Moving Day came, ready or not! A crew of a few guys came to pack up our things and did it rather quickly. In fact they appeared to be so ahead of schedule, that we were left after the first day of packing to decide whether the kids and I should leave a day earlier than we had planned. We didn't want to stay in a totally empty house for longer than was necessary and were excited to spend several days in Salt Lake before going to Idaho. So we decided to just hurry our plans and leave on thursday rather than friday. Ryan already had a place to move into (the Reeves' from our ward) for a few weeks so it was just a matter of getting my car packed and trying to clean up after the movers as best I could while they were still in the process of packing on thursday. Looking back now, I wish we would have stayed that last night. We found out later there were a few friends and neighbors who had planned to drop off last minute gifts, car activities and treats because we had originally told them we were leaving friday morning. I had no idea!! It hadn't even crossed my mind that our last minute change would effect others' plans, so I felt really bad.
On wednesday, when the movers showed up and started fanning out across the house, I dropped my kids off with my friend. As I drove home I burst into tears, feeling SO much anxiety and a surge of overwhelming emotions. It was happening so fast! This is too real! What am I supposed to be doing right now? I'm so overwhelmed. It was a strange panic-attack moment. I wasn't feeling sad about LEAVING, just feeling like I didn't have any control over or handle on what was happening at that point in time, and it was scary. After a couple hours I picked the kids up, grabbed lunch for them and the crew, and we tried to take a breather during Boston's naptime (which was spent in a pack-n-play, downstairs, away from the noisy packers, in Logan's empty room). We made it through that long, difficult day though... especially thanks to some sweet friends.
So weird and sad to see it all empty.
On thursday, my friend Sara took the kids for a little while and surprised them with some special outings right before we pulled out of town. The girls got to get a quick manicure and the boys got drinks from Starbucks! I think they felt like kings and queens that morning, and it was incredible of Sara to give them a special memory on such a crazy, hectic and emotional day.
Just before lunch we said goodbye to our favorite neighbors, Rock and Rhean, gave Daddy lots of hugs and kisses, and headed out of town. We were all very sad to leave Daddy and our home.
Thankfully it was a very uneventful drive to Winnemucca that evening, without any car troubles or too much crying from Boston. Grace was an awesome helper and didn't get carsick (thank goodness!).
That evening we had dinner and salad bar (for Grace, since she hates pizza...) and stayed overnight at a hotel in Winnemucca. There were some funny/frustrating moments trying to handle everything as a single-parent (like needing to go back to the car multiple times and wondering if leaving my kids for 3.5 minutes in the hotel room was bad, or realizing early the next morning I didn't pack a clean garment top for myself... just two bottoms...), but we pushed through it and survived.
Nana has the funnest, old-school Little People toys!
Logan watched the sunday race with Bompa and REALLY got into it! hehe
Bubbles and sprinklers on a hot night are always a good idea.
We spent some time on sunday with Grandma and Grandpa T. The kids really love being able to pick a lego set to play with while they're there. They just don't stick with one for very long because there are so many fun ones!
Eating ice cream while watching some para-gliders off Mt. Olympus was definitely a highlight!
Searching for bugs.
Every so often I get together with my 4 best friends from high school. We have reconnected even more over the last 6 months with the Marco Polo app. It's been so much fun! Our kids are even gettin to know each other a little bit now too. We are spread across the country from each other, and all our lives look quite different from each other's. But we love each other and are always there to be supportive and to be a listening ear for one another. Jen, and Jamie (Black), and I were able to get together and let our kids play for a couple hours. My kids love playing in Jen's backyard - especially their dirt bike track that goes around the perimeter. We had a fun time catching up!
Whitaker, Parley, Logan, Grace, Boston, June, Maddie, Colter, Brody
This was taken two years ago in this same exact spot (plus Jen Willie's kids):
We spent a few minutes at a new park we'd never been to as well. It was SO HOT but we lasted for a little while with a little help from our Swig drinks. ;)
We are so thankful to have loving family and friends who are excited to have us around for a few days. They are so great at providing us with bonding time for the kids, new memories, and a comfortable place to stay. The fact that we will be only 3 hours away from this place and these people we love so much is more of a blessing than I can explain. My kids NEED that. Our family NEEDS to have countless opportunities to skip down to Salt Lake whenever we want to, or to have family come up to us when they can. Those blessings make the tough moving part totally worth it.
