Moving Day

It's been more like moving week, but Saturday was the day that EVERYTHING came over to the new house and finally slept here.

I thought it was going to be so smooth because I had already moved most of the kitchen over, and managed to unpack it all on Friday while waiting for the internet to be hooked up and our fridge to be delivered. Well, it turned out the fridge never showing up (after I waited for 7 hours) was just the first of our moving issues.

Next up was a flooded kitchen on Saturday morning when we showed up with the first load of stuff because of a clog somewhere in the pipes, which meant we couldn't use the laundry or kitchen sink for the next 3 days. And a couple of the drawers that I had unpacked into had to be emptied and dried out. So much for being ahead of the game. But, because I had already unpacked some stuff, I did know where all the swim towels were so we had plenty of things to mop up the mess. (And even when it's flooded, our kitchen at the new house is so much nicer than our last one.)

We ran into one more snag when we found mold in the boys old room, and all over the bottom of the bunk bed. So we had to sanitize that before we could put their bed together, which just made for a late bedtime. I'll admit that my motivation was drained by then. I was feeling done with the whole moving thing, which isn't great when you still have a house to unpack, haha.

But thanks to a lot of friends and family showing up to help, we made the move.

Not a lot of pictures yet, but here's one more glimpse of the new space. I'm loving this open kitchen/living room plan, and having a family room as well (on the other side of the kitchen) makes the house feel so much bigger. I think this house is going to work a lot better for us. Lets hope we don't have to move again for awhile.

Moving In

Reunited with our stuff! (Also known as The Jenga Puzzle, or Why Didn't We Get Rid of More?)

We spent the morning cleaning (my favorite way to spend the first hours in a new home--especially when we don't have all our cleaning supplies) while we waited for our containers to be delivered, and then, the unpacking began!

The kids were a big help. Hahaha. They actually did help unload boxes and get their things into their rooms, but this was what I found later in the day, after I'd asked Bean to take an armful of hangers into our closet.

Unpacking is all about priorities. I had the hammock up before we could find dishes in the kitchen. I figured we needed a way to enjoy the absolutely gorgeous weather, and without any couches in the house, this was the most comfortable place to sit. 

And Peanut got to work painting as soon as the easel came out, which kept him out of trouble, I guess (except when he spilled purple paint all over the driveway and it turned out to not be washable, but I'm sure it will wear off eventually.)

We did get a lot of unpacking done the first couple days, interrupted by a trip to the DMV for new driver's licenses (which was a priority because mine had expired in Charlotte, so I wasn't exactly legal to drive), and trips to Costco and Trader Joes so we could eat. 

And then, because we'd worked so hard, we thought we'd go to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom for the day on Friday. Actually, because I'm a little crazy, we went to Six Flags on our third day in town. Hahaha. When I was looking into homeschool days at various Bay Area locations, one popped up for DK that happened to be right after we got to town. The price was too good to pass up, and Daddy-o wasn't working yet, so he'd be able to come with us (which is a must for amusement parks since we've got kids at different levels of roller coaster riding). So, with a house still full of boxes, and no couches and limited beds, off to play we went.

There were a good mix of rides--small stuff for Peanut, medium things that we all enjoyed going on, and the big ones for Daddy-o and Bean, who are the only ones who really enjoy them at the moment.

But the best parts were the animal shows and exhibits. It's kind of a weird park--half zoo, half rides. The boys and I enjoyed a lot of time at the different animal areas and shows, listening to the trainers talk about conservation efforts and animal rescues and training. 

Even though we could have used the day for working at the house, it was a fun final vacation day. The boxes were still there the next day and Daddy-o started work on Monday, and we were glad we had some fun mixed in with all the moving.

We Have Arrived

After 2 weeks on the road, our last big day of travel finally got us into California and to our new home.

We wanted a picture with the CA sign right as we entered, but to the dismay of the kids, it snuck up on us, and wasn't the best place to pull over (or the best sign--what's up with the lame state line sign, California? We passed so many great signs in other states.) So this stop in Truckee had to do.

It's a long drive from my mom's house to the Bay Area (but not nearly as long as the drive to Charlotte!), so it was getting late by the time we made it to Livermore. Between the long day in the car, the late night, the election results coming in, and the fact that the move was finally real (and that the new house wasn't clean--grrr. . . I REALLY wish that landlords were a little better about this--out of the 3 rental houses we've lived in, only one was move-in ready when we got there), the mood was pretty low that night.

 Lots of tears all around, which didn't make bedtime very fun, but we set up all the air mattresses in the living room (or, The Room, as we started calling it because we couldn't decide if it was a family room or living room, since there is only one) and had a big slumber party for our first night in CA. And luckily sleep cures a lot of ails.

Surprise!

And now, the event that dictated the timing of our move--Rara's 70th birthday! My brothers and I decided that this birthday called for something special, so we planned a surprise party. It wasn't easy keeping our whereabouts a secret from her (she knew we were coming through Utah on our way to CA, but thought we were showing up a couple days later), but it was worth it to see the look on her face when we all yelled surprise and the kids ran up to give her hugs. We're so glad we got to celebrate her special day with her.

 

Her two sisters were able to come from AZ and CO, along with one of my cousins, and then my dad's twin sister and her husband who live nearby also came for the party.

 

We had a panini bar, which was a lot of fun, and other good food, and sat around laughing and talking for several hours. I really love my family and love it when we can get together. It was a good reminder of why we are doing this move, and helped balance out some of the hard times we've had lately. We may miss NC, but it is nice being able to get together with family more often.

 

While we were in UT, the kids and Daddy-o also got to spend a few hours at his brother's house, and these crazy kids had a fun afternoon together. Glad we'll see more of them, too.

 

The rest of the time, the kids worked on their banks. My mom is a part time accountant, which means she has a pretty fun office, as far as the kids are concerned. They can't get enough of her calculator.

 

Their advertising was cracking us up. They seriously spent every spare second we were at her house playing in Rara's office. And as soon as their cousins came over, they were right there with them. 

It was a short visit, but so fun to spend a couple days with my family before the final leg of our move.

If a Tree Falls. . .

  

Before the Petrified Forest, we made a quick stop because who can pass up dinosaurs outside of a teepee. Possibly the weirdest thing we saw on the this trip. 

The kids thought this weather rock was funny. (Genuine Old Indian Weather Rock. If it is wet-- it's raining. If it is white --it's snowing. If it is moving back and forth--it's windy. Etc. . .)

And then on to the beautiful park. Such beautiful land.

And amazing petrified trees. The kids were little disappointed at first that the trees aren't still standing, but they ended up liking it anyway. We drove the 28 mile road through the park and stopped at several of the main sites.

The Painted Desert Inn is no longer used as an inn, but is a beautiful museum of the lodging that was located there in the 1940's.

The architecture was stunning.

They restored the old lunch counter.

There were a couple of Navajo Indians when we went through, talking about the art of rug making that their people are known for.

The young man explained that his grandmother still works at this craft, and that they do try to pass the skill and knowledge of the traditional patterns on to the younger generations. They have their own sheep that they get the wool from and go through the whole process of making the yarn, dying it, and then making rugs. It's amazing that they have these complicated patterns memorized.

The view from the back of the inn. One thing that really struck me was how without all the trees, the sky seems so much bigger. I love how such different looking places can all be so beautiful.

The ruins of an old Navajo pueblo community.

The layers of earth are so distinct!

It was kind of drizzly, sometimes actually rainy, and chilly the whole time. We didn't end up really doing much hiking--have to come back to see all the parts we missed.

A fun cactus surrounded by petrified wood.

The big logs.

Last stop--lots of big trees through here.

So amazing.

We are going to have to do a southwest trip one year because there are so many beautiful places we need to explore. By the time that we left the petrified forest, we realized we weren't going to make it to Four Corners before it closed, which was really disappointing to all of us, and we'd already decided we'd have to scrap one of the southern Utah national parks because of the day we were stuck in Amarillo, so we'll just add both of the those to our southwest trip someday. There are just too many fascinating places to visit in this world.

But for this trip, we were on to southern Utah. We had thought we'd stop in Moab for the night, but once again, we were foiled by a marathon. When there were hardly any rooms available anywhere and even the Motel 6 was over $200 a night, we decided the best option was to grab some pizza and keep driving for another half hour until we could pay a lot less for a bad hotel. :)

Last hotel night, second to last stop.

The Big 1-0

Bug had a big birthday while we were on the road. We wanted to make sure his birthday was special because he wasn't very excited when he realized we'd be in the middle of moving when his birthday came around. I spent a long time researching what we could do in TX or NM for his big day, and we promised him he could pick where we ate our meals that day. We also let him have a small party back in Charlotte a couple weeks ago. We'd done everything we could to make turning 10 a positive experience in the middle of a not exactly welcomed big change.

The night before, I decorated the car with a bunch of old birthday banners and lanterns that we've used at various parties over the year. I was going to throw out the box when I found it during packing, but then thought that might be a fun thing to bring along, and I'm glad I did because when we went out to the car the next morning, Bug was very happy to see it.

And then, all our plans came crashing down. On our way to IHOP for breakfast, the car died. Turned out the alternator we'd had to replace while at the beach in September must have been faulty and it finally gave out. Having car problems was not part of our tightly planned schedule for the day, and we were all a little disappointed, but Bug handled it well and we told him we'd get back on track as soon as it was fixed.

We were only a few blocks from our hotel, and a few restaurants, so while Daddy-o waited for AAA, the kids and I started to walk. First, we tried Hometown Buffet, but they only do their brunch on the weekends, so we ended up eating at Waffle House, and I think Bug even liked it :)

Then, we walked back to the hotel to wait. Daddy-o got a ride from the repair shop to meet up with us and we negotiated a 1 p.m. check out from the hotel so we'd have somewhere to wait. Too bad the hotel we were at was renovating their pool, and was on the edge of town, so too far to walk to any of the artsy parts of Amarillo. The kids and I went to find a couple geocaches that were right by the hotel, and then they vegged in front of the TV. For hours. Because our car took ALL DAY.

We ended up having to move our stuff to the conference room at the hotel, which luckily wasn't being used, and we sat in that room until 5 p.m. waiting for our car to be finished. What a birthday for our Bug.

As it got later and later, I kept re-planning our next couple days, trying to figure out how to fit in everything we were supposed to do, now that we were basically an entire day behind. Every couple hours, I'd have to re-do the plans. Luckily, we hadn't booked any hotels ahead of time, so we did have a lot of flexibility with our plans.

When we finally got to leave, we had to make some decisions. It was 5 p.m., we were going to gain an hour driving into New Mexico, but Albuquerque was still 4 1/2 hours away, and there is pretty much nothing between them. Which meant that dinner was 4 1/2 hours away, and we'd promised Bug a pumpkin pie from Costco for his birthday dessert, but we'd be getting to the next Costco as they closed, assuming no one had to stop for the bathroom along the way.

What ended up happening is that we pushed most of the birthday fun to the next day. We did have Bug open a couple of his presents, which were movies for the road, so he got to watch The Good Dinosaur and How to Train Your Dragon, and we ate a very late dinner at Cracker Barrel in Albuquerque, complete with a crayon to "blow out" (that's what was going on in the picture above, haha) in his dessert. (And then we rushed back to the hotel to catch the last inning of the Cubs World Series win--woohoo!)

So, Thursday brought us Birthday Fun, Take 2. First stop, The Albuquerque Museum of Natural History.

New Mexico is full of dino dig sites and amazing prehistoric finds, so I knew this would be the perfect place to take Bug for his birthday.

It was a great museum with a lot of fun stuff to see.

Love this boy's fascination with all things dinosaur.

He still plans to be a paleontologist when he grows up and he absorbs every fact he can find.

I think the couple hours we had there made up for the previous day. And before we left town, we stopped by Costco for lunch and to get his birthday pie, so the birthday was redeemed.

Then, it was time to head west. Quick stop at the continental divide, which was chilly and windy.

Then came the drive into Arizona so we could visit the Petrified Forest National Park. We didn't get on the road quite as early as I'd hoped, so we weren't able to fit that in before closing time, which meant we were still about a day behind, but we found a place to stay in Holbrook, AZ, just on the other side of the park. 

We had some amazing looking skies that evening. Such different landscaping than the south on the other side of the country, but beautiful in its own way.

Cadillac Ranch

Tuesday, we left Houston and drove across Texas as fast as we could so we could see this--Cadilac Ranch

We got there just before sunset, and without any big crowds (for the first 10 minutes or so), which made for some good pictures.

The kids got right to climbing.

And spray painting.

Peanut wanted a turn, too.

We all took a turn leaving our mark.

It's fun when you get to be part of the art.

I think the kids would have been happy to completely repaint all 10 cars.

Wonder if we should be worried about them around spray paint now.

This girl--always climbing as high as she can.

Such a perfect time of day. And then, a tour bus with about 100 Europeans descended on the site and we decided we'd had our turn.

Stay tuned for Amarillo, Part 2!