The move and adjusting

Oh, my goodness. What an exhausting month it has been. Most of our packing came down to the wire the last week. Cramming things in boxes and hauling them to and fro. There was a bunch of pandemonium and confusion involving a U-haul, but in the end, everything worked out and we made it up here in a relatively smooth fashion thanks to a lot of help from my parents my friend Dan.
The first week was the most hectic. We would carpool in to Portage together (a 40 mile drive), work for 8 hours, and then meet up with my former church, Oak Haven, for teen nights. Most days we left our house at 7am and didn't get home until 11pm. Needless to say, there was a lot of boxes and chaos all around our house.
After the Oak Haven team left, things quieted down some, we actually got to come home after work, but we had to start addressing the mess. I also started working 1-9pm closing shifts, so we couldn't ride in together any more. We both started to get used to our jobs. The kids are starting to warm up to Beth, and I'm getting used to finding "Parcels" for Canadians and the over excessive use of the phrase, "eh". I always that the term was a bit over exaggerated like the us saying "Doncha know," but after hearing a woman use it twice in 5 seconds, I started to think otherwise.
We finished putting the the house together Thursday night, just in time for my parents, sister, and 16month old nephew to arrive, followed by my other sister and husband the next morning. We spent some time in town (the slang for Grand Marais, a city with the population of 1,300), and preparing a surprise party for Beth's birthday. I made dinner, my nephew, Connor, provided the entertainment.
Saturday we went hiking at High Falls, the largest waterfall in the state, and Devil's Kettle, a mysterious falls into a cavernous hole that they supposedly don't know where it ends up.
The crew left this morning, and now we're sitting on the couch, trying to regain some energy. I have to work from 1-9 tonight, and am not terribly excited about it. I'm torn between if I want it to be slow because I'm tired, or somewhat busy so I won't notice how long 8 hours is.
That's about all for now. We'll do our best to continue to keep you posted.
Love,
Jon and Beth