Memorial Day part 2...

More pictures...

Memorial Day... FUN!

Ok, so I realized we had so many fun pictures from a beautiful and relaxing Memorial Day that it needs it's own post(s), so here a some fun pictures of the whole Reinhardt/Washington/Weis clan on the lake, with the kids, everything we were blessed to enjoy...

FYI, while this is my first Memorial Day out here, I'm told they aren't all this nice, one time it was in the 40's and raining... so keep that in mind when enjoying the pics, especially the ones from being on the boat.

The month of June in MN...

So I realize it's been a little while, but having the cabin to go to each weekend, leaves less time to do these updates... but whatever... I know... you want PICTURES!

So here are some showing what we've been up to for the past month... including Memorial Day, My Birthday, Father's day, etc.

enjoy,

B

And just last weekend...

So here's final of this onslaught of new info and pics from our first 5 weeks here...

In these pictures you'll see Keenan playing with his cousin Annabelle on her 2nd birthday, once at Grandma's house and then later on at her party attacking a Pinyata under beautiful 70 degree weather!

Also there are some fun pics of Keenan practicing golf with Pappa out in the yard, this time after another beautiful 80 degree day... who knew MN would be better than SD right now... but it is May-gray time down there so....

Ok, love you all, going to bed now.

A Mother's Day treat and the Cabin Opener

Here are some really cute pics of Keenan only.

The first two are of him after we came back home from Church on Mother's Day and the other two were from last weekend as we opened our Cabins out in Spicer, the weather was perfect and it was great first time for me and keenan and a we all can't wait to go back tomorrow for some more!

Miss' first day and at the Carnival INSIDE the Mall of America

Here's another quick one, showing Miss getting ready for her first day at Allina with a sleepy Keenan in her arms. Also there are some pics from the Mall of America Carnival.

This was a fun time, while Miss was at a all day scrapbooking event, and no she didn't last the whole day, Keenan and I went with the grandparents to the MOA and had some fun on the indoor Carnival. I'll let the pics speak for themselves, but he and maybe I too, had a blast!

Transitioning into MN life

So here's a second blurb, shorter this time, mainly just to explain the pictures.

Keenan is playing with some balloon sticks with his cousins, Miss and I have license plates in sequential order and the scar under Keenan's lip is from his own tooth when he bit down into it, after falling into the top edge of a garbage can. Thankfully mommy used some dermabond, or doctor approved super glue and fixed him up and you can't even see a thing now! And finally Kee relaxing on the couch after church one day.

Too Long between posts...

So this whole living in a new state thing, new life, new job, new church etc. seems to have taken away from us keeping you all informed, thru pictures and text, how the Lord is continuing to use us and guide us here in MN. So while I can't contain all the pictures I'd like in this one post, this will be the starting text to get you up to date on some of our happenings.

We are loving it here, feel the Lord has really blessed us with Redeemer Bible Church, it's leadership, it's body and the consistency in which the Word is preached each week. Living with Tom and Lisa has been a great blessing, especially in the area of cooking meals and having a place of no rent sure helps! Although we do pay back some thru house chores, some of which Lisa has been waiting for almost 25 years to complete...

Miss loves her job, Keenan loves his new daycare, where he is outside all day and comes home exhausted and a little dirty, but he's a boy! I'm searching, interviewing and waiting for employment... and the Lord is perfect through it all! although my patience isn't.

Here are some pics to enjoy, there are a couple from the first couple of days here, at the park with Uncle Kev, the computer set up down stairs in "our house" and some wrestling btw me and my nieces.

The 4 day drive from San Diego to Minnesota

Well I always said, "when we get to the driving part of this move, that's going to be fun", and thanks to our Lord, it was. Each day was a new adventure and by His providence, all went well and we made it safe and not to tired... but our first night here, we all slept over 10 hours!

So Day 1 was Sunday April 11th, and after Tom and I, Tom is Melissa's dad and myself, Tom and our best friend Kevin Hovell each drove, me in the Uhaul, Tom in our van and Kev in the Subaru. So anyway, after Tom and I dropped off Melissa, Keenan and Melissa's mom Lisa at the airport for their "quick" 3 hr. plus airline flight, we had to pack up the rest of our things, which didn't fit in the truck, so the van was full, as was the Subaru, my road bike couldn't find inside, so it had to ride on top of the Subaru, but it was a great help as I was leading the caravan and looking back in my mirrors to see if Kev was still there. We left a little later than I had hoped, but we left!

We had lunch at In-n-out in El Cajon, so I could have one more double-double before MN. We ended up in Anthem, AZ, which is just north of Phoenix. A great drive, kinda boring in SW Arizona, but it is the desert.

Day 2, WIND. We had a great drive up from Anthem to Flagstaff, climbing some 7000 ft and we saw some snow. Once we hit Flagstaff we headed east on I-40 for a long couple of days. And we hit wind... lots of it as it was moving from south to north and tended to push the Uhaul back and forth on the road. Needless to say we were all exhausted as we ended up in Tucumcari, NM as we ended our day at 9pm. We also had lunch at Burger King on Day 2.

Day 3, more wind as we moved from Tucumcari, thru Texas, seeing one of the largest free standing crosses in the USA and once we had lunch in Elk City, Oklahoma and had our "manly man" sandwich, which was full of pork, sausage and ham all smothered in BBQ sauce, it was north from OKC on the I-35 up to Wichita and then a little NE as ended up in Emporia, KS.

Overall a great day and not as tough driving as Monday, especially once we turned north and had the winds at our backs.

Day 4, we left early from Emporia and made it thru KC by 10 and drove thru a great section of NW Missouri up towards Iowa. This part really reminded me of Oregon and Washington. We had lunch at Red Robin in West Des Moines, yes that makes it four days of some meat for lunch, but they were each so good! We rolled across the border and into MN around 3:30 and ended up in Tom and Lisa's driveway at 6:15 to a cheering house and were so thankful to be "home".

Enjoy the pictures.

Moving Day

So I know it's been a little while, but it takes time to get adjusted, more so than I realized, but I know I need to update you all on all that we've been up to, which is A LOT. Here is a quick worded post, mainly pictures, of all of our friends from Pacific Hope who came and helped us pack up and say their final good bye... for now at least. Needless to say, we could not fit all of our stuff into the 17' truck, so it soon became Christmas as we were able to give away our crib, our 7' fake Christmas tree, which we have had since our wedding and many other things, all of which was appreciated and taken with excitement.

Thanks to all who came and helped, especially to Hoop and Christian, who saved us over $450 by not allowing me to rent a trailer... but instead just packed our truck FULL! You'll see....

Final bike ride with the boys in San Diego..

So I was able to have a final good bike ride before heading out to MN and it was a great time, there were 4 others, Kev, Christian, Hoop and Rafael who came along as we toured Rancho Sante Fe up into Encinitas, where we stopped off and visited the Qualls boys. After making it to the coast, it was a great ride back down the coast to our final climb of the inside of Torrey Pines state beach. It is always a tough climb, but thankfully I felt great throughout as we finished at 40 miles total. Here are some pics, from before and after... notice the one where we are praying beforehand and how Keenan is participating... makes Miss and I so proud!

A Pacific Hope Send off Party...

So our incredible family from Pacific Hope held a get together to fellowship over our departure as well as the Judd family. Our friends Chris and Nicole Halloway have a little girl named Nina, full name is Virginia, but needless to say, Keenan and her have a little thing for one another... See below. Also the first picture is funny and great. Funny, b/c Keenan has just knocked my glasses off, but great, b/c you can really see how much fun everyone is having behind us, so many blessed friends and memories, Meliss and I know we are leaving a rich and unique group of redeemed sinners. But we will have our brother's and sister's for eternity, so that is our hope now and years from today.