We are slowly moving through the boxes and someday will be able to say we're settled in Washington. Here are a few pics of our house; we are the 2nd from the end. Don't you love our nameplate?? (Hytte is Norwegian for cabin) As a joke, we kept telling the girls we were going to have "Holy Husfelts" on our house; they were appalled that when they came home yesterday, it really was on there!
And isn't God good to give us neighbors who fly their Seminole flag daily??
The girls are adjusting to their schools and activities. Not too surprisingly, Mallory came home yesterday as the student of the month. She doesn't waste time making a good impression. Lydia was selected for student council. Emilie is finally getting her knee back in shape and getting involved with cycling and sports med, and Britain has emerged as our new little soccer player.
I am off to Vancouver, BC, to see my CD, my great friend, Kim, from Norway, this weekend. It will be a much needed reprieve from unpacking boxes.

Back to School

The girls started back to school last week. Pretty amazing that we are in a carpool with 7 families, 15 kids and 5 different schools! Lydia was anticipating going to high school this fall but here, she is in Jr High another year. Mallory, who was in middle school last year, has been "demoted" back to intermediate school here so she gets to spend another year in school with Britain!
The week before school started, the youth group had a "messy games" night. Thus, the picture of Mallory and Lydia getting in the shower with everything from ketchup to peanut butter to oatmeal to SQUID from head to toe. It's a good thing we didn't have to pay the water bill after that shower. But, our car smelled like throw up for a few days!

Seattle

Seattle

We went to Seattle on Saturday for the first time. I had SO MUCH FUN! The girls made fun of me because every few minutes I would comment on HOW MUCH FUN I was having! The Pike Place market was a blast. The whole place smelled so great because of all of the flowers. (Except when we were over by the Fish market; that smell reminded me of Norway, of course. Not my favorite smell but for old time's sake, I enjoyed it.) Reminded me of the market I used to go to in St Neots (England) just a much larger scale here.
I loved watching all of the people; the weirdos, the trendy kids, the old people, etc.
Went to the original Starbucks; standing room only but lots of fun.

Mt Ranier

Whew... we finally made it! We drove into McChord AFB last Tuesday night; the welcome was complete with rain and coldness.
Because we must live on base, we have a choice of 2 houses. One is nice and available now, but the other one is a bit bigger so we think we will wait for that house, which means temp lodging for TWO months. (1 bathroom and 2 bedrooms; YIKES!) It is a historical brick house and is within walking distance of most everything on base. The neighbors seem very nice (5 units connected, close neighbors like stairwell housing overseas).
The sun was out Sunday so we decided we shouldn't waste it. We headed up towards Mt Ranier National Park and hiked our first 3 mile hike to Comet Falls. Very rugged terrain but the girls were real troopers and we made it. Definitely worth it!
On a side note, two things we learned coming through Oregon. It is illegal to pump your own gas in Oregon and we never knew that the potato company, Ore-Ida, is named so because it is on the border of Oregon and Idaho! Who knew??