Our first few weeks

We pulled into town on August 21st.  As we pulled into the parking lot of Seminary Village, Taylor said "we're home, we're home."  Even though she'd said the same thing when we stopped at a travel plaza in Albert Lea, it was still pretty sweet.  First thing out of the van, Noah headed for the playground even though is was not visible from where we parked.  He must have remembered from the pictures we'd shown him.  We were greeted by two seminary kids...Kathryn and Kenneth.  They were so sweet and welcomed us all.  Before we even checked out our new place, Taylor was sitting on Kathryn's lap.  We got our keys and got into our apartment.  We really like it.  They are older but have newer carpet and have been freshly painted.  The kids ran around like crazy people.  It was a pretty cool way to say "hello" to our new home. 

We stayed in a hotel the first night and Bryan's mom, dad and brother got into town in the middle of the night with our stuff.  We worked all day Saturday moving in boxes and furniture....then unpacking boxes and getting situated.  Bryan's family was a huge help and we hated to see them leave so soon on Sunday.

Over the next few weeks, we worked a lot on unpacking while we tried to take regular breaks to play with the kids.  One of the great things about the Sem. Village is that we can see a huge portion of the play area from our livingroom window so Noah can go outside without us.  WooHoo!!  We headed to the Mall of America to take Noah on his long-awaited roller coaster ride at Nickelodeon Universe!!  It scared the crap out of him and nearly made Bryan vomit!!  haha  Of course, we also had to head to IKEA a few days later...gotta love that store!! 

Bryan had signed up for an intensive 4 credit hr course called September school before we moved.  Little did we know, it involved 350 pages of reading and around 40 pages of writing.  He had to start his course prework only a week after we arrived and is still in the midst of it.  Needless to say, that's thrown a kink in our unpacking, family time plans.  Noah has been struggling with the transition (trust me when I say that is the understatement of the century!!) so it's been a little rough on all of us.  Luckily, my parents came up a couple of weeks after our move and helped us get the apartment together and with the kids.....and of course we took another trip to IKEA!!  It was a nice visit but too short.


The community here is truly amazing.  We have met several friends already.  Since we are all in the same boat, it makes it a lot easier to get to know people quickly.  Everyone is so helpful and supportive of each other.  We had some friends over last weekend and the coolest thing is that the people near our apartment can just bring their baby monitors to our place and hang out!! 

Before we came, we bought a Garmin.  That was one of best purchases ever!!  I have never lived some where with such amazing shopping!!  You name the store and I can probably get there in 30 minutes or less!!  And wow!!  Don't worry though.....my most frequent stops have been at the local thrift stores...which are quite amazing also!!  I told Bryan that some day when Taylor is older, she's gonna be mad that she used to live by the Mall of America....but she was 2!! 

For now, Bryan is working hard to finish up his course on Missions and I am working hard to entertain the kiddos while Bryan is gone much of the day and night.  We are all looking forward to September school being done!!  Hope you will enjoy following our family as we navigate this journey we our on...