A Saga of the Moores: Chapter 1: Big Lake

Ok folks, I told you I'd do some blogging, and the time has come. Yes, I'm gonna start blogging. For reals.



First, let me tell you that nothing important happened today, other than the fact that I ate some burrito's that were in the fridge for a long time, and I didn't know if they were still good.



Yay, my blogging for the day is done!



What!?

That wasn't enough?

Fine. I guess I'll give a history WITH PHOTO'S of the big lake story. This will be fun for me, because I'll be able to look back on my work with pride.



Well, I used to live in a far off place known as Big Lake, in the state of Alaska.

Beautiful. Absolutely Beautiful.

Then, it started filling with people, but they were not nice people.

So, my Father decided that it was time for us to find a new home, that wasn't crowded by people who didn't like the heart warming sound of rifle fire. My parents searched and researched, listened and learned, and discovered that we think enough like John Wayne, that we should move to Texas. At first, I was shocked. Leave Alaska? Leave my home?



I had spent all my life (though very short; only 14 years) in Alaska.

I had played games,

Made movies,

Everything!











So, with all this love I have for Alaska and my friends who live there, what was my reaction when I heard we were moving?



Quite frankly, It was about like this --



















After I got used to the Idea however, I calmed down. Really though, leaving my home?

I'd read about this sort of thing, but never really thought it would happen to me....



But, "not my will, but the will of my Father which is heaven," as well as my Father who is on earth.



So, if you know us at all, you'll know that we don't waltz into things gracefully, no siree, we dive right in!!

So that's what we did. We found somebody who wanted the house, then started packing.

Er.. Well, first we had a Barbecue.



Barbecues are such fun....

First, we gather around and have a little good 'ol fashioned fellowship.

Then the cooking starts. I love the smell of lighter fluid!!

With three barbecues, it take three guys to cook. AND Mary Moreland to make sure they don't get distracted and burn the food.

Gary is a happy camper. Err... Barbecuer.

Mrs. Kuhn refreshed by the cool Alaskan breeze.

We have an aspiring photographer!

Is that thing on? Dang it. I should have guessed.

Everything's under control.

Todd, what have you been up to??

ON GUARD!! This is like, the best picture ever. I love this picture...

The very rarely distressed damsel is proud of her Robin Hood.

It Appears that somebody found a sticker collection. This really is a good photo...

Me Too!! That's a sticker on Jareds nose.

A nice pose from Duke.

Kelly took almost all of the pictures you'll see of the second barbecue. She's holding the camera she took them

with.

Personally, I don't like this picture very much. Oh well. I think I was going swimming for the second time that

day.

Ok, now this picture never should have made it to the site. Please don't ask what I was thinking.

I must say, as far as shot composition and color goes, this is one of my favorite pictures ever. It was shot digitally, but with a few photoshop filters, it looks like film. It looks like I'm deep in thought about something...

This shot looks really weird. See, David turned and faced the camera, and for just a split second his eyes were glowing, but when I increased the picture saturation it amplified the effect.

This picture has a moral to it. I'm just... totally unsure of what it is.

Ok, this next picture isn't from THIS Barbecue, but it IS from another barbecue, and it's a good picture.

Next come pictures of the last BBQ before leaving for Texas. The Barbecue was hosted by Jeff and Mary Moreland, as you probably already know. They have a gorgeous house, even though it's still under construction.

There were TONS of people there. It was fun, but it was hard to remember everyone's names.

This time the missing families were able to join us. Also, I didn't get pictures of everyone at the last Barbecue, but this time Kelly got pictures of just about everyone I missed the first time.

Wave to the camera Don, or else!

I think I know both of these ornery critters.

Deb and Ashley speak a few words before the start of the meetin'.

I can see deep thought etched on Deb's face.

Deb did her best at not crying. She didn't cry for the first five minutes, and I think that's a record for her.

Dad was having a ball from the moment we first arrived.

Like I said, there were tons of people there. This is about half of them.

This is probably another one of my favorite pictures. Certainly my favorite picture of my parents. I have high-res copies of this as well. If you'd like one, let me know.

The Mauga family. The Maugas are a lot of fun.

This is my favorite picture of Todd and Amber. It's really an awesome picture, don't you think?

Girls ALWAYS have time for dressup -- Even when their husbands are late.

Whew.

Barbecues are always fun. LOTS of fun. I can't remember a single time that we've had a barbecue that I didn't enjoy it. However, before and after play, comes the dreaded four letter word.

WORK.

Well, we started work packing. The Hard work.

"Moore residence John speaking, how may I help you?

Well Hi Brenda! Sure, we've got lots of carpet chunks. What? You're breakin' up. Lemme head to a better area."

I was actually talking to Brenda Kuhn on the phone, and she was asking if she could use some carpet chunks we had laying around for her dogs. I had a whole ROLL of something sitting right next to me, but it wasn't what she needed unfortunately.

Ok, first of all, I only have two pictures of us working. Second of all, I'm already bored with the working shots. Lets see what else we have...

Ok, here's the movers loading up our trailer. These guys were standoffish and professional at first, but afterwards, they were down on their knees playing with the kids. I think they were chasing something.

Oooh, yeah. David Heustis is quite the character, especially when it comes to catching animals. One of the kids spotted a mouse, and we were trying to catch it. Pretty soon, even the MOVERS couldn't resist. They stopped working and started grabbing for the mouse.

In the end, who triumphed?

You guessed it; David.

Then, not a week later, we were finishing up the sheds, and he caught something else. A bat. Not a baseball bat, but the kind that flys.

We let it loose. Though I must admit, it wasn't really on purpose that we let it loose...

All the way up until the trailer shipped, we were running 200 miles per hour.

To our joy, it shipped without any problems.

And, to my delight, we were all able to take a break for a few hours. We all sat down and forced Derek to watch, "Pirates of Penzance"-- My favorite movie of all time.

The next day, I watched it AGAIN with the Jurasek boys. I really don't know what I'm doing there...

Then it was back to a hectic pace again. We boxed, wrapped, loaded, rearranged, and overall moved like crazy. We actually had to load our 3'000 pound trap machine trailer into the big trailer, so we drove to wasilla to use a ramp there.

It takes a lot of work to move!

At last, a day of relaxation had come -- so we thought. All the girls came over to clean, and the boys stayed outside. You know how boys are. All they have to do is look at a house and it gets dirty. Yes, this includes me.

Anyway, after cleaning the house, David Heustis managed to take a few videos of everyone. Here are some screencaps of the event.

This shot is a little blurry because David was moving so fast.

Jeffrey was trying not to laugh as I danced in the background yelling something about water abuse.

This is a really good shot of Jared in my opinion. Compression kinda ruined it, but it was pretty good originally.

Brenda is very good at looking into the future. She was pretty positive, though I was kinda tired. I don't know how she does it.

Esther came up to take turns with the baby. This wasn't a very good picture because David was moving fast again, but it was ok. Only picture we've got at this point, so it'll do.

I told you I was tired. I actually looked more drugged than tired. My nose looks crooked too....

Some were sad that we were leaving... like David. Ok, so he wasn't sad, but he tried REALLY hard to be.

Others were rejoicing. Andrea was coming with us though, so she doesn't count.

Others couldn't believe it was already happening. In my opinion, Derek looks like Matthew Broderick from Ladyhawke in this shot.

Well, the day of Fun came, and went. We were tired, so we went to the pizza place instead of cooking something, then went to bed. The Pizza Place has the best pizza in the world.

The next day was a scramble to get out the door, so I didn't have time to shoot ANYTHING. Ok, so there are a COUPLE shots, but not much. First thing that happened though, was Deb Serra and her Daughter Emily came to help us out the door, and delivered the ultimate energy booster -- Donuts.

Deb didn't think I was recording...

Emily has a very good smile.

Then came the ultimate scramble. Vehicles, EVERYWHERE. Todd's suburban, our suburban, and the Kuhn's suburban all in our parking lot. THEN the new owners arrived. They then parked a 20 foot trailer and a 44 foot trailer in the parking lot. It was one heck of a crowded parking lot.

Right before we got in the cars however, we all posed and somebody took a picture or two.

Smile everyone!! Angela! Smile!

I was actually able to get in this shot. That was nice.

I really don't understand WHY I was wearing a Colorado t-shirt. OH, yeah I do. We were going to stop over in Colorado before going to Texas.

Well, such were the last days at Big Lake. My home. In the next history section we'll cover the stay at Morelands, the airports, and Colorado.

In the meantime, if you have any cool pictures of your family, I love photo work. Email your pics to JohnMoore@HeuMoore.com .

If you have any particular part of the history you want covered, let me know, because I very likely left out a TON of the most important stuff.

By the way, Don't you think that picture of Jeff Moreland with the steak fork is absolutely great? I'm gonna play with that one a little bit!

Now, a little information. Right now, I'm watching Pirates of Penzance on my computer for the second time today, while writing my latest script.

What? I didn't tell you about my latest script? Huh. It's about a mysterious young man who appears in the life of the Wright family. I call it With Angels Unawares. It could be very good, but I'm having difficulty with a few aspects of the story. I know that several of you out there like writing, so when I post it, you'll be able to review it and give a few suggestions.

However, it's far from that stage. Right now, I'm just trying to get the basic Idea on paper.

Well, God bless and Have fun, but I've got to go for a while. I'll probably have the second history up by day after tomorrow. Maybe not though. Just depends on scheduling of major events.

Oh, feel free to comment on this post by clicking "comments" then clicking "Add new comment", and make sure to give me all your thoughts!

Have Fun! ~~~ The Texan.