Leavin' in a Penske, don't know when we'll be back again...

Toby and his dad left Marquette today in a huge, bright yellow Penske truck packed full of all our stuff. From our couches and beds, to every plate, pot, pan, and pen... everything we own is in that truck, a truck now resting in Cedar Rapids, Iowa for the night.

Elise and I drove downstate (with Nana and Gramma Kathy) to Freeland and we will fly out of Detroit on Monday. Grand Junction, here we come.

It was hard to leave Marquette... our friends and neighbors, the lake, the trails, our library, the children's museum, our co-op. Marquette has been an incredibly wonderful place to live these past two years. I can't express well enough how much we have LOVED that simple town on the southern shore of Lake Superior.

Elise is well aware that we're getting "a new house" in "Colowado" as she would say. She talks about getting "a new room" and living by her only cousins Avery and Linnea. Twice last week, she spontaeously told me, "I'm excited!" after talking about our upcoming move. I think she is genuinely excited, but I also know that emptying out our house today before her eyes was a little confusing for her. Last night as I was getting ready to put her to bed, she looked at where her bookshelf used to sit and said in a sad voice, "where's my books?" That was hard. (Thankfully I did have some books set aside which quickly turned her frown into a smile.)

We'll be unpacking all this week and getting settled as fast as we can before Toby starts orientation on the 16th. I'll post pictures of our house soon.

Goodnight for now. Moving is so exhausting. :)

Toby Long, M.D. (aka "Dr. Daddy")

the graduate

We had a gorgeous graduation day in East Lansing today. Here are a few photos...

We missed you Poppy!

It's almost official!

group effort

On Friday night we had an early graduation celebration here in Marquette with Toby's U.P. classmates. The official graduation ceremony with cap and gown will be held next Saturday in East Lansing.