We made it! Details of our whirlwind move!

We made it. And it feels. SO. GOOD.
 After a week of packing the house by myself, Joel got home from a week in Tullahoma just in time to pack this big beauty:

Then he left for his first training in Atlanta on Monday and flew home on Wednesday night and we left around 5am on Thursday morning. The 25 hour drive was relatively peaceful until we got to the horrendous state of Wyoming. I listened to an audiobook every time the girls fell asleep, and it sure helped pass the time!

(Bad quality phone pics, sorry!)

We made it 10 hours on the first day to St. Joseph, MO
 8 hours the next day to Cheyenne, WY
...and it was supposed to be a quick 6 1/2 hours on the last day, but it ended up being more like 8 hours thanks to a terrible ice storm and then a huge wreck that stopped us for almost an hour. Miserable.

Summer was a happy little traveler, such a blessing!

One of the hardest parts was trying to contain the girls' energy once we stopped for the evening in our hotels. They trashed the hotel room (breaking glasses, wooden hangers, TV remotes, etc) within about 20 minutes of checking in. They loved to run the hallways after being strapped in a carseat all day!

For anyone doing a long roadtrip with toddlers, I wouldn't recommend it without 1) lots and lots of DVDs...I kept them on rotation pretty much the entire trip, 2) random little toys and snacks (RINGPOPS!), and 3) *most importantly* children's benadryl tablets snuck into their lunch each day (totally helped them fall asleep without a fight! see below!)

We tried to be very patient with the girls and had to keep reminding ourselves that they didn't really know what was going on and we were putting them through a stressful situation. Poor little babies. At one point in Wyoming, Summer got a dum-dum sucker completely wrapped around in her hair and it was stuck there. Then she barfed on herself. So we stopped and let them run wild in a Subway until they were good and tired. :)


*I forgot the benadryl tabs on our 10 hour drive to Oregon yesterday, and it was by far worse than all 25 hours the week before*. Definitely not making that mistake again. It was torture. 10 hours of whining and crying and NO sleeping. And I was barfing the entire way there because I was sick with a 24hr bug. Oh it was awful. Thankfully Joel was driving this time.

Now we are here with my parents in Oregon, and Joel just flew to Chicago for his last week of training--hallelujah!! Then he'll be back here to spend a whole week for Christmas in Oregon.

Thank you to everyone who helped with our complicated move!! We are so blessed to have so many family and friends that helped us with every minor little detail! We already love living in Utah! xoxo