farewell Oscoda

Well, as I mentioned when I last posted, we have moved from Oscoda to Butte. We moved back in June but I want to try to go back and catch things up a little bit, so bear with me. It was a whirlwind at the time! We kicked June off by having a big yard sale. I have had a yard sale every year since we moved in, and I was appalled at the amount of stuff we still had to get rid of! Granted, not knowing where we would be living made it a lot easier to get rid of stuff :)

 During the yard sale, Jed was going into the house to get something for me, and he came back and said "mom, I think there are skunks under the porch!" Sure enough, there were three baby skunks snuffling around under our porch.

so adorable!

 It couldn't have been worse timing. Dave was already being a huge trooper by handling the yard sale while I went out of town with my girlfriends for a weekend in Detroit, to go to the Dixie Chicks concert, and on top of dealing with the boys and the yard sale all by himself, he had to deal with these skunk babies. He handled it like a champ, as always. He found a lady who takes in orphaned skunk babies, made a ton of money at the yard sale, and had the house spotless when I came home Sunday night.

The following Friday, Jed and his friend Elizabeth were playing outside and came in to notify me that they found MORE skunks! Apparently we hadn't gotten them all the first time around. Oh, Dave and I were sorely tempted to keep one and raise it for a pet. But, state law in Montana is more strict than Michigan regarding pet skunks, plus I didn't think any hotels would take kindly to a pet skunk on our move, not to mention landlords. And, when we are permanently settled I want to have chickens, and chickens and skunks (even domesticated) don't mix. So, we gave the cute rascals to the same rehabber and they are currently flourishing with their siblings. 

 Jed had his last day of school the middle of June. He was such a cute little end-of-first grader!

nothing like candid photos to keep life real!

Jed with his teacher, Mrs Revord,

and with his best friends, Alex and Elizabeth. The kids were so happy when school was over!

We spent the few days between the end of school and the arrival of the movers by enjoying our backyard, 

 and having a last hurrah at the beach. It was a perfect day to say farewell to one of our very favorite spots, even if in the back of my head I knew the movers were boxing and loading all of our stuff onto a truck. It was so nice to be able to hang out with our friends and get away from that mess for a little while. 

My girlfriends threw me a good-bye party a little earlier in June and it was so nice to just hang out with my mommy friends, enjoy good food and yummy drinks, and a bonfire. I will miss all my Oscoda friends, but especially Jen and Laura. (Enduring the summer without them has been so hard!)

 Saturday the 18th we went back to our empty house (we had spent the night in the honeymoon suite of a local hotel--all four of us!) to clean and say goodbye. Jed and Hank walked through the empty house and bounced their bouncy balls they had saved out, and then they went to Laura's so we could clean quickly and get on the road. We had so much help from our branch family and we got things sparkling very quickly.

last lunch with friends, while watching some tv

Laura fed us lunch, prayed with us, gave us the clean laundry she had washed (seriously, she was a lifesaver) and got us on the road safely after we got done cleaning. It was so awful to not be able to drive for the tears in my eyes, but at the same time I was so grateful to have been loved so well during our four years in Michigan. I hate saying goodbye, but I wouldn't change a thing, because heartache means you have had joy and fond memories. Thank you again to everyone who got us on the road!