Day Three - North Dakota here we come!

Today we got going around 8am and only had a little over six hours to drive to get to Grand Forks, ND. The day was uneventful and we made it to Uncle Tim, Auntie Lindsey, Luke and Jacks house. The kids hit it off like they always do and within minutes were running around the house playing. Within a few hours Emma had them playing that she was the queen and they would do whatever she wanted them to do. John was able to play in a tennis league with Tim and we took them to the park to play. It was so great to be out of the car and even greater to spend some time with family. Pictures to come.

Day Two

Today we made it from Greenburg, IN to Eau Claire, WI a total of 550 miles. We got going at 8am, stopped twice, and made it to our destination at 5:15 gaining an hour. I thought the kids did great on our first day. They did even better on our second day. They slept a large portion of the afternoon and between watching movies, coloring, and listening to music there was very little whining. Here is a photo of them in the car after 9 hours of traveling. Still goofy and smiling. Shortly after this photo they had a cheeto fight which consisted of them throwing cheetos at eachother, mommy and daddy, and anywhere they thought was funny. Whatever makes them this happy in this long of a car ride is fine with me :)

We made great time so I was able to find a hotel with an indoor water park to stop at for the night. We ate dinner, checked in and hit the park. The kids had a blast and hopefully ran off some energy to make it through one more long day of driving until we get to take a break and play with cousins. North Dakota here we come!!!

Emma "Come on!! Let's go swimming!!"

Cross Country Road Trip - Day One

We said our last goodbyes and cried as we drove out of Greensboro. It was so sad leaving all of our good friends but but that is for another post that I can't quite bring myself to write.

Today we made it from Greensboro to Greensburg, Indiana. A little over 500 miles and 10 hours of travel time. The kids did GREAT in the car. Watched a few movies, ate some snacks, took naps and only got restless right before our stops.

We ate lunch at a rest stop like you should on all good road trips.

The hotel we stayed at had a broken pool so we were able to go to the local YMCA to swim instead. It was a good break from sitting in the car. Getting them to go to sleep was a challenge but at 10 pm everything was quiet and John and I were able to start looking at places to live online (oh did I mention that we are officially homeless and literally living out of our van?)

All in all we couldn't have asked for a better travel day.

The Big Move and Saying Goodbye

After a week of packing we were ready to move everything into our POD where it will stay for a month and a half. We had a large group of friends come over for the day to help us load up the POD and get our house cleaned up. As you can see, we had our work cut out for us.....

I didn't get pictures of everyone that came to help us move but we are so appreciative of everyone that helped. Moving our family across the country was no easy task and I do not know how we would have done it without the help of our Greensboro Family. Thank you so much for everyone that helped....

On our last day in town we took our last walk down Walker to the local restaurants and said goodbye to our empty house. It was really hard. This place is home for us....

What was even harder was saying goodbye to our good friends. We are going to be lost in California without our dear friends.

We love and miss you all (you know who you are) so much! It definitely has not sunk in that we are not heading back to Greensboro. Thank you for making Greensboro our home for six years. We hope to see you all in California in the near future.....

Emma's 4th Birthday

After our Pell Family birthday party we went into full packing mode. Emma's birthday landed right in the middle of our packing week so we took the week off and spent the day celebrating instead of packing. We started our morning off with chocolate chip pancakes and then we were off to the movies to watch Shrek 4.

Then for lunch, Five Guys, our current family favorite....

And then we were off for afternoon tea. Emma insisted on wearing her princess dress.....

Kristen treated us to tea for Emma's birthday.

Words cannot begin to express how much I love this girl. Can't believe she is already four years old. I love watching her grow into a little girl but miss my baby at the same time. She is growing up too fast!!

Sleep Over with Kai

Kai invited Emma over for a sleep over. They have grown up together and the best of friends. Angie said that they were up late, woke up early and had a great time...

Some late night ice cream....




And Pancakes for breakfast.....
Thanks Kai for a great sleep over. Emma had so much fun!!

Beach Camping

In June we went camping with the Phipps family and we all slept in this tent...

Yep, Angie, Greg, Kai (3 yrs old), Blayze (10 months old), me, John, Emma (almost 4), and Johnny (almost 2) all in one huge tent. We were all pretty proud of ourselves for accomplishing a two night beach camping trip with kids this age. The kids did not go to bed till around 10pm each night and we ended up driving Johnny and Emma around in the van the second night to get them to sleep but once we went to bed the night was pretty uneventful.

Notice Emma is still in her pretty dress. I can't believe I have a daughter that camps in a dress...

Johnny enjoyed his marshmallow and was very dissapointed he couldn't roast it on this short stick....


This is what Johnny looked like most of the time at the campsite. I wouldn't have been surprised to see him rolling in the dirt while we were there. And most of the time he wouldn't wear his shoes....He loved camping!

A little snooze on our way.....

The Beach!!!! The kids were at great ages for a beach trip. Emma and Kai played all day long, Johnny played half day then dozed off with John in the shade, and Blayze ate as much sand as he could get in his mouth.

On day Three we packed up and spent the morning at the aquarium...

Johnny LOVED the fish. He just ran around the entire time we were at the aquarium shrieking "ish"...





We have loved our beach trips in North Carolina and this trip with our good friends was a great way to say goodbye to our east coast beaches.....