Whenever I am anticipating an upcoming move, I say I'm excited for three months after the move, when the dust has settled. And we are just about there! I still have a few tasks to do (like find a dentist, tune the piano, etc) but most of the move-related things are done.
We took advantage of this move to implement a few changes that are noteworthy for our family. Because when you're changing states, houses, schools, climates-- what are a few more things?
Bottles
We had thankfully already transitioned our kids away from actual bottles, but prior to our move, they were in a terrible habit of wanting warm milk or chocolate milk every morning. And often at bedtime. And sometimes during the middle of the day. Tiago was practically addicted to hot chocolate (our trip to Colombia didn't help that!) and the girls refused to drink cold milk. They all used sippy cups, but it was obnoxious to continually heat up milk in the microwave. Obviously, our move and trip made it impossible to have warm milk every morning, so when we got into our new house we decided to hide all the sippy cups and just not warm up any liquid. (Except for the occasional hot chocolate party. It's a thing at our house.)
Snacks
When we realized we could stop heating milk daily, we tried to implement better eating habits. If I think of my life a year ago, it involved a lot of goldfish crumbs all over my house. For a year or two, I was too exhausted (and my kids were too young) for me to really care about where my kids ate and when they ate. They were picky eaters, and as long as they ate something and stayed alive, my standards were met. But at 3 and 4 years old, I knew they could start eating scheduled snacks, and not carrying bowls of food all over the house at all hours of the day. Now we have one morning snack and one afternoon snack. It worked great for a while; I've gotten a little lazy, but this is a reminder to keep this going!
Quiet time
During our travels I listened to a podcast about doing quiet time for the child's benefit (deeper creativity, a time to re-charge, etc) so I decided to give it a shot. (You know, for the kids. Nothing to do with my OWN need for a quiet hour! haha) There was a learning curve of about a week, but now it's pure magic. We put them each in their own room with toys to play with, and make them stay for an hour. (We worked our way up to that much.) In the beginning we bribed rewarded them a lot with chocolate chips, but eventually they learned to just stay in their rooms. Mila liked to listen to audiobooks, and it was interesting to see how unaccustomed the girls were to playing by themselves. (They had never done it before.) Tiago started drawing really intricate things, and building legos more. Unfortunately Tiago's school schedule at the end of August meant he didn't often get quiet time, but we still do it every day with the girls. I'm so glad I took that leap of faith and see it paying dividends for a year or two.
Movies in the car
In Colorado Springs, my kids begged me to turn on the car's DVD player almost daily. We drove 15 minutes to and from the gym most days, so I think they just saw that as a great time to catch up on their favorite shows. And I often didn't want to fight them. But I hated it. Precious screen time shouldn't be used up in the car! During our move, and while looking for a house, they logged a lot of hours watching movies. But when we got back from Colombia we made sure it was off, and have only turned it on for long stretches. One thing I did that helped was getting music cd's from the library that the kids were excited about -- Halloween songs, or Disney music. That entertained them pretty well and they haven't been asking for movies (as much.)
So what does all of this mean for my parenting perspective? I'm realizing that there are always annoying things our kids do (or maybe better said, annoying things that we, as parents, permit). But they don't have to go on forever. When we feel like we have the bandwidth to make a change, we can. And until then, we can just chill about it and not feel guilty about a life-supply of goldfish under our couch cushions.
Showing posts with label PCS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PCS. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 10, 2018
Thursday, August 16, 2018
Summer 2018
This has been a summer for the books! I was talking with the kids yesterday at lunch about what has happened this summer. Since Tiago ended preschool in Colorado: Hyrum came home from Afghanistan, our house was packed up, we drove to Dallas, stayed in a million hotels, flew to Colombia for 10 days, moved into a new house, unpacked, had a visit from Grandma, and explored Dallas. Sometimes I long for a life where we create our own excitement, but with frequent moves and deployments we're often kept busy with what life hands us. Any 12-month period with no deployments, moves, or babies is like a vacation because I like "normal" so much. But regardless, we've had a lot of fun.
I already wrote about Hyrum coming home. It's funny to hear the kids talk about that. Siena says it's "the time we went to Papa's office in our pajamas." And she remembers the fuzzy boots I put on their feet to keep them warm. Tiago is quick to remind them it was the airport, but I think when they saw him in his uniform they assumed he was working there.
I can't believe it's been less than 3 months since he got home! With all the vacation days Hyrum has taken over the summer the kids became very attached to him, particularly Tiago. If he left now, Tiago would be distraught. Luckily, Hyrum shouldn't have any long trainings while we're stationed here. Right after we moved into our house in Texas, Tiago became very emotional every time one of us left the house alone. He'd whimper and hug us inside the house, or protest and try to keep us from leaving. Then he'd wave goodbye from the garage, and run over to give one last kiss and hug to the person driving away. It was cute, but a little troubling. Luckily it didn't last more than a few weeks and he seems more adjusted now.
Back to the move. We had movers pack on a Friday, then we did some last minute things over the weekend, and they came to load the truck on Monday. Luckily we were able to get the kids in child care on Monday so they weren't in the way of the movers. And during this move I'm reminded that when you think the movers are almost done for the day, they really have a few hours left. Luckily, they showed up both days at 7 am so they could get an early start.
I opted to have the housing company's professional cleaners do the move-out cleaning, so I just had a few things to take care of. (Cleaning garbage cans, spraying the outside of the house, pulling weeds, etc.) It's expensive, but SO WORTH THE MONEY. Moving is stressful enough without having to clean windows, baseboards, and blinds.
The drive to Texas was boring. Eating out was fun because who doesn't love delicious food that you don't have to cook or clean up for. I remember when we got to our hotel in Amarillo the kids were exhausted so I drove down the street to get food from Fazollis. We were starving, so I went crazy ordering a little of everything. When I brought it back to the hotel room Tiago asked for the soda. He handed it to Siena, who set it down. Then it got kicked over onto the carpet. Tiago went nuts because 'his' soda was gone. Hyrum and I went nuts because there was now soda everywhere. And to round things off I'm sure the girls were losing it too. Plus, we were starving! So we 'cleaned' as best we could and had a picnic of lasagna and spaghetti on the dry (but surely still dirty) corner of the hotel carpet. Nothing a bunch of carbs can't fix.
The kids did okay with all the hotel rooms. This is huge progress from even a year ago when it would take hours to get them to sleep in the same room. When possible we tried to get suites, with two doubles and a sofa bed, but sometimes nothing was available.
Our welcome into Dallas wasn't very inviting. Right as rush hour was starting to pick up we drove across Fort Worth/Dallas. Hyrum was following me in his car, and there are literally highways everywhere. From my GPS it was hard to tell when I was supposed to be on the actual highway vs the "expressway" roads that run parallel to them. And on top of that, there was construction. By the time we pulled into the hotel (an hour or two later) I was completely drained and didn't want to get in a car ever again. It took about a week to recover, but I still haven't driven back into downtown Dallas because it's overwhelming to me.
We had a horrible experience at that hotel, and spent the evening searching for a new hotel for the next two nights. It wasn't ideal to go to yet another hotel, but worth it. We spent two full days looking for housing in the "North Dallas" area. That was a process. It started with me hoping we could live "close" to Dallas, so Hyrum's commute wouldn't be bad and we could have a city experience. However, after looking at a few houses and seeing what we could afford it was less appealing. Most of the houses were super old and hadn't been updated. To make things worse, the traffic was horrible!!
At the first house we went to see, the realtor said he'd be 10 minutes late, so we decided to go explore the neighborhood. Bad idea! Just at the end of the street, we ended up on a major road where we had to turn right and there was so much traffic we could only get in the closest lane, forcing another right turn. We were crossing underneath a major freeway that was completely backed up, and it took 15 minutes and a couple of u-turns to get back to the house. Before even seeing the house, I told Hyrum, "I can't do this!" I was having nightmares about driving around all the time with my blood pressure skyrocketing.
So we saw a few more houses that day, and when we got to the hotel that evening we asked them what's the deal with traffic here?? The lady laughed, and told us that morning a huge tanker overturned on a major highway, at the intersection of another major highway, and both had been closed since 4 am trying to clean up hazardous waste. (That awesome intersection was right where our hotel was, and right where the houses were we were trying to look at.)
But at that point the damage was done. There was no way I was living in that area, so we started looking a bit more North in some of the suburbs. Day 1 was discouraging. We looked at dozens of houses online, without any clear favorites, and were at the mercy of real estate agents calling us back to schedule viewings. After spending all day in the car with the kids we didn't have anything we were interested in. Which was stressful because we only had one more day to look before flying to Colombia.
[Our wishlist was: garage or covered parking, 3-4 bedrooms, at least the size of our last house, outdoor playing space for the kids.]
Fortunately, we had better luck on Saturday and saw a few houses that we could actually see ourselves living in. That was a huge relief. We really wanted to find a place before our trip so we wouldn't have to re-live the house-hunting experience when we got back. (With a whole different set of houses on the market.) At the same time we didn't want to pick a house out of desperation. We saw three houses we liked, and the one we picked was the middle one. That evening we narrowed it down to two, then Hyrum let me convince him of the one I liked best. We picked a house in Richardson because it borders Dallas, has good access to public transportation for Hyrum's commute, and has a neighborhood feel. There's a Chik-fil-et and Target within a half-mile, and lots of grocery stores, playgrounds, pool, etc. I could picture my life fitting in there (and so far it's met my expectations.) The other option was a bit farther away in The Colony, and while a newer/nicer house, it wasn't very charming and only had 3 bedrooms. What a relief to have a house chosen and be able to clear mental space for other things!
There was still a lot of back-and-forth with the realtor about the contract and application but we were read to move in within a few days of returning from our trip.
We stayed in the airport hotel the night before our flight, because we had to wake up 3:20 am!! The kids were thrilled that the hotel offered free cookies. And we lucked out to be able to park both of our cars at a friends house while we were gone.
Based off my experience waking the kids up in the middle of the night to pick up Hyrum in May, I suspected they'd do okay that morning, and I was right. We had talked about the trip so much and built their expectations, so when we woke them up they smiled and said, "We're going to Colombia!" They carried their own little backpacks onto the shuttle, and through security. Of course kids are kids, but that was maybe the best behaved they were for the whole trip. (Things gradually went downhill... haha.)
Tiago thought he was going to be afraid of the airplane. (None of our kids remember flying, although Tiago has been on at least 11 flights in his life.) But everything was so new and exciting for them.
The trip was great. I'll have to write about it separately, but what I've told people is that it went almost exactly as planned. (In my head-- and on google documents-- I had the whole trip planned out and over the 10 days I watched everything unfold as expected. On the one hand, that's awesome. But on the other hand it makes it a little less exciting because each successfully completed "step" feels like a relief and I can check the box and move on to the next thing.)
We flew home from Colombia on July 5, super late at night, so we stayed at the airport hotel again. The next day real life began. We picked up our cars, drove across town to another hotel, and made preparations for our new house. That meant setting up utilities, arrangements with the movers, forwarding mail and changing credit card billing addresses.
We spend Saturday morning just exploring Dallas. We took the train downtown and saw Hyrum's office building. We walked over to a big park for the kids with a splash pad and food trucks. That was a needed break for everyone to just be able to relax and enjoy the moment.
Moving in was smooth. (Mostly. They spent most of the day unable to locate screws for our TV and Tiago's bed. And several things were broken, including the base of our dining table. Luckily the screws showed up in a random box and they were still able to assemble the table.) The house we're in is quite different than our last one. It's all on one floor, has a large living area and then smaller bedrooms/bathrooms. Not many hall closets or linen closets. So it took some effort to figure out where to put things. Our best move was buying two large shelving units for the garage, so we could organize a bunch of stuff out there and be done with it. Usually that's the type of stuff we spend months shuffling around to different nooks and crannies trying to get it 'out of the way' but still accessible.
I remember on moving day (and the next two days) my feet were in so much pain by the end of the day! There's nothing like sleeping in your own bed, especially when your whole body hurts. It took a bit more effort than I wanted to spend getting our washer/dryer set up. The prongs on this old house required us to go buy a new plug and watch videos on youtube. Eventually I got all our suitcases of laundry washed, along with bedding and towels.
It took a while, though, because of the dang heat. There were heat advisories our first week, and emails from our electric company asking people to conserve energy in the afternoons. Who wants to run a dryer (or oven) when it's 80 degrees in your house?!
(Here's my rant on AC... whenever we lived in places hot enough to require air conditioning, my parents always kept the house pretty cold. I had this mentality that you can live anywhere, including hot cities, as long as you stay indoors. But... coming to Dallas, I felt like I was in this alternate reality where people don't use AC to cool off, merely to survive. The property manager told us up front that the house wouldn't cool down to 70 degrees. What he didn't tell us is that it wouldn't even cool down to 75 degrees. I asked other people in the area if their houses got below 78 degrees and they said they hadn't even tried. ?! On the day we were moving in, it was 80-81 degrees all day INSIDE. I'm adjusting, and sometimes first thing in the morning our house is only 76 degrees, but I also have portable fans and ceiling fans on me all day long. And my electric bill is still going to be through the roof and I'm barely cooled off. When does fall arrive here?? It also has me re-thinking my life experiences and imagining a whole segment of the population that just live in hot houses all the time without second guessing it. Are my expectations too high? Is this normal? Can I just fly to my parents house for the summer where I'll probably need to wear a jacket inside?)
Hyrum had a lot of vacation to use up, so in addition to the 10 days the Army gives us for the move/transition, he took several weeks of his own vacation days. It was nice to have him around, and spend a lot of time working on the house together and going on adventures with the kids. But by the time he started work at the end of July I think we were both ready to not be together 24/7. (In reality, we were ready about a week earlier, but survived until he started. haha) He's been busy trying to figure out how a MEPS station runs, doing dozens of enlistment ceremonies, and adjusting to working with so many civilians.
Here at home we've been exploring... and buying. My mom came for almost a week and helped me get things settled. Most of our boxes were unpacked within two weeks, but I wasn't happy with our family room area. (ie: the biggest room of the house, where weren't spending all that much time.) Part of the problem was that I couldn't find the Roku device for our TV. I remember taking it from the movers in Colorado, but couldn't remember where I put it after. I searched everywhere. Then when I'd given up hope of finding it but couldn't pull the trigger on another one for $45 because I hoped it would go on sale... I found it. It was in a bag of random things Hyrum threw in there while he was 'organizing.' So I still have no idea where I put it, but i'm glad it showed up.
The other problems with the room were the fireplace area and furniture. We knew we wanted a new rug and sofa. We wanted a colorful rug because we couldn't hang our yellow curtains, and we needed a bigger sofa. (Not to mention our old one was so dirty and we've been wanting to replace it for the last few years.) So my mom helped me shop and we hung up several things and got a rug. We also spent a lot of money at who-knows-what at Ikea, but I'm sure we needed it! The best part of Ikea lately is my girls are tall enough to go in their child care, so I can shop kid-free. And also, Tiago's favorite food is meatballs, so I can actually get them to eat afterwards at the cafe. The day after my mom left I went to Costco and found the perfect sofa for us. So now everything is feeling quite settled and lovely.
We got Tiago registered for Pre-K, found a group of moms who are doing a Joy School for kids the girls' age, have played on playgrounds, swam at pools, and are slowly catching up with regular life. (Hence a blog post, finally.) The next thing lingering on my to-do list if registering both vehicles which feels daunting so I'm just not thinking about it. I just remind myself one step at a time! (As long as its done before the end of the month!) After that there are closets and shelves to be organized, hallway runners to buy, papers to file, a sofa to sell and a piano to tune. Plus I need to find a gym, set up doctor/dentist appointments, and actually clean my house. Isn't moving fun.
One week left in Summer! (Even though the summer heat will stick around for months, I'm sure.) Maybe I'll get it all done.
I already wrote about Hyrum coming home. It's funny to hear the kids talk about that. Siena says it's "the time we went to Papa's office in our pajamas." And she remembers the fuzzy boots I put on their feet to keep them warm. Tiago is quick to remind them it was the airport, but I think when they saw him in his uniform they assumed he was working there.
I can't believe it's been less than 3 months since he got home! With all the vacation days Hyrum has taken over the summer the kids became very attached to him, particularly Tiago. If he left now, Tiago would be distraught. Luckily, Hyrum shouldn't have any long trainings while we're stationed here. Right after we moved into our house in Texas, Tiago became very emotional every time one of us left the house alone. He'd whimper and hug us inside the house, or protest and try to keep us from leaving. Then he'd wave goodbye from the garage, and run over to give one last kiss and hug to the person driving away. It was cute, but a little troubling. Luckily it didn't last more than a few weeks and he seems more adjusted now.
Back to the move. We had movers pack on a Friday, then we did some last minute things over the weekend, and they came to load the truck on Monday. Luckily we were able to get the kids in child care on Monday so they weren't in the way of the movers. And during this move I'm reminded that when you think the movers are almost done for the day, they really have a few hours left. Luckily, they showed up both days at 7 am so they could get an early start.
I opted to have the housing company's professional cleaners do the move-out cleaning, so I just had a few things to take care of. (Cleaning garbage cans, spraying the outside of the house, pulling weeds, etc.) It's expensive, but SO WORTH THE MONEY. Moving is stressful enough without having to clean windows, baseboards, and blinds.
The drive to Texas was boring. Eating out was fun because who doesn't love delicious food that you don't have to cook or clean up for. I remember when we got to our hotel in Amarillo the kids were exhausted so I drove down the street to get food from Fazollis. We were starving, so I went crazy ordering a little of everything. When I brought it back to the hotel room Tiago asked for the soda. He handed it to Siena, who set it down. Then it got kicked over onto the carpet. Tiago went nuts because 'his' soda was gone. Hyrum and I went nuts because there was now soda everywhere. And to round things off I'm sure the girls were losing it too. Plus, we were starving! So we 'cleaned' as best we could and had a picnic of lasagna and spaghetti on the dry (but surely still dirty) corner of the hotel carpet. Nothing a bunch of carbs can't fix.
The kids did okay with all the hotel rooms. This is huge progress from even a year ago when it would take hours to get them to sleep in the same room. When possible we tried to get suites, with two doubles and a sofa bed, but sometimes nothing was available.
Our welcome into Dallas wasn't very inviting. Right as rush hour was starting to pick up we drove across Fort Worth/Dallas. Hyrum was following me in his car, and there are literally highways everywhere. From my GPS it was hard to tell when I was supposed to be on the actual highway vs the "expressway" roads that run parallel to them. And on top of that, there was construction. By the time we pulled into the hotel (an hour or two later) I was completely drained and didn't want to get in a car ever again. It took about a week to recover, but I still haven't driven back into downtown Dallas because it's overwhelming to me.
We had a horrible experience at that hotel, and spent the evening searching for a new hotel for the next two nights. It wasn't ideal to go to yet another hotel, but worth it. We spent two full days looking for housing in the "North Dallas" area. That was a process. It started with me hoping we could live "close" to Dallas, so Hyrum's commute wouldn't be bad and we could have a city experience. However, after looking at a few houses and seeing what we could afford it was less appealing. Most of the houses were super old and hadn't been updated. To make things worse, the traffic was horrible!!
At the first house we went to see, the realtor said he'd be 10 minutes late, so we decided to go explore the neighborhood. Bad idea! Just at the end of the street, we ended up on a major road where we had to turn right and there was so much traffic we could only get in the closest lane, forcing another right turn. We were crossing underneath a major freeway that was completely backed up, and it took 15 minutes and a couple of u-turns to get back to the house. Before even seeing the house, I told Hyrum, "I can't do this!" I was having nightmares about driving around all the time with my blood pressure skyrocketing.
So we saw a few more houses that day, and when we got to the hotel that evening we asked them what's the deal with traffic here?? The lady laughed, and told us that morning a huge tanker overturned on a major highway, at the intersection of another major highway, and both had been closed since 4 am trying to clean up hazardous waste. (That awesome intersection was right where our hotel was, and right where the houses were we were trying to look at.)
But at that point the damage was done. There was no way I was living in that area, so we started looking a bit more North in some of the suburbs. Day 1 was discouraging. We looked at dozens of houses online, without any clear favorites, and were at the mercy of real estate agents calling us back to schedule viewings. After spending all day in the car with the kids we didn't have anything we were interested in. Which was stressful because we only had one more day to look before flying to Colombia.
[Our wishlist was: garage or covered parking, 3-4 bedrooms, at least the size of our last house, outdoor playing space for the kids.]
Fortunately, we had better luck on Saturday and saw a few houses that we could actually see ourselves living in. That was a huge relief. We really wanted to find a place before our trip so we wouldn't have to re-live the house-hunting experience when we got back. (With a whole different set of houses on the market.) At the same time we didn't want to pick a house out of desperation. We saw three houses we liked, and the one we picked was the middle one. That evening we narrowed it down to two, then Hyrum let me convince him of the one I liked best. We picked a house in Richardson because it borders Dallas, has good access to public transportation for Hyrum's commute, and has a neighborhood feel. There's a Chik-fil-et and Target within a half-mile, and lots of grocery stores, playgrounds, pool, etc. I could picture my life fitting in there (and so far it's met my expectations.) The other option was a bit farther away in The Colony, and while a newer/nicer house, it wasn't very charming and only had 3 bedrooms. What a relief to have a house chosen and be able to clear mental space for other things!
There was still a lot of back-and-forth with the realtor about the contract and application but we were read to move in within a few days of returning from our trip.
We stayed in the airport hotel the night before our flight, because we had to wake up 3:20 am!! The kids were thrilled that the hotel offered free cookies. And we lucked out to be able to park both of our cars at a friends house while we were gone.
Based off my experience waking the kids up in the middle of the night to pick up Hyrum in May, I suspected they'd do okay that morning, and I was right. We had talked about the trip so much and built their expectations, so when we woke them up they smiled and said, "We're going to Colombia!" They carried their own little backpacks onto the shuttle, and through security. Of course kids are kids, but that was maybe the best behaved they were for the whole trip. (Things gradually went downhill... haha.)
Tiago thought he was going to be afraid of the airplane. (None of our kids remember flying, although Tiago has been on at least 11 flights in his life.) But everything was so new and exciting for them.
The trip was great. I'll have to write about it separately, but what I've told people is that it went almost exactly as planned. (In my head-- and on google documents-- I had the whole trip planned out and over the 10 days I watched everything unfold as expected. On the one hand, that's awesome. But on the other hand it makes it a little less exciting because each successfully completed "step" feels like a relief and I can check the box and move on to the next thing.)
We flew home from Colombia on July 5, super late at night, so we stayed at the airport hotel again. The next day real life began. We picked up our cars, drove across town to another hotel, and made preparations for our new house. That meant setting up utilities, arrangements with the movers, forwarding mail and changing credit card billing addresses.
We spend Saturday morning just exploring Dallas. We took the train downtown and saw Hyrum's office building. We walked over to a big park for the kids with a splash pad and food trucks. That was a needed break for everyone to just be able to relax and enjoy the moment.
Moving in was smooth. (Mostly. They spent most of the day unable to locate screws for our TV and Tiago's bed. And several things were broken, including the base of our dining table. Luckily the screws showed up in a random box and they were still able to assemble the table.) The house we're in is quite different than our last one. It's all on one floor, has a large living area and then smaller bedrooms/bathrooms. Not many hall closets or linen closets. So it took some effort to figure out where to put things. Our best move was buying two large shelving units for the garage, so we could organize a bunch of stuff out there and be done with it. Usually that's the type of stuff we spend months shuffling around to different nooks and crannies trying to get it 'out of the way' but still accessible.
I remember on moving day (and the next two days) my feet were in so much pain by the end of the day! There's nothing like sleeping in your own bed, especially when your whole body hurts. It took a bit more effort than I wanted to spend getting our washer/dryer set up. The prongs on this old house required us to go buy a new plug and watch videos on youtube. Eventually I got all our suitcases of laundry washed, along with bedding and towels.
It took a while, though, because of the dang heat. There were heat advisories our first week, and emails from our electric company asking people to conserve energy in the afternoons. Who wants to run a dryer (or oven) when it's 80 degrees in your house?!
(Here's my rant on AC... whenever we lived in places hot enough to require air conditioning, my parents always kept the house pretty cold. I had this mentality that you can live anywhere, including hot cities, as long as you stay indoors. But... coming to Dallas, I felt like I was in this alternate reality where people don't use AC to cool off, merely to survive. The property manager told us up front that the house wouldn't cool down to 70 degrees. What he didn't tell us is that it wouldn't even cool down to 75 degrees. I asked other people in the area if their houses got below 78 degrees and they said they hadn't even tried. ?! On the day we were moving in, it was 80-81 degrees all day INSIDE. I'm adjusting, and sometimes first thing in the morning our house is only 76 degrees, but I also have portable fans and ceiling fans on me all day long. And my electric bill is still going to be through the roof and I'm barely cooled off. When does fall arrive here?? It also has me re-thinking my life experiences and imagining a whole segment of the population that just live in hot houses all the time without second guessing it. Are my expectations too high? Is this normal? Can I just fly to my parents house for the summer where I'll probably need to wear a jacket inside?)
Hyrum had a lot of vacation to use up, so in addition to the 10 days the Army gives us for the move/transition, he took several weeks of his own vacation days. It was nice to have him around, and spend a lot of time working on the house together and going on adventures with the kids. But by the time he started work at the end of July I think we were both ready to not be together 24/7. (In reality, we were ready about a week earlier, but survived until he started. haha) He's been busy trying to figure out how a MEPS station runs, doing dozens of enlistment ceremonies, and adjusting to working with so many civilians.
Here at home we've been exploring... and buying. My mom came for almost a week and helped me get things settled. Most of our boxes were unpacked within two weeks, but I wasn't happy with our family room area. (ie: the biggest room of the house, where weren't spending all that much time.) Part of the problem was that I couldn't find the Roku device for our TV. I remember taking it from the movers in Colorado, but couldn't remember where I put it after. I searched everywhere. Then when I'd given up hope of finding it but couldn't pull the trigger on another one for $45 because I hoped it would go on sale... I found it. It was in a bag of random things Hyrum threw in there while he was 'organizing.' So I still have no idea where I put it, but i'm glad it showed up.
The other problems with the room were the fireplace area and furniture. We knew we wanted a new rug and sofa. We wanted a colorful rug because we couldn't hang our yellow curtains, and we needed a bigger sofa. (Not to mention our old one was so dirty and we've been wanting to replace it for the last few years.) So my mom helped me shop and we hung up several things and got a rug. We also spent a lot of money at who-knows-what at Ikea, but I'm sure we needed it! The best part of Ikea lately is my girls are tall enough to go in their child care, so I can shop kid-free. And also, Tiago's favorite food is meatballs, so I can actually get them to eat afterwards at the cafe. The day after my mom left I went to Costco and found the perfect sofa for us. So now everything is feeling quite settled and lovely.
We got Tiago registered for Pre-K, found a group of moms who are doing a Joy School for kids the girls' age, have played on playgrounds, swam at pools, and are slowly catching up with regular life. (Hence a blog post, finally.) The next thing lingering on my to-do list if registering both vehicles which feels daunting so I'm just not thinking about it. I just remind myself one step at a time! (As long as its done before the end of the month!) After that there are closets and shelves to be organized, hallway runners to buy, papers to file, a sofa to sell and a piano to tune. Plus I need to find a gym, set up doctor/dentist appointments, and actually clean my house. Isn't moving fun.
One week left in Summer! (Even though the summer heat will stick around for months, I'm sure.) Maybe I'll get it all done.
Saturday, December 31, 2016
2016: Year in Review
I often wonder if detailed journaling will be of interest to anyone in the future. In case it's not, here are the highlights of 2016. To sum things up, it has been a great year! We've had a mix of adventure and change, then finally a feeling of settling. We've logged way too many miles in our van (sorry kids!) and tried to make the most of being together as a family.
First up, we went to Disney World in February. The kids were pretty young (ie: we wondered if we were crazy) but it turned out okay. It was exhausting and stressful, but we also had a blast. As a bonus, we made it to Universal Studios for Harry Potter world. Worth it! Ironically, 10 months down the road, Mila and Siena are obsessed with Mickey Mouse. It was among their first 10 words each. Maybe we planted a seed?
In March, we threw Mila and Siena their first birthday party. And their big present was a DNA test that confirmed they were identical twins. Simultaneously, we said goodbye to our 7-month home in South Carolina, where Hyrum was attending an Army course.
Just over a week later, we arrived in Colorado Springs and accepted a house on Fort Carson. Goodbye, hotel life! See you in 3 years. Three kids in one room is not ideal. I was thrilled to be in a 4-bedroom house where I could finally do some serious organization. I'd say we're 90% there--I keep eyeing some drawers and piles that need to be sorted. Colorado has been great; we've taken advantage of hiking (who'da thought) and other touristy areas like Garden of the Gods and Manitou Springs. Not to mention a zillion trips to the park at the end of our street.
Our favorite part of Colorado might be its proximity to family! I've visited Utah 4 times this year, for a grand total of 46 days. Wow. As a family we spent a week in March and a week for Thanksgiving visiting family. Plus, I spent a weekend there celebrating my 30th birthday, and another month at the end of the summer entertaining myself with the kids while Hyrum was away at his second month-long training of the year. You'd think everyone would have been sick of us, but we managed to have several house guests since we've moved here. Our guest bedroom is free for the taking.
I did two rounds of Whole30 this year, and kept losing the same 10 lbs over and over. I made a good move in September and joined the YMCA. I've been averaging 4-5 days a week, and calculated that my gym membership averages out to about $0.50 /hr (per child) in the daycare. The kids love it, and one of the ladies that watches them can actually tell Mila and Siena apart. Now I just have to figure out how to combine the healthy eating with working out to actually see some results. But at a minimum, I feel less stressed and have more muscles than before.
Opposite of our previous traveling style (several short trips, like seeing all of Rome in 2 days), we had two major trips this year. Hyrum and I took a kid-free 10-day trip to Colombia. It's hard to beat traveling without kids... Thanks mom! And Hyrum spent a week in Japan to watch his favorite soccer team play in the Fifa Club World Cup. The things he does for soccer... and the things I put up with for soccer...
On a family note, we no longer have babies in the house; everyone is looking so grown up. The girls walk up the stairs on two feet like normal people, and already know how to push each others' buttons. Tiago primarily learned how to talk in 2016, and now talks up a storm with imaginative games like fighting dragons in the kitchen, and calling on a pretend phone to ask if we need him to come put out a fire. (Then never enters a pretend house on fire without first ringing a pretend doorbell and asking permission.) Also, he learned our first names and I find it hilarious that he'll call out "Heather" or "Hyrum" if we're not responding quick enough to "Mom" and "Papa".
If 2016 has been a year of togetherness, 2017 brings a year of separation. In January, his entire brigade will head to Europe in support of Operation Atlantic Resolve for nine months. Specifically, Hyrum will be in Poland, then Germany and possibly Romania. Ironically, he won't be far from some of the areas we visited (and lived) while we were stationed there. But this time, we weren't invited along.
Time for me to plan a few more trips to Utah, develop some new hobbies, and reach my dream of a perfectly organized house. And as mentioned, our guest room available for any visitors.
And everyone keep your fingers crossed that Hyrum doesn't, as Tiago would put it, "freeze like a Popsicle" while he's in Poland.
First up, we went to Disney World in February. The kids were pretty young (ie: we wondered if we were crazy) but it turned out okay. It was exhausting and stressful, but we also had a blast. As a bonus, we made it to Universal Studios for Harry Potter world. Worth it! Ironically, 10 months down the road, Mila and Siena are obsessed with Mickey Mouse. It was among their first 10 words each. Maybe we planted a seed?
In March, we threw Mila and Siena their first birthday party. And their big present was a DNA test that confirmed they were identical twins. Simultaneously, we said goodbye to our 7-month home in South Carolina, where Hyrum was attending an Army course.
Just over a week later, we arrived in Colorado Springs and accepted a house on Fort Carson. Goodbye, hotel life! See you in 3 years. Three kids in one room is not ideal. I was thrilled to be in a 4-bedroom house where I could finally do some serious organization. I'd say we're 90% there--I keep eyeing some drawers and piles that need to be sorted. Colorado has been great; we've taken advantage of hiking (who'da thought) and other touristy areas like Garden of the Gods and Manitou Springs. Not to mention a zillion trips to the park at the end of our street.
I did two rounds of Whole30 this year, and kept losing the same 10 lbs over and over. I made a good move in September and joined the YMCA. I've been averaging 4-5 days a week, and calculated that my gym membership averages out to about $0.50 /hr (per child) in the daycare. The kids love it, and one of the ladies that watches them can actually tell Mila and Siena apart. Now I just have to figure out how to combine the healthy eating with working out to actually see some results. But at a minimum, I feel less stressed and have more muscles than before.
Opposite of our previous traveling style (several short trips, like seeing all of Rome in 2 days), we had two major trips this year. Hyrum and I took a kid-free 10-day trip to Colombia. It's hard to beat traveling without kids... Thanks mom! And Hyrum spent a week in Japan to watch his favorite soccer team play in the Fifa Club World Cup. The things he does for soccer... and the things I put up with for soccer...
On a family note, we no longer have babies in the house; everyone is looking so grown up. The girls walk up the stairs on two feet like normal people, and already know how to push each others' buttons. Tiago primarily learned how to talk in 2016, and now talks up a storm with imaginative games like fighting dragons in the kitchen, and calling on a pretend phone to ask if we need him to come put out a fire. (Then never enters a pretend house on fire without first ringing a pretend doorbell and asking permission.) Also, he learned our first names and I find it hilarious that he'll call out "Heather" or "Hyrum" if we're not responding quick enough to "Mom" and "Papa".
If 2016 has been a year of togetherness, 2017 brings a year of separation. In January, his entire brigade will head to Europe in support of Operation Atlantic Resolve for nine months. Specifically, Hyrum will be in Poland, then Germany and possibly Romania. Ironically, he won't be far from some of the areas we visited (and lived) while we were stationed there. But this time, we weren't invited along.
Time for me to plan a few more trips to Utah, develop some new hobbies, and reach my dream of a perfectly organized house. And as mentioned, our guest room available for any visitors.
And everyone keep your fingers crossed that Hyrum doesn't, as Tiago would put it, "freeze like a Popsicle" while he's in Poland.
Friday, April 22, 2016
Finding a House
Whenever we move, there's the looming question of where we will live. And more specifically, the debate about whether we want to live on base or off base.
Back in January I put our name on the wait list for on base housing, just to keep it as an option. I think we were #31 on the list for a 4-bedroom house, so I didn't think it would be likely. Meanwhile, I started looking at rental listings online. The closer it got, the more seriously I was looking. And I kept getting more frustrated. I wasn't finding what I was looking for within our price range.
Our wish list:
Back in January I put our name on the wait list for on base housing, just to keep it as an option. I think we were #31 on the list for a 4-bedroom house, so I didn't think it would be likely. Meanwhile, I started looking at rental listings online. The closer it got, the more seriously I was looking. And I kept getting more frustrated. I wasn't finding what I was looking for within our price range.
Our wish list:
- 4 bedrooms (to have a guest room/future baby room)
- Or at least 3 bedrooms on the same level
- garage
- First floor entry
- within 15 minutes of the base gate
- Area where kids could play outside
A few weeks before we moved, when I was feeling particularly hopeless, we got a call from the housing office saying they had a house available for us, and we could see it as soon as we arrived. That felt like a weight off my shoulders, because we at least had that option.
The first day we were at Fort Carson--actually, before we even went to the hotel--we drove through the neighborhood, and saw the available house. The next day we spent looking off-post, but we'd basically come to the conclusion that we weren't going to find what we were looking for. We had an appointment to walk through a house, but when we showed up, Hyrum and I looked at each other and thought, "There's no way..." The area was run down, and the lawn was mostly patches of dirt with cracked cement.
The next day we saw the on-post house, and moved in immediately.
Here's my opinion with on-post housing:
- The good: Hyrum has a 10 minute commute, door to door, even at the busiest time of day. In the morning, it can take a long time to get in the gates from outside, so being so close to work is a plus. Being close means Hyrum can come home for breakfast (after exercising) and also for lunch most days. With the kids so young, this is really beneficial for me so I don't lose my sanity being alone with them from 5:30 am until 6 pm every day. Plus Hyrum likes to see them more each day. We're close to a lot of things, including a church building, the hospital, doctors office, commissary, etc. The houses are spacious, and it's not as difficult to get a 4-bedroom house as it is off-post.
- The bad: My biggest issue with living on-post is that the Army is already in so many aspects of our lives, it would be kind of nice to retain some privacy. In a 'normal' neighborhood you have people from many professions and backgrounds. Not true here! Everyone is military, obviously. Also, the houses are duplexes, not free-standing houses. I was also concerned with being part of a military branch, for the same diversity issues. Everyone is kind of in the same stage of life. (So far it's been fine, but that's a topic for another day.)
We love the house itself. The 'shared' side of the house is our garage and kitchen, so we don't hear anything from our neighbors. It's a little bigger than our last house, and has a 2-car garage and 4 pretty big bedrooms. The kitchen is really big (kind of unnecessarily big) and there's decent storage.
I think the most difficult thing for me in this process (honestly, housing is what stresses me out the most about moving) was that there was no clear "right choice". When deciding where to live for the next 3 years, without knowing anything about the area, I was afraid I'd regret our choice. But after we decided what the biggest priorities were at this stage (short commute) it was an easy decision and we just determined to just live with the stuff we didn't like, like our astro-turf-and-rock back yard.
Initially, I had a big problem with the cleanliness of the house. The same management company runs Fort Carson and Fort Jackson, so the move-out requirements are the same. After slaving away for days in South Carolina cleaning blinds, oven grills, baseboards, etc, I expected the same standards for where I moved in. And yet, a lot of things were dirty. They immediately had a cleaning lady come in, and the carpet guy came and offered to re-clean the carpets. I still ended up re-cleaning a lot (like wiping down all the cabinets) but at least it's done now how I want it.
We moved on Thursday, and found out on Friday that they could deliver our stuff on Saturday. We were thrilled, because air mattresses are no fun. Hyrum didn't have to start work for a week, so we decided to drive to Utah for a quick trip. The movers left around 6 pm, and we hurried and unpacked what we could to be able to sleep in our beds that night, and left early the next morning for the 9-hour drive to Utah.
Fortunately! My mom offered to come back to Colorado with us for 2.5 days and help us unpack. We accomplished more in 2 days than I would have in 2 weeks on my own. We unpacked the whole kitchen, grocery shopped (commissary, Costco, Trader Joe's, etc... and spent a lot of money!), organized baby clothes, hung stuff on the walls, and arranged all the furniture. In fact, I think there were only a handful of boxes still packed when she left. And now, a month later, I'm lacking the motivation to just get the rest done! But at least I'm not looking at boxes everywhere.
The whole 6 months we lived in South Carolina I wished it were more long-term so I could get organized and stay organized. Knowing that we'll be here (*hopefully*) three years, I'm making an effort to put things in a logical place and buy the furniture we need to fill in gaps.
So far, we've bought an entryway table, new family room rug (our old one was worn through), and a bench for our room. And probably a dozen other small things from Amazon Prime.
Also, we finally bought a power drill/screw driver. It's about time! It's awesome! I've taken it into my own hands to hang stuff up everywhere, and feel pretty cool while doing it.
I think that's wrap on our house. I don't think I have any pictures of the front, but once I get curtains, I'll take pictures of it all to post.
Thursday, April 21, 2016
Our 1596 mile drive
It's quite a nightmare to think back on the beginning of March. Let's just say, I'm glad it's the middle of April!
Right after the girls' birthday party, our movers came. Monday and Tuesday we had the movers come. I feel grateful for movers (especially when they move our upright piano), but it's stressful to have someone else packing all your stuff. And we were trying to keep the kids out of their way. Fortunately, we had nice weather. That's the upside of South Carolina. Everything else about these days is a blur.
I spent all of Tuesday night and Wednesday cleaning. You don't realize how dirty things are until you're scrubbing everything. Walls, ceilings, paneling in doors, baseboards, inside the stove hood, each slat of the blinds. As I cleaned, I was annoyed that most of these things clearly hadn't been cleaned when we moved in, but I didn't want to risk being charged so I cleaned anyway. After cleaning all day Wednesday, we decided to push up our move-out date by a day, which I'm glad we did. [The whole time I cleaned I listened to my first audiobook... that was fun.]
When we move, I start compartmentalizing things in my head. First, the stuff packers are moving. Then, stuff we need out in our house while we're still living there. Then, stuff that we need to keep out of the car even after it's packed (ie: cleaning stuff!). The stuff that needs to be thrown away before we drive off. Stuff we only need in the hotels. Stuff stuff stuff. It's such a relief to get everything in it's place and close the van doors and drive off. We moved out Thursday afternoon.
The problem is that Hyrum worked all day Thursday. We pretty much had everything out of the house by 9 am, and there was no way I was letting the kids run around the clean floors getting finger prints on the squeaky clean glass, so I tried to distract that at the park for hours. It wasn't fun to entertain babies with nowhere to nap, but that's life.
It felt like home being back at the Fort Jackson Inn. Hyrum lived there for a 3-month training in 2012, and we stayed there when we arrived back in August. Who knows if this will be our last stay there!
At some point that week we took a cleaning break and went to the basic training museum on post. It was kind of fun to see what new soldiers go through, and I think it was even more fun for Hyrum to remember back on his own basic training. Apparently a lot has changed (slightly less in-your-face) but a lot is the exact same.
On Friday, Hyrum graduated from Captain Career Course. It was a short and sweet ceremony... under an hour I think. The only mis-hap is when I packed a suitcase (before the movers arrived) I only packed one church outfit. I forgot about graduation. I only had boots to wear, which kind of necessitated wearing tights, which was a problem because it was 75 degrees outside! In March! The hotel is downhill from where graduation was held, so I arrived pushing the stroller and completely sweating. Then I spent the next hour trying to keep the three kids quiet, and the room was hot, so I kept sweating. The seats fold down like movie theater seats, and that scared Tiago, so he insisted on sitting on my lap the whole time. Whew! More fun.
Have you ever seen such a sad face? I think we smacked her in the head or something right before we took this. The kids were losing it at this point...
All but one night we stayed at Holiday Inn Express. It wasn't intentional, but after it worked out well the first night, we figured, "Why change what isn't broken?" Every hotel room was slightly different, but essentially the same. So we knew exactly where each of our suitcases would go.
In fact, we had quite the system! (We had so much crap we required a 'system'. Gone are the days of "get out the car and grab your own suitcase.) For memory's sake, here's what we did. 1) We filled the bottom of the stroller with a bag containing bottles and the diaper bag, then put the kids on top 2) Hyrum carried the suitcase with all of our 'hotel clothes', which were slightly different from our 'wear while we wait for a house' clothes. Plus he carried the pack and play. 3) One of us carried a backpack with electronics, toiletries, etc. I pushed the stroller, carried a small cooler, and we both corralled Tiago through the parking lot. By night five, we were really pro's.
Often, we had time to swim. The first night all of us went to the pool. That was a dumb idea, because while Hyrum played with Tiago, I brought one of the girls in the water while the other one cried in the stroller. At that point, I had one wet baby and one dry baby, and rather than switch them and get my stroller wet, we just went back to the room. The 3 kids to 2 parents ratio isn't good, until someone learns to swim.
On Sunday (day 2), we went to church in Nashville, and I looked up playgrounds in the area. There was one by the church, so we checked it out before driving all afternoon. WOW! This is the king of all playgrounds; I've never seen anything like it. It's possibly the most exciting thing we saw while crossing the country. Tiago loved playing on it, and so did Hyrum.
We planned to drive around downtown Nashville, eat at an awesome restaurant, and check out an old plantation, but as soon as we got downtown, Mila fell asleep and it really wasn't worth waking her up since it was her one nap for the day. As a result, we drove through downtown and skipped the rest. So here's our one exciting picture of Nashville-- a government building. (?)
When I 'planned' this trip in my head, I envisioned lots of stops along the way, and taking any excuse to get out of the car and 'stretch.' After all, we had 5 days to do the trip, which was not more than 6 hours a day. But... we realized by the time we got up, got the kids ready and in the van, and drove, we were getting to the hotel in the late afternoon anyway, and if we stopped, right around bedtime. Plus, it was a pain to get the kids in and out. So we didn't stop much. However, we did detour when we saw a billboard for a cheese store down the road. (My original vision was a lot more of this kind of stuff... but I'll settle for one stop, I guess.) It was awesome! The first reason is because Tiago looked at this sign and kept saying, "Mira! Dos Ratoncitos!" ("Look, two mice") (That's about as much as he can say about anything, so we were pretty pleased.) The second reason is because it was awesome. I went inside with Tiago, and it was tons of cheese samples. We ended up with blueberry cheese, because Hyrum is happy with anything fruit-related, and of course delicious home made rolls to go with it. That served as lunch. I was proud of my OCD packing skills when I was able to pull a cutting knife out of the food basket next to the driver's seat. You just never know when you'll need to cut cheese.
Later on Monday we had the church history sites in Independence. First, we went to the Visitor's Center. The building is really old but the inside seems much newer than the Mesa VC did when I was there. They have a kids play area downstairs which we had to pull Tiago away from after 30 minutes.
Then we drove to see Liberty Jail, which I've seen a couple of times, but Hyrum kept saying he'd never seen. Once he was there, I think he remembered going on our roadtrip from UT to OH in 2010. He went in first with Tiago, and Tiago was terrified when they turned the lights off to play the narration, so they left quickly. I ran inside quickly to see it, but didn't stick around to see much. It wasn't worth unloading all the kids again.
The planes were flat. We weren't stopping anywhere specific on Tuesday, so we found a rest stop in Kansas that had a playground. We knew we were in trouble when, the second we opened the doors, our stuff blew out of the car and across the parking lot. Hyrum ran after it while I closed the doors. Not only was it insanely windy (as in, worried the kids would fly away if we didn't hold them) but it was cold! We were still in a South Carolina mindset of not needing to put socks on our kids, so we dug out the hats and coats in the back of the car and let them freeze to death for a few minutes outside. So much for leisurely play to stretch their legs!
Right after the girls' birthday party, our movers came. Monday and Tuesday we had the movers come. I feel grateful for movers (especially when they move our upright piano), but it's stressful to have someone else packing all your stuff. And we were trying to keep the kids out of their way. Fortunately, we had nice weather. That's the upside of South Carolina. Everything else about these days is a blur.
I spent all of Tuesday night and Wednesday cleaning. You don't realize how dirty things are until you're scrubbing everything. Walls, ceilings, paneling in doors, baseboards, inside the stove hood, each slat of the blinds. As I cleaned, I was annoyed that most of these things clearly hadn't been cleaned when we moved in, but I didn't want to risk being charged so I cleaned anyway. After cleaning all day Wednesday, we decided to push up our move-out date by a day, which I'm glad we did. [The whole time I cleaned I listened to my first audiobook... that was fun.]
When we move, I start compartmentalizing things in my head. First, the stuff packers are moving. Then, stuff we need out in our house while we're still living there. Then, stuff that we need to keep out of the car even after it's packed (ie: cleaning stuff!). The stuff that needs to be thrown away before we drive off. Stuff we only need in the hotels. Stuff stuff stuff. It's such a relief to get everything in it's place and close the van doors and drive off. We moved out Thursday afternoon.
The problem is that Hyrum worked all day Thursday. We pretty much had everything out of the house by 9 am, and there was no way I was letting the kids run around the clean floors getting finger prints on the squeaky clean glass, so I tried to distract that at the park for hours. It wasn't fun to entertain babies with nowhere to nap, but that's life.
It felt like home being back at the Fort Jackson Inn. Hyrum lived there for a 3-month training in 2012, and we stayed there when we arrived back in August. Who knows if this will be our last stay there!
At some point that week we took a cleaning break and went to the basic training museum on post. It was kind of fun to see what new soldiers go through, and I think it was even more fun for Hyrum to remember back on his own basic training. Apparently a lot has changed (slightly less in-your-face) but a lot is the exact same.
So, a funny story about the picture below. When we arrived at the museum, Hyrum was putting the stroller together behind the van. Tiago was in quite the mood, so I told him I was going to take Tiago out and start towards the museum to distract him. A minute or two later Hyrum came up behind us with the stroller. When we were about to the museum, he said, "Where's the other baby?!" He left poor Mila in the van. We knew it was bound to happen eventually! Luckily we didn't get far.
On Friday, Hyrum graduated from Captain Career Course. It was a short and sweet ceremony... under an hour I think. The only mis-hap is when I packed a suitcase (before the movers arrived) I only packed one church outfit. I forgot about graduation. I only had boots to wear, which kind of necessitated wearing tights, which was a problem because it was 75 degrees outside! In March! The hotel is downhill from where graduation was held, so I arrived pushing the stroller and completely sweating. Then I spent the next hour trying to keep the three kids quiet, and the room was hot, so I kept sweating. The seats fold down like movie theater seats, and that scared Tiago, so he insisted on sitting on my lap the whole time. Whew! More fun.
Have you ever seen such a sad face? I think we smacked her in the head or something right before we took this. The kids were losing it at this point...
Friday afternoon was recovery time. We had a few last minute errands that we needed to do on post, and I needed to do laundry after an entire week of not having a washer/dryer. Then Saturday we started the long drive to Colorado Springs.
We didn't stop all that often as we drove, but once a day, or so, we'd stop somewhere and let the kids out.... rest stop, visitors center, etc. The girls aren't the best on road trips, because they. don't. sleep. I'm grateful they're good sleepers under regular circumstances (in their cribs); but in the car they never had more than a 30 minute stretch of sleep. And it was usually just one 30 minute nap. So there was a lot of crying because they were so tired and didn't know what to do with themselves. Fortunately, kids bounce back from that kind of trauma and they're back to normal sleeping.
All but one night we stayed at Holiday Inn Express. It wasn't intentional, but after it worked out well the first night, we figured, "Why change what isn't broken?" Every hotel room was slightly different, but essentially the same. So we knew exactly where each of our suitcases would go.
In fact, we had quite the system! (We had so much crap we required a 'system'. Gone are the days of "get out the car and grab your own suitcase.) For memory's sake, here's what we did. 1) We filled the bottom of the stroller with a bag containing bottles and the diaper bag, then put the kids on top 2) Hyrum carried the suitcase with all of our 'hotel clothes', which were slightly different from our 'wear while we wait for a house' clothes. Plus he carried the pack and play. 3) One of us carried a backpack with electronics, toiletries, etc. I pushed the stroller, carried a small cooler, and we both corralled Tiago through the parking lot. By night five, we were really pro's.
Often, we had time to swim. The first night all of us went to the pool. That was a dumb idea, because while Hyrum played with Tiago, I brought one of the girls in the water while the other one cried in the stroller. At that point, I had one wet baby and one dry baby, and rather than switch them and get my stroller wet, we just went back to the room. The 3 kids to 2 parents ratio isn't good, until someone learns to swim.
Our sleep arrangements were also pretty consistent each night. The benefit of the kids not sleeping in the car is that they slept well at night. We'd get the girls in bed (each in a pack and play), and put them as close to the door/bathroom as possible so they were out of the way. Then Tiago slept in the big bed surrounded by pillows. One night, he fell out the bottom and Hyrum was paranoid the rest of the trip and didn't sleep well. I guess Tiago moves around a lot at night!
On Sunday (day 2), we went to church in Nashville, and I looked up playgrounds in the area. There was one by the church, so we checked it out before driving all afternoon. WOW! This is the king of all playgrounds; I've never seen anything like it. It's possibly the most exciting thing we saw while crossing the country. Tiago loved playing on it, and so did Hyrum.
We planned to drive around downtown Nashville, eat at an awesome restaurant, and check out an old plantation, but as soon as we got downtown, Mila fell asleep and it really wasn't worth waking her up since it was her one nap for the day. As a result, we drove through downtown and skipped the rest. So here's our one exciting picture of Nashville-- a government building. (?)
We were passing by Fort Campbell, which is on the border between Tennessee and Kentucky, so we stopped to check it out. I hope it was the last time I ever go there--it was a bit of a dump. We also stopped at Fort Riley, in Kansas, which was in the middle of nowhere but we liked the base itself; there were a lot of stone buildings that gave it a historic feel. (It is, after all, from the 1800's).
Sunday night we stayed just past St. Louis, and the next day we took a slight detour to see the St. Louis temple. It was kind of weird, because from the "front" you can barely tell there's a spire. Once we went around back, it made a lot more sense. (It's almost like the temple is backwards.)
When I 'planned' this trip in my head, I envisioned lots of stops along the way, and taking any excuse to get out of the car and 'stretch.' After all, we had 5 days to do the trip, which was not more than 6 hours a day. But... we realized by the time we got up, got the kids ready and in the van, and drove, we were getting to the hotel in the late afternoon anyway, and if we stopped, right around bedtime. Plus, it was a pain to get the kids in and out. So we didn't stop much. However, we did detour when we saw a billboard for a cheese store down the road. (My original vision was a lot more of this kind of stuff... but I'll settle for one stop, I guess.) It was awesome! The first reason is because Tiago looked at this sign and kept saying, "Mira! Dos Ratoncitos!" ("Look, two mice") (That's about as much as he can say about anything, so we were pretty pleased.) The second reason is because it was awesome. I went inside with Tiago, and it was tons of cheese samples. We ended up with blueberry cheese, because Hyrum is happy with anything fruit-related, and of course delicious home made rolls to go with it. That served as lunch. I was proud of my OCD packing skills when I was able to pull a cutting knife out of the food basket next to the driver's seat. You just never know when you'll need to cut cheese.
Later on Monday we had the church history sites in Independence. First, we went to the Visitor's Center. The building is really old but the inside seems much newer than the Mesa VC did when I was there. They have a kids play area downstairs which we had to pull Tiago away from after 30 minutes.
Then we drove to see Liberty Jail, which I've seen a couple of times, but Hyrum kept saying he'd never seen. Once he was there, I think he remembered going on our roadtrip from UT to OH in 2010. He went in first with Tiago, and Tiago was terrified when they turned the lights off to play the narration, so they left quickly. I ran inside quickly to see it, but didn't stick around to see much. It wasn't worth unloading all the kids again.
More swimming.. this time just Tiago and Hyrum.
The planes were flat. We weren't stopping anywhere specific on Tuesday, so we found a rest stop in Kansas that had a playground. We knew we were in trouble when, the second we opened the doors, our stuff blew out of the car and across the parking lot. Hyrum ran after it while I closed the doors. Not only was it insanely windy (as in, worried the kids would fly away if we didn't hold them) but it was cold! We were still in a South Carolina mindset of not needing to put socks on our kids, so we dug out the hats and coats in the back of the car and let them freeze to death for a few minutes outside. So much for leisurely play to stretch their legs!
We arrived that night to Fort Carson!!!! It was a long 24+ hours of driving. For me, the worst part of the trip was all of the turning around to see what the kids were screaming about. Doing it for a few hours is one thing, but waking up on day 2, my shoulders/back were so sore! It got worse each day. Tiago, in particular, was fond of yelling from his carseat. "Chips! Book! Movie." We had Tiago and Siena in the middle row, with a space down the middle for me to climb into the back, if needed. Poor Mila was condemned to the back-seat. But in reality, at the time she was our most well-behaved child and tolerated the backseat better than the rest. It was frustrating when the girls were tired, but kept throwing their pacifiers and then crying for them. On repeat for 4 days. We had a hotel reservation on-post, and it turns out, that hotel was quite ghetto. I don't think it's been updated in half a century. There were curtains instead of closet doors, and a mini-kitchen with an oven that looked like it belonged in a Norman Rockwell painting. (Of course, none of the kitchen was functioning. The doors all had actual keys, that resembled skeleton keys. And worst of all, we were on the third floor and there were no elevators.
We didn't expect to stay long, so we sucked it up and hauled everything and everyone up and down multiple times. The advantage of being there was we had two rooms that connected... and the rooms were not even $90 combined. We were able to keep the girls in one room to sleep and Tiago in the other.
On Wednesday we did laundry, checked out some stuff on post, and looked into houses off-post. On Thursday, we saw a house on-post that was ready for us to move in, and were happy to move out of the hotel the same day..... after 7 nights in 5 hotels.
I'll write more about our house (and that decision) another day.
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