Remembering quotes

Jude-
Whenever we get to the library, Jude says, "We made it at Seattle!". The library is about a mile away. I'm not sure why he thinks it's Seattle.

Jude is really into elevators, hotels, and swimming pools. That's probably due to our recent move, which involved 5 nights in Hotels, taking elevators to our hotel rooms, and swimming in pools. Anyway, he often plays in his closet saying that he's in the elevator or he made it "at" the hotel or he's in the pool.

Jude loves riding his red car around the house and often calls it Grandma's black van. :)

When something is hot, Jude always says, "It's too hot hot."

Hazel-

Hazel is often a helper and puts herself in the mom roll. She often says, "Here jude, I help you. I helping jude, Mommy."

Nona-
If you ask Nona where anything is, her response is always "room". Nona, where's your doll? "Room". Nona, where's your blanket? "Room". Etc.

Adjusting to Michigan

We knew it would take the kids awhile to adjust to Michigan. I never knew how much they would pick up on my own frustrations about the house and area we had upon moving until Hazel started saying, "This is not a nice house. I want to move back to Washington. I want my own room again.". They are doing much better, but often say they want to go back to Washington. I don't think they really know what that would mean. They LOVE seeing their grandparents frequently here and I know would be devastated if they were far away. It's been a long adjustment, but I *think* they finally like it here. 

Hazel loves to take her "bony nails" (pony tail holders) out to the garage, sit in this camping chair, and play with them.

Jude was thrilled when his ride-on car was loaded off the semi-truck.

Always with the pony tail holder container.

"Look Mommy! 2 kids riding on Jude's car!"

"Helping" with the laundry.

"Look Mommy! I took off my diaper!" Nooooooooo!!!!

The kids were tired for weeks after we moved (so was I! Oh, wait...it's a year later and I'm still tired). They were often just laying around too tired to play.

Twins!

The day Hazel had 2 twins. :)

For some reason, Jude thought it would be a good idea to climb into the oven of his play kitchen. 

"These glasses help me see better, Mommy." Hazel often comes up with some creative ensembles. Today was sunglasses inside (not out of the ordinary at all) and her tiger backpack/leash.

This was one of the first times all 3 kids sat nicely to listen to a story. Yay! They love their daddy so much!

Birthday parties!

One of the benefits of being closer to family is being able to celebrate birthdays! The kids were able to go to their cousin Beckett's birthday party for the first time! They loved it! (Or was it the treats they loved?)

The kids LOVE Grandma and always choose to sit by her when they get a chance. 

Playing in Michigan

We were happy to find this toddler friendly park in the town south of us. The kids were thrilled to have something similar to what they had in Washington. The major difference is, there are hardly any other kids at this park and the park in Washington was always busy.

Snack break! I bought a box of fruit leather for our big road trip, but we just didn't eat them as much as I anticipated. We finished them about 10 months later. Lesson learned.

When we first saw our rental house, the person showing us apologized for all the rocks in the front. Noel and I both said, "This is great! Our kids LOVE rocks!" We were definitely right about that one. These rocks have provided hours of entertainment.

I wish this picture wasn't blurry because it's one of my favorites of Jude. It's SO hard to get a good picture of him.

Within a couple of minutes of the new stool being put in the bathroom, Nona made her way into the sink. She is the adventurous one of the 3.

"Look Mommy! I have stickers on my legs!"

There's a small hill in our backyard. Hazel likes to "help" Nona up and down the hill. So sweet.

Made it!

Better late than never, right? Thankfully, we were able to stay with my parents for 4 days after arriving in Michigan since our stuff was still in Utah. We had a few pretty frustrating days with poor communication from ABF about the whereabouts of our truck. But, it finally arrived, we had help unloading, and the kids were thrilled to run around in an empty semi truck. They still talk about how our stuff was on the semi truck and how they got to go on the semi truck.

Moving

I've been meaning to catch up on the blog for almost a year now. Moving to Michigan just really knocked the wind out of my sails (was there ever any wind in my sails?) and I have had just about  the right amount of energy to survive each day. Somedays not enough. Somedays a little extra. There are still boxes in our basement waiting to be unpacked. Some will never be unpacked (this house is too small), but some will. I rarely feel "on top" of anything. The house has to be in a desperate state of dirtiness for me to finally find time to clean it. Life with 3 toddlers is challenging to say the least. But, I might say that for me, moving is even harder. I have yet to find a rhythm and it's been almost a year. Anyway, in an attempt to feel somewhat accomplished and "back in the game", I'm going to try and document at least portions of our last year. Partly for those of you who like to read, but partly for myself.

Here's Hazel and Nona playing in our half-packed Washington house. I sure miss that house!

We found lots of "fun" places to stop on our drive from Washington to Michigan. Smoothie anyone?

Another smoothie stop. This place was really off the beaten path. That's what you get for searching for things on your phone while on the road and in desperate need of a stop.

I have fond memories (okay that's a bit of a lie) of our stop at Mt Rushmore. I remember as the "Mt Rushmore meltdown", courtesy of Jude Snyder.

My first time to the famous Wall Drug!

Another first! The Corn Palace!

We stopped at a mall in Iowa (thanks to Karen Barker for the tip!) and the kids STILL talk about driving these cars. They just had a blast. 

Picnic lunch stop! This is what most lunches on the road looked like. We'd find a park, eat lunch, let the kids play for awhile, and get back on the road.

Hazel's first and only donut. Maybe someday we'll be able to all have gluten again...

Overall, I have NO complaints about our 5 (or was it 6?) day drive from WA to MI. My parents drove one vehicle and we drove the other. The kids did AMAZINGLY well (especially if my mom was in the van with them) and we were able to go 6-7 hours a day. We really couldn't believe how well they did. Jude cracked himself up the whole way. One time, he started saying "rice kike" instead of "rice cake" over and over and over. He was laughing so hard at himself that he threw up. We had no idea until we stopped quite awhile later. Hilarious. He has always (and still does) loved to make up words and laugh at himself.