Let's Try This Again

So after walking away from a house we put an offer on back in May, Tony and I were feeling pretty discouraged about the whole house buying thing.  We were beginning to think that maybe we weren't supposed to buy a house right now.  We had looked at everything on the market and nothing new was really coming available.  For about two weeks straight I was checking all the listings everyday, sometimes multiple times a day.  Then this house that we had looked at previously and liked but someone else put an offer on it before we could showed up on the listings again.  I immediately called our realtor to be sure that it really was available again.  Then called Tony to see if he was in agreement with me that we needed to put an offer on it NOW before anyone else could.  He agreed with me and we put an offer on it that evening.  The next day we walked through the house again, just to be sure.  The house is a bank owned foreclosure and has been sitting empty for over a year.  It needs some work, but nothing we can't handle, and the price is right.  The house is in our ward and school boundaries which is a plus.  Our offer was excepted, the inspection is done and looks good, and now we're waiting for the appraisal.  Then we'll be ready to close and move it!  Our closing date is set for the 5th of September right now, but we're hoping to close the end of August.  Tony and I both feel so much better and at peace about this house.  This house just seems to fit our family so much better than the other house would have.  I'm pretty excited and have been virtually doing work on the house for weeks now.  Gotta love Pinterest!  So August and September are going to be pretty crazy with 2 family reunions, scout camp for Tony, school starting for Carson and Alaina, Alaina's Birthday and baptism, and moving but we'll manage and it'll be wonderful!

 

Camping and Silverwood

This last weekend we met my parents at Farragut State Park in Northern Idaho.  The weather was wonderful.  Not too hot or cold and no rain!  There was a fire ban in effect which meant no campfires, bummer.  We all got there on Thursday afternoon and stayed until Sunday morning.  We spent all of Friday at Silverwood theme park (sorry no pictures. Too busy having fun).  The highlights of the day at Silverwood were Alaina trying out the big rollercoaster and not wanting to have anything to do with any of the others for the rest of the day.  All of us getting soaked on the rafting ride.  Riding on a train pulled with a real steam engine, and Tony, Carson, Dad, and I riding Aftershock which is more intense than the Wicked ride at Lagoon.  On Saturday we went to breakfast at Jimmy's Down the Street, went to the beach on Lake Pend Oreille and swam in a natural lagoon, and visited a museum about the navel base that was once where the state park is now.  We didn't take a ton of pictures of the weekend, but made many wonderful memories.    

 

 Lincoln was a real trooper the whole weekend and actually slept the entire night both nights we were camping!

 Grandpa taking a cat nap.

 Grandma teaching the kids Crazy 8's.

Lincoln taking a nap on the trailer while we waited for my parents to arrive.

Grand Coulee Dam

About a month ago we took the kids up to see the Grand Coulee Dam.  We just went up for the day.  Brought a picnic dinner and stayed for the laser light show.  We went through the visitor's center and watched a video on the construction of the dam.  When it started to get dark we watched all the spill ways open on the dam and marveled at the amount of water coming over the dam.  Then we watched the laser light show, which ended up being repeat of everything we had seen in the visitor's center and we learned that compared to shows done in the past it wasn't that impressive, but the kids thought it was cool.

 Charlie, Alaina, and Carson.  The dam looks white because of the water spilling over the dam.

 Carson, Lincoln, and I.  (each of the kids had to get a picture with me and Lincoln)

 Alaina, Lincoln, and I.

 Charlie, Lincoln, and I.

The beginning of the laser light show.