The end of our job hunt! (plus road trip moments with a four year old)

Within the last 2 weeks we have spent over 24 hours driving in the car. Trip home from California (13 hours), trip to Hazelton Idaho for Ryan's teaching job interview and then back to Rexburg (6 hours), trip to Twin Falls to secure an apartment because Ryan GOT THE JOB! (6 hours again). While the reality of it has not completely set in yet, we are very excited to be starting this new adventure. It has meant a lot of time in the car, however, and that is not always easy for the little ones. Lisa has been mostly cooperative and pleasant, but there have definitely been moments. For example, driving back from Twin Falls on the last trip she had a total melt down in the back seat so we decided to take the nearest exit off the freeway and get her out of the car to cool off. At first she madly attempted to get back in the car, which was locked with Lyra and I inside. Then when she realized the tantrum was not producing her desired results, she just started walking away from the car through the weeds.

While all this is going on, I'm sitting in the front seat of the car nursing Lyra and I realize the camera is on the floor in the passenger side. What an opportunity to capture a moment! I put down the car window a crack and called to Ryan to come get the camera...lucky me, he played along. What else can you do at a moment like this except recognize how utterly ridiculous and humorous it is? After a minute Lisa slowly walked back to the car and gave Ryan a lovely piece of grass she had picked for him, some sort of offering to make up for kicking him in the head and screaming at him just minutes before. They had a little talk and got back in the car so we could be on our way. I quickly jumped out and snapped one more picture of the surrounding area since we had actually exited at the town where Ryan will be teaching. Such a pretty place. I can already imagine how those fields are going to look covered in blankets of fresh snow. It is very small with a population of about 700 and the school is Pre-K through 12th grade. Ryan will be teaching biology, advanced biology, general science, and 7th grade life science. There really are no apartments in Hazelton so we chose to live in Twin Falls, 15 miles east.We are set to move August 3rd and I have already packed about ten boxes. We sure do have a lot of books! Thankfully Gail and Lee are going to come help us with the move. It is going to be here before we know it!