Lots to update!

1. We arrived safely at Fort Wainwright yesterday afternoon.

a. The ferry was fun, except for the rolling seas we encountered thrice.

i. Derek posted pics on facebook.

b. The driving was not.

i. I hated the storms and snowy roads. It was especially bad when we were following a UHaul that was throwing up it's own snow storm.

ii. There were some beautiful views.

c. We stayed at an adorable cabin in Tok on the 28th.

i. That was our anniversary. We remembered -- before the sun had set (and it sets early in Alaska).

d. I AM SO GLAD TO BE DONE DRIVING!!!!!!!!!

2. We enrolled our kids in school. They are supposed to start Monday. However, it is not the school they should be attending, so we will be disenrolling and reenrolling in a different school immediately, because...

3. WE HAVE A HOUSE!

a. It is on post. I have mixed emotions about that, but...

b. It is over 2600 sq. ft!

i. We could never afford that off post.

ii. Our home in Oklahoma was 1700.

c. It has 5 (yes, that is correct) bedrooms!

i. A master suite,

ii. Two kid rooms,

iii. A play room (maybe -- we may put the play room downstairs), and

iv. A craft room!

d. It has 2 1/2 baths.

i. 2 full upstairs,

ii. Powder room downstairs.

e. This is in our backyard -- literally!

f. We will move in no later than November 18th! In the meantime,

4. We are living in a hotel. Though we reserved two connecting rooms several weeks ago, we arrived to find that there are no connecting rooms available. Not only that, they don't even have two adjacent rooms available. So, we have seven of us living in a 2 room suite that is designed for four. Thankfully it is a suite, as the standard rooms are designed for 2. Also, I am very grateful for the second room. It is tight, but it has its own TV, so I don't have to watch cartoons all day:)

5. I was able to do six loads of laundry today. This is good news, though not great. I still have at least three to do. It's been a long time since we had a washer available. I would have accomplished a lot more, but we have two washers available -- one dryer. Nice. At least we all have clothes for a few days. Maybe we'll get lucky and be able to move in before we need to do more laundry.

6. Fairbanks is more than we had hoped for.

a. We had been told to expect very little.

b. It turns out that there is a lot here.

c. The sunsets are beautiful!

d. The driving is not quite as terrible as I had dreaded.

e. The cold is cold -- and only getting worse. Brrrrr.... That is every bit as bad as expected.

f. Food and gas prices are scary. I thought Utah was bad after living in Oklahoma. Now I see that Utah is cheap. So is California....

Alaska Bound

We are in Washington at a hotel right now after a few days of traveling from Idaho. We have to have our cars to Bellingham, WA no later than 3:00 PM tommorrow and the ferry leaves at 6:00. The kids are excited to get on a boat and doubly excited to get to Alaska.
We'll post pictures of our adventure soon.
Signing off from the lower 48 for the last time in a while,

Jonathan's Baptism

Jonathan was baptized yesterday (Oct 10th). There were 3 other children baptized the same day. Brother Paulsen talked to the children about baptism, then they were each baptized and confirmed. It is awesome to see your own child baptized. What a bright future he has ahead of him.

Lil talked to Jon about the Gift of the Holy Ghost. She did a great job. She had a gift for Jon. Each part of the gift represented something the Holy Ghost does for us. He comforts us (a really soft, snuggly blanket). He testifies and teaches (a Book of Mormom with Lil's testimony in it). He guides us (a compass). She also gave him a flashlight and I can't remember what it meant (Lil, please leave a comment and remind me).

This was the first time since Meg's wedding that my parent's whole family has been together. We've come close a few times, but Derek is usually missing. It was fun.

Sunday Morning at Our House

So, I was doing really well this morning and had everyone nearly ready with 20 minutes to drive the 3/4 mile to church! As we were trying to tell my sisters bye and herd my kids out the door, I realized that DJ was missing. Just then, he came downstairs in a holey cowboy shirt, underwear and socks. (No, that was not what I'd last seen him in.) I, rather impatiently, asked him what he was doing. With tears in his eyes, he said, "Meg and Ray said we have to change our clothes."

We did make it to church with time to spare, still...my miracle of the day. Meg, Ray, their girls and Lil are on their way back home.

Arches National Park

We had a couple of days off of school and decided to take the kids and Roy to Arches National Park. It was fun although we got on the first trail and a few yards in, Michael said, "I wanna go home." We told him this was "a fun family vacation," so he had to have fun. A couple of minutes later he was laying down and whining. This occured all the way to the North Arch. Once we got there he realized that the park was cool and started running around and climbing the arch. It was funny to see the instant change in disposition after we saw such an amazing creation.

Of course, a short while later Michael said, "Our family vacation... I wanna go home."

The other kids thought it was fun, though Janina got her terms mixed up. Jenn told the kids that we were going to have a picnic and go hiking. This caused an argument in the back seat because Janina was comfortable with a picnic, but didn't want to go hiking. Later when we were on the trail she asked Jenn, "Is this the hiking?" Jenn responded in the affirmative and Janina ran up to Jonathan and told him, "This is the hiking." Then she ran to Michael and repeated, "This is the hiking."

A few minutes later Janina said, "I thought hiking was with ropes." So Jenn had to explain that that was rock climbing. Fun times.

DJ and Jon had birthdays!

We celebrated DJ's bday 3 times: with Arika and Jaak's little boy, John (who turned 3 the day after DJ turned 4), with Dad in Texas and with Jonathan in Duchesne.

We ate dinner in the tower restaurant in San Antonio.

We only celebrated Jon's birthday once, but it was fun. Jon decided to invite Cami and Briaunna very shortly before the party started. They were both able to come which made the day for him.

Lil talked Grandma into making Jonathan an eagle cake. He thought it was very nice. Of course, he didn't give Grandma quite the credit she deserved. When he was telling Meg about it, she mentioned how cool the cakes are that Grandma makes. Jon said, "Oh, yeah. But she got it out of a recipe book."

I talked Grandma into making a horse cake for DJ. Had those horses not had heads, tails or legs, they would have been quite simple...

We played pin the ears on the rabbit. Roy and Jonathan were the best. We forgot to get pictures of Jon, Cami and Briaunna. Oops.

DJ loves Lightening McQueen and legos, so this was a hit.

Jon got a DS lite. He is happy.

The party guests. The great thing about having lots of kids is that you have a very large party without inviting too many other people.

West Texas

Yes, that's were Jenn, DJ, Naomi and I are right now. I graduated from the Officer Basic Course yesterday and we started heading west.
We had a good time in San Antonio, Jenn and the kids went to the Army Medical Depatment Museum, and found some things on the insalation that I had never even heard of as well as play at the park. We also swam at the hotel which was fun. DJ enjoyed watching the planes as they came in for a landing. (We were right next to the airport)

Now we expect to get to either Farmington, NM or Cortez, CO depending on how we feel. We should be in Utah by Friday and the Curtis family will be reunited until the next time.