The Hunt

(After several days of trying to post more pictures with this entry I am giving up. You will just need to imagine my cute kids and the house we are trying to get.)
The reason be hind our most recent trip was house hunting. Several times in preparation for our trip I thought about leaving the kids in someone else's care. (For some reason I didn't like the idea of loading four kids in and out at every house we wanted to look at all week.) However, when I thought about leaving the kids behind I stupored. I knew they really needed to come with us. So we loaded everyone up and drove off into the sunset. We arrived on Saturday night with enough time to check into the hotel and get all situated before bed time.
We were able to attend what will be our new ward on Sunday. (Several boxes of See's candies were passed around during relief society. I hope this happens often in this ward.) After church we were invited to dinner by a very kind and friendly family. The kids had so much fun they wanted to stay all night. It was nice to make instant friends.
Monday we met our realtor and looked at lots of houses. Most of them were brand new. Many were not even completed yet. What I remember most about it though is four kids in, four kids out, four kids in, four kids out, etc, and so forth. One day of looking was enough. Plenty of houses to choose from. All with some very good qualities. Tuesday we went back to one of the houses and decided we would put an offer on it. I also went to a few of the local schools. I learned that they are going to be implementing class size reduction next year. (No more than 20 kids per class in k through 2) That and combined with Jessie's and Caroline's burning desires to go to school closed the decision on home vs. public school. (At least until next year.)
Wednesday we traveled to the Realtor office to sign the paper for the offer. She told us about a great pool close by her office. We had so much fun. It's been a very long time since we've made it to the pool. Naomi was ecstatic. She loves to wear her swim suit all day every day and she not only got to wear it but really go swimming, too! Too bad she slipped right off the step and fell under the water. I grabbed her out quick and she was fine but shaken. She later said she was just hiding under the water but that it was scary. We also traveled to an optometry practice of a OD Keith met at his last conference. During the visit they talked about the possibility of Keith taking over the practice in a few years. (Wow! That would be really nice. Not banking on it yet though.)
The rest of the week we just played. We went swimming, had dinner with some more new friends, played in the sand and dug a hole to China. (Well they got pretty close I think.) Jessie started the hole as a tunnel. A few of the other kids at the hotel really got into the digging too.
The best part about our trip was that we learned that the town we are moving to is a very friendly place. It was almost hard to leave by the end of the week. We were all concerned about the area before our trip. Now we know that it will be our home and we will enjoy our time there. I think that was the biggest accomplishment for the trip and the reason that we all needed to be there for "the hunt." Maybe we found the house, but we definitely found the home. A successful hunt.