The first thing we did in Texas was stop at Chick-Fil-A (we had been waiting for this for a long time since there is no Chick-Fil-A in Hawaii). Then we drove to our air bnb in Killeen. We were going to be staying in an air bnb in Temple, but 3 days before flew to Texas, our agent called to let us know that the house had flooded and was unavailable, and all she could get us was the house in Killeen for a month. We checked into our new temporary home for the next month, and ate our delicious food. A bonus with this house though, is that it had a pool. It only had 4 bedrooms, so the kids all had to share, but they loved the pool! Travis got signed into fort hood, and started the in processing to his new work. We had only 1 car and it didn't fit us all, so it made things a little complicated, but Travis bought a car after the first week, and we had two cars. I took Betsy to the chiropractic, and the boys to the park in the mornings. We enjoyed eating at Texas Roadhouse and the Olive Garden, and getting pretzels from the mall. Everything in Texas is huge, compared to Hawaii, and it was super hot!!!!The boys spent every day in the pool, and the girls and I got in occasionally too. So many things to figure out when moving, we had to get Travis' car registered that we bought, then we ended up renting a cheaper car from a mechanic guy Travis met, and returned our expensive rental early. We had to try and go through the process of getting our travel money reimbursed and it took forever! We had to get the kids registered for school which turned into a huge mess, trying to prove residency when all we had was a contract agreement for building our house, which wasn't close to being done yet. Changing addresses for everything and forwarding mail, and trying to figure out where we were going to live next once our month in killeen is up. We drove to temple to go to church at the ward we would be moving into, and drove the kids to their various activities with the ward. I was called as a primary worker and went to primary each Sunday helping to teach 6 and 7 year olds the gospel. After church every Sunday we would walk through our house and see the progress as the building was continuing. The boys all ended up getting swimmers ear from being in the pool so much, so we ended up having to go the doctor a couple times for them. Our minivan arrived from Hawaii in Dallas, so Travis and I drove the 2 1/2 hours to go pick it up. We took the rental from the mechanic guy, and the car started to have trouble on the drive there, it would get really shaky, and a lot of the alerts were going off on the car, we barely made it to Dallas, and stopped at Travis' aunt and uncle's cookie shop. When we got there, we called the mechanic guy, and told him what was going on with his car. He told us to leave it in Dallas with Travis' aunt and uncle and he would come and get it. After having some delicious cookies from Travis' aunt and uncles Pat and Jacques cookie shop, we were able to limp the car to the place to pick up our van. We got the van, but the tire was low, and went flat as we stopped at a Costco to fill it up with air. We ended up being stuck at the costco for a couple of hours while we had to purchase new tires, and had them put them on. Travis and I had fun wandering around town a few hours, we walked to a Italin restaurant nearby and had a nice meal, and then walked around Costco for a while, and ended up buying a massage chair to be delivered once we moved into our new house for a 21 year anniversary present. We limped the rental car back to Travis' aunt and uncles house and left it there, and drove the minivan back home. We finally had a carseat back for Gideon (we left one installed in it for him), and a car our whole family would fit in. Malachi turned 8 years old, and we had a pool party where we invited the neighbors and a family from the ward came as well. It was fun, the only downside was the the neighbor kids didn't know how to swim, and one of the kids was in the deep end and let go of their swimming flotation device, and I had to jump in fully clothed to save him. Luckily he was fine, and my phone and watch still worked after I dried them off. Malachi had a great time, and loved his party. We were going to take him to do a ropes course and zip line place, but then he hurt his hand climbing the wood fence in the backyard, so we waited a few weeks to take him there for his birthday. I went running with Sam and Caleb sometimes in the morning to help Samuel get in shape for sports, but it didn't go very well, Samuel had a hard time keeping up, so he gave up on joining cross country. Our time in Killeen was ending and school was about to start. We didn't have anywhere to stay, since the place we had found to move to next fell through. Luckily a family in the ward was going on vacation to Utah, and the dad had to stay home and work. They let us stay in their house while the mom and kids were gone, and we helped take care of their dog. So I was able to get an affidavit signed that said we were living at their house (they lived just one neighborhood over from where our house was being built), that would allow the kids to start school at the same schools they would be in once we moved into our house. The kids were able to start school, and even ride the bus to school. Caleb started 5th grade, Malachi 2nd grade, and Gideon in Kindergarten all at Tarver Elementary. Samuel started as a freshman at Lake Belton High School, and Betsy started as a senior at Belton High School. The house we were staying in had a dog named Milo, the kids loved the dog, but the dog was loud and not trained very well. Austin and I enjoyed having some peace and quiet during the day with the kids at school. We did some baking and explored the area a little more. Gideon was having trouble keeping his hands to himself, and following the rules, but other than that everyone enjoyed their first week of school. Betsy turned 17, and the YW had a birthday party for her, for their activity. It was really nice. Austin and I also made her a delicious tuxedo cheesecake for her birthday, it was delicious! We lived in their house for a little over a week, then had to move somewhere else as the family was coming back home. It was very difficult to find places to stay, as we are such a large family, and short term rentals are impossible to find. hotels were too expensive between the number of rooms we would need and eating out. Air bnbs were our only option, but were pricey as well and hard to find. We ended up staying in a condo for two nights in Austin texas area while Sam, Caleb, Travis and I went to Sea World (we got 4 free tickets) and Austin and Betsy took the younger boys to chuck e cheese and a park and chick fil a . We had a fun time at sea world, except it was very hot and crowded. It was too hard to wear masks all the time, so we only wore them when we were waiting in lines close to people. Caleb didn't want to go the scarier rides, so I hung out with him while Samuel and Travis went on the scarier ones. We enjoyed seeing a dolphin show, and a killer whale show, although we got thoroughly drenched from the whale splashing us (apparently the splash zone means business). It was a fun day though. The condo we were in had problems with the wifi and tv, so that was annoying, but we made it. Then I booked another airbnb for a month for us in Belton Temple, it was about a 20 minute drive to the kids schools, but it was the best I could find. We stayed there for most of September. I was getting really tired of changing places so many times, but our house kept getting delayed so we just had to be patient. My parents came to visit us for Malachi's baptism at the beginning of september, and it was wonderful, I love the spirit felt at baptisms. Then we all went to chick-fil-a after the baptism. While the kids were in school, Austin, Travis, my parents, and I all went to the Inner space caverns which was really neat. so many cools things to look at, and we bought magnetic rocks there too, and afterward ate at a cute little bistro with yummy food. I had been spending several hours a day getting the kids all to and from seminary and school each day, but still had time to myself during the day with Austin which was nice, but then it was time to take Austin to College. Austin and I drove to the Austin airport, and flew to Salt Lake City, then rented a car (which took us hours to pick up, it was horrible and we were so tired)then had to drive a couple hours and stayed the night in a motel, we got in after midnight, then had to wake up early to get Austin the rest of the way to Rexburg to check into her dorm. We got her stuff up to her dorm on the 5th floor then went shopping, Walmart was crazy busy. We bought all her dorm supplies like bedding and kitchen things, then brought all that back to her dorm, then had to go again to get all her groceries, and stop at the dollar store too. So much stuff, but we finally got it all up to her dorm, and got things set up. I checked into my hotel in Rexburg, and then got some food while Austin was doing orientation things. We had dinner together and then I said good bye to her, I cried as I was driving away and stayed in my hotel for the night, then woke up before 4am and drove to the salt lake airport and returned my rental car, and then flew back home to the austin airport. The kids were happy to see me, and I was happy to see them. I started school the next day with my BYU Pathways classes. I love them, I feel the spirit while I'm studying for them all day long. Gideon ended up splitting his chin open and I had to take him to the ER to get stitches, it took a really long time, I think 5 or 6 hours, but we finally got him taken care of. Our closing on our house got delayed again, so we found another air bnb in a different part of belton for the last 10 days until we could close on our house on October 8th.
The weekend of general conference Travis and Samuel went to Louisiana to help be part of the Mormon helping hands cleaning up after a hurricane, I think they ended up mostly cutting down trees and clearing debris. They seemed to have a good time, but when Travis got home he had poison oak that wasn't very fun. Samuel was fine though. I enjoyed watching general conference with the kids, and then chaplain conference virtually as well. The kids and I also walked to a donut shop and had fun getting donuts and going for a long walk. Betsy and I tried twice to get her a permit, but finally just had to wait for us to move into our house.
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