Our first morning in the new house! We slept in the empty house the night of our closing and woke up with lots to do the next day. Waiting for the movers, setting up the Internet, changing the locks, getting our new refrigerator, grocery shopping... it was a busy day! What better way to start than with a big bagel? : )
(Eli top, Owen bottom)
We drove from Atlanta to Port St. Joe for our first stop. We wanted to stop at the beach and had heard that the state park in this town had won 'Best Beach' on two separate occasions. The water was perfect, the sky was a little stormy looking and the boys had a great time playing in the sand. Things started going downhill when Charlie took Owen in the ocean. From then until we left the beach, Owen was a wreck, terrified by the crashing waves and incoming water. We didn't press our luck with Eli, who was still having a great time in the sand, wearing shells as hats and pointing to all the 'duts' (ie birds). We had a fantastic dinner at a Mexican restaurant with a mariachi band, the boys danced to the music and we had a great night sleep, ready to hit the road for New Orleans in the morning.
We're trying to do some organizing this week in preparation for the movers, which means we have empty boxes and lots of other random things scattered all over the place. Owen is getting a little nervous with all the commotion and movement (and we're expecting him to have a rough time with the actual move considering he was an emotional mess when we moved from AZ) but they are both doing pretty well so far keeping themselves entertained and out of the way. It's pretty cute when they hide in a box and laugh as we call their names because they think we don't know where they're hiding : )
Charlie and I were in Dallas for the weekend on a home-finding trip. We were a little nervous that three days wouldn't be enough, but we found one that we love and can't wait to move in! Our closing date is July 7th, only 2 weeks from now, and then we'll officially be Texans! We love the open floor plan, spacious backyard and the neighborhood and we can't wait to show the boys their new house. There's plenty of room for visitors too, so this about Dallas for your next getaway - we'd love to have houseguests!!
Can I come too, Dad?
Charlie is leaving Tuesday for a week filled with interviews and working on our house in Pittsburgh to get it ready for the closing. He'll actually be in 4 of the 5 places we've lived in the last two years over the course of 4 days! We're praying that we'll have a clue of our future by the end of the week, but who knows! For the time being though, I'm praying for an easy week alone with the boys and for everything to go smoothly for Charlie, wherever he may be that day : )
We dropped off the moving truck on Tuesday morning before making the long drive home. We were planning on driving to PA in two days, but instead, made the executive decision to drive the whole way in one day. We didn't get on the road until about 11am by the time we dropped off the truck, and we didn't get into Lancaster, PA until around midnight, but it saved us a whole day of driving on Wednesday - and we really appreciated that! 13 states in 5 days - not too shabby!
Unfortunately, by the time Sunday rolled around we had to be on our way. We went to church and Sunday school at IBC to see all of our friends, had lunch and packed up the van. Thankfully the boys were perfect angels for 10+ hours of being stuck in a car seat, but it was still a challenge to not be able to trade off driving at all.
After leaving Dallas, we were in east Texas for a LONG time, then crossed Louisiana and got ourselves halfway through Mississippi before stopping for the night just past Vicksburg, MS. Out of the 13 hours we had to drive from Dallas to Atlanta, we drove about 6 1/2. Not too bad for only starting around 3pm!
We're going to need a really big box to carry the contents of this cabinet!
(Eli)
(Eli is shirtless, Owen... is not)
The boys were perfect today! Charlie was at the office all morning and early afternoon, so I thought that I might get through a few boxes of unpacking while the boys were sleeping. They played by themselves and together (which was adorable to sneak up on and watch) for almost TWO HOURS and then took more than an hour nap! I got tons of boxes unpacked and sorted through, and I'm starting to feel (slightly) more at home.
I was at the point of thinking 'as long as they're not crying, I don't really care what they are doing' and this is what I found, Eli playing on the underside of our dining room table and Owen eating an (unplugged) ethernet cable. Hey, whatever makes them happy!
Of course, there was also a lot of playing going on too:
And my stack of boxes! Actually, this is only about half of the ones I unpacked, which is quite impressive now that I'm looking at it : )
