All Aboard!

We had a great weekend with Grandma Darlene ('Gaga') and Grandpa Len ('Papa') who came down from Delta, CO. On Saturday we enjoyed the afternoon in Durango. We took the Great Pumpkin Patch Express or better known as the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad on a fun ride outside of Durango. It was a great way to get in the Halloween spirit. The train ride was about 30 minutes to a campground outside of town. Once at the campground, the kids could visit several booths with coloring, treats, music, goats, bubbles, balloons, a visit with Charlie Brown, Lucy and Snoopy plus run through the hay maze to the pumpkin patch. Once in the patch, the kids are allowed to pick out the perfect pumpkin and take it home.

Sarah did very well and the costume stayed on to the campground but had to come off shortly after arriving. She loved the hay maze the most plus walking with Gaga and Papa to visit miniature horses near the campground while walking in leaves. The day couldn't have been more beautiful with a pleasant temperature, very blue skies and great family.

Has it been a month already?

Time is marching on and it's now been a month since we boarded the one-way plane from Anchorage. We are holding up well so far though a bit homesick. Kirk started work last week and is enjoying the challenges that have been placed on his plate. Let's just say there is alot of opportunity in this business unit for CI (continuous improvement). But it's exciting and new...

Sarah and I are holding up with our day care search and just hanging out. The search has now turned up two options which we are on the wait list. The rest are down right scary...and a couple involve barbed wire fencing around the playground. Enough said...Toto, we aren't in Alaska anymore. So, Sarah and I go to the library for story hour and the children's museum (similar to the Imaginarium for those in AK) for "toddler play date" which is a couple of Wednesdays per month for ages 5 and under. We met a nice woman and her two kids this week. It's nice to finally meet new people.

We experienced our first wind storm which is nothing new to Alaskans. However, it is slightly different when you are in the southwest desert. We thought we were in the middle east for a bit with all the dust.

During the storm:

The morning after:Sarah enjoyed her first taste of a popsicle (aka all natural fruit juice on a stick with no added sugars). She had a good time though it took some convincing at first to get her to the first bite.

The last bit of news is we no longer own 12230 Woodchase Circle. It's bittersweet...it's nice to not carry two mortgages but it was a our first home so it's hard to say goodbye. Plus the buyer has been a real tool which I hope is just a symptom of doing business and not what he is like all the time. We would feel bad if our cool neighbors have to deal with him if he is unpleasant.

Picture of the kitchen in the morning with the sun shining through the windows.

Pictures from the past weeks

Below are an assortment of pictures from the past couple of weeks. Enjoy!

We found Kirk's Mr. T and He-Man figures in a box while unpacking. They are now two of Sarah's favorites for the time being.

Modeling Kirk's swim goggles.
Slide at the park near the house.
So happy to see her Sarah chair!
In the midst of unpacking chaos, a girl has to take time to rock on her lamb in her tutu.
A retro shirt calls for retro hair. (she put the band on herself!)
Our only day of rain last weekend and it reminded us of Anchorage so we had to get out to enjoy.

Nothing but style!

Visiting with Aunt Deree and Uncle Jim when we were in Durango before closing on the house.
Playing in the water with Grandma Darlene.
Sprinkler fun
So much fun!

Our First Week in Farmington

It's been a busy first week. Our household goods arrived on Monday. It was oh so nice to finally sleep in our cali king after almost a month hiatus. Only a couple of items were damaged so far. The big bummer is our native Alaskan ivory mask of a salmon was broken in pieces. That will be hard to replace...it may require a trip to Alaska to do so. I'm not sure if the relocation company will pay for three round trip tickets to do so.

Kirk killed our first spider at the house. It wasn't a small one like those in Alaska. Oh no, this was a 2-3" wide black widow. Holy bejesus! I was talking to our friend Jen in Houston on the phone when I noticed something large and black crawling on the wall on the back patio. Kirk wouldn't confess to me what he killed until later that night. I hate spiders with a passion. Small, big, hair or not, I just don't like them period. I have issues with hitting them because most jump back. I would rather spray them with whatever chemical I have handy until they croak. So Raid and I will become friends now that we are back in the southwest. I Googled black widows that night to see what we could do to help eliminate the population around the house. I had flashbacks of my older brother being bit by one when we were younger. Pesticides won't really help. One big thing is to get rid of the moist, dark areas around the house especially near the foundation. We have alot of green non-flower type landscape cover near the house in the backyard that is getting pulled out along with the bark bits used as well now that the shovels have arrived.

Sarah is a hoot and is saying more words everyday. The latest repeats are: Elmo, tractor (Sarah's version of the word said a million times in a 30 min period), slide, lights, trash and eye. She is a friend to everyone at the store. They all get a "hello", pageant wave and smile. If you ask her to say cheese, she gives a big smile and wrinkles her nose. It's too cute. It was like Christmas as we unpacked her boxes of toys, furniture and books. She wanted Kirk to read all her books on Monday afternoon once the movers left the house. He could only get through the first page until she would bring the next one to him.

The big news as of last night is we have an offer on the house in Anchorage. We are negotiating at a price less than what we wanted but once the whole relo process is said and done, we come out OK. So, the close date is set for Halloween of all days. Let's hope we can seal the deal.

Greetings from Farmington, New Mexico

We are finally here in our house in Farmington, NM. It's day 4 of being in the house and it's nice. We stayed a week in Durango, CO until we closed on the house and had the carpets/tile cleaned earlier in the week. It also took a week to get our new wireless card from Verizon since Qwest has limited DSL and you have to go on a wait list. What? Come on, it's the lower 48...you would think DSL would be readily available and cheap.

So far we've made at least 5 trips to the mother ship....Target!! Oh yeah it's nice. We also filled two grocery carts yesterday at Safeway (aka Carrs for our northern friends) and it only cost $500. Now that was nice. We are in the land of cheaper fruit and meat making life a little easier. The weather has been great. We wake up and say goodnight to blue skies and sunshine. The temperatures are still up in the high 70's and low 80's so I'm trying to adjust to that as well. I think Sarah is too. We are trying to get her back on schedule and help her feel like this is home now. We do miss our friends in Alaska including the little people Sarah played with at the ELC. We are still searching for a day care alternative until we can get into the one we want. We have one we may try.

We picked up the truck last week and the household goods arrive first thing on Monday morning the 29th. YAHOO! I can't wait to sleep in my own bed and have Sarah's changing table back so I can stop with the WWF matches everytime I need to change a poopy diaper. :-) Hopefully the Honda is here shortly after that - I miss her. Kirk starts work on Monday October 6th and is looking forward to it. Like he told me yesterday, he is ready to work instead of being on constant honey-do duty.

We will be going to Delta and Grand Junction, CO next weekend, if the weather allows, in the Cessna. Unfortunately Kirk's older cousin unexpectedly passed away last week therefore we will be attending the memorial service on Saturday evening. That made last week difficult but we know she is in a better place now.

Here are a few pictures of the house and from the vacation rental in Durango last week.

Sarah playing with Grandma Darlene on the back deck at the vacation rental.

Sarah modeling her shades.

Sarah LOVES the papasan chair at the vacation rental.

Kirk outside the new house. Happy owner of TWO mortgages! Yahoo!

Other house pictures.

Goodbye Alaska

We left Alaska on Wednesday, September 17th in the morning. Boy was that hard. The night before, we made the rounds to a few friends to say so long for now. The tears were flowing. But on the morning of the flight, the reality of it all hit hard as we pulled out of the garage and watched the garage door close. The car got quiet with the exception of the rain coming down. The lump in the throat was too much to brush off and the tears started to flow. Then again on take off, flying over Kincaid Park then Fire Island and the Cook lnlet, the past 11 years flashed before us and the tears flowed once again. We had many firsts in Alaska and will never forget our first home together. Hiking, camping, bear and caribou hunting, mountain biking, kayaking, cross country skiing, fishing, floating rivers....all were firsts for one or both of us. But most important, Alaska is where Kirk and I called home after our vows, it is where our first baby Rosco was laid to rest and where our beautiful gift Sarah was born. All the memories no matter happy or sad are held dear to our hearts. Our friends are also held dear and are missed terribly. We know that we will see each other soon. We will see Alaska soon. Like a friend told us on our last days, "you will be back". We hope so.

Here are a few pictures from our send off BBQ. I didn't get as many as I would have liked. Thank you Candace, Mikie, Stacey and Jennifer for a wonderful send off!

They have landed

Kirk and his dad have landed safe in Delta, CO yesterday. They are resting and will fish for a couple of days before Kirk heads down to Farmington. Sounds like the weather in Delta is quite nice with blue bird skies and warm temperatures. Life is good