We pulled out of Lincoln CA on June 30th, bound for what we will call home for a while: Vienna, Virginia. But before heading east, we went straight south and then east on I-10 to take a quick detour in Houston. Of course we did need to pick up our briefly estranged children Millie and Justin, who would have been happy to stay with Nana and Papa for the duration of their summer, and probably the rest of their childhood lives! We also planned to spend a little time in Houston, or at least I did, to give Neal and his dad a headstart on our "fixer-upper" home waiting to be "polished up a bit" :)
Our three day drive in two separate vehicles, each with a trailer and single child in tow, went pretty smooth, with exception of the first day. I think we were on the road for barely three hours when the trailer I happened to be towing, BLEW A TIRE!! Awesome. And we were on I-5 in the middle of nowhere. So we had to take a detour to some random town 45 minutes off the freeway to get it fixed. This put us behind schedule about 3-4 hours. Fighting the exhaustion and extremely heavy eyelids, Neal and I thankfully pulled into Phoenix safely at 2:30am. Thank goodness the next two days were shorter and much less eventful. We arrived in Houston the evening of July 2nd.
Kathryn and Sam blessed Baby Ivy in Katy on Sunday July 3rd, which was great so we could have an excuse to go and see them and the rest of my family. After the blessing we got to hang out a bit with my parents, Kelli and Shaun and their kids, and Meghan and her kids as well. Thanks to Kathy, Sam's mom for having all of us as well as their whole family over for lunch! It was so delicious and so great to see everyone!
Monday was July 4th. We haven't been together for the 4th of July in about 5 years, so it was just really cool to be together. We went to the Friendswood parade and little carnival, and then went to fireworks that evening after eating yummy fajitas at Neal's parents house. On Tuesday we spent the day at the beach, which was a blast for everyone! Neal spent the whole time surf fishing, just like old times. And the kids thought that was great! Its a good thing no one got attacked by a shark, since Neal caught several little tiny sharks!
Neal and his dad loaded up the trailers and left first thing Wednesday morning and arrived in Vienna on Thursday night. I will write about all the insane and really amazing work they did transforming our old house in another post.
After the guys left, the kids and I spent the next week doing everything from hanging out with my parents and their two exchange students Gin and Safwan, to going on a ferry ride in Galveston, and also hanging with Roxanne and Ethan and Aiden at their neighborhood pool. We spent the night with Kelli and went to the pool with she (& Alexa and Michael) and Kat (& Ivy) and Jennifer (& Wyatt of course) which was such a blast! During our down time, we loved just chilling at Nana's house with Ryan and Tonya, as well as some of Neal's other family and enjoyed hanging out and trying not to cram our lives with too much, knowing that the move was enough stress by itself. The following Wednesday, Nana and I and the kids hit the road for Vienna, Virginia.
Beach Day
Backyard fun at Mema and Grandpa's
Kathryn and her cute baby Ivy.
McDs with Mema and Grandpa
We were being silly at Mom's place and Kari felt a little left out.
Kelli decided to take a pic of the txting.
Very funny.
Waiting for the Ferry
Justin wasn't sure about the ferry right at first. The very unpredictable horn was not his favorite part. By the end, I think he enjoyed it.
Noah just wanted more candy.
I took a few family pictures for Kelli and her family on Sunday night after she fed us all dinner. Mom and Dad and their exchange students, and Kat and Sam also joined us for dinner.
Cute family!!
Sweet Millie and Alexa.
Millie and Justin had fun with Wyatt!
1 comment:
I am so sad I missed you guys when you were here!! Next time you are here, we have to get together. Your kids are just beautiful!!
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