Not Enough Time!

Our stuff is being packed up right now.  The reality of our move has hit.  We said goodbye to most of our ward family today and it makes me so sad.  Goodbyes are always hard and even harder as a parent when you see your kids crying as they say their goodbyes.  We've moved enough to know that not all goodbyes are final but the friendship is never quite the same.   I always tell people we always come back and I mean it!  I'm counting on Randy to qualify for the Boston Marathon to give us an excuse to come back to New England in the spring.
The computer is getting packed up tomorrow so here's a little update on our plans.  We close on this house Friday morning and drive out of here heading to Niagara Falls and then on to Erie, PA where I found a sweet hotel with an indoor water park.  Our next big stop will be in Minnesota where we are staying with good friends from our dental school days. They have 3 boys so I only feel a little bit bad about imposing on them with my wild bunch.  After Minnesota we are headed to Mt. Rushmore and lots of driving with nothing to break it up until we reach Coeur D'Alene, Idaho.  Assuming we haven't lost huge amounts of time due to our van breaking down on us we should have time to play there for the day before the homestretch that gets us to Seattle.  I'm so nervous as to how this week-long road trip is going to last.  Typically the boys can't drive for more than 15 minutes before there's a full out brawl in the back seat.  I'm not exaggerating.  I stocked up on $5 movies (no time to mess with Red Box rentals), road trip games from the $5 Store, and audio books.  Fingers crossed we survive the road trip with both our van and sanity in tact!

Marcus earned a bunch of merit badges and a couple rank advancements and the whole family got in on the picture

Randy's "other family"....his scouts

Our friends surprised Randy with a farewell cake at the last pack meeting

Even the Activity Day girls made him a cake.  So cute!

We got a new tramp!  We've only had it for 3 weeks but it was totally worth putting it up just to take it back down.

We played capture the flag with Nerf guns.  The boys were in heaven!

Landon dashed off to get the flag and was inches away from getting it before he got hit.  Then he cried.

We went raspberry picking and made delicious homemade ice cream with it because there's no time for making jam.

Raspberry picking with the Ferrell's.  Another family we hate to say goodbye to.

We rode our bikes into town for donuts and were shocked to see the donut shop had closed.  But the little bakery next door was pretty awesome. 

We discovered Trustom Pond.  Huge frogs, huge tadpoles, and the boys can't get enough of it.

Walking around Trustom Pond with the Cub Scouts