Our moving adventure!

DAllin enjoyed sitting on the boxes!

Our moving adventure all started around April 28th with the packing. I tried to pack as much as I could, but it is extremely hard with a little boy. Thank goodness my mom took off the Tuesday (April 29th) to help me pack before Jeff picked up the truck. I was so proud of myself because I thought I had a lot packed and accomplished, but I was wrong yet again. Greg came over and helped load the truck. I don't know what we would have done without him. When we first made the truck reservation, we reserved the 17 foot truck. We ended up with the huge 26 foot truck, which was a blessing because we have a lot of stuff. On Wednesday the plan was to finish the last minute things and clean so we could check out at 2. At 1:45 i finally got a hold of the person checking us out to ask if we could do it later. It took forever!! we finally checked out around 5!! It was sad to say goodbye to our home and where Dallin has been growing up, but I am over it now! Moving out is just no fun.

Jeff enjoying his last night in our apartment playing Guitar Hero

DAllin helping mom pack by putting random stuff in the boxes like the phone

DAllin saying goodbye to Aunt Tori
The driving part all started on Thursday, May 1st. Jeff's mom flew out from Kansas to help with the driving. I did not want to drive our car alone with DAllin in the back, so she came out to help me out. We went to lunch with her and Greg when she got in, and then we took off for our adventure. We made it to Cheyenne, WY without much issue at all. We checked into our hotel and relaxed for the rest of the evening. DAllin did great in the car and in the hotel.

When we woke up on Friday, it was pretty windy outside. We decided to get as far as we could go. Who thought we would get stuck in a blizzard in May, but we did. Finally, we pulled over at a rest stop after about 30 miles because it was just too windy. After Jeff saw the 2nd or 3rd semi blown over, he didn't want to drive. We all sat in the car for awhile. The road was closed about 10 miles from the rest stop, so we called and made a reservation for a hotel in the town where the road closed (kimball, NE). The lady hardly spoke English, so were were a little worried she would mess things up. After sitting at the rest stop for 6 hours the winds died down from 75 to around 40, so we drove the 10 miles to Kimball. The first thing we did was go to the hotel to get checked in, and of course the girl who hardly spoke English gave our room away because she thought we said we would be there in 10 minutes. We went to Pizza Hut and waited for the road to open up.

Around 8:00 the road finally opened up. We had been complaining the whole time that the roads couldn't be that bad. After driving a little while on them we realized we shouldn't have complained. Jeff called and said to get him off the roads now because he kept sliding hundreds of feet at a time in the huge moving truck. We pulled over to the first rest stop we saw and slept in the Buick (our car) motel. It was a little crammed with all four of us and all our stuff we brought in the car. Jeff sat in the front by himself, and was pretty cold the whole night. JEff's mom, DAllin and I slept in the back so we stayed pretty warm, especially with DAllin sleeping on me. IT was like my own personal heater. At least we had a bathroom and stayed pretty warm. None of us got a whole lot of sleep. I stayed up and watched a semi that was stuck in the snow/ice try for about an hour to get unstuck. He was not successful and still hadn't moved when we left around 6 in the morning. It was pretty entertaining to watch though.

DAllin's new thing to do is stick out his tongue!
Saturday wasn't so bad. We drove without problems to Ottumwa, Iowa where Jeff's sister and her family live. DAllin loved the stairs! She had made a wonderful roast dinner and then we sat around and talked the rest of the evening. We are happy to be living closer to them now.

On Sunday we all drove to Peoria, IL. Jeff's sister and her family came to help, and JEff's dad drove up from Kansas to help as well. We moved everyhing into storage, including our other car. Then we all ate at Hardees! Thank s to our friend Sarah, we stayed at the Residence Inn by Marriott. After DAllin went to bed, Jeff and I went and sat in the hot tub for awhile. It felt so nice after the long days.

DAllin and his cousin Kendra playing while we moved stuff into storage
We were planning on staying in Peoria a couple of days to find a place to live. On Monday morning we went to one place and loved it, so we are going to rent that place. It is a cute duplex in a nice, quiet neighborhood close to Jeff's work. We are pretty excited about it. Finally one thing went right. Moving is just not very fun for us. We are thankful we found a place quickly, got everything into storage, and stayed safe. Maybe our next move with be nice. After packing everything in the hotel, we headed back to Kansas with JEff's parents. Now it is time to relax and enjoy our vacation!!