Crossing the Country Days 1 and 2: Virginia to Illinois

Driving almost 3000 miles with a toddler was a pretty daunting task, but it was exciting too. By the time all of our belongings were on the moving truck and our house was cleaned, we were ready to be on our way. We spent our last four nights in Virginia in a hotel because our house was empty, and it took us until night number 3 to finally figure out how to get Sarah to sleep in a hotel. The first 2 nights were absolutely awful, and we seriously feared for our sanity during our trip. It was a huge tender mercy when Kelson figured out that if he sent me away and laid down next to Sarah for a while she would actually go to sleep. That was a game changer.

On the first day of our trip, we had a bunch of things we had to finish up with the Navy before we could leave, so we got out of town pretty late.

By the time we made it to Richmond, an hour and a half down the road, Sarah was already antsy and ready to get out for a break.

 We picked a random park that showed up near the freeway on the GPS, which turned out to be absolutely amazing. They had a train, a firetruck, a playhouse, and all kinds of other things in the playground. Sarah has been asking to go back ever since. 

 The only way we pulled Sarah away from the playground was by telling her we could go see the geese. This particular goose turned out to be a little too friendly, and Daddy had to scare it away.

 We were very happy to make it to a comfortable hotel after 6 long hours in the car and a stop for dinner at a very redneck buffet in Covington, Virginia. We stayed the night just across the West Virginia border in Lewisburg. 

 We were officially sold on Holiday Inn Express after we saw their pancake machine the next morning. I need one at my house! It made a big difference to be able to start our day with a breakfast that Sarah would actually eat. After this, we started looking for Holiday Inn Express hotels at all of our stops.

 Sarah, Mommy, Elephant, and Clifford all ready to start day 2. 

 Driving through the Appalachian Mountains in West Virginia. We decided to take this route rather than driving further north because we had heard it was beautiful. West Virginia and Kentucky did not disappoint. The scenery there was our favorite of the whole trip. 

 Charleston, West Virginia, which had a very neat-looking State Capitol building.

 We somehow managed to find every kind of bad weather on this trip. For the first 3 days, we drove through off and on torrential rain and thunderstorms. At some points, it was like someone was just dumping giant buckets of water over our car, bringing the visibility to pretty much nothing. It was a little scary.

The rolling hills of West Virginia gave way to the picturesque, perfectly American farms of Kentucky. I can see why people want to live there. Beautiful! 

 Sarah refused to take a nap that afternoon, and by the time we got close to dinner time she was an absolute monster. Unfortunately, we were in the middle of nowhere Indiana, and there was absolutely nowhere to stop. When we finally saw a sign for a Denny's, we were overjoyed. It was in Dale, Indiana, which was apparently near where Abraham Lincoln grew up. Our cranky child threw up during dinner because she had so much food crammed in her cheeks. It was great fun. We quickly finished eating and got outside so that Sarah could run around for a while.

 Enjoying the view of Indiana 

 We got back in the car to finish the last of our drive for the day, and Sarah promptly fell asleep, allowing us to make some extra progress down the road in peace. A sleeping toddler is a sweet sight any time, but there is no better scenery when you are on a long road trip. Clifford was happy to act as a pillow.

As we entered the Midwest, we started seeing endless fields of yellow, which we learned was canola. It was interesting to see how much the landscape changes in just a few hours as you cross our country. There are so many different things to see!

We spent night number two in O'Fallon, Illinois, just outside St. Louis. It was a long day, and we were glad to carry the sleeping Sarah inside and tuck her in for the night.

Goodbye, Virginia!

Our time in Virginia was much shorter than we had expected, but we managed to squeeze in a lot of fun memories during our time here. There were a lot of things to do during our last week in Suffolk, but we fit in some fun things too.

 The strawberries were just coming on, so we stopped on our way home from a baptism at the church to pick a bucketful. We ate a whole gallon of delicious, fresh strawberries in about 2 days. Sarah was the official bucket holder.

 For our last evening in Virginia, we went to Tucano's for dinner, which I had never done before. Kelson served his mission in Brazil, so he was excited to introduce me to Brazilian food. It was all wonderful except for the chicken hearts. Those were a little questionable.

We have been blessed to live near the ocean for the last 5 years, and we will really miss it. Sarah absolutely loves the beach. We took time out of one busy afternoon for one last beach trip, and Sarah helped Daddy build a sand castle while I relaxed in the sand. It was a perfect afternoon. 

Our time here in Virginia has been full of blessings, and we are sad to say goodbye. We have met wonderful friends and made precious memories. It is always hard to leave current adventures for new ones, but we are excited for the future. Next up: driving cross country with a 2-year old!

Unexpected and Wonderful Changes for the Mosier Family

     There are some major changes coming in the very near future for our family, and we are very excited. Our time in the Navy has come to an end, and it is time for us to move on to civilian adventures.  While we have had opportunities to live in some fun and interesting places with the Navy, we have really been wanting to get closer to our extended family. We started researching job opportunities in the Pacific Northwest, hoping that we could at least get within a few hours of our family.
     As Kelson started his job search, he received a Priesthood blessing, in which he was told that we shouldn't worry because something unexpected but wonderful was in store for our family. We weren't quite sure what to make of that. Was Kelson supposed to stop looking at jobs in his field and apply to be a beekeeper or something? That would certainly be unexpected.
     As it turned out, Kelson was sorting through job postings one night when he stumbled upon a job postings for an environmental services manager for the hospitals in Ontario and Baker City, Oregon that seemed to fit well with his experience as a Naval officer. Could it be possible for him to actually get a job in my home town? Yes!
     Last weekend, Kelson flew out to Boise and interviewed with St. Alphonsus in Boise, Ontario, and Baker, and today he was formally offered the job! He will be based in Ontario and travel to Baker 1-2 days a week, which will give me all kinds of time to spend with my family.
     We will be moving from Virginia in 8 days and staying with my family in Baker City until we find a house, probably in Fruitland, Idaho, just over the border from Ontario. This is certainly unexpected and absolutely wonderful. We are feeling very blessed right now and can't wait to start this new chapter in our lives. West coast, here we come!

Best Friends Forever

I feel like every post I have written lately has mentioned the Phillips family. We became friends because Clint and Kelson work together, and our daughters are exactly the same age. Lately we eat dinner together at least once a week, and Natalie and I often get together at other times to do things with the girls. Sarah and Elaina have become best friends, and it is great fun to watch them together.

 I'm afraid Sarah tends to be the ringleader whenever they get into mischief. She discovered this wonderful mud puddle and convinced Elaina they needed to try it out.

 By the time they were done, they were both completely covered with mud.

Playing with Daddy after changing out of their mud-covered clothes.

 Their favorite is sneaking up to play by themselves in Sarah's room. Little do they know we can spy on them with the baby monitor. They often take turns reading to each other while the other lays in the bed. It is adorable.

Elaina still sleeps in a crib, and she finds Sarah's toddler bed fascinating. Unlike Sarah, Elaina does not like blankets. It looks like they were all ready for a slumber party. Sadly, I don't think much sleeping would have happened at that slumber party.

Easter 2016

Easter was pretty quiet at our house this year. Kelson was out of town for job interviews up until the night before, and I was battling morning sickness, so it was a couple of days until we even managed to get our Easter baskets and eggs hunted. Our dinner wasn't especially exciting, and we didn't have any company over, but did get to spend our Easter Sunday together as a family, and that was most important.

Luckily, Sarah isn't old enough to know that the Easter bunny was a little late arriving at our house this year. Mostly, she was just excited about her cheeping chick and her chocolate Easter egg, which she gobbled down in no time.

The most fitting shirt that Sarah owns.

 We invited the Phillips family over for an Easter egg hunt so that Sarah and Elaina could enjoy finding their eggs together. It only took a minute for both of them to figure out that the eggs had candy in them, and then they were both master egg hunters.

 They are also great sharers. 

 I was pretty proud of myself for conquering my morning sickness long enough to get Sarah's Easter dress made. It was supposed to have an adorable matching coat, but that just didn't happen. We went to the botanical garden one morning for a photo shoot. Isn't she sweet?

 Honestly, this is a more typical Sarah look.

 And this one. She is such a fun, silly girl.

 I just love her chubby baby legs.

I just love my curly-haired girl. Happy Easter!

Portsmouth Children's Museum

As soon as we arrived in Virginia, people started telling us about the amazing children's museum in Portsmouth that we just had to get a membership with so we could take Sarah. We put it off, figuring that we would do it next year when she was a little older and would appreciate it more. Of course, now that we are moving, we have lots of things we want to squish into very little time. Today, Sarah and I finally went to the Children's museum with her friend, Elaina, and her mom, Natalie. It really was a fantastic museum. The girls had all kinds of fun. 

 There was one big room devoted just to trains. Sarah loved watching the model trains, and she had fun building with the toy ones until another kid came in the room. Other children are very scary.

Can you spot Sarah?

 They had a whole city with different pretend play areas. Sarah got to be a firefighter and push all of the knobs and buttons in the fire truck.

 Doc Mcstuffins better watch out. Sarah is a very good vet. She tucked them all nicely back into their cages before we moved on to the next room.

 At the farm, Sarah got to gather the eggs and milk the cow.

We also went grocery shopping and went to the bank.

This was a whole room just for blowing bubbles. You stood in the middle of this machine and pulled a big hoop up so that you were inside a giant bubble wall. Fun!

DC Trip: Round 2

Shortly after we moved to Virginia, we spent a couple of days in Washington D.C. seeing a very small portion of the sights there. Another visit to DC was on the top of our list of things to squeeze in before our time in Virginia runs out.

 Our first stop was at Mount Vernon, home of George Washington. It was a little cold that day, but the house and grounds were beautiful.

 It is a working farm, complete with animals and gardens. The sheep had brand new lambs, which made Sarah very excited. 

 The tomb of George and Martha Washington - a very reverent spot.

 Checking out the piggies.

 During nap time, we drove to the temple. After Sarah woke up, she and I got to hang out in the visitor center while we waited for Kelson.

 We finished up our first day at a nature preserve near the temple. There were some deer that came just across the creek from us, which made Sarah very happy. In her words - a mommy deer, and a daddy deer, and a baby deer!

 We had some yummy dinner and retired for what we hoped would be a relaxing night at the hotel. As it turned out, it took 4 hours to battle Sarah into going to sleep, and then we got to listen to a domestic dispute in the room next to us for most of the night. It was not restful.

 We spent most of day 2 at the National Mall. Kelson spent several months as an intern for a Congressman in college, and he called his office to get us a tour of the Capitol. We thought we were being really smart by parking by the Jefferson Memorial, which seems to always have empty spaces. What I didn't realize is that we were almost 3 miles from the Capitol, ending with a hike up Capitol Hill. We were running late, so we had to rush the whole way, which was rough with my morning sickness. We made it, though, and the tour was great.

 The rotunda was being renovated, so we only saw a little bit of it.

 Apparently this is how Sarah feels about the House of Representatives.

 Library of Congress

 Sarah was totally tuckered out by the time we finished the Capitol and the National Botanical Garden. She slept through all of the Air and Space Museum.

 Look! Evidence that I was there that day too!
About the time the Air & Space Museum closed for the day (signaling that it was time to hike back to our car), it started to rain. The further we walked, the harder it poured. I felt awful for Sarah as she huddled in her stroller through almost 3 miles of downpour. She didn't fuss at all. What a trooper. Of course the sun decided to come out as soon as we got to the parking lot.

 We ate dinner at the same restaurant both nights because it was across the street from our hotel and had the best service we have found in Virginia/Maryland. (Truthfully, that isn't saying much. Customer service isn't really a thing here.)

 We started off Friday morning with brunch with Kelson's best friend from college, Pablo, and stopped to smell the flowers on the way back to the car. After breakfast, we escaped the city before rush hour started so we wouldn't spend a million hours stuck in traffic.

 We stopped off at the Richmond Botanical Garden halfway home to get some wiggles out. Sarah was a big fan of the fish pond.

 Sarah loves springtime.

We randomly found what appeared to be Snow White's cottage inside of the greenhouse. I don't know what it was doing there.

What a fun mini-vacation!