Our Trip Etc....

Okay, so I am going to try and write about our adventures over the past 2 weeks, it's been busy so bear with me : )

First I will start with saying goodbye to friends in Texas. My grandmom was there helping us, (thank goodness cause without her I don't know how we would have done it) the moving truck was dropped off on Tuesday and we had to load it ourselves. My silly husband refused to call for help so he basically loaded everything himself while I was running Ella to doctor's appointments (she had just been in the hospital with RSV and pnemonia) having her therapy appointments, and frantically trying to throw last minute crap in boxes so they could be loaded up. Somewhere in there we spent 4 hours on base waiting to have our taxes done, ugh, but we got a nice refund so I won't complain too much. Wednesday our Pastor called and asked how it was going, luckily I answered the phone and told him Chris was loading the truck by himself, so the Pastor rounded up 3 teenage boys and they came with him and helped Chris get the last of the heavy stuff. Thursday afternoon the moving company came and picked up the truck, then began the cleaning of the house, we rented and when we moved in there we had 2 dogs so we had to put down a huge deposit and wanted to make sure we got all of it back!! Also we went to dinner that night with our best friends Jen and Brian. Here are some pics.....


This is Hunter with "Bonnie's Boys" These 3 teenage boys were always SO sweet to Hunter and played with him when their mom watched him. They actually requested this pic, and said that they felt like he was their little brother.





This is Ella and Savannah, who were in no mood for pics. Savannah's mommy and I are best friends and our girls are about a week apart.









Ella thinks it's cool that she is leaning against the wall being a big girl









Hee hee, it's funny I am in the corner, bet she will be there a lot in the future : )







So, we did not finish cleaning the house until 3AM then we went and checked into billiting on base. We finally went to bed at 3:50am and were up by 8 the next morning because Chris had his final out appt with the Air Force. I dropped my grandmom off at her shuttle back to Dallas at 11:30 so she could catch her plane back to Atlanta. Then the plan was for Chris and I to meet at Jen's house, so by the time he got there it was 1pm and we were all hungry so we went to lunch. Then we had to say our goodbyes, and after tons of tears we left her house to go finish our running around, drop off the cable box, turn in house key, pay water etc etc. Did I mention that we wait till the last second for EVERYTHING!!!!


Here we are at our Pastor's house saying goodbye right before we left. My poor kids are surrounded by 800 lbs of crap in the van!






So, we were finally on the road at 4:30pm. I kept singing the George Straight song "Amarillo by Morning" which Chris did not find funny. And guess what, that's as far as we made it, Amarillo. A whole 220 miles. The next day was a very long day. Let me just say that Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado (all except Denver) and Wyoming are extremly flat and boring!!!!!



Here is my delirious husband, giving a thumbs up for the beautiful scenery in the background.








Here is my sleeping angel.













My goofy boy making his "funny" face.




It was a very long trip, 1730 miles. We did it in 2 long days and 2 half days. Ugh. So we pull into Spokane on Monday at 4pm and come to our apartment's office, and guess what they decided to close an hour early to run errands. So, we called the cell phone listed for emergencies and at 6:30 we finally were let into our apartment. So we unload 800 lbs of crap out of the van and then I notice that they hadn't really cleaned the apartment. It wasn't disgusting or anything but the carpet hadn't been cleaned, the sinks etc, and after busting my butt cleaning the house we just left I was not going to accept the apartment this way!!! But since it was night time we blew up our air matresses, set up the pack and play, gave the kids a bath and went to bed.




The kids it thier first bath together.







7AM I am sleeping about as well as one can on an air matress when I hear Ella dry heaving in her room. Of course I go running in there just in time to see her barf, now it had been 12 hours since she ate dinner and there it was undigested. Oh well I thought must have just not set well with her.
Later that day Chris and Hunter go out to shovel a path for when the moving truck gets here so they can unload the truck. Of course they take some time out to play in the snow!




Muscle men!! See the mountains in the back : )








Hunter's sad little snow man, the weather was warming up fast and the snow was melting even faster.






Chris' dad was supposed to fly in on Wednesday from Chicago but they had a snow storm there so he was unable to get here until Thursday night. Friday morning the moving truck shows up. We had the carpets cleaned on Wednesday so we had to be out all day so they could dry. Meanwhile Ella had been vomitting all week, no fever, no runny nose, I was completly puzzled. So Friday morning at 5 am I hear the heaving run in there and she was trying really hard to barf but there was nothing left in her. So, I called Texas to figure out what I was supposed to do. I was not sure where we stood on our insurance, luckily since Chris last day in the Air Force was a Sunday he was covered through the week. So, I took her into the ER at the children's hospital. They gave her an IV, did blood work, and X-rays. Her lungs looked good, they could still see the pnemonia but it looked like it was getting better. Her abdominal X-ray showed that she was full of poop!!! So, aparently 4 days in a car seat severly stopped her up. It never dawned on me that would be the problem because she had gone a couple of times on the road, which I remember because one of those time she peed in Chris' seat in the van : ) Anyhow, she had to spend the night stay on the IV and they started her on Miralax. By the next morning she had just done one little pellet so they did the suppository and that did the trick, though not the explosion I was looking for. SO, Saturday afternoon we came home, still on Miralax, but feeling better and able to eat! I walked in the door to my apartment totally exhausted to a house full on boxes. Fun fun fun.

On Monday Chris started work. We were able to go to the ceramony where he was officially sworn in as a police officer, it was pretty cool.


Chris and the chief of police.

So proud of you honey!!!







The lady in white is the chief of police and she is very nice. Chris had told her about Ella in the interview he had with her before he was hired. She told him that she is friends with the Congress woman from here who had the baby this past year with Down syndrome. Anyhow at this ceremony she came up and was talking to us and Ella dove at her. She was holding Ella and talking to her and asked her is she was going to be a special olympian. It was cute. I was too nervous to really pay attention because right before we left for the ceremony the Miralax decided to kick in and Ella pooed all over herself. So looking at the chiefs white jacket I just kept praying that Ella didn't ruin it : ) As we were leaving the chief told us that on Feb 23rd she is doing a polar bear plunge (where crazy people jump in frozen lakes) to raise money for the Special Olympics. Awesome lady! Anyhow Chris started the academy on Wednesday and will be doing that for 18 weeks. Chris' dad left yesterday. It's just me and the kiddos during the day now, it seems so strange. But my mom will be here next Monday for 3 weeks to do stuff for their house that is being built!




Here is a pic of Ella and PaPa (Chris' dad) So sweet!






And finally here are some pics I took of the kids last night during their bath, which they absolutly love taking together!!!





























You should have seen the mess!!!