Trip to the Rock

I wanted to go see my Grandma Shirley before we left for Florida but I wasn't sure if it was going to be possible. We had one car shipped to Florida ahead of time so we were now a one van family, the big van, and I couldn't take that away from the family for a weekend while I went galavanting off in Wyoming! (The one and only time you will see a trip to Rock Springs Wyoming referred to as galavanting!)

I was in luck though, the stars aligned. My mom came into town (she's now in New Mexico, another story) to go to a quilting thing, in Wyoming, and I totally asked her if I could ride her coattails, almost literally! (Car tails?)  So mom, Duncan and I piled in for a short little road trip.

It. Was. Awesome.

No really.

When we came down when Duncan was very little we went to a caboose kind of monument(?) to this coal mining town, (but it's a real caboose...) and Duncan climbed all over it so I knew I would be able to take him there again and that he would think at least that part was fun.

Duncan was great for the ride, super great. After we got there mom set off for a dinner and Duncan and I went to the train. He loved it, he was in heaven. In fact, we left, got dinner, and came back so we could eat on the train. this kid and trains. It was so cute.

We stayed up late chit chatting with my Aunt Nancy, Uncle Pat and my cousin Syd. Duncan got progressively more obnoxious (his sure sign he's tired) until he passed out on the foot stool. Really. I had to carry his super heavy 8 year old body to bed! Ooomf!

We got up, ate a little and left, time to surprise Grandma! I called first and told her we were on our way and she said to come right in. What a great long visit we had. She told me some wonderful stories, I wish I had more time for stories. le sigh.

Duncan kept himself busy playing and was generally quite well-behaved actually, 8 is a magical age. I thought we might be able to stop back by after lunch but at that point I wasn't sure what the plan was and if we were leaving soon. I told her we might be back, even if only to say bye, and we left.

We stopped by the caboose again and hung out for a while. We got to see three trains go by! One engineer even honked for us! (Seriously so cute.) We went to the cemetery, past the first house I remember, and I bored Duncan to death with stories about where I went to school and were people lived. Fun for me, not fun for him. (But seriously, I had to sit by a caboose for hours at this point... he OWED me.)

We went back to see Grandma Shirley to say another goodbye, visit for a minute and then we were off to go back home.

With one stop first.

My mom told me about a bridge in Green River where you go over the train yard. She INSISTS that I had been there before. Now she's the one telling stories because I don't remember anything about this huge bridge. (But to be fair, trains weren't really my thing until about 8 years ago.) Mom wanted to make sure we took Duncan there so he could see all the trains.

Cue another magical moment.

There were train tracks everywhere! And a train stations! And rail road workers! Mechanics! Trains! Engines! Amazing things! The workers were shifting the engines around and they would honk before the started rolling them and it was loud.

Then, sadly, we left. Duncan with two new awesome train books from Uncle Pat in hand and some awesome pictures and memories. If you ask Duncan what he thinks about Rock Springs, Wy - he will tell you he loves it and wants to live there. Now that's what I call a successful trip!

So this was my Wyoming childhood in a nutshell.
Side note: This tunnel went under train tracks and you could hear a train coming when it was forever away.


This darling boy, standing on a train watching a train go by.

Heaven on earth.

I love this grave stone of my great grandma and grandpa because you could see it from the road.
Not only that, but I thought he name was Nona until I saw Pauline on the stone and it made me QUESTION EVERYTHING I HAVE EVER KNOWN.

Duncan took our picture, Way to go Duncan. 

He is cuter!

This engine's horn scared the pants off us.

Home, home on the range.

Duncan was tired and after a day of trains was horribly unimpressed by buffalo. He didn't even get out of the car. Tsk. There aren't any buffalo in Florida Duncan!

And we are off!

That was it, it was time! Our big move was scheduled for mid-ish June and the movers came to pack things up on a Monday. Four men basically scurried around us packing everything that wasn't nailed down. Complete and utter chaos. The main coordinator and I briefly talked about Dylan's special needs and he actually left her room untouched while they packed the rest of the house. The last day though, it was game on and they all went in there and made quick work of it!

Origionally they told me it would take five business days, 2-3 to pack and 2-3 to load the truck. They lied. It took 2.5 days and we watched our stuff drive off into the noon sun. I guess I am happy about that because living amidst so many boxes was pretty rough, but on the other hand, we expected to have beds for a couple more nights. They left the Wednesday prior to our leaving on a Monday.

Just like that we were officially bedless, toyless and generally stuffless. Well except for the corner of our room we dubbed the "safe zone". And by safe we means safe from the movers because very little was safe from them! We briefly (very briefly) tried to track down enough air mattresses for us all but then Matthew's sister reminded us that she had a standing invitation... with beds, toys and a neighborhood pool. It was an offer we couldn't refuse. Poor Ami...

But it was fuuuu-unnnn. We stayed there for five nights I think? Something like that. The kids actually loved it. Almost totally free access to computer games with the cousins? Yes please! Honestly all the kids were ready to go to Florida until we stayed at Ami's house and then they all started having second thoughts. We were like "Sorry Ian, we are moving..." after he was lamenting and then he looked up at me with his big brown eyes and said "Well then can we at least visit Ami's house?" 

All the flights to our final destination involved a lay-over and originally, we had 7 people, a wheel chair and a dog to move, and the idea of a lay-over with all of that going on almost made my head explode so we chose the shorter, direct flight, with a 2 hour drive at the end. 

At kind of the last minute, but it was in the works for a little while, we decided to leave Fitz in Utah. Matthew's sister had arranged a play date for her dog and Fitz a couple weekends before to see if they got along since she was considering getting another dog anyway and heard me talking about not particularly wanting/having room or a yard for Fitz in Florida. It went swimmingly and he's now getting more yard, love, affection and attention than he could have ever gotten from us. Happy ending for Fitz. In the end and having been here a while, this was for sure the right decision for us for many many reasons. 

We left early on Monday morning, Michael dropped us off at the airport and we all piled out to check our huge bags and head to security. I called TSA Cares, a disability service, ahead of time to let them know that we had Dylan and meds and a wheelchair and all kind of other complicated things and that we would like to have someone help us. We were in line for security and a wonderful (gorgeous, fabulous, super amazing, delightful - wait... I just might be happy to see her...) woman came and grabbed us into a line and waited with us and told us what to do and where to go. She ushered us through the process and we came out the other side where she checked Dylan's food and meds and swabbed my hands since Dylan was sleeping so they didn't have to get her out of her chair. We were on our way. It was fast and darn near painless so shout out to TSA Cares and the security manager for a job well done. The whole thing had been giving me stress.

I may or may not have called my favorite Pediatrician's office to get a controlled substance for Dylan in case she needed it on the flight.  Benadryl is an upper... we needed the good stuff. Initially Matthew was sitting with Dylan and Asher, across the isle was an enormous man (with noise canceling head phones) me and then Greyson. Ian and Duncan were behind me with some lady who was nice enough but said too many times that she would keep them in line if they needed too. Kind of like the mean old lady that knew she should be being nice but didn't really want to be so she said all the right things (?) without meaning them? Even though she was kidding it didn't come off quite right... was she kidding?

Anyway, I thought I had it easy with Greyson but I was wrong. I was so wrong. It was awful. Dare I say THE WORST. He was a total pill. He wouldn't play with an ipad, watch a movie, play a game... be nice... be normal... A little over half way there I traded with Matthew and I got Dylan, who was stirring and eventually wok for a little while and Asher who needed a halo. Seriously. Greyson was the worst. Everyone give a silent hooray for us landing and being able to get Greyson off the freaking plane. Thanks. 

The only problem with the post-flight two-hour drive is that it involved two cars since all of us and our stuff wouldn't fit in one (unless we paid 4 times as much and rented a meag-van). So it took a while, and some finagling, and it was hot hot hot (welcome to FL), to get the car seats in the right place. 

We stopped for lunch, my car (me really) opted for the chocolate cookie for dessert while I watched Matthew's car (Matthew really) make the (poor) choice of milk shakes. Needless to say, a future pull over was necessary to remedy a spilled milk shake in the rental car. Can I get a hand raise for who saw this coming? haha 

At one point we stopped at a gas station to pee and it was the most disgusting, filthy bathroom I have ever seen in my life. I mean truly, the thing needed to be burned to the ground. It was so gross that Duncan refused to wash his hands in there... and this is my serious hand washer (every kid really gets progressively grosser from him down). This bathroom made you literally think you were worse off if you actually touched the handle to wash your hands than when you avoided it altogether. (Silent thank you for quads and a low toilet). In the parking lot, Asher spilled his gatorade in his rental car seat (that we had to return that night) so we spent way too much time in the parking lot of the gas station with the horrible bathroom, cleaning up messes. And then we were back on our way. 

We finally arrived at the house and were here for approximately 2.2 seconds while we unloaded the bags. Unfortunately, we had to take the half hour drive to the other airport to return the two rental cars, hopefully we would be back before midnight but it was not looking good at this point. 

While we did stop at the house a quick text was made and an angel descended upon our house bringing amazing gifts... air mattresses, food, tons and tons of food, sheets, blankets, everything we need for a few days of no-stuff-ed-ness. I had been in touch with the local LDS branch and they had people chip in to bring us lots of food! I had no idea ho much help this would be!

Then we set off for the last errand of an already very long day! The way we were returning the cars is that we stopped to fill up and piled all the kids into one, the mini-van. Then Matthew drives to return the car. I circle back and pick him up, and then we circle to OUR mini-van which is parked in short term, load all the kids into IT. He then drops off the mini-van and then I pick him up and we head home to live happily ever after. 

Except for the vomit.

Somewhere in the middle of this process... not somewhere, in between dropping off the two cars... Ian EXPLODED. Wave after wave of vomit during which Duncan said "mom, Ian's vomiting, mom, Ian's vomiting, mom, Ian's vomiting" over and over again (like we didn't know). The problem is that we were on those skinny circle roads at the airport with no place to pull over so we had to muscle through a mile until we got to the parking lot with our van. As soon as we stopped Duncan came flying out of the car... we got the other kids out and proceed to extract Ian out the BACK of the van by tipping the seat back and sliding him backwards onto the ground.

We had stopped at Walmart for pillows and pool noodles (priorities amIright?) so we took the bags off the new pillows and tossed Ian's clothes right into the bag/garbage where they will live forever. Thank goodness there were baby wipes in our van because you know those rental cars were bare bones! We had wipes!!! We made Duncan give his pants to Ian and wait while we proceeded to clean Ian, the car, and the car seat with baby wipes. I mean, for the love, we were turning the stupid car in in three minutes. It couldn't smell like vomit! (And man... did it smell like vomit.)

Done, well enough, we think, and Matthew gets in with all the windows down to return it. He said at the last minute he noticed some chunks so he removed a sock, wiped it off and went in to return the car with one sock on. (That sock also is in the garbage...) I am not sure this story is funny yet but I am hoping it will be someday.

We picked him up and we were on our way. One kid was uncomfortable squished between car seats in the back but somehow no one died and we arrived at our new home at about 12:30 am. At this point we had totally given up on life and told them all to get naked and go jump in the pool. But 'psssst, try to be kind of quiet so we don't make our new neighbors mad!'

Last picture I took of Fitz, sent it to Melissa. Is it any wonder they wanted him? Seriously.
(Don't get all melancholy, the kids haven't ask for him yet 3.5 week slater)

PS. Not very fun.

Day 1

I believe this was the end of day 2 but I might be into day 3.

Nice to not know what's going on...

And day 3. *I* became their only toy.
(PS, I am on the bottom of this pile. That's my leg on the right...)

Last time at Kristen's pool. 

Ami - Like the fairy godmother pied piper - leading my boys away to swim.
Nice to have a break.

Even thought we interrupted her morning pondering... more than once.

Cute Jenna trying to entertain them.

Awesome farewell dinner with Tracy and Shannon.

Japanese places - SO MUCH BETTER with kids!

Don't let the looks fool you... THE WORST.

Asher and Dylie get the plane prize. Winners!

Pawned off this stinker on his dad. C-YA!

First arrival at the house!
Even though we had to leave shortly after this... You know, for vomit-fest 2016.

We give up on this day. Go swim! First nudie-pool encounter.
Not the last.

The lighting isn't great but I think someone told Asa to stop and all the kids
turned to see what he was doing. Hilarious.

Awe shucks, last picture.

Or was it this one...

Whelp, we're going to Florida!

Well, biggest update EVER. In case you haven't heard we moved! Matthew got a job with a new company and they graciously (he's earning it...) moved us to one of the most beautiful places, Florida! I mean, I get to *live* where people vacation! Sold!

In the past we have been approached to move to a few places for his work. New York, Arizona... Meh. To say the least I was luke warm to both... and that's generous. So alas, he's declined the "opportunities" in lieu of staying near his large family and our wonderful neighborhood and circle of friends. Then he got a call that changed everything. Faced with the prospect of potentially getting laid off, he was approached for this new move. And here is me... "Florida? Let's start packing!"

He went to Florida to tour the company site, meet people and see if he liked the area. I chose not to go with him on that trip because arranging sitters would be a pain and he wasn't quite sure about it yet. After he got back he said I should probably go down and check it out. I did... and it was amazing! I looked at a few houses with a realtor while I was there so I could kind of get an idea of the neighborhoods. At that time, a lot of the houses had been on the market for 6 months or more, the market was very slow. It was looking like, depending on how quickly we intended to arrive, this was probably the pool of houses we would have!

The whole job process took a while, a long while, but we got it worked out so we came down to look for a house in March. My niece Eden stayed with Asher, Greyson and Dylan and Ian and Duncan came to see what this whole Florida thing was all about. We really wanted to ease some of their concerns and show them that Florida was almost just like Utah, which was really the end result.

The boys and I took the red eye and met Matthew who had been here all week for work. The boys, of course, slept through the plane ride and were completely unaffected by a midnight flight, I wish I could have said the same thing for myself! You know how that goes.

We had a busy day, with 10 houses lined up to see, all in a row. Crazy. Duncan and Ian's favorite house was basically any house with a pool.... so all of them. My friends had asked me how optional a pool was and I told them it wasn't! It's so hard to get Dylan to a pool, we are in Florida, my kids are going to swim, so I need to bring the pool to me!

We had to be a bit particular on the house. It either has to have a guest room or additional bedroom on the main with the master that could be converted to be Dylan's room. With additional bedrooms to have an office space and playroom since we are losing a basement in this whole process. Just this narrowed down quite a few houses.

By the end of the 10 we narrowed it down to our favorite two, both in the same neighborhood and scheduled appointments to see them and decide the following day. We actually went back and forth between them a few times that following day and ultimately decided to place an offer.Tthe house is slightly fewer square footage than the house in Utah but the houses in Florida look huge because everything is above ground.

It got a little tricky with the house buying the next day but I guess that's what you get sometimes. Turns out they received another lower offer but told them they had ours and they raised it to full price. So we said we would offer full price and of course (and boo hiss!) it went to a best and final. I like the house, but we were kind of in a pinch at this point... we had to find a house that very weekend so we played the game and were ultimately glad they chose our offer. Turns out the offer, which was higher than asking, was quite a bit over appraisal (as was the asking price) so in the end they even had to come down a little. They didn't want to close until their kids were out of school which put our move date even further off in the distance! Worth the wait, I'm still on board.

We took Ian and Duncan to the beach and they loved it! We weren't terribly prepared, I am not even sure why we went on the detour but I am pretty sure they would have stayed in the ocean all day if we would have let them. It was funny! I wish we had prepared better and I could have gone in with them, then we probably could have stayed all day!

Before our flight our we went to Legoland which honestly? Was just okay. It was spring break and it's more of a locals park so it was packed! They don't manage the lines as well as Disney and the rides (once you got on them) were far too short. Moving past the rides we landed at mini-USA where they had recreated cities and landmarks with Lego's. While looking sun bleached and slightly run down, the boys thought it was awesome and it was by far the best part of the entire park! Lego - stick to what you know. Legoland: Fail. We probably won't go back unless some serious begging happens.

While we were in Florida we got to meet my long time imaginary friend Megan and her family. I mean seriously... should it take 8 years to meet a friend? No... but also worth the wait. We ate at a restaurant with a beach view and got to watch the sun go down over the water. Straight up dreamy. Let's play again Megan.

Matthew continued to travel back and forth, and to a few different site locations, starting in March while we flied solo and finished out the school year. One of the times he was gone was for 10 days, he went out of the country, and by the time he got back we were totally smooth sailing, and he came and kind of threw his wrench into things. We just had to keep finding our new normal, every week, off and on, for a few months.  I am not going to lie... this was hard. For the love, I just wanted to be all in the same place! In between was not cool, not cool at all. Though it did make finally leaving a bit easier because that end goal became even more shiny after such a log hard wait!

Our house in Utah sold the first weekend with very minor issue which was a blessing. It was an amazing house in an amazing neighborhood and it was really hard to leave it not knowing if we would ever like a house and a place as much but alas, it was happening anyway. The goodbye's were beginning to get a little rough.

Before we got to the Florida house it got two visitors. My also imaginary running friend Kristen (though we have met, several times) was passing through she made her family stop. I am trying to talk them into buying the house across the street... maybe, you never know...  And Jessica, who did us a huge favor. The previous owners left their garbage which stunk (literally and figuratively) because weren't going to be there to put it out until we arrived a couple weeks later! (Thanks previous owners. Thanks a lot.) Jessica and Steve took it out for us! Also trying to talk Jessica into buying the house across the street... made more progress with her than Kristen buand there's still time. Come on friends!

I posted a few of the original pictures of the house.... understand... it looks a little like pottery barn tossed up on it and you know us, it will NEVER LOOK LIKE THIS AGAIN. I mean, let's just be honest, right now it's a complete disaster! This no basement thing is a real killer!

On the plane and ready to go!

 

Me giving them eye daggers. Why do they get to sleep and I don't.
Adulting. Pshaw.

 

Cute boys at the beach.

 

They were totally fascinated!

 

This is Megan. Not so imaginary any more eh?

 

Didn't do the sun set justice.

 

Looks like I was feeling it right? Nope, faking it.

 

Well this is pretty cute, Duncan wouldn't stand by it.

 

Ian in the airport on the way home. He is such a charmer.

He made all kinds of new friends as he explained Pokemon to them.

 

Out with the old.

 

She is certainly pretty...

 

Not gonna lie. Best part. Hands down. No battle.

 

Kristen pointing to an empty house.

(We were so close, yet so far away...)