Finding Our New Normal

Before leaving Virginia, we had our morning routine down to a science. From the time everyone woke up to the time we were walking out the door, we could have all six of us ready in about 20 minutes.

Alaska Sam and Zed are not quite that efficient yet.

Right now, mornings are taking closer to 45 minutes as we figure out who needs what, where everything lives, what needs to be packed, and what time everyone needs to leave. The good news is we’re shaving a few minutes off almost every day. We’ll get back to that 20-minute routine eventually.

And really, that sums up our first full week with all six of us together pretty well.

We’re finding our new rhythm.

For the kids, that meant jumping straight into a pretty full schedule. During the day, they attended camp at the University of Alaska Anchorage, giving them a chance to get out of the house, meet some new people, and start becoming familiar with their new city.

Then, because apparently one camp a day isn’t enough for the Davies Herd, evenings were spent at hockey tune-up camp.

After several weeks away from the ice, it was time to shake off the ranch dust and get their hockey legs back underneath them. With tryouts approaching, the extra ice time was exactly what they needed. More importantly, they’re excited to be back. New rinks and new teams may be ahead, but hockey already feels like one familiar piece of life we brought with us to Alaska.

While the kids were busy with camps, we tackled the behind-the-scenes work of moving four kids to a new state.

School tours were scheduled. Doctors were assigned. Piano lessons were found. Calendars started filling up.

Little by little, we’re working our way through the seemingly endless PCS checklist. None of those things make for particularly exciting stories, but each checked box makes Anchorage feel a little less new and gets us one step closer to having an actual routine again.

We also made sure there was time for some fun.

Zed and Mia headed out for a dad-daughter date where Zed introduced Mia to downhill mountain biking. It was a first for Mia, and Alaska provided a pretty spectacular place to give it a try. With Zed already having some experience on the trails, he got to show her the ropes while the two of them spent some one-on-one time together. With four kids and increasingly busy schedules, those individual adventures are something we hope to continue making room for whenever we can.

The week ended on a high, quite literally, with the Arctic Thunder Open House.

After a week of camps, appointments, schedules, and figuring out our new routine, spending the day surrounded by airplanes was a pretty great way to finish.

The kids loved exploring the exhibits, getting an up-close look at the aircraft, and watching the flying demonstrations overhead. We’ve been a military family their entire lives, so airplanes certainly aren’t new to them, but there’s something different about getting to climb through displays, talk to the people who operate them, and then watch aircraft take to the sky and show off what they can do.

And somewhere during all of it, we may have gained another future aviator.

Dax has always had plenty of ideas about what he wants to be when he grows up, but after Arctic Thunder, “pilot” may have moved significantly higher on the list. With a pilot for a dad, he certainly knows who to talk to if the idea sticks.

Our first full week together wasn’t really about a grand Alaska adventure. It was about something we needed even more: the beginning of everyday life.

Camps. Hockey. Appointments. Music lessons. Parent-kid dates. Family outings. Six people figuring out where they need to be, when they need to be there, and how all the pieces of our new life fit together.

After a summer spent moving across the country and living in different states, normal sounds pretty wonderful.

We’re still figuring out our rhythm. Our mornings still take twice as long as they used to, our calendars are rapidly filling up, and there are plenty of pieces we haven’t figured out yet.

But the minutes are falling off the morning routine every day.

We’ll call that progress.