The Move..

Oh, mercy.  Where do I begin?  Our journey across the country was LONG.  I was happy to do it though.  All along I had told Andy that this time I was driving with him.  It didn't exactly happen that way, but we did caravan none the less.  THANKfully my sweet sister in law Megan came to give us a hand, and boy was she a life saver.

My mom came to help out for about 10 days after Clare was born.  It was awesome and I realized quickly that I could NOT have done it without her.  She was an immense help and also kept me in line (making sure I wasn't lifting more than I was supposed to)...she also allowed me to take some nice naps during the day, which was delightful to say the least!  The day after my mom left was a Sunday, and we had our movers scheduled to come on the following Monday.  Little Clare was only about a week and a half old...so you can imagine the stress/anxiety I was beginning to feel about this whole process.  Not only did the packers have to come and pack all of our stuff (I am so grateful I didn't have to do it myself)...but the movers also had to come and load our stuff onto a truck.  I am very grateful for good friends who helped us out, let us borrow cleaning supplies and let Noah and I come over to veg out at their house while ours was being invaded.

These pictures were taken after the packers had come, but obviously before the movers had put everything on the truck.  After the movers came we were literally living with the bare minimum.  Sleeping on air mattresses with no sheets and one of Noah's blankets.  I have to say that not having enough blanket at night is one of my biggest pet peeves.  I can never sleep well if I don't have enough blanket!   We were living off of a half a gallon of milk and a box of honey bunches of oats.   Here is Noah enjoying a bowl for himself on our makeshift table....

Yes that is bin full of toys.  You do what you gotta do!

After we mopped, scrubbed and cleaned the whole place we settled in for the night.  The following morning we finished up the cleaning and waited for the carpet guys to get there.  While the carpets were being cleaned Noah, Clare, Megan and I headed to one last doctor's appointment before we hit the road.  Thankfully everything went well with my surgery and my doctor gave me the go ahead to drive across the country (not sure what I would have done had she said I shouldn't)!    Anyway, after checking out of post, getting a trip permit, grabbing lunch and jumping our dead car (apparently if you sit with the radio on and the doors open it will drain your battery, duly noted)...we were finally on the road.  Our first stop was to see some of our good friends the Whipples.  These fine folks have graced our blog on numerous occasions, and we were grateful for their kind hospitality in letting us crash at their house.  Plus they got a new puppy, and as you can imagine Noah was loving that.  I, however, loved having a bed with a large blanket on it...one that didn't creep up on my toes!

Our other stops included Colby Kansas, Rawlins Wyoming and finally Idaho Falls.   I was pretty awful at taking pictures on the road, but here are a couple I did capture at one of the hotels...

Andy bought Noah this toy semi truck and it kept him entertained for hours (still does, in fact)!

Finally we made it to Idaho Falls...and were able to spend Easter Sunday there with my family and Andy's sisters (who attend BYUI).  Andy's dad also flew into Idaho Falls on Sunday night to help us with the last leg of our trip...which I will write about another day.  In the mean time, here are some sweet pictures from Easter weekend.

It was so great to see my family and also take a day off of driving! I think Noah appreciated it the most.  In fact I am sure he is done road tripping for a while, and honestly, I can't really blame the little guy.