Mostly packed!

With the help of Brody, Gabriel, and Tara we moved almost all of our stuff out of the rental house.  We have a few kitchen things and air mattresses left.  We are trying to get by with three packed bags for our seven month tour.  So far, we are doing pretty good keeping to that goal.

The weather was great for our move and we are very grateful.

Our new home (for 6 months):

Our ultimate destination is Winton, NZ and the Winton Medical Clinic.  Winton is in the southern part of the South Island.  Although we leave on 12/7/11, we won't arrive in Winton until 1/7/12.  We will be touring, Hawaii, the North Island, and Sydney for a month!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winton,_New_Zealand

Getting Ready!

Hello Everyone!  Thanks for visiting!  We are just getting used to this blogging thing and slogging through.  This is more of a test post to see how it goes!  We did get a chance to decorate a tree at the Livermore's even though we will be long gone before Christmas actually arrives.  It was a lot of fun!

Our Thanksgiving week has been hectic.  Although we have been slowly packing and storing our stuff for months, we are getting down to the big ticket items now.  Most of our belonging spared from Goodwill, Habitat for Humanity and the like have ended up at the Livermore storage facility (we can't thank them enough for giving up their basement, garage/castle, and dining room).   Others have been helpful as well; the Taylors have helped a ton-giving up part of their basement and office.  It seems like we have been planning this forever so it is exciting to have it finally inching closer!  Although we are sad to be leaving so many great people, we are looking forward to this adventure.  Since we are moving out of the rental house there has been a lot of hassle getting ready to leave the country.

The Odyssey has been a work horse for us.  It is amazing how much can fit in the back of that van!

Ursula just turned *# and enjoyed the surprise birthday party courtesy of the Janni family.  Thanks so much, that was great.

Please forgive the Iowa State shirt-Jacob is an awesome kid (so we overlook his poor judgement on this issue!)