There's a woset in my closet &
a zelf on my shelf!

Settling Out (March 16-26)

That's right. We've moved so many times that Lion coined a term for that phase when you're moving a away, but not actually gone yet. Since our packers were scheduled a full 10 days before  we left the West Coast, that transition lasted a long time this go round. But we made the most of our time! Besides the combination of excitement, anxiety, and boredom involved in watching all our belongings get packed up and loaded into a huge truck, here are highlights:

St. Patrick's Day The girls had an all-day playdate with some friends of ours that also involved eating green food for lunch and attending a neigborhood St. Patty's Day celebration with crafts and games.

Paths of History The downtown of our little city has a self-guided historical walking tour that girls and I had just never gotten around to. It's about two miles long, and features visits to sites like the first custom house on the west coast, the first brick house, the first Protestant church, the first theater, the first general store (it still has the safe where 49ers stored their gold), and a number of historical gardens and courtyards.

Baja California No, we didn't visit the place, but we did see the new exhibit at the aquarium featuring creatures of Baja California's deserts, mangrove forests, and coral reefs. The garden and moray eels were definitely the girls' favorite. Of course, we hit up a few of the girls's favorite spots as well.

One last picture in the clam shell!

Big Basin Redwoods State Park We decided we needed to get in one last good California hike. We decided to try a slightly longer hike this time, so we packed a lunch and headed out for a supposedly 7-mile loop that would take us by Berry Creek Falls. Along the way, we spotted lots of little waterfalls, huge redwoods, 6 lizards, and 13 banana slugs! The woods and the falls were lovely, but it was definitely not 7 miles! Knowing our usual pace, we felt like it was a lot longer: GoogleMaps estimated the trail to be about 9.5 miles and the step tracker on my phone says I walked about 14 miles. We had not planned on pushing our little girls so far, but they were awesome! We decided we all deserved Cheese-on-a-Stick and Blizzards on the way home.

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They conquered another hike with a warning sign!

Graduation & Papaw Of course, we had to attend Daddy's graduation ceremony before we left. The girls sat so patiently through the hour-and-a-half ceremony! Realizing they knew some of the other graduates definitely helped keep them interested. Daddy's biological father also came into town for graduation, so the girls got to meet their Papaw for the first time. It was a good visit that also involved an outing for ice cream and a favorite rock scrambling location.

Last Things These were bittersweet recognitions: our last Sunday at our church, their last Awana Club, our last night at OCF, last visit to the library. Perhaps their favorite last thing was a last picnic park date with a couple of other families. We will miss all our California places and people!