It started with a 3 hour drive to Dathan's house to drop off Izzy and TRY to get a wink of sleep before we had to wake up at 3 am! I hardly slept at all. My mind was cranking and was so excited for the whole trip. I think I got MAYBE 3 hours. We woke up and left their house at 4:15 am and drove to Manchester. We parked the truck and walked to the check-in. Jaycee was SUCH A GOOD girl. She was so tired but she got her back pack on and walked as fast as her little legs could. We got to Southwest and the line was outrageous-it was 5am. Our plane LEAVES at 6:20 meaning boarding is usually about 6. My stomach dropped. Luckily we got through the line pretty quick and I was thankful for the workers who were so patient with us and checking in bags and car seats. After we walked super fast to security. One advantage of traveling with kids-they let us right in and didn't have to wait. We walked through and checked our watch....5:35. Perfect! Hadi was strapped to my chest and Jaycee talking to every person around and telling about her trip to Utah. We got on the flight quick since they let you board earlier since we have kids. We flew to Chicago so it was about a 2 1/2 hour flight. Only problem is we sat in the plane for a good 20 minutes while they "checked skis!" Jaycee did so good and played and looked out the window. Hadi slept and ate pretty much. Right as we get into Chicago it was about 10 minutes til our next plane left! I was kinda freaking out. We darted off the plane, Craig picked up Jaycee and we ran. We walked right on and everyone was already boarded. Bad thing is the only seats available were middle seats sporadic over the flight. I was so annoyed not one person would move so at least Craig could sit by Jaycee. The stuardess got on the PA and had to offer free alcohol til finally someone volunteered. Craig sat in the very front with Jaycee. I got stuck in a middle seat clear in the back. I was dreading feeding Hadley because it'd be awkward right between 2 strangers, but it went just fine. It quickly relieved my phobia of nursing in public. We arrived in Salt Lake! With time change we got in at 11:30 am. (7 hours of travel)
Hadley right before we left for NH
First stop in Utah...COSTA!!! We were starving!
Jaycee opening birthday presents from Grandma & papa Parker
We had a blast at Chuck E Cheese. It was so fun to see everyone and talk all night. I couldn't believe how fast time was flying. I loved seeing everyone and especially all the hugs. It felt right at home. Jaycee had so much fun playing and she needed it especially after a long day of traveling...although I can't complain. My kids are so so good. Thank you everyone for taking time to drive to Layton and spend your night with us. I just feel so blessed to be loved by both families and able to sneak in this trip to see everyone!
Jaycee and Aunt Sheri opening her birthday present
Rylee and Hadley getting cuddle time. I still can't get over how adorable that little girl is and how much she has grown. Seems like yesterday she was born. In fact all our grandkids are so freakin cute! Wowee we make cute babies.
We woke up Wed morning and visited for a while with Jodi and Jordann and Chase. What a great family! And they always make me laugh. Jaycee didn't get up until 10:30!!! She slept forever. Their family had some things to do and Craig had some work to do so I left with the girls and went with Aimee to the wood shop. I was so excited to find really cute letters to make Hadi's name and I hired Aimee to make some cute flowers for the girls' bedroom. Thanks Aimee! She does GREAT work so if you're interested let her make you something :) We then headed to Dawn's where all my sisters, Jason and mom visited. Dawn's house is so so pretty with all her new remodels. And I loved how chatty us girls are when we get together. I'm sorry Aimee about not holding Hadi. I was so busy visiting I didn't take the time to notice who had held her. I was watching the clock and noticed the time clicking by. I knew I had to leave to go pick up Craig but I was def delaying it. Craig text me so that was my sign that I better hurry. We gave hugs and headed out. Driving up to the temple was horrible! The snow had started really heavy and the clock was ticking even faster. I was so afraid we weren't going to make it to the temple in time cuz I still had to feed Hadi since the session was 2 hrs. Also along with the snow were the tears. I was so emotional. I just love my sisters & mom so much. No one can ever replace the spot they take in my heart. I try to put on a brave face but deep inside I ache for them. I have a diff relationship with each of them and that's what makes them so great. My mom is well my mom. That right there defines my love for her. Dawn: man just thinking about her makes me laugh. Things she says and does make me laugh and I think of so many fun times with her....Geesh, Idaho! ha ha! Dalynne: She's the sweet heart that makes sure our family feels loved no matter what. She takes the time to notice EVERY detail about our little family. Aimee: she's my best friend! We've been through so much together over the years. We don't talk nearly as much as I'd like, but I know how busy we both are. All 3 of my sisters are so selfless and would do anything for me or my family. We can be drama sometimes and mad at each other, but isn't that what sisters are about. I just feel so blessed to have them and feel like I need to be a better sister to them.
We arrive at the temple and I give Hadi a quick 20 minute feed and pray that it's enough to hold her over for 2 1/2 hours. Kenny, Jordann and Chase all helped watched our girls as we went through the session with Jodi. What a beautiful night. I had so many things on my mind but there was a calming in my heart. Just with everything. And of course I cried. Thank you Jodi for letting us spend that special night in the Logan temple (ps that's where we got married and I've never been back-that adds to everything!)
We got done and was so glad to see that Hadley wasn't freaking out and Jaycee was so hyper. She kept telling us Jofee was so funny. That's jo-jo's new nickname for our family. It just stuck. We then grabbed Chick Fil A and headed for our 3 hour car ride to Twin Falls. Craig drove for about an hour and started feeling really tired so we switched driving. I hate driving in the ice-scares me-so I didn't drive as fast and took an extra 30 min to get there. We melted into the Super 8 bed and fast asleep the whole family was.
Thurs we woke up at 6 to feed Hadi and Craig had some emails to write and then we took showers and ate breakfast. We left Twin Falls around 9 am to head for Gresham. From there it's about a 8 hour car ride, but ended up taking us 11!!! Hadi decided she just had to eat every 3 hours so stopping for that made it a long car ride. We had to slow down a bit also through the mountain range in Oregon because of ice. This day felt so long! We were never going to get there! I was shocked at the scenery too. We were about an our away from Gresham and it still had the Idaho/Utah look to it. But I had been told once you pass over the cascades it hits the green area. And they were right. It was gorgeous. We got to our hotel and we were so tired after a long day of driving. Jaycee and Hadi were so good though! Once again I'm so grateful for our perfect girls.
Jaycee playing in the car. She mostly played with new toys, watched movies, took a nap and pretty much sat there being good. She's a very patient little girl
It was such a pretty drive
Hadi hanging out in the car. I had looked back and noticed she grabbed her toy and was sucking on it. I can't believe she's already big enough to do that. I'm so in love with this baby!
Friday was BUSY! We met our realtor and sat in his office making a game plan on what houses to go see. We decided if we want to live in Battle Ground that we wanted Jaycee to go to the new school and it's supposedly really good. So it took about 5 houses out of the pool to look at. We took all day looking at the 8 homes and finding different things we liked about each. It got a bit confusing so I'm glad I took notes. We also really enjoyed our time with Mr. Dougie (as Jaycee called him). He was wonderful. He told us about the area and drove us around to different places. At the end of the day we decided on 2 houses we wanted to go back and see the next day and decided on one house as our "settle house" if the others didn't work out. We dropped him off at his office and we went on to feed Hadi and get some dinner. Jaycee fell asleep and woke up crying to bad because Doug wasn't with us. It was actually pretty cute. She bonded so well with him and he acted like a grandpa to her. We went to BDubs for dinner in Vancouver and back to the hotel. It was a very fun day to look at houses but also was very overwhelmed with prices and all the options. We said a prayer and hoped to relax a bit on deciding which one. I was grateful though that we had more than one option.
Saturday we woke up with a game plan to go to Ridgefield, the other city, to check out one house and revisit 2 other homes. I had a great feeling about the Ridgefield house and we both were in shock that we could afford such a nice house like that. We were running a bit late with feedings and Jaycee waking up late. But it was her birthday so we didn't want to rush her. We even let her open her birthday presents before we left. She got 3 backyardigans dolls & a Tinker bell movie. She was so excited to bring them. For 3 hours in the morning while getting ready I was just saying silent prayers about what to do and I kept getting calming feelings about the house we were gonna see. I was a little frustrated that I went through 8 houses the day before and never got the "feeling" I was hoping for. That was huge to me, but I know it might not happen too. Well we met Doug and headed for Ridgefield. It was located right off the freeway which is a plus for Craig commuting and instantly I loved the area. It was gorgeous. Trees everywhere and hills. It had a Washington/Oregon feel but yet a Utah feel. I felt so at home. We opened the door and I was shocked. It was so pretty. It only took me a quick 5 minutes before I grinned ear to ear and got the feeling I hoped for. This was it!!! Craig kept saying, calm down, we still need to go upstairs. It was so pretty and I just imagined raising our children in this house! I didn't want to leave! But I knew we had other appoitments that we needed to be at. Battle ground was a short 10 minute drive away and we re-visited the homes. The owner was home at my other dream house so it was actually nice talking to her. We then headed back to Doug's office to talk and get the offer started. We decided to offer on the Ridgefield home first.
Homes #1-3 in order of our liking.
We then finished all the paper work and decided to let Jaycee enjoy her magic day. We went to Winco (man groceries are so much cheaper in Wa than Maine!) and hoped to find a cake for her to pick out. She got a donut instead. Then we headed back to Gresham and actually found a McDonald playground to play at. She was so happy! We let her play for a good hour and then headed back to the hotel to let her blow out her candle. She was so excited about that.
We took a visit to the temple. Very beautiful!
Jaycee eating her birthday dinner she chose.
Us being silly. Craig and his wide eyes so the flash doesn't make them shut. ha ha
Birthday girl playing with some new friends
Even Hadi had a great time. Minus her goopy eye. Somehow she ended up getting a cold and goopy eyes after this trip.
Ronald ha ha
Happy Birthday to you!
Hopefully her wish was a new house
Sunday we had made last minute plans to go to church in Ridgefield and check out the ward along with ask some ppl about what they think. It was such a great idea. It didn't start until 11 so it was perfect to sleep in a bit and go. The ward was so big! We talked to the bishop and there's about 300 active that come on Sundays along with 67% active in the whole ward. We were shocked. And plus there were kids everywhere! A nice girl stopped us and we talked to her and she told us there were 2 nurseries and lots of primary kids. It was exactly the place I was hoping we could find for Jaycee. We had such a good feeling. We then got some lunch, fed and headed to the airport. Our flight was at 6pm but we wanted to be early so we could get seats together. We got there at 4pm to check in and it was great timing. The airport even had toys and Dora so Jaycee was in heaven. We boarded and off we went. The first flight was a 2 1/2 hour flight to Phoenix and Jaycee was out of control hyper. That was rough. Then we had a 2 1/2 hour layover and we grabbed some sandwiches and let Jaycee run, run run! The next flight left at 11:45 Utah time and was a 4 1/2 hour flight to Philadalphia. I didn't realize until the flight was over but I think I slept nearly the whole thing. It was uncomfortable but owell. Jaycee crashed also. Then we had another 1 1/2 layover to arrive in Manchester. We were so ready to be home and get some sleep. The last flight was about 1 hr 15 min and I don't remember any of it. I and the girls were out cold. We quickly got to Kel's to pick up Izzy and headed for home. We finally got home after another 3 hour car drive home. I slept half of it. We were spent. We had spent many hours & hours traveling in just one little week. What a trip! Jaycee and Hadley did so well and so glad they were with us as a family to pick out our new house.
We did hear back about our first offer but still waiting to see what happens next. I will be sure to update when it happens.
Congrats on the excitement of the move :) I had to laugh... We ate at that Bdubs in Vancouver about a million times when we lived up there. Good luck with everything!!
ReplyDeleteOh, and be sure to go on a date night to see a movie at Cinetopia. It is a living room style movie theater with an awesome restaurant. I miss it!
ReplyDeleteImjealous that you get a house! Someday...
ReplyDelete