Home Sweet Home

We have been home for two weeks.  We were gone for almost exactly 10 months.  It was really an exciting adventure and I feel really blessed that we were able to go on it.  Ten months really isn't that long to be gone and it has been really easy to just pick back up with friendships where we left off.  It is fun to see everyone's kids a little bit bigger and more developed.... but aside from that, things are more or less the same. 

It has been a lot of work to get re-settled.  It is much different to move back into a 30+ year old house that we own rather than moving into a furnished rental.  Turns out, we have to mow our own yard again.  And there are just lots of little things that we need to take care of.  Ahhh... home ownership.  :)

We have our wonderful dog, Kiley back in our family.  We weren't sure what Gavin would think of her, but he after a few days of shouting "DOG" as in "Don't you people realize there is a giant dog in our house?" he really likes her.  Unfortunately, we now know for certain that Kiley is the cause of Elijah's intense allergies/asthma..... so that has been an added source of stress.  :(  We're working on that.....

Sharing toys with Kiley.  I'm not sure she is too impressed.

It turns out, we have really enjoyed having a big backyard again.  I did not realize how much of a blessing a swing set, sandbox, and a lot of sticks could be for little boys.  Not to mention the crazy squirrels that are always backyard.... along with the occasional fox.  Our fancy pants house in Bend was great - but not very conducive to little boys.  I am no longer worried about the landscaping or the hardwood floors being ruined.  *Breathe sigh of relief - both for me and the boys!*

We weren't sure how it would feel to back, but we now definitely feel like it was the right choice for us.  Marty is enjoying his new/old job and we are enjoying reconnecting with our friends/family.  We love to bike, so the fact that we can easily bike around the neighborhood, to see Marty at work, and that Marty can bike to work is a big plus for us.

Now that everyone is sleeping again, the kids seem to be transitioning well too.  That first week was rough, but it is just feeling like home again.   

Happy boys

So, I guess that is the end of our family adventure 2011 blog!  Thanks for reading and following along.  Now I need to go do some research on how exactly to turn our adventure into a book.  :)

Moving, Part II: Disaster.

On September 21, 2011, we completed the final day of our road trip... from Salt Lake City to home.   YAY!  The first thing we commented on as we drove into town "WOW, there is a lot more traffic here."

Our amazing friends made us a welcome home banner (which is still up in our living room) and had dinner ready and waiting for us.  It was so nice to feel welcomed home to Colorado.

Marty's truck made it back to CO before we did, so we were able to go pick that up the following day (Thursday).  Thursday was basically the calm before the storm.  Up until that point, things with the move had really gone relatively okay.  We were back in our house with our furniture, etc.   YAY!

On Friday the movers arrived with the rest of our stuff.   Marty had the ever so important job of marking all the boxes off the inventory.  Gavin was napping at that point and Elijah had gone to play with a friend. 

He may have also been reading up on the latest in baseball.  Just maybe?

Moving van!  :)

 While Marty kept things under wraps with the inventorying, I worked on unpacking the most important room: the kitchen.  Remember that the packing guys had come late on a Friday afternoon?  Note to anyone using a moving company: MAKE SURE THAT DOES NOT HAPPEN.  It started off with a few small things.... like a bottle of agave nectar spilled in a kitchen box.... and a box of baking soda spilled.  Mildly annoying, but nothing a wet dishcloth couldn't fix.

Kitchen: mid-unpacking

From there it progressed to roughly 15 boxes labeled toys.  There was no way we moved that many toys, did we?!?  No, we did not.  So, all those boxes labeled toys ended up in the basement.... when they were really filled with things like clothing, pictures, etc, that belonged upstairs.  As in, all the way upstairs.  Annoying, but not the end of the world.

Gavin surveying the boxes after waking from nap time.

There were a couple boxes not labeled at all.... or boxes with numerous inventory numbers, or no inventory numbers.  Then there was the missing box of kitchen stuff that we later found in our bedroom, labeled "Master Bedroom" of course.  The extra clothes rod for Elijah's closet was missing - but in it's place we did receive some stuff that did not belong to us?!?  At this point we were still just entertained by the mishaps.... well, slightly annoyed about carrying heavy boxes up two flights of stairs, but just thankful that someone else did the moving and packing for us!

Then Marty went to put together the crib.  Uhmmm.... the box that should have contained the hardware to reassemble the crib was not there.  He called the driver to the moving truck and then the company which did the packing back in Bend.  No one had any idea.  When it is affecting our sleep, we were no longer entertained.  The small mishaps suddenly reached the disaster level.  Gavin had been sleeping in the pack-n-play, which is a fine temporary solution, but it means that he is up every few hours - probably just because it is small and likely not very comfortable.  We were SO looking forward to getting a good night of sleep.  UGH!  It was Friday evening.  No one was going to get back to us until Monday.  And we were back to being up every couple hours. 

Long story short, we have a crib from Marty's sister and brother-in-law.   Gavin spent a few days terrified of it, but is now sleeping relatively well in it.  It was much more of an ordeal that we had anticipated, but at least we are back home.  :)

Boise, ID to Salt Lake City, UT

On the second day of our road trip we drove from Boise to Salt Lake City. 

I should mention that I really like road trips.  For me, there is just something fun about having our little family in the car together.  Yes, there are the moments of whining and possibly screaming, but they generally don't bother me.  I figure the kids are strapped in their seats and they are safe, so I'm not too concerned if they aren't always too happy about it.  It is a great chance for Marty and I to have semi-uninterrupted conversations.  We were also able to listen to a couple interesting podcasts and a book.  Great use of time.  Oh, and on a road trip, I don't have to cook any meals, clean the kitchen OR do laundry.  Sign me up!

Marty tends to think of road trips with small children as a form of torture.  He has requested that the next time I have the urge to take a road trip, we can just eat out every meal for a few days and he'll clean up the house.   It is a nice gesture, but just not the same.  That said, I think that even he enjoyed the road trip (at least that is what he tells me.... maybe it was more like tolerated it well?). 

Anyways, the drive from Boise to Salt Lake City was rather unadventurous.  When we got to Salt Lake City we were able to stay with Marty's aunt Ginny.... who I should mention is the sweetest, spunkiest 80-year-old woman I have ever met.  She is just great! Unfortunately, I have zero pictures of her.  I am terrible at remembering to get photos.  :(  Trust me though, she is super cute and super fun.  Marty's dad was also there visiting, so we were able to hang out with him as well. 

We spent an extra day in Salt Lake and went to the amazing Children's Museum there. 

Gavin really enjoyed dropping balls in different places.  So much fun. 

Helicopter = Huge hit.

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Marty, Elijah & Poppy hard at work designing something or another. 

Bend OR to Boise ID

** From 9/18/2011**

Road trip day 1:

We started off the morning at one of our favorite Bend breakfast places - Jackson's Corner.  What a great way to start the day.  It was a bit chilly to sit outside, but we did anyway and the boys enjoyed getting to play on the outdoor equipment one last time.

Then it was off for the drive!  We headed out on Highway 20..... which previously I had only taken about 5 miles out of town.  It was all new scenery for us.  Eastern Oregon is somewhat like Eastern Colorado - not a whole lot going on out there.  However, even though it is very desolate, it is also very pretty.  There are valleys and gorges, rock formations, lots of randomly placed trees and the occasional passing vehicle.  At one point we played a scavenger hunt game.... and decided to come up with our own items.  Such as "fence post", "bird", and "rock".  Made the game much easier.  Turns out, there aren't any traffic lights out in that part of the state.

We made it to our destination of Boise, ID to the most amazing hotel ever (Oxford Suites)!  Being that it is a Sunday night in late September, I'm guessing there isn't a whole lot of demand of hotel rooms, and we scored a great room with 2 completely separate sleeping areas.  AMAZING  for traveling with little kids!!!!  I wish more hotels had this option.  The pool is also great.  There is even a tiny pool that is 1 foot deep - perfect for Gavin and just so much fun.  :)

Marty & Gavin in the one foot pool, with Elijah in the hot tub

The boys in the big pool

Gavin enjoying a snack after pool time.  He really likes to have things on his head (blankets, towels, you name it!)

We ventured downtown to pick up take out for dinner and then back to the hotel where we are about to crash.  So tired......

Moving, Part I

** NOTE:  This post was actually written the first night of our road trip back to Colorado.... I just didn't get it posted b/c I wanted to add some photos.  So, this is actually from 9/18/2011**

No matter how you slice it, moving is a lot of work.  Here is how things have gone down so far on our move back to Colorado.

- On Thursday Marty's truck got picked up from work and loaded onto the truck.  Yay!  It was a day earlier than we had planned, but it meant that the driver didn't need to navigate through the round-a-bouts to get to our neighborhood..... which after our moving in experience that seemed like a huge plus.

- Thursday night we sorted out the house and prepared for our road trip.  Since we have been in a furnished rental, we needed to sort out our belongings from the owners belongings.... and then get everything sorted out that we wanted to have with us prior to the moving truck making it to our house.

-  Friday.  We were given an estimated arrival time of 12:30-2:30 by the moving company.  I took the boys to a fun play area in the morning and we were back in time for lunch.  Then it was a matter of trying to keep them busy and out of the house until the packers arrived (since everything was sorted out and sitting around the house).  By 3p when the packers still weren't there I was getting a bit nervous.   They finally showed up around 3:30 and were there until about 7 getting everything packed and loaded.  Whew.  A long day!  One of the guys who packed up our stuff was actually there for the adventure when we moved in.  I thought he looked familiar and when I started to retell the details of the day he responded with something like "oh yeah, we were just talking about that the other day".  Which led to reminiscing and story telling with the guys packing.  It really was that much of an adventure when we moved in.

- Saturday was spent cleaning the house, doing the laundry, etc, etc and going out to dinner with some friends we will greatly miss.  :(  Oh - and Elijah and I took a little break to go check out a "Big Rig" event in town.  Totally worth it for everyone's sanity.

Elijah "driving" on the big rigs.  He made sure that we checked out EVERY one.  Of course, he also need to test out the horn, lights, and blinkers for each one.

However, then Marty and I were up late into the night doing the remaining deep cleaning that we weren't able to get done with our little helpers.

- Sunday!  Road trip day #1!  But first we had to get out of the house.  Those early morning hours were rough.  The kids decided that 5am was a good time to wake up.... which was not a part of our plan.  So, we spent the next couple hours trying to keep tiny fingerprints off all the glass that had been Windexed late Saturday night while we washed up sheets, remade beds and packed up the car.  To no avail.  We finally ended up strapping the boys in their carseats for about 15 minutes so we could tidy up the house without any helpers.

Exhausted.  Best way to describe preparing for the move.  AND that is with someone packing up the house for us!  Whew.   

Now for the roadtrip.  :)