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The Pride and Joy of Illinois

Transitioning from Hawaii to Illinois has been one of the most difficult things I've ever done.  Hawaii is just so beautiful and the weather is always wonderful.  It's a culture shock to move to a place where there really isn't much to do aside from shiver and watch the corn grow.

But I've been telling the kids for years, every move is about attitude.  You can move to a new state and tell yourself you don't want to be there and hate it every minute.  

You are still going to be living there and hating it won't make the time go any faster.

  When we lived in Alaska, I knew people that loathed it.  They couldn't wait to get orders to go somewhere else.  Meanwhile, we took our family to dog sled rides, ice carving festivals, outhouse races, salmon bakes, sledding, a riverboat cruise, train rides, a day cruise to a glacier where we saw killer whales jump out of the water and we watched the Northern Lights every time they were visible.

When we lived in Hawaii, I knew people that had island fever and they couldn't wait to leave and get back to the mainland.  Meanwhile we took the kids skiing, scuba diving, surfing, hiking, boating, climbing, camping, watched sperm whales jump out of the ocean, met Johnny Depp, met Duff Goldman, and saw a rainbow almost every day.

When we lived in Kansas.....well, we went to the mall a lot.  Kansas wasn't my favorite place. But we made good friends.  And it was a really nice mall.

When we got orders to move to North Carolina, I was really unhappy about it.  I didn't want to move there.  It was at the very very very bottom of my list of places I wanted to go.  But I ended up loving it.  I met my best friends there and the kids were involved in martial arts, swimming, and horseback riding.  I was sad when we left.

So  we are now trying to find the joy in Illinois.  We found the City Museum, but that was in Missouri.

But now, we can leave Hawaii behind with happy hearts.  So long beaches!  So long mountains!  So long beautiful weather, amazing sunsets, and daily rainbows!


Illinois has the world's largest bottle of ketchup!
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