The past couple months have been a complete whirlwind for our family. After spending 6 months in a Residence Inn in Madison, Wisconsin, Michael finally got the call at the end of August that he would be the new Branch Manager for his company's Houston, Texas location. We had been waiting for this call for over a year but once it finally came, it just seemed so surreal!
They didn't give us much time to even think about it since they wanted us there the first week of October. We packed up all of our stuff, which wasn't much since we left most of our belongings in Idaho, and hit the road on September 5th.
We wanted to drive home a different way than we came so we decided to go through Minnesota, South Dakota, and Wyoming with a pit stop at Mount Rushmore since Michael and Elliot had never seen it. It was a welcome stop to get out and stretch our legs. Elliot took off running and absolutely did not want to go back in his car seat afterwards. But who could blame him after 2 days of being buckled in a chair I would probably run away at the first chance I got too!
It was a very long 3 days in the car and I swear I could feel my pores shriveling up as we drove further and further from Wisconsin's humidity. It always amazes me how the landscape changes as you drive. This really is a beautiful country we live in and we have been so lucky to see so much of it.
Michael was only home for two days before he had to fly to Houston and take the reins of his new office so we saw what family we could, washed a few loads of laundry and then he left for Houston and Elliot and I started packing, and cleaning and packing some more. After living in a hotel for 6 months with hardly any belongings, I think I had forgotten how much stuff we actually owned! Michael tried to find us a new place to live while he was in Texas but came back home without much luck.
We spent the next week and a half seeing as much family and friends as possible, and I am sad to say that we didn't quite make the rounds to everyone and I also was not very diligent about taking pictures when we did see our family and friends.
Moving is time consuming and apparently A LOT of work. I don't remember our previous moves being so labor intensive. That said, we had never lived anywhere else that long (almost 5 years), we had never moved with a kid before and we had definitely never moved cross-country before. Needless to say, with the help of our amazing family and friends we did eventually cross the finish line. We got our U-haul packed up and our house cleaned spic-and-span in just 2 days before we had to hit the road. We also finally locked down a place to live just two days before we left Idaho. Talk about stressful!
Moving to Texas has been bittersweet. We were extremely sad to leave all of our family and friends but we are so excited for this new adventure. We are ready to start our next chapter and experience everything that is in store for us. Here's hoping this chapter is a good one!
