Here we go!

20 days.... In 20 days we will be settling into our new house in California. Seem unreal, but we're both very much ready to get there and start the new part of our life.

But I'm getting ahead of myself, Jason has been home for about 4 months now. It's funny because as soon as he came home, it was like those 7 months apart didn't even matter, and now it doesn't even seem like it was that long to us. I find myself telling stories and thinking he was actually here for them... when really he wasn't. It's bizarre.

So what has been happening with us? Well, Jason got home and after two weeks off, he started ALS which was a leadership class he took for his new promotion to Staff Sargent. For a month he was always busy studying or being at school. It all paid off though, he was awarded with two major awards; one being the Commandant Award which shows that he is a good leader and all around person based on the observations of his peers and the people higher up. The other was the Distinguished Graduate, which means all that hard work and studying paid off and he was one of 4 of the highest people in his class who had the best scores. I am very proud of my hubby, he's going to be one of there really good bosses people want to have!

At Jason's ceremony

I finished up school. Not much to report on that. I was really glad to be done with this year, it was just a hard and not fun school year. Many factors made it that way, but I'm very happy to be done. I've been tying up a lot of loose ends. It's been a little sad for me because I have always been very involved in my church and over the past couple months I've been having my series of "lasts". My last time teaching Sunday School, last meeting with the women's council, my last time doing Cherub Club, my last youth group meeting.... I even turned in my very own set of keys to the church and that was the moment I realized I really am leaving. I know in my heart that God is preparing a church for us in California though. It may not be exactly what we think, or want, but I know that he'll have a home for us to be involved in, just like here.

My empty classroom.

We were gone most of June, for 20 days. We skipped all around the map! After a huge delay at the airport... we first flew to Tennessee to visit Erik, Leah, and Rylan who are Jason's cousins. It's a beautiful place, and only a 5 hour drive to Ohio.

Cousins

So, we rented a car and drove through Kentucky and onto Ohio. It was an amazing drive and it was fun to have some sort of a "road trip" on our little vacation.

Kentucky

We stayed in Ohio with Jason's family for about a week. It's always great to be with them, and sad to leave. This time seemed a little more sad to me because I think I (we) got so attached to our little nieces Kaylee and Julianne. They're growing up so fast and it makes my heart sad to think we only get to see them a few days out of the year. :(

Julianne and Kaylee

 But, we had a fantastic time with the Lawyers, as always... and then we flew from there to Seattle. In the morning we hopped on a cruise ship heading to Alaska. After a very... "bumpy" ride up the coast, a lots of motion sickness meds... we made it to Ketchikan, Alaska. We didn't have any planned excursions here, so we toured the town and ended up finding a pretty cool hiking trail in the mountains. I think we ended up walking 6 or 7 miles that day.

Creek Street

The city of Ketchikan

Next stop was Juneau, Alaska where we took a city tour around the city and heard some really cool stories from our young hipster tour guide. Then we were able to check out one of the glaciers there which was also really neat.

There's a glacier behind us... but we did get closer.

After Juneau came Skagway, Alaska which we actually didn't get to see (which sucks because it looked like a cool city). We had a planned excursion in Haines, Alaska where we took a really cool jet boat cruise on the Chilkat River. We saw a ton of bald eagles, including a nest with a baby eagle, and a little one year old bear! It was pretty amazing floating around in this place that hasn't been overrun by humanity!

Jet boat ride

 Last stop was Victoria, Canada. We didn't do much there. Really we just walked around the city. It's a beautiful city, but I think we both didn't feel like we were IN Canada.

Their old Parliament building.

 We stayed in Seattle after our cruise and hit up our next baseball field so we could cross that one off our list. (We're trying to see a game in every stadium in our life time!) It was a very fun, yet exhausting, vacation!!

So here we are now... wrapping up everything here in Vegas and preparing for our move to California. The plan is... the movers will come and pack up our house on the 18-19. Jason will check out of this base on the 23rd and he will be leaving the 25th to head up there before me. Plus, he has to start work the next day anyway. I will stay behind for a few days with the pigs until we get our house keys on the 30th! Hopefully, this still is the plan because it will be a short time in California until I start my NEW job on August 15th! I will be working at a charter school as a 6th grade teacher! It seems so fast, but I'm just happy to have gotten a job so quickly!

Your thoughts and prayers will be much appreciated as we start this new journey. We will most definitely continue to write about our California adventures, whatever they may be! :)