Montpelier, Idaho

A big rain cloud scratched our plans of getting to go on the Alpine Slide in Park City, Utah. And that after we had already taught our 2 year old to tell people she was three, since that was the age limit for the slide, and our four year old had had a meltdown because she thought she wouldn't get to go on the slide because she was four and not three.

And since there was nothing else to do in Park City we left and drove into Idaho past Bear Lake to a nice campground on a small river. We snuggled up into our sleeping bags and woke up to a freezing 39 degrees at two in the morning. The kids slept great, but Dugan and I had just about turned into icicles by the morning. And our warm breakfast turned cold on the way from the stove to the plate. Not fun. So we decided to be whimpy and upgraded for the next night to a cabin with bunk beds and a double bed and most important: A HEATER!!! No more tent camping until the night temperature is at least 50 degrees! I mean come on, we don't want the poor kids to freeze at night ;) !

Emmi had the best time on the entire trip. There were two other kids on the campground, 5 year old Kelly and her seven year old brother, and Emmi and Kelly played from nine in the morning until 6 at night with only a 10 minute lunchbreak and no crying or fighting ALL DAY LONG. And all they had to play with was a pile of sand, some sand toys and their imagination. Awesome.

It did warm up during the day. It's been so nice to be able to spend so much time outside after having to spend most of the summer inside because of the heat.

Arches National Park

The kids rocked! We were able to hike a total of 3 Miles to see some breathtaking beauty in Arches National Park. Emmi loved to find rocks to climb on and it's kind of scary how high she could go in no time. At one time she had an entire group of Japanese Tourists taking pictures of her climbing! The campground in the park was full so we camped one night in Moab, UT and then left in the evening after sunset to drive 5 hours to Park City in Utah where we are staying at a hotel right now getting ready to do some crazy sledding...

Mesa Verde National Park

We woke up to a 46 degree morning in Colorado which felt cold but really refreshing after three months of a Texas summer. After loading (or lets face it and say stuffing) all of our camping essentials back into our family truckster....

....we told our new friends goodbye and were off...

...to Mesa Verde National Park.

We enjoyed the view from here...

and Emmi wondered if all the trees didn't have leaves (they burnded a few years ago) because the Pueblo Indians needed all of the leaves to make beds and pillows.

And Lily must have asked us 100 times "Where the Indians????"

And then we moved on to our next destination...

Durango, CO

We spent the morning outside of Santa Fe at a living history museum of a spanish colonial Ranch which was awesome! We got a demonstration of a Blacksmith doing Ironwork and learned and watched how a mill worked.

Then we were off to our first campground in Durango, CO. The kids just went to sleep and we'll know in a few hours if our sleeping bags are warm enough. Wish us luck!

On the Road

We are about 650 Miles and two days into our four week family camping adventure. We loaded up the Minivan with A LOT of essentials and took off yesterday afternoon. We have not actually camped yet, but spent the first night in Midland, TX with friends and are now enjoying the comfort of a Hotel in Santa Fe, NM. Our intended Route will take us about 5000 Miles through Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, California, Arizona and back to Texas.

After a rather boring drive through Texas and New Mexico (Those were honestly the most boring 600 Miles I have ever driven in my life) we have finally arrived at our first picture worth destination Santa Fe, New Mexico.

The girls are handling all the driving pretty well and they are super excited to finally start camping tomorrow in Mesa Verde National Park. We are excited too and a little nervous. We are not really regular campers and are planning to spend the majority of the next four weeks sleeping in a tent. We are not sure what we should expect but are hoping for the best...

I'll try to update the blog as often as possible (meaning as often as I can get Internet Access)...

Stay tuned!

Nanny

The girls lost their Greatgrandmother "Nanny" last week. We were lucky to get to spend her last days with her and she will live in our hearts forever. We've been telling Emmi that her Nanny has lived a long and full live and has done everything in her live she wanted to do. We believe that is true and we know she was happy those last few days being surrounded by her children, grandchildren and greatgrandchildren... the people that have always been the most important to her.

From her Obituary:

Born in Malone, Texas on June 21, 1923, Mary was the daughter of William Luther Hutchison and Emma Lenora (Cooper) Hutchison. She was a loving wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, sister and friend. She was an avid fan of the Texas A&M and West Orange Stark Mustangs football teams. Mary loved sports and being with her loving family in all that they did in life. She will also be remembered for her unique sense of humor and making people laugh. Mary will be dearly missed by all who knew and loved her.

She was preceded in death by her parents, her son, Mitchell Wayne Foreman; grandson, Matthew Aaron Collins; brother, Bill Hutchison; and sister, Hazel Goodsell.

Mary is survived by her husband, James “JC” Foreman, of Mont Belvieu and a former longtime resident of Orangefield; son and daughter-in-law, Mike and Pat Foreman of Caldwell; daughter and son-in-law, Melionee and Mike Trevathan of Mont Belvieu; son and daughter-in-law, Mark and Vickie Foreman of Waxahachie; and daughter and son-in-law, Melynda and Mark Collins of Mont Belvieu.

She is also survived by her nine grandchildren, Mindy Dennis, Dugan Trevathan, Cody Foreman, Shawn Foreman, Dustin Foreman, Brian Wallace, Toby Foreman, Traci Sanchez, Ashlee Collins; eleven great-grandchildren; and brother and sister-in-law, Ronnie and Jennie Hutchison of Orangefield.

We love you Nanny!

Homeless and Unemployed

We did it!

We sold our house last week, Dugan quit his job and we are moving to Germany on October 25th. It's been a crazy past five months. We decided to make the big move in March and everything had to fall into place from there. Well, it didn't quite fall into place but required a lot of decisions and planning but it it now done and final. No turning back from here.

One of the hardest things we had to to was to sell our house. We loved our house and we put so much money and effort into it over the past few years. It's the house we brought both our children home to and it's the only home they have ever known. We made so many good friend in the neighborhood and we'll miss them dearly. It sure feels weird to think about someone else living in our house now. One thing we don't miss is our mortgage though :) !

We are down to one car, have sold and given away lots of stuff, and the rest of our belongings fit in one 20 feet container that is being shipped to Germany.

Unfortunately we can't ship people. Leaving friends and family is hard. This is the hard part about an international marriage. Someone is always going to be left behind. Wherever we choose to live. Leaving our house was hard, but once we are actually getting ready to leave the country it's going to be even harder. But we still have some busy times ahead, so I am not even going to think about that yet..

We have plans.

Once in Germany Dugan is going to take 6 months of intensive German classes and will hopefully find a job soon after that. I am planning to go back to work as a Kindergarten teacher in January. We'll be living with my parents in a separate apartment in their house in Munich. We don't really have any plans going further. It's a big change for our family and we'll need a while before we can assess if it's been a good one. We hope it is!

What are we going to do between now and October 25th? We are going to enjoy our live without responsibilities and bills! Right now we are staying with family in Houston. Emmi and Lily's Greatgrandmother Nanny has decided to go off dialysis and we are spending her last days with her. Sometime next week we are off to go camping for four weeks (more about that later) and the rest of October will be spent with family and friends in Houston and Austin.

I am planning to do a better job keeping our blog updated during this busy time ahead for our family...