Saying Goodbye to the Midwest

Madelyn's birthday is in July, but since we were moving before that, she needed a good birthday party with all her friends. She is so funny and playful - she decided to have a dinosaur-themed party. Dinosaur chicken nuggets, dinosaur cake, and all the dinosaur decorations she could find at Dollar Tree. Nothing fancy, but they had a good time. Madelyn has had a lot of drama with some of her "friends" in Nebraska, but she still has a good group of girls that care about her, and she will miss them very much.

Alex said goodbye to his friends too. He's been in the choir this year and really loved it. He tried out for the show choir in high school (which I've mentioned before is a BIG deal here) and made it, so he will be sad to miss out on that opportunity.

Cora flew home to help us with the packing and the move, and it was so nice to have her here. She got to see a couple of her good friends too. I had JUST renewed our zoo passes before we found out we were moving, so we had to take advantage of those one last time. Best. Zoo. Ever. They had a new octopus, so that was awesome too. I will miss it terribly, especially the jelly fish. Do they have jelly fish in Vegas?

I had to say goodbye to my friends too. It's hard enough to FIND yoru people, let alone LEAVE them. I left one lunch with friends feeling a little emotional, and maybe a little (irrationally) mad that their lives were going to go on without me (how dare they!). I can't believe I didn't get any pictures with them those last few days. I'm super bummed about that. I will miss them terribly. We tried to get around to a few "last times" at our favorite restaurants too. One thing I can thank Nebraska for is introducing me to the combination of cinnamon rolls and chili. I thought this was the weirdest thing before I tried it, but now I'm a fan. Nebraska's number one fast food restaurant is Runza, which is a regional chain. That's where I first tried cinnamon rolls and chili (although it's such a common thing here that it's even in the lunch rotation at the schools). But what Runza ia really known for is the runza sandwich, which was created by German immigrants, and is a bread pocket filled with beef, cabbage, onions, and seasonings. It's pretty good, but I don't know if I will miss it.

And so, the sun sets on our time here in Nebraska. I don't think the Midwest was ever meant for us. That's okay. It's still a great place....just not for us. So now we move on. Will Vegas be our place? Good grief, I hope so, because I don't ever want to move again. But who knows. Life is so unpredictable.

Cora's Adventures

I guess I'll backtrack just a titch and post about what Cora was up to in May. First she went with her cousins to St. George and Las Vegas. Then she went with Marie and Antione to the Arches. Wait, maybe the arches was first. Anyway, she'd had a rough couple of months, so it was good for her to get out and have some fun. We miss having her at home SO much, but I love seeing the ways in which she's growing. I'm so proud of her.

Sooooo, That Just Happened

Since last summer, when Joe retired from the military, we have wanted to move West to be closer to family. But it just didn't seem like it was in the cards. Not that there weren't job opportunities, but there were a lot of things we were taking into consideration - especially our kids. So we buckled in, and expected the ride in Nebraska to last at least another 4 years, until Alex graduated high school. Well, everything changed rather quickly. The Sunday I gave my talk at church, which was May 23, was the day we decided to move. I won't get into all the specifics, but it was like we got the green light that day - it was time. Joe started putting in applications immediately, and on Tuesday (2 days later) he was offered a job in Las Vegas, which would start on June 28. That meant that we would need to move by June 25, which gave us exactly 1 month to move. ONE MONTH! I contacted our realtor (who got us into our house), and we set up an appointment for the next week (since we were going to Sioux Falls that weekend). That next week involved a lot of cleaning, decluttering, and numberous trips to Goodwill to get the house ready for pictures. We listed on June 7, and it's been a whirlwind since then (which I will get into in another post).

This move is exciting, and also scary as hell. For the past 20 years we have moved when and where the military told us to. There wasn't much choice, even though we got lucky a number of times. Whenever and wherever we got a new assignment we just made the most of it. The freedom to choose is liberating, but in some ways it felt paralyzing. What if we make the wrong choice?!!! Part of me just wanted someone to tell us what to do.....but not really. We are very much looking forward to being near family, mountains, and away from humidity (well, I am - Joe doesn't care about humidity). Whatever happens from here, we will make the most of it. That's what we do.

We Fell For It

For Memorial Day weekend we decided to go to Sioux Falls. This was our first trip without Cora, since we had flown her back for Spring Break with us. She was busy having her own trip with cousins though, so it was okay. Sioux Falls is fun little town, with a lot more to do and see than I first thought. The first thing we did was go to Falls Park. It was really beautiful.

We tried out a Triple D place, Urban Chislic, and were introduced to, well, chislic. It's delicious by the way.

We went to the Cathedral of St. Joseph and enjoyed some beautiful organ music, and loved seeing the amazing Queen Anne style homes in the surrounding historic neighborhood (I didn't take any pictures of those, but trust me, they're worth seeing)!

We went to the Aquarium and Butterfly House. It was pretty small, but worth going, especially when you can get butterflies to land on you - and we didn't even pay extra for the feeders! Madelyn, especially, seemed to have the magic touch, and several butterflies landed on her.

And finally, we did the Statue Walk in the very cool downtown area.

We really enjoyed our time in Sioux Falls, and I highly recommend it.