Change of Address, Part 1

Alright, alright, I hear you...I'm finally posting about our move.   I think we'll go with the timeline format:

May 16 & May 18:
We had some last get-togethers with old friends from the college days... I am still sad that I didn't get to see everyone on my list before we had to go.

Becky, Caleb & Isaac



Jeff, Aaron and Maren,

Scott, Jeff, Chris, Jack, Aaron

Friday, May 20th:

Wave goodbye to Shabrika Toyota Harper (lovingly named by my sister)...I was kinda surprised at how sad this made me.  Not that I was in tears as the car rode away or anything, but I think it just kinda hit me that it was all really happening.  And a HUGE thank you to Jack's parents for letting us borrow their van for the next week and a half.

And we ate creamies.  ...we had to eat everything out of the freezer anyway...

 Don't tell Clayton his was just a carrot.

Sunday, May 22: We went up to Bountiful for our last Shirts family Sunday dinner.  

Monday, May 23:
The movers come and pack up our world.  It was sooo nice to be able to just sit back and watch it all happening.  They spent most of the day there, from about 8:30 AM to 4 PM.  Jackson was a little concerned at first when they were putting all his things into boxes, but he made friends with them pretty quickly.  He still talks about Daryl and Bonnie and how they brought his toys to his new house on a big truck.  They'll never know what a lasting impression they made on him.

Tuesday, May 24:
Daryl and Bonnie came back, along with two other guys, to finish up the packing and to load the truck.  Jackson went over to play with a friend (Thanks Janelle!) because he was kind of in the way with them moving all the boxes and furniture out.  They were done by noon and then some wonderful friends came over to help us clean our house.  It went so much faster than I was dreading it to be, thanks to great help and an empty house. (Huge thanks to Maren, Annie, Jordan, and the Trowbridges).  I thought we'd have to come back another day to finish up, but we were done in a few hours.  We said goodbye to our house, turned in the keys, and drove off into the sunset.

That evening, we went to the U2 concert with Don & Kris, Jed & Jasmine, and Emily...  I'm not a huge music connoisseur outside of the country realm, so I really wasn't even sure who they were and only knew a few songs...but it was still fun to go :)

Thursday, May 26:
Day out with Thomas (posted about it here) and then frozen yogurt with Jordan in Provo

Friday, May 27: Got together with more friends to play and say goodbye.  We went to Chick-fil-a with Lindsey and Eliza

Sunday, May 29: Dinner with the Wilson family.  It was fun to get to see the Wilson cousins again and it was nice to get to say goodbye to them before leaving.

We went to the cemetery in Bountiful where Grandma Rushton is buried, seeing as it was Memorial Day weekend.  There was a boy scout troop handing out free hotdogs at the cemetery.  Weird.

Monday, May 30:

The Memorial Day celebration was not at Memorial Day this year because of bad weather and votes to not drive so far, but we still got together at a church building in Woods Cross to have the traditional Shirts gathering.

We also went to my aunt's house in Centerville for a West fam shindig. I was glad to get to seem before we  left too.

Tuesday, May 31:   Farewell, Utah!  

Stay tuned for part 2!

Day Out With Thomas!

Thursday, May 26

We took Jackson to see Thomas the Tank Engine this year...We decided that he was the perfect age to love it, and since we didn't end up going to Sea World or doing anything else big, we went to Thomas.  We had a good time.   

All Aboard!  Jackson giving the conductor his ticket.

Here we are on the train.  The ride itself was pretty short and slow, but Jackson liked it.

 We stood in this line to have our picture taken in front of Thomas...it was kind of a long line, and of course you can only have your picture taken with him when he is there at the depot--when he's loading and unloading passengers.  Call me silly, but I wasn't about to go to the Day Out With Thomas without getting a picture in front of Thomas... so we stood in the line.  We took the first picture by the side of Thomas while we were still in line.  Why not?  We slowly made our way to the front of the line, but they kept making announcements--10 minutes until Thomas departs, 5 minutes, 2 minutes...if we didn't have our turn before Thomas departed...  and we made it!  We were the last ones before he left again.  In fact, you can see the conductor looking behind to back away in the picture.  I felt kinda bad for the next folks in line, but we got our picture! I don't know that the rest of my party would have been willing to stand in line for 45 minutes to see him again.

Getting a temporary tattoo of Diesel on his hand, and holding the dog balloon he got. 

On the "tired old engine"

 I think Jackson was more excited to see & climb on this train than he was Thomas...which was kind of disappointing for me. Oh well.  He called this the "Tired Old Engine" from The Little Engine That Could.  He was sooo excited to see this engine!

blowing bubbles

Look at that form!  I think he's got a future in putt-putt

 While we were standing in line to go on some little hand cart things (which we never ended up doing...the line was too long so we gave up)  I told Jackson to go stand by this tree and turn around for me to take his picture in front of Thomas.  So he did...

 Yep, looks like he's peeing on the tree.  Then I clarified for him to turn his whole body around :)

It was a fun little excursion!  Thanks for the ride, Thomas!

Discovery Gateway Children's Museum

We finally used our Living Social passes for the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum after Jack got out of school.  ...We got 4 passes for $10 (It's usually $8.50 per person) and since Clayton was free and we only needed 3, I asked the guy behind us in line if he wanted one free ticket.  Of course he said yes, and then he gave us $4 for it...I told him he didn't have to, but he said he was planning on spending twice that anyway.  Ok :) So we got in for $6 :)  That always makes the trip that much better!

Anyway, here we are.  We had a good time and it was fun that Jack was able to be there with us.  Usually if I do this sort of thing with Jackson we have fun but I always end up wishing Jack could be there too.  Since we had over a month with nothing Jack had to be doing, we took advantage of it.

Cute firemen!

 Jackson had fun with the water table, even though I think it wasn't really working right.  There wasn't as much water flowing as there was last time and there wasn't really much he could do with it.  

Clayton, just watching Jackson play

It was a fun little outing, and like most of our outings, it ended with hungry less-than-happy people.  You'd think I'd learn and be better prepared.

Moving Day

It's moving day.  There is a huge truck parked in front of our house.  Boxes are lining the walls...and I'm sitting here wondering what to do.  Having a moving company take care of everything is a great deal!   Sure I got about 1.5 hours of sleep last night as we were trying to get ready for them to come, but today I'm just walking around unsure of what to do!  Ok, so I could be folding the 4 loads of laundry that I did last night, but I've decided that I'm ok with it going to North Carolina in a wrinkled lump.  It's kind of weird to have someone else looking through all our stuff, but if it means I don't have to pack it all, I'm ok with that.  So far everything has gone great.  I was a little worried because I've heard stories from other MBA families who have just done this and from other people who have had moving companies do their move...stories of how they just come in and it's a whirlwind of people and packing, and you'd better hope you're all ready because it's going just how it is---trash cans full of garbage, dirty dishes in the sink, anything and everything just as they find it.  I was relieved this morning when the packers showed up...Darrell and Bonnie.  A woman packer! I don't know why, but that has made it so much better.  She's actually logical about things!

Friday they took the car to ship it.  Tomorrow morning they load the truck, then we'll spend the rest of the day tomorrow and Wednesday cleaning...we're hoping that's all it takes  Thursday we're going to A Day Out With Thomas.  After that we're just playing until we fly out next Tuesday.  We should get the keys to our new place on the 1st, and our stuff should arrive some time between the 1st and the 3rd.  Then it'll be time to set up the new place!  ...too bad they don't do that part for us too...

Mother's Day

I'm really not sure why I keep thinking the whole picture-with-mom-on-Mother'-Day thing is a fun tradition, because really we haven't had a whole lot of success thus far.  Maybe that's the point.  It's an accurate portrayal of my life as a mother.

 My husband loves me :)