Phew, we made it. We're here. We have arrived. Here's a couple things that happened before we left and during the trip.
First off, Maci lost her first tooth! It's been wiggling for a couple weeks, and it finally came out with the help of Gavin and a little kick in the mouth, at Applebee's in AF on the 9th of August. We were at dinner with Grandma and Grandma Great and Maci showed me something in her hand. I said What is THAT?? I thought it was a boogie actually. And then she said, it's my tooth! I guess Gavin had nudged her with his foot, every so gently I'm sure, and it popped out. It was very close to coming out on its own anyway. She said it didn't hurt at all. We of course put it under her pillow on their makeshift bed and the tooth fairy left her 2.50$! I know, the tooth fairy should probably lower her rates a bit. . . but it was a first tooth! She paid her tithing of .25C the next day. She is very excited about the window in her smile and you can already see the other tooth coming in. Way to go Maci!
Alright, on to the great expedition. We left Tuesday morning by around 8am, an hour later than we hoped, but that's just the way it goes. Chris drove the van the whole way with the trailer and both kids. I tried to get him to switch with me, he finally did one hour outiside of Springfield. He wanted it to be him driving if the tires blew on the trailer, so I got to drive in the quiet of the Honda with just me and Rush Limbaugh to keep me company, and several cans of Diet Mt. Dew. The drive was beautiful, minus Wyoming, sorry Wyomingers :) and we had no car trouble, kid trouble, or any other kind of trouble. Googlemap said it would take 23hrs to get here, we figured we could knock off at least 5 of those. . . well with stops it didn't happen. We made it to North Platte, NE the first night, 12 hrs of travel time. It took us another 12 hrs to get to Springfield. Without the stops, we probably could have done it in 18, but with potty stops and eat stops and I can't drive another mile without stopping stops, it took us around 23hrs. It did make us rethink driving home for Christmas though, we might splurge and buy plane tickets :) The plains are really windy!, I can't imagine them with snow on them too. Makes you wonder how the pioneers did it.
Chris suran wrapping the trailer due to some rain we ran into. We had Ikea boxes in there we didn't want to get wet and ruined before we put the furniture together. Chris was kind of suran wrap happy! but everything arrived unbroken and unharmed, thanks to him!
Full to the brim!
Happy kids.Anyway, we arrived late on Wed night. Silly me, had forgotten our new house keys in UT. I realized this about 2 hrs out of UT, but we didn't want to turn around and lose that time. So my lovely mother fedexed the keys out to us. They were to arrive by the time we got there on Wed. Well, we got there, no keys. They said they'd left them on the front doorstep, no keys. So we stayed in a hotel that night, which we were going to do anyway, and hoped they could be found in the morning. We still couldn't find them, and decided to call a locksmith. As he was unlocking the door, I realized I should probably check to see if they were sent to the right address. Sure enough, they weren't, they were two houses down due to a small error by a sister who shall remain nameless ;) A 2 vs a 6 does make a difference! Anyway, we got the keys and all was well. We didn't get our moving truck here till the next Monday, so we roughed it for a couple days with minimal food, clothing, etc. But we survived! We've been busy unpacking, organizing, scrimping every inch of space out of this house. We're close to being done, and I even hung up some pictures, etc yesterday which made it feel more like home.
Here's some before and after pics, we love the paint colors we chose.
The neighbors have been nice, I've met a few, and there are a few 3-5 yr olds in the neighborhood so that's good. We live on a cul-de-sac too which I love, and should have realized the advantages of sooner. I can send them down to the end on their bikes and not worry about too much traffic, or them getting too far, etc.
We've all adjusted pretty well, I think Gavin and I have had the hardest time, but we're all getting happier and better. We're off right now to the city pool which is something like the Legacy Center, but it's all outdoors and it closes next week, so we thought we'd get it in while we can and let the boxes sit for today. I'll post more about Maci's school, etc. when we get back.
ps we did go to church on Sunday, everyone was very nice and friendly. Lots of young people, thank goodness! They actually have 3 nurseries! which is kind of unheard of unless you live in Saratoga Springs :) or countless other UT wards, but I didn't expect it here. We get to speak on the 31st, YEAH!!! :(
