The BIG move

Ok...I know all of you have been checking my blog at least twice a day since we left to see what I would post ;)....so here it is! Its going to be a marathon post so be ready to sit for a while.

We started packing up the last Wed. in July. Thanks to Johnathan, Nathan, Jason, Sonda, Drew, Cass, and Alecc the truck packed up really pretty quickly. It was sad for me to see the house empty and think about leaving the place where we had so many good memories, but the kids didn't seem to mind. They had a blast jumping on the bubble wrap.

T.J. and his Dad left Wednesday night and the kids and I made our new home and Drew's and Cassie's. The kids were in heaven with the week long slumber party. They made hats, masks, and picture frames. Cass and I enjoyed visiting during our many sessions of feeding the babies and watching our late night movies. It was nice to spend that time with her before I left.

Klint and Corinne and Kam and Sarah also came over one night to visit me before I left. I'm glad we were able to get the kids together and play so we could take some more pictures of the 3 little boys...they'll be a lot bigger the next time we get together.

After a really teary goodbye at Cassie's house, we hit the road. We made it to Albuquerque the first night and stayed in a really old hotel that didn't have an elevator so we had to pack all of our luggage, diaper bags, pillows, laptops, etc. up the stairs. Needless to say, it took about 6 trips to get all of our stuff in. I was a little worried that mine and T.J.'s marriage would not last through the trip. We head out again the next morning and made it to Amarillo that evening. We went to eat at the Big Texan. and this was our ride.....not really, but it could have been. The ride was free from our hotel. It is also home of the 72 oz steak. If you eat it in under an hour its free. It also had a lot of photo ops outside and a shooting range inside so it was a good time.

We kept going the next day and stopped in Oklahoma City to eat lunch and eventually made it to Joplin, Missouri that evening. By this time we were so tired of being in the car....but the hotel had what I like to call the "marriage saver" or a luggage cart that you stack your stuff on and wheel it to your room. I could have kissed the person who invented it. We didn't have one fight getting our stuff to and from the car! We made the next night to Effingham, Illinois and we stayed in luxury. The Hilton Gardens was so nice that we wanted to stay another night there, but we had to keep going. The next day we were in the car for 12 hours. We didn't want to have to stay another night so we powered through until we got to Buffalo at about 10:30. The kids were so excited to get here. Timmy only had one request for our new house and that was stairs. The kids ran up and down them at least 20 times before we got them in bed that night.

The next morning for some reason I felt really far away from home and our house did not seem like home to me, but after a little unpacking it feels like it more and more. I still haven't unpacked all the way, but when I do I'll post pictures of the house. We love it outside here. It is so green and beautiful. We take walks every night to the elementary school so the kids can play at the park. In the mornings we will get Canadian Honkers in our back yard. The kids think that is sooo cool and from my shower window I can look over a lake that is just beyond our backyard.

We love it here, but miss all of you at home...keep us updated on everything so that we don't feel so far away. We also wanted to say a big THANK YOU to all of our friends and family who packed us, loaded and unloaded us, babysat for us, housed us, and drove vehicles all the way across the country for us. We love, appreciate and miss all of you!!