The Big Move

We made it! We arrived in Houston yesterday afternoon and we are settling in nicely in our temporary home - Jeff's parents' house. We are already scoping out the housing situation. We drove around today and looked at the outsides  of a few houses we are interested in (our realtor is on vacation this week and we have to wait for her before we go inside) and their surrounding neighborhoods. We've got a few good prospects. 

I am starting to come to terms with the humidity. During the hottest hours of the day, after being in a cool air-conditioned space, walking outside into the wet heat kind of feels like a hot flash. I'm not sure if I've technically had one of those before, but I've experienced something that I would describe as a hot flash and that is exactly what I felt when I walked back outside after being in CVS this afternoon. However, I am enjoying my fabulously voluminous, curly hair - the humidity's gift to me. And at least sweating for no reason any time I'm outside will probably be great for my pores. I'm sure I will get used to it and if the humidity is the only problem I have with this seriously fantastic place, I think we're in great shape! Plus, I hardly even notice it since every indoor area is air-conditioned. Plus, plus, we plan to buy a house with a pool and in the meantime we have one right next door that is completely at our disposal. Problem solved! (pretty much).

Also, I went running this morning. I sweat like a pig in the humidity, but going from a 6, 910 ft. elevation to a 43 ft. elevation, I can suddenly breathe like Aquaman and the gorgeous big trees in every direction make for a beautiful and shady run. Yep. I think I'm going to love this place.

Anyway, on to the point of this post - the move itself. We started the 16.5 hour drive from Flagstaff to Houston on Friday, July 8th after the moving company packed up all of our stuff and we did some last minute cleaning in the apartment.

This is a familiar scene. We took a picture very similar to this one when we moved from Provo to Flagstaff, of a neglected Luke having a bottle while Jeff and I finished cleaning. The only difference is, in this picture, Luke is 10 months older and holding his own bottle.

One final family shot in our empty Flagstaff apartment.

On the road. Luke offered to take a turn driving.

"What are we listening to?"

"Let's change that."

"There's got to be something good on!"

"Much better!"

That night, Luke decided "dancing" means waving your arms like crazy in every direction.

He inadvertently hit himself in the face more than once, but at least he was having fun!

Our first stop was at our good friend Steve's place in Albuquerque. Steve was one of Jeff's roommates at BYU and remains one of his best friends to this day. The last time we saw him, I was 8 months pregnant and Steve's now 15-month-old son, Kole was only 2 months old.

We arrived at Steve's apartment pretty late at night and Kole, was already asleep, but that didn't stop us from visiting out in the living room for a couple of hours before hitting the hay. Luke insisted on staying up with us too.

The next morning, Kole and Luke got to meet for the first time and play with some of Kole's toys. It was really fun to see them together.

When everyone was ready to go, we set off for the Albuquerque zoo.

I had to sit between Kole and Luke in the back seat. It was a little snug.

Checking out the gorillas at the zoo. It was really fun to watch these two former roommates being such awesome new dads.

This gorilla was eying me. I don't think he appreciated me taking pictures of him.

This big guy was right next to a viewing window, but when I pointed him out to Luke, I don't think Luke understood that he was looking at a live animal. He loves animals, but unless he can touch or interact with them, they could just be big stuffed animals for all he knows. That was the story with most of the animals at this zoo, but we still had a good time.

These African Hunting Dogs were so cool looking. It was hard to get a good picture of just how interesting the patterns and colors on their fur was, but you can get an idea from these pictures. The coolest part was the super defined orange, black and white leopard pattern on and around their legs.

This was a pretty terrible picture of Jeff (you can see how bad the lighting was in the picture above and in this one he was making a sneeze face), but it's a really cute one of Steve and Kole so I cropped it. Poor Luke got cut out by default.

Luke wanted to go play with the rhinocerous.

Checking out the zebras.

Giraffes have really long tongues!

It was pretty warm outside so Jeff and Steve took the boys to play in the water.

They got pretty wet.

Luke loved it!

Kole wasn't so sure.

Pretty wet already, but they went back for more.

Steve positioned Kole in just the right spot to get soaked by one of the spurts of water

Kole didn't appreciate it.

Luke was drenched by the end, but he didn't mind one bit.

The boys were fascinated by the sea lions swimming by.

Azlan!

Jeff lifted sleepy Luke up in his stroller to see the polar bears.

We saw all kinds of awesome animals at the zoo. The adults may have enjoyed most of them a little more than the kids did, but we all had a pretty good time.

When we got home, Luke took a nap and Steve's brother Ben's family came over to barbeque and go swimming.

Luke tried out  Ben's kids' floaties for a little while.

We had a blast with everyone in the pool and Luke was a little fish and loved every minute of it, as usual.

That night, we went to a very yummy sub sandwich restaurant called Firehouse Subs and went next door for frozen yogurt for dessert.

Luke got a plastic fireman helmet at the restaurant.

We finished off a great day watching The Saint before bed.

The next morning, we packed up, said goodbye to Steve and got back on the road. We drove 7 hours that day, all the way to Abilene, Texas and we passed through both a Fisher County and a Lamb County on the way. Pretty cool. We checked into our hotel and then hit IHOP for dinner. Breakfast for dinner. The best.

Luke entertained himself while we waited for our food by removing and replacing all of the sugar and sweetner packets on the table.

Jeff tried to organize the packets into piles, but Luke would have none of that. Apparently, the boy likes chaos.

Back at the hotel, Luke was so happy to finally be out of the car. And he was even happier when Daddy took him swimming in the hotel pool that night.

 The next morning, we had a yummy continental breakfast, complete with Texas-shaped waffles and then hit the road for our final day of driving.

Luke is finally getting the hang of drinking his bottle by himself in the car.

But he still struggles.

Who knew a jogging stroller tire would be the source of so much entertainment?

We stopped for a short tour of the Blue Bell Ice Cream factory. It was nice to have a little break from driving before tackling the final hour to Jeff's parents' house.

The tour ended with generous helpings of deeelicious Blue Bell ice cream. Jeff chose Rocky Road, while I had Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. Luke helped himself to both.

Luke slept just about the entire way from the factory to the house, much to Jeff's and my delight.

What the? hahaha!

When we finally arrived at the Fishers' house, were all so happy to finally be done driving! And to see the family! Luke did surprisingly well on the long drive. It wasn't exactly a walk in the park, but it could have been much worse so we were grateful for that and we were especially grateful to be done!

Luke was welcomed with some belated birthday gifts. He also got a life jacket for our cruise in August and a cute blow-up ring to float in in the pool.

 We decided to take Luke's new pool toy for a test run in the next-door-neighbor, Elaine's pool. Jeff and his brothers grew up swimming in that pool anytime they wanted and Elaine is still happy to have us over for a swim anytime. This pleases us. Especially Luke.

Luke and Grandpa. They are best buds already.

Luke playing with Grandma and Grandpa

Jeff and Kyle played an intense game of catch with this water rocket.

Notice the stylish eye wear.

Jeff shot Luke in the face with water from this pool noodle. Luke was amused.

Luke laughed so hard at Grandpa dangling this noodle in his face.

Just get this baby in a pool, and he is one happy camper.

Grandma and Luke playing patty-cake

Luke decided to be a polite guest and pull some weeds before we left.

We are so excited to finally be here in a place that is a good fit for our family and to be near family that we love. I'm really sad that we can't be near my family as well. I know I'll miss them. I always do, but we will visit as much as we can. I want those wonderful people that I love so much to be as big a part of my kids' life as possible. I guess you can't have everything you want, but living here, we have more than most people could hope for. We really are so very blessed and I know we can be so happy here. We can't wait to move into our own house and see what the future has in store for us!