Arrival!

We're finally here!!!

May 12:  Enjoyed Thai food at the unmobile van-restaurant set up at "The Hub Of Alaska" gas station in GlennAllen, AK. The same place we stopped almost a year ago when we vacationed and made our decision to move. Full circle :)  Drove down the Glenn Highway searching for a place to camp. Dropped in at an all-in-one pitstop where Chadd purchased a fishing license and a machete and picked up a 2015 fishing guide. Found a frozen lake and decided to try out our hand at ice fishing....

Not too successful. It was pretty cold and open at that spot so we moved on looking for a better place to set up tent.

Ended up pulling into the lane to Dick's Homestead and set up on an empty plot. We walked up to his homestead to visit and startled a moose with two new calves and a yearling from last year she was snapping at to chase off (I'm sure glad we humans don't have to do that with our older children! Though we learned in our Loved to Life class at LifeCenter that boys need to "unbond" from their mother and bond to their father around age 4-5. I reminded Chadd that Cyrus isn't there yet :)

Our last night camping on this roadtrip. But neither of us enjoyed it quite as much the 12th night. We have gotten set up and tear down to a pretty quick routine. We should have timed ourselves. It sure is a lot of work though, because we started hauling our monstrous mattress out of the trailer to sleep on. But it was worth the comfort. It's a unique convenience to be camping with all of our belongings along-whatever we might want we have. It's just a matter of how buried it is and how willing we are to dig through to find it.

It's not every day you wake up to this out your tent door:

May 13: Drove to our good and soon to be better, friends Dick and Marianne's home in Palmer, AK. Landed, cleaned our room, unloaded, put Cyrus to nap, drove to rent a self-storage unit, unloaded our entire household in one hour (HOW did Chadd and Dad fit all that stuff in there! Wow. It's no wonder our tire blew..), came back and I left with a friend of a friend from 2007 when I lived in New Hampshire who was visiting ffor work and had contacted me on facebook that day. She took me out for a snack and a very long conversation. Chadd said, "that's just like you, you have a friend over before we even move in!"


May 14: Dick, Chadd, Cyrus and I loaded up his work diesel truck and went to work on a Tiny House of his friends daughter. Helping out friends, making friends, earning a future Halibut fishing trip (! :o), and listening to stories of God's miracles in their lives. Saw some pastured Elk, a friend of Dick's ranch home and horses, and were hosted for dinner. Came back at 10:17 exhausted but the sun was still shining.

May 15: Plans to help Dick and Marianne put in their garden and begin our search for jobs and a house!

It'll be communal living around here for a while. Dick and Marianne have big hearts and an open door. Several people live in different rooms or the basement or stop in and borrow the horses. Dick has four neighbor foster boys helping out with and learning about the horses. There will be challenges of patience regularly, and all the better for our growth of character. We've started off open to discuss the details. We are so blessed to have this gift while we get settled.

So- our trip is over and our new life has begun. My posts will likely be less frequent but continue to update anyone interested in our affairs. Please post comments, I'd love to hear about happenings in your lives and lessons too!

To God be all the Glory! Or as Cyrus was singing in the car, "We're goingto Alaskaaaaa......Amen!" :)