Hello from Pocatello Idaho

This is Joshua. It will probably be just me doing the blog for the next little while. Over the past 6 months we have been working on selling our home in Alaska, trying to experience all the Alaska outdoors adventures that we could one final time, enjoying a couple family reunions and time with our parents, and moving to Pocatello, Idaho. If you haven't heard yet, I have accepted a job at Idaho State University and I just started here this past week. Although we loved my job at the University of Alaska Anchorage, enjoyed living in such a beautiful place, and made a lot of great friends, we decided it was time to move closer to our family. We are really excited for my job here and, as far as we can tell, Pocatello seems like a great community.

Good-bye Anchorage :(




Hello Pocatello :)

This "Smile Capital" of the U.S. is an official thing. I guess in 1948 after a really harsh winter, the mayor of Pocatello decided to make a law that it was illegal not to smile. This law stayed on the books, but was forgotten about until someone rediscovered it in 1987. The mayor at that time made some request and got it so Pocatello became the official "United States Smile Capital." From what I read online, every year they have a Smile Days celebration with fun activities including a smile contest and getting thrown in a mock jail if you are caught not smiling.

When we made the decision to move we started to look at housing options. We wanted to avoid renting for the first year if it was all possible. We ended up purchasing a lot and are having a home built for us. Here are the floor plans and a few pictures of the progress on the house.

Here is the empty lot. It is on top of a big hill that I am going to have to ride up every day on the way home from work.

Here is the foundation. The upstairs is at ground level from the front and then the downstairs is out ground level from the back.

Here they have the basement starting to be framed.

With the upstairs framing close to complete it is cool to see the house starting to take shape.

This is the southwest view off of what will be the back covered patio off of the dinning room. 

This is the more northwest view out one of the master bedroom windows.

Unfortunately, building has taken longer than originally planned and according to the latest estimates, it should be done by the end of October. We decided that instead of trying to find a place to rent for all of us for just a few months, I would go by myself so I could start work and then once the house was done, everyone else would join me. The past couple of days here have been lonely, but at least it is just a couple of months. To help keep me occupied, among other things, I am going to try to get caught back up on the blog. It may be kind of boring to read just what is going on with me, so I will try to include some of the summer activities and any reports from Rebecca every now and then too.