for us in a week or so. This was a HUGE help since we had three vehicles to get to Illinois and only two drivers. Thanks again Jennett!!!!

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Monday Night

In, as Lisa put it, Classic Noakes style we had to make our move as complicated as possible. So, Monday after a full day of packing and cleaning, we headed to the hospital to fit in our very last Contact Lens Study. Talk about dedicated subjects (or rather willing to do crazy things for some extra cash.) We have participated in contact lens studies off and on our whole time in Columbus (Nate much more than me.) They have been a WONDERFUL way for us to earn a little extra money without a whole lot of work. And these studies we did for the last year or so were extra nice because we could do them together.

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So, we'd show up for the study around 5 p.m. put in some lenses, wear them for 2 hours, go back - have the Dr. check out our eyes, wear them for another 1 1/2 hours, and then we were done. It was so fun to be able to hang out as a family every Monday night (and a great excuse for me not to have to cook one day a week.) We'd go out for dinner during the first 2 hour chunk of time and then just hang out the other hour and a half. These studies really were a great opportunity for us and we will truly miss this part of Columbus!!!!!

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So, after finishing our very last study (at 9 p.m.) we headed home, got the last minute items in the van and headed for Illinois - around 10 p.m. I get very tired when I'm pregnant (as most women do) and especially in the first trimester. So, leaving for our 6 hour drive at 10 p.m. seemed like suicide to me. I prayed really, really hard and did my best to stay awake. We had to stop I think 2 times for me to take an hour or so nap.

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Now you are wondering why we didn't just wait until Tues. morning to pull out of Columbus. Well, for one, we had to be out of our apartment on June 30th, but more important than that, we had to close on our house at 10 a.m. in Illinois on Tuesday. Like I said - Classic Noakes Style.

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So we drove all night (with an hour or so of naps in there) got to my mom's house Tuesday morning around 5:30 a.m. We brought the kids inside, and then crashed ourselves. Unfortunately we could only sleep for just over an hour. We had to get up and get ready and meet our realtor at our house at 8 a.m. Our house is an hour away from my mom's house.

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My mom was WONDERFUL to watch the kids for us from Tuesday until Friday. So, we slept for an hour, got up, got ready and headed to our NEW HOUSE!!!! We met the realtor and then headed to the bank to sign our paychecks over to them, oh yeah and get part of a house in return - I mean sign the famous closing papers.

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Tuesday - Moving In

We tried to get ahold of a few people to see about getting help unloading our truck in Illinois once we got here, but never did get ahold of anyone. This was unacceptable for my mother, so she made a few phone calls and got ahold of the bishop's wife who called the missionaries and had them show up at our house to help us unload - and she accomplished all that Tuesday morning while watching our three kids. Aren't moms amazing?!?!?!

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My dad also pulled through for us in a HUGE way on Tuesday. This week just happened to be shut down week at his job, so he was able to come down Tuesday morning and help us unload. He really saved us on Tuesday!!!! He helped out SO much unloading the truck. He had kind of a bad back, so I felt bad for him lifting too many heavy things. That is right when the missionaries showed up and were able to help with some of the big, heavy items. They could only stay for about a half hour, but we definitely put them to work for that whole half hour. So, my dad slaved away all day with us to get the truck unloaded. We headed to our new favorite restaurant in town for dinner and had a somewhat relaxing evening.

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Thanks to my mom, Nate and I had 2 full days of unpacking boxes and getting our house somewhat liveable with no kids around to slow us down. We did have a couple of major things slowing us down though. We didn't have a fridge in our house when we got here. So, we spent a lot of time checking out fridges around town (as well as checking out washers and dryers which we also needed to purchase.) This, along with what little unpacking we did, took up our 2 days with no kids.

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Friday, July 4th

We headed back to my mom's on Friday morning to pick up the kids and had to rush back down to meet the delivery truck with our fridge by 1 p.m. Due to some wonderfully timed traffic, we pulled into our driveway and literally one minute later the delivery truck pulled up. I was so nervous the whole time that we would miss the truck, since we got home a little later than planned. Luckily the truck got caught up in the same traffic!!!!

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So, now with kids in tow, we headed to the local Wal-Mart to do some shopping for our trip to Idaho the next day, Saturday - once again in our classic style of crazy scheduling. At this same time Jennett and her girls were driving our Accord to our house. They actually made it to our house before we got home from Wal-Mart. We gave them the messy tour of our house and the kids were excited to see each other again (it had only been 5 days, but I'm glad they love each other.)

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Our Fourth of July celebration was not the most exciting we've ever had. My mom and step dad came down Friday night to bring my finished laundry back to me (I took laundry up to her house Friday morning, since we didn't have a washer and dryer, but didn't get it all done) and also to hang out for the Fourth. Being brand new to the town, we didn't really know what was going on for the Fourth and with also being so exhausted from the last whole month, we decided to just try to see if we could see any fireworks from our house. We couldn't see any, we hear them, but couldn't see them. We did buy some sparklers and Pop-its for the kids to play with. They had fun with that.

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Saturday, July 5th

Saturday we got all our stuff packed up and ready to drive to Idaho for just over a week. Luckily I tried to be somewhat organized when packing up our house in Ohio. I had to pack clothes for the kids to have for the 4 days they were at my mom's house and then also clothes for our trip out to Idaho. So, we packed up Saturday and FILLED the van to the brim and started our trip to Idaho. Jennett hadn't driven to Idaho since they originally moved to Ohio (four years ago), so this was a little scary for her. We had a great trip (which I will blog about next.)

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And that is what our move was like!!!!

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Well, we did it. We own our first house and it has been wonderful!!!! A HUGE thank you again, to all those who gave of their time and efforts to help us out in SO many ways. What would we do without wonderful friends and family. We truly have been blessed through all of this moving stuff and our transition into "real life." Sorry about the huge journal entry, but now it is documented and you can get on with the fun stuff, the pictures!!!!

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And now for the pictures...

Here is the moving truck in front of our apartment. Our landlord actually gave us this idea. He said' "most people just back the truck up in the front, it ruins my grass but it works great." Nate had thought we'd just park it in the back but since our landlord gave us the idea, we decided to try it out. It worked GREAT!!!!!!

Our back porch had 2 sets of stairs we would have had to go up and down with each load. Parking in the front enabled us to pull the ramp down literally in our front door. This made it SO nice for loading. We simply had to carry the box down the hall and right up the ramp, no stairs, or turns, just straight up. We also purchased a dolly, and with no stairs to have to go up and down, it rolled nicely right onto the ramp to transport the heavy stuff.
Here are the kids enjoying the LARGE, open area even if for only a few minutes. I thought for sure we'd have tons of extra space at the back of the truck, but what do you know, we filled it right up.
Getting more full by the minute.
Linz just loved to go up and down the ramp and wanted to watch the progress of the move close up. Can you tell she is right in Nate's way here, just trying to be involved. So, finally we set this stool up right inside the front door so she could see all the action yet not be in the way. It worked ok, but she eventually kept finding her way back on that way fun ramp.




Here is our front room, looking empty yet also a huge mess. Notice our computer is still up. This thing was one of the last to get packed up and one of the first things unpacked once we got to our new place.

Rachel packing my kitchen for me. Thanks TONS!!!!!!!!!! We love and miss you.

The weather was great for our packing up day, except for about half an hour. It just started pouring rain, but only lasted for a short time and then the weather was great again. Notice how full the truck was, we were nearing the end of loading the stuff we had ready, so we really had nice weather for the majority of the time.

Nate and Ammon slaving away.

The kids really were good all day. But I guess who wouldn't be to basically get to eat all kinds of treats and play Nintendo DS ALL day long. The kids introduced Rachel to Nintendo DS and so she was forced, by the kids, to take a much needed break from packing and enjoy the finer things in life like Super Mario Bros. They loved playing against her because they always beat her. I'm sure she was just being a nice cousin?!?!
Almost full. Notice the couch, Sonja, we did bring it with us. That is our only couch still now, right in our family room. Thanks again, we've enjoyed, although I can't wait until it can go down in the basement.
The kids playing in the truck. Linz got in her seat and was ready to go. The boys got to drive in the truck with Nate - why - just because there were 2 extra seats in the truck and that is just the sort of things boys love. Not that they really got to enjoy the trip much since they slept almost the entire time. (See above for explanation of Monday night if you skipped that part.) They actually stayed awake for longer than I thought they would. For leaving at 10 p.m. and having a full day, Nate said they were awake for about an hour before they finally crashed.


Linz honkin' the horn ready to pull out. (If you can see through that window.)

Saturday evening - BBQ with Rasmussens and Bowens

Here are the older kids posing on none other than the trampoline, one of the favorite things about the Rasmussen home.
This is Kirsten's youngest. She sat on this chair just like this for a good 30 minutes. We all kept thinking she was going to fall off. We'd occasionally take her off and set her on the ground and 10 seconds later, she was back in this same position. Isn't she adorable though?

This is Nate's new favorite game. I'm not even sure what it is called, but he LOVES to play it and hopes to build his own set (in his spare time???)

Here are all the kids on the trampoline again. They had so much fun and it was so wonderful for our kids to have something to do Saturday night. They hadn't gotten much attention all day with our packing, so it was nice to have some friends to play with and a trampoline to get their energy out on.
Rachel was the comforter for the evening. When a kid got hurt or was sad, they went to her and she cheered them up. She was great to help out all day, especially with the kiddos too.

Me, Kirsten and Jeannette (please excuse my "moving look" in these pictures)

Rachel, Me and Jennett
This was the hardest part of the night, saying goodbye. We have done so much with the Rasmussens and our kids have literally grown up together these last four years. Kirsten's little Ethan had a hard time saying goodbye. What a sweetheart, he really had tears and is such a sensitive, cute boy. It was so sad to see him crying when we had to leave and of course I couldn't stop myself from crying either. It was really, really hard to say goodbye, but like I said with these wonderful blogs, I know we will be able to keep up and continue to watch each other's families grow.


SUNDAY - Our last family picture in front of our apartment

MONDAY - CONTACT LENS STUDIES

Here are the kids at the hospital. We would take their pajama with us every week because they would fall asleep on the way home. They actually LOVED going to the hospital every week; they looked forward to it all week. I guess they really love to hang out with their family (and go out to eat, and run around like maniacs and play DS all night.)

Here they are in front of the hospital for the very last time!!!!!

Watch for the next HUGE post coming soon...........our trip to Idaho

and I'm still more than a month behind on my blogging...

Camping with Robinsons

We got home from our vacation late Sunday night and we headed down to Hocking Hills for Camping with the Robinsons (our friends who used to live in Columbus.)

To be completely honest, I debated ALL day Monday and Tuesday about whether we should go camping on Wed. Morning sickness this pregnancy has been THE WORST I have ever experienced before. We got home late Sunday night, Monday was spent unpacking and doing laundry and getting camping stuff put away and Tuesday needed to be spent getting ready to go camping pretty much all day. And all I felt like doing was LYING ON THE COUCH all day. Not to mention we would be moving in one week and hadn't really started packing at all yet. I did a lot of praying and with Nate's help, we got things ready and headed down. Really, without Nate doing most (ok all of the work) there is no way we would have made it camping.

We camped in the very furthest campsite possible. We loaded up our strollers and wagons and carried our stuff in to our campsite. It was so nice though, no one else was near us and the furthest campsite was very big with lots of open space for the kids to run and play.

Linz and Mark had a nice ride in with the stuff.

It was so cute to see Linz and Mark together, they really played well together and had lots of fun sharing treats together too.

Nate starting the fire with the boys watching intently on.
Linz doing her part to get the fire started.
Enjoying the fire with roasting marshmallows.

Now enjoying the smores. Notice Ethan's smore, only chocolate and a marshmallow. Now that is my kind of smore.

This was probably the kids' favorite thing to do. They LOVED playing with sticks in the fire. They just couldn't get enough. I caught a glimpse of what scout leaders must go through with these young, curious, active boys. This was NOT my favorite thing for the kids to do.

Here are the Robinsons in front of their tent. Mark, Lauren, James, Miriam and Robert.

Here we are all geared up for the cold night. We actually had perfect weather these 2 days. It had been SO hot leading up to our campout, but while we were there, it wasn't too hot, just perfect. I even got cold at night. Nate, Melinda, Ethan, Luke and Linz

This is what Linz and I did when we got home. Actually this is basically what I looked like every minute I was home until I got the miracle drug from the doctor. This is definitely what I felt like during most of our vacationing. I really did do a lot of this once our campout was over until I finally went into the doctor Monday morning to get something to help me out.

I have never taken anything during pregnancy before to help with the symptoms, so this really caught me off guard. I wasn't getting any packing done or even taking care of my kids AT ALL. Nate really took over and did everything. He cooked and cleaned up and put the kids to bed every night. Finally I decided I can't go on like this. There was no way I would be able to help get our family moved by lying on the couch 3/4 of every day. So, off to the doctor I went and life has been SO MUCH BETTER since then.
I am very glad we went. We had a GREAT time and it was so fun to be with the Robinsons again visiting and playing. Not to mention, the kids were in HEAVEN being able to be outside for 2 days straight and basically get as dirty as they possibly could. I felt ok during the trip as long as I didn't think about it too much and I didn't wait TOO long in between eating.

Our Graduation Trip

Bare with me, this will be a HUGE post. But I really wanted to include this because this was a great opportunity for our family.

So, this trip started the beginning of what I felt like was one whole month of straight going, going, going. Nate's family left our house Wednesday morning early and we took off for Pennsylvania around noon. Here is a quick synopsis of what we did over our 5 day VACATION.

Hershey, PA

Wednesday evening.

We got to the factory 1 hour before it closed. We were able to take the tour and look around enough. It actually was just about the right amount of time.

Headed to hotel near Sesame Place

Wednesday evening - even later.

SESAME PLACE

We spent Thursday and Friday at the park.

Scranton, PA

Friday evening.

This is Chris and Kristal's fault for getting us hooked on The Office. When we were planning our trip, I noticed that Scranton was literally RIGHT off the freeway on our way up to the Potter's in NY. So, we took the 10 minute detour and drove through the city.

The Potters - Syracuse, NY

Friday evening late - Sunday morning.

We got to their house late Friday night and spent all day Saturday and left for home Sunday after church.

Kirtland, Ohio

Sunday right at 5 p.m.

In all our time in Ohio, we hadn't been to Kirtland. So, we decided (Sat. night) to leave right after church and try to make it to Kirtland. We are very proud to say that our family has now been to Kirtland Ohio (by the skin of our teeth - 2 weeks before we moved from the state, but who's counting?)

Columbus, Ohio

Sunday night, late.

Late Sunday night. Exhausted and glad to be home!!! We sure packed a lot in, but we had a GREAT time.

So, here goes the photo album of our trip:

HERSHEY, PA

We got here an hour before they closed, but with plenty of time to ride the tour and have some fun!!

There were singing cows that told us all about how chocolate is made. They actually did a really good job with this - it was very cute and well done. Even Linz who doesn't sit still for more than 30 seconds (no she doesn't watch movies yet AT ALL) was captivated by the singing cows.

They had a great representation of the process to make the chocolate. Here are a few pics of that.




Since we were on vacation, (and we were trying to let our budget minds go somewhat) we let the kids EACH pick out a treat from the store. I know, a big step for us.


The kids loved the ride SO much that we had to go one more time. (It may have had something to do with the fact that we got a handful of chocolate treats at the end of the tour, who knows????)

We got out of the factory when it was dark, so this is actually inside the building, but all along the streets in Hershey the street lights look like this. It was very cool to see.
We would highly recommend this trip to anyone. I'm not quite sure it's worth the trip just for this, but if you are heading out this way - well worth the stop. There is an amusement park right there in Hershey also, so that could make it worth it. I also hear that the Crayola Factory is not too far from Hershey. So that could make a fun trip.


SESAME PLACE
This is the first ride you see while you are waiting to get in the park. The boys were VERY brave and both went on their FIRST roller coaster ride.
Melinda and Ethan went first. Ethan was very brave and loved it.
Luke and Nate went next. I think it was a little scary for Luke, but he did great also.
And around the turn.

There was a huge trampoline that the kids got to jump all over in. Linz got in, but wouldn't jump. She just held onto the side and looked at me.

Nate took Linz on the balloon ride while the boys were in the trampoline. She had fun.

The park was set up very well. There were water rides and small pools all throughout the park, so you were never very far away from getting wet. It was VERY hot the days we were there.

Nate took the boys on this ride. They climbed A LOT of stairs to get to the top and had a fun ride down. They both LOVED it. We did this one several times.

Luke and I tried this ride first. I was very impressed with the amount of rides Luke was able to go on. There were several he couldn't do even with an adult, but there we still MANY he could do.

Ethan was very brave and did this one ALL BY HIMSELF.

He even had to show off and show us that he could do it backwards too.

Linz was even able to go on this ride with an adult. She did great!!!


We had to try the roller coaster one more time. This time Ethan went by himself and Luke rode with me. So brave they both are. That is Ethan in the very back and Luke and I right ahead of him.

The classic airplane ride with an ELMO twist. We rode on various flying Elmos. Linz took a good nap in the afternoon. That sun wears you out. We all slept well that night, well, except for Nate and Luke....

Nate bribed Luke with his very own slurpee if he'd ride on the roller coaster. As you could see, Luke did it and we got slurpees Thursday night after the park. A combination of not eating much, TONS of sun, not drinking enough water and a WHOLE slurpee to a four year olds' self was not a great combination. He threw up Thur. night in the hotel. He was just fine the next day and had lots of fun at the park again.

(Nate was up with him cleaning it up, with me being near throwing up at any given minute, the combination of me cleaning up his throw up would have been sure to be a multiplied disaster.)

Thanks Nate for being such a good sport about cleaning up after Luke.

The timing of Nate being without work and school is working out really well for me and this pregnancy. I have been spoiled this time for sure. Nate deserves a HUGE reward for all his help this summer. He has been used to being gone all day every day and then to be home all day every day for two months with a cranky, pregnant wife - he really has been a good sport and I think he was very ready to start work!!!!

This, I thought, would be the scariest ride for the kids. The drop ride. It didn't drop quite as far as the ones just for adults, but for a kid...it's kinda scary.

This was one I almost couldn't believe they let Linz ride on. She was brave, at first, but it really was scary for her. You could see her legs out straight and stiff and Nate said she held on to his finger for her life. Poor kid...

I would even have been scared to go on this one, in fact I didn't go on it. This is one of those slides that shoots almost straight down. Ethan rode it several times. He is our little fish.

A fun little climbing wall for the kiddos. Ethan got creative and went down head first.

At the end of the day, we went to a Sesame Street show. Here we are waiting and ready.

Linz watched like this the whole time (leaning up against the bench in front of us) until the characters came out to shake hands with the audience. She quickly pulled back and joined us in our seats.

Nate wore just the right shirt this day and got picked as one of three dads to show us the moves of the Hawaiian dancing. He did great and the kids thought that was pretty funny.

SCRANTON, PA

This is for all you Office fans. It was kind of a fun stop. Not much to the city. They don't do the filming here, but it was fun to see.

The Potters - NY

Saturday we headed to a beach near Mike and Summer's house. It was a lot of fun.

Ethan had fun building an island for himself. I didn't take enough pictures of us with the Potters. I didn't even get a picture of Mike and Summer while we were there. I am very sad.

We had a fun time though. We played Rock Band and Guitar Hero (both of which Ethan loves and wants to buy every time we see them in the store.)

We got a babysitter Sat. night and went to dinner with Mike and Summer to a Japanese Steakhouse. It was our first time there and it was a lot of fun.

Summer put her lens (that I'd love to buy) on my camera and took these pictures of Linz. Aren't they just adorable. I love the look on her face in the second picture. That pretty much says who she is right there. She loves to tease and that is her teasing look right there.


KIRTLAND, OHIO

We got to Kirtland right before 5 p.m. which is when they stop giving tours of the temple. We took one wrong turn and didn't make it to the temple in time to get a tour. But, we did get to tour around the LDS sights. It was very nice to be there on a Sunday (and Father's Day for that.) We basically had a private tour and had a fun time. Sorry Nate, we'll have to make up for Father's Day next year!!! At least we got to be with you ALL day long.

WOW, now that was a lot.

It was SO much fun to be together as a family. We had a great time in the car traveling the East and I am so glad we were able to do this to celebrate the end of our student days and to welcome in the next chapter of our lives.