Cleveland thus far

Well we gone and done it. We moved to Cleveland, Ohio. We left my parents' house on Thursday, June 30th in the morning. We were glad that we were in no rush, and took our time getting there. We stopped in Jennings, LA and got to hold and pet some baby alligators (or were they crocodiles?) and that was pretty exciting for the kids, especially Ty.

That night we stayed in Jackson, MS. We ate at Cracker Barrell that night and because we were feeling so southernly-influenced I ordered chicken and dumplins with cornbread, and Kenny got some beef brisket and fried okra. :) I really love the South. Everybody drinks iced tea and eats fried chicken, and everybody has deep southern accents.

Day 2 of our trip we stopped at some Dinosaur World place in Kentucky. It cost too much money and would have taken way too much time, so we just let the kids explore the gift shop and pick out a small toy. They were happy with that becuase they didn't know what they were missing out on. We stayed that night in La Grange, KY, just past Louisville.

Saturday, we made it to our hotel here in North Olmsted, Ohio. We dropped our stuff off, grabbed our swim suits and went over to the Buckovich's house. Our good friends from Illinois, the Reeds, were here visiting her parents for the weekend and it was so fun to see them again. We met another family there, and we'll actually be in there ward now, so I think it was such a blessing we were able to go that day. We had a great time eating, swimming, and visiting. It's so nice to come here and not be totally lonely. We went with the Reeds to church on Sunday and ran into our old friends from our 3 month stint in Richmond, TX, the Thompsons. Debbie was my visiting teacher and I had Brynlee during that time so she was so sweet and brought meals, etc. They are in the same ward and it was fun to see them after over 2 years.

Monday, July 4th: Went to the Thompson's home for a big breakfast. On our way back home we caught the end of the little parade (mostly made up of local kids riding their decorated bicycles...I loved doing that when I was little). Then we saw there was a big to-do going on at the park, so we went and had a wonderful time eating free food and playing on all the free stuff. Really missing our families this day. Wishing so bad I was in Provo for both of my family reunions going on, but maybe next year. Kenny replaced the brakes on our poor van while the kids napped. We had a fun pizza picnic outside the hotel on a little patch of grass. Tyler and I went on a little mommy-son date to watch the fireworks in Strongsville that night while Kenny put the tired girls to bed. By the way we all wore matching shirts and I loved it :).


We've just been doing A LOT of house hunting while we've been here, and even before we came too. We put a deposit down on a house that I think we will love, even though we will probably still be kind of cramped. It's in a great family neighborhood in North Ridgeville. We'll go back on Monday after it's been cleaned and look at it again before we sign the contract for a year lease. We've been to the beach (Lake Erie) twice and had so much fun both times. Wonderful playground, beautiful area.

I seriously underestimated Ohio. We love it here so far, even if we are staying in a nasty 2 room hotel. We spent the day yesterday in Kirtland, Ohio and that was neat too. I'm pretty sure we ruined the entire tours for everyone else with our tired/noisy kids. Hopefully they were still able to feel the spirit, because I sure wasn't able to concentrate.

Speaking of our kids though, I have to say that they are being such troopers. I feel so bad that they've just been yanked from one house/hotel to another, dragged across the country several times and lived out of suitcases for the past 3 months. They are the best. We're trying to make everything a very positive experience, but I am dying to give them some consistency and stability. We can't get into the house until the 15th, but who knows how long it will be till they get all our stuff up here. I am praying it will be very soon.