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| This girl LOVES a good box though. |
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| She is seriously so beautiful and look at those teeth! |
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| Having a break from packing...moving stinks! |
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| Sometimes sharing a box is hard... |
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| Rubes decided to give Ross a turn. |
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| We also took another break and had a post-Thanksgiving dinner since Steve was bummed not to have oodles of leftovers. We invited our friends the Listers and Vosses from our Parkie days. :) Cute Henry came along too! |
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| Mandy made this sweet awesome veggie turkey :) |
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| I made an apple pie from scratch - woot woot! |
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| We had a little flurry during packing week. I laughed because the grounds maintenance used their leaf blowers to "shovel" the sidewalks blowing the snow dust out of the way. |
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| I want this boy to stay little forever...and it's not happening! |
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| He's the sweetest boy that ever lived! |
On the note of the actual move - it went quite smoothly which was wonderful. Grandpas showed up, entertained the kiddies, helped pack boxes and my dad worked his master tetris magic and somehow fit all our acquired stuff into a 16 foot truck. We had amazing help from our wonderful friends and neighbors. They were so efficient I didn't get a chance to tell them to leave a few things out...like Ross's diapers, a couple of camping chairs, and the cereal to live off of for the next few days. That truck was loaded within about 45 minutes. CRAZY! I would like to give myself a shout out for being such a good packer so that loading the truck took very minimal time. We've lived where moving people happened a lot and observed a lot of how NOT to be ready for moving day and decided we always wanted to be people others wouldn't mind helping to move when the time came. :)
Since we were leaving our blessed Oregon Steve was pretty bent on bringing an Oregon Christmas tree to Utah. Since it was $15 for any size grand fir tree we figured we had nothing to lose. We went to a great U-cut Christmas tree farm called Christmas Trees West where you grab your saw, hunt for your tree, cut it down and carry it to where they shake and bale it for you for free. When you go to pay they have hot chocolate for you as well as little s'more kits to take out back and roast the marshmellows around their giant bonfire. It was dark and incredibly foggy when we went - a bit mysterious if you will, but we still found our tree and had a great time. My dad was generous and got us a beautiful Ornament that was handpainted and had our family name on the back with the year 2013. Here are our foggy, mysterious pictures taken with phone cameras since I forgot mine.
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| Heading for the tree saw. |
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| Headed inside for some hot chocolate and a s'more! |
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| A mysterious pic roasting a marshmallow at the giant bonfire. |
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| Ross had to hold the flashlight the WHOLE time. |
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| The bonfire with the mallow |
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| Watching the tree get shaken. |
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| The tree getting baled. |
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| The clan in the fog! Hooray for Christmas tree! |
After getting home, my wonderful husband let me sneak off to an Ornament party at my friend Jen's house where I felt like I got to say a decent good-bye and make off with another wonderful moment-o ornament of Oregon my friend Marci made.
With our truck loaded on the Saturday and not being able to check out until Monday, we attempted to get settled on the floor for the night...yeah that is a story in and of itself.
Ross figured since he didn't have a bed that meant he didn't have to GO to bed. Steve finally got him settled and he stayed asleep until Steve and I were getting ready for bed. THEN he woke up and I tried to settle him back down. Steve ended up in Ross's room with him and I started to get sorted in our room with Ruby...until I had the sentimental idea that we should all sleep in the same room since it was our last night. So I made Steve and Ross move into our room with Ruby thinking Ross would just go right back to sleep. Yeah right. He kept trying to talk to us...which led to Ruby waking up...which led to Ross wanting to help her...which led to Ruby crying more. Immediately Steve and Ross were kicked out...which upset Ross immensely. Grandpa Don tried to come out and be of help bringing Ross in with him...which led to Ross watching the show Scarecrow by Disney with Grandpa...which led to Grandpa falling asleep and Ross rolling all over the bed (since it wasn't his own). Ruby was still hysterical so I decided to bail out of the room and let her settle herself down. With all my brains I failed to bring even a pillow or blanket out with me...Steve also lost all his bedding to Ross and Grandpa...and neither of us were going back in to either room with the chance of stirring up the volcano and earthquake again so we laid on Ross's floor in his completely barren room and waited for the prime opportunity to sneak some blanket and pillows back. This opportune moment happened around 2AM which led to Ross ending up with us and we all zonked out until about 7AM. At least our last night in our Oregon apartment was memorable right?
Sunday we got ready and headed out to the airport. As we drove out of Forest Grove I just cried and cried. I seriously fell in love with Oregon and have loved all the friends, places, and memories we've made there. A huge part of my heart has been left there. It's a special place to me.
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| Our last family pic before the move. It was a great run! |
I was really nervous to go on a plane with two kids (Ruby who never holds still especially) by myself. Amazingly, the airport lets you have someone come with you through security and to the gate if they grab a pass. We walked up to the security line and they ushered us right to the front. The check went crazy smooth and we wandered over to our gate with just enough time for a bathroom break. Our flight was only 50 people full so we pretty much got the back to ourselves. The only tricky part was transitioning from the stroller to the airplane since I was packing a baby, my pump, a diaper bag, and a carseat and crossing my fingers Ross wouldn't be nervous and demand to be held as well. Lucky for me he was super excited to walk on the airplane and even carried his own backpack. Woot woot! Our great stewardesses carried my carseat and we got settled pretty quick. After Ross was over his fascination with how cool the airplane was and started watching Cars, it was pretty much like I only had one kid to wrestle. Ruby did fairly well and either stayed in her carseat or on my lap. The stewardesses ate Ross right up since he would laugh out loud at the movie or tell me how the tractors were coming up. Every once in a while he would hang over the side of his chair and look down the aisle with a big ol' grin that would melt the stewardesses hearts. When we got to Utah Ross walked the whole way with his backpack to the baggage where we met both grandmas and that was that!
The next morning the boys headed with the truck. Unfortunately there was a miscommunication with the management and no one came in to check us out....and we realized we could have just headed out on Saturday anyway since they just had us leave the keys in the apartment...sigh - oh well. My dad drove the truck back to Utah and was quite the trooper seeing how he concocted the plague the day before and was still recooperating! (That plague really just keeps circling around waiting for new prey.) The weather and the roads were clear and they all made it in one day!
Our new place in Cottonwood Heights is by far the nicest place we've lived. With moving in, we've had a few glitches. We barely fit our couch in (this house is older, but remodeled), and no matter how the boys tried, they could not fit our queen box springs into the apartment...so currently Steve and I are camping out with our mattress on the floor in our room while we figure out what to do. My only other qualm is that there are zero windows in the main living room/kitchen area...Steve calls it our bomb shelter. The bedrooms have great windows and light, but we're not in there nearly as much. Maybe it's because we've come with having a giant window and sliding door in our living room before that makes me feel a little claustrophobic being without it. We went nuts unpacking for two days and didn't leave the apartment and I started to feel like a mole who's eyes would burn up when I went outside into the light again. It's only 6 months though...and the weather won't be terrible for all of them right?
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| The new place pre-move in. |
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| The family room. |
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| The bathroom. |
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| Ross's room. |
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| Ruby's room |
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| Our room. |
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| The craziness of moving in. Ross and Rubes enjoyed all the boxes once again. Ross LOVED coloring all of them. |
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| Chillin' |
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| Putting Christmas up. |
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| We really got into hide and seek. Ross LOVES playing it - but he will only seek. Dad got creative with some hiding spaces. |
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| This girl seriously likes laying in boxes. |
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| More Christmas-i-fying. |
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We had some Oregonian friends, the Woods, stop by to pick up something we packed for them while they were here for Christmas vacation. As we were chatting it hit me that they are just visiting and get to go back to Oregon and I about lost it again. I've realized I'm a huge foot dragger when it comes to drastic changes. I dragged my feet heading to Oregon, and I've dragged my feet coming back. I know change is good for me, but I never like it in the beginning. I may be especially draggy right now because I was cheated out of some Christmas celebrating time and am trying to catch up on it like a mad woman while unpacking and settling in at the same time. I'll get there I promise...I just need a bit of time to lick my wounds and look forward. But I want all my Oregon friends to know how much they mean to me and how grateful I am with how much better of a person I am because of them. You are wonderful!
We finally got Christmas up, our Oregon tree our Christmas souvenir looks and smells great, and we're much closer to family (though that hour commute back and forth over the last four days isn't my favorite with two children who need schedules...or maybe it's more my sanity that needs their schedules?). We've already celebrated with a Christmas party, family visits, a birthday celebration, and a Sunday dinner. And Christmas week is going to be crazy too not to mention we STILL have shopping to do! BLAH!
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| Some of the done-ness |
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| I actually think this wall arrangement is my favorite - the blank pic is still getting printed. |
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| Our Hawaii Christmas tribute since we're getting ready to go this summer. Wahoo! |
Anyway - we're finally back here in Utah on another adventure and that much closer to graduating and joining the real life world. Crazy where time takes you. Here's to going with an open heart.
