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Friday, March 12, 2010

Living 600 miles apart!

Last week Dave and I spent time together in Kennewick, Washington. We drove on Sunday, and it wasn't too bad. (Kennewick is 6 hours from Twin Falls and 8 hours from Tremonton.) We spent time looking for homes, areas to live in, getting Dave set up in an apartment, and getting oriented to our new homeland. We had a nice time together, and the boys had fun at Grandmas. Right now Dave is there working, (lots of hours I hope) and I am home with the boys praying our house will sell. The plan today is that me and the boys will move the first week in April. Families are meant to be together! The boys miss their Daddy so much. Colty says all the time "I very miss my daddy" and he prays that "Daddy will fly home safely" almost every night. It breaks my heart to tell him that Daddy isn't coming home. Tanner told me last night that he decided that he would rather live with Daddy at his 'compartment' than stay here with his friends. Braden loves to talk to Daddy on the phone and puts the phone to his ear every chance he gets.
Dave's 'compartment'. He is on the top floor. It's sure nothing special, but it is cheap and they do month to month lease instead of 6 month contract. It is a 2 bedroom, so we will all fit, but it will be snug!
The Columbia River Temple in Kennewick. It kind of looks like a layer got cut out of the middle. Makes Moroni look really tall!
The Tri-cities (Richland, Kennewick, and Pasco) are connected by bridges. This is one of them.
There are lots of parks, and especially along the Columbia River there is a huge park with the playground of dreams. It is huge, and has a splash park too.
These are pictures of the Columbia River. You can see the boat parking in the first picture. The end of July they do boat races here, and I guess it is a BIG deal. It will be fun to see. This airplane looking thing is a race boat.

Kennewick really seems like huge to me. (I think I feel like a country bumpkin!) There is a "small dumpy town" just on the Oregon side which is about 10 minutes from Dave's farm, and about 25 minutes from Kennewick called Hermiston. Anyone you talk to in Kennewick will tell you it is a "one horse town" and "really small." I decided I wanted to check it out. So, I found a realtor and looked around. I LOVED IT!! There is like 16,000 people in this "little" town and they have a Walmart and Home Depot and more restaurants that Rexburg including a Denny's and a Stockman's, as well as 2 grocery stores, a Maurices, their own hospital, swimming pool, and library. What else could a person want?!?! Dave was a little turned off because property tax is quite high, but I think it would be worth it to live in a cozier town. And, they don't have sales tax in Oregon. We'll see what happens. So far we can't do ANYTHING until we sell our house. Pray for us.....please!


These are from the yard on Dave's farm. There are 40 pivots that he works with and 4000 acres. The church has 15 of these farms, and they make up AgriNorthwest.

This is the McNary Bridge. The state line is half way across the bridge. Hermiston is the town in the background.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I hope you can move to Hermiston. I have lived here most of my life and I love it! It's a very friendly city with a small-town feel. The city government looks out for the citizens very well and the Parks & Recreation Department is fantastic. The aquatic center is busy in the summer, plus there are lots of things for kids to do both in summer and winter. We have a great youth sports program either through the city or other sports organizations. The town in your picture of the big bridge is actually Umatilla, where I work. Umatilla is a nice little town as well. Not as much going on as Hermiston but still a nice little community. The schools are excellent in both Umatilla and Hermiston. Here's hoping your house sells soon and you can move to the best place on earth!

Lindsay said...

I know how you feel!!! I did that when we had to move to wyoming!! Our house did sell quick so we were lucky!!! Here is wyoming a 16,000 people city is huge. Here in Rawlins we have 8,000 and when we move to Cody in a couple of months it will have 9,000!! But I with you on the walmart I about cried when I saw cody had one. Right now I am 1 hour and 20 min. from the nearest walmart! Hang in there and I will be praying for you!!

Em and Russ said...

We are so excited for you guys! We can't wait for you to get all settled in. Good luck with everything. We love you and we want everything to work out well for you guys. We will keep you in our prayers.