Following months of busy-ness and fun with soccer, friends, a budding photography business, and a flurry of packing as we awaited Matt’s return, he finally came home from Navy Band school.  We said hello to one another and good-bye to our Jacksonville friends, and we set to work— packing, loading, complaining and swearing, packing, loading, cleaning, and feeling generally exhausted.  As we prepared to move from Florida to Washington, we opted to move ourselves (rather than have the Navy do it for us), and we have yet to see (once we get the final check from the Navy) whether or not it was worth it (especially considering the avalanche that was our stuff when we opened the truck at our destination— painting my furniture before our move was just not smart).

But then we got into the car and headed on our road trip across the country, which really was pretty exciting.  Together again as a family, heading toward our new life.  It’s all a blur now, but I remember it being part stressful, part exhausting (lack of adequate sleep meant all of us got terrible colds along the way), part uncertain (no service means no GPS and no ability to find hotels in the middle of nowhere).  We had late nights and terrible motel rooms, bickering kids, lack of time, and changing plans.  But, at the same time, our kids were very mellow and easy road-trippers now that they are older and more experienced with it, Matt and I found our road tripping “groove”, we saw a lot of old and dear friends along our path, we stopped for a vacation in Montana (pics to come!), we felt more and more excitement as we headed back toward the West, and we arrived at our new home safely.

All is well, and more pics are on the way.