Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Leaving California

I cannot not write about our journey to New Jersey...that was an ordeal to put it mildly. You ever do something and then when you look back on the event you wonder how you ever did it and how you will never do it again. Well...the trip leaving Cali to NJ was just that.

First it took 3 cars to get our luggage, dogs, crates, and us to the airport. At least the relocation department had us depart from John Wayne so no long lines like at LAX. We had to do some switching around with the contents of the luggage so it met the weight limit. Then trying to get the dogs shipped took another hour as the ladies at the counter had not done a dog shipment before. At this time I don't have to tell you how fussy the boys were getting. Then Greg had to pass the dogs through security before taking them down to cargo. Lucky for us no one was waiting in line so I didn't mind too much that it took so long.



I was able to make arrangements with a cab service prior to leaving that would be able to hold all of our stuff. However, things never go right. I told the service I would call upon landing but they showed up before we had gotten off the plane, which was a bit of a problem as our flight was delayed. On top of that Greg had to wait for the dogs in cargo. People over here are not as friendly as in Cali. Long story short, surprisingly everything fit....even the unassembled dog crates.


We finally made it to the hotel at which point we had to wake the kids up again. The first time they finally fell asleep we landed in NJ an hour later. Then they fell asleep in the taxi and woke up when we arrived about 30 mins later. So now we have 2 cranky kids and 2 grumpy dogs that want out of the crate and about 6 luggages to take to the 2nd floor. So as one of us has to stay with the kids, you can imagine how tired poor Greg was making trips back and forth to get all our stuff to the room. You can see how large the crates were in the pics. Click on pictures to see the rest.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Meeting Santa

We went to an old friends for a Christmas party. Wendy, LaShon, and Jamie used to work with me at Sizzlers....the good old days. We unfortunately were missing Mary. The party was at Wendy's where she had Santa visit with the kids. We all had a really nice time, especially since it had been so long since I had seen my friends.




Holidays 08

Okay, I am going to have to be real brief for giving an update for the holidays. Otherwise, I will never catch up on current stuff.

As all our stuff had been packed up before my return to California, we got to stay with my dad. It was actually quite nice and I think my dad welcomed the noise. The kids would go and wake up Grandpa as soon as they got out of bed. My poor dad never complained once about being woken up at 5:30 am on his days off.

My aunt was visiting from England and we thought we were going to miss her. But I guess it was fate for her as she got to see the family. The last time she visited Ethan was only a few weeks old. I think she enjoyed seeing both kids. Which reminds me I need to give her a call.

I think everyone was happy to have things turn out the way it did. Frustrations aside, it was really nice spending the time with family. Believe me this time was very frustrating asking my sister to help out with last minute things etc, trying to get stuff finalized with the move, taking care of the dogs so they could travel.....a lot of headache and stress. But at the end of the day when you know all the frustrating stuff is still there being around loved ones makes such a difference, on how you handle things...basically on everything.

I will not post pictures here. You can check them out on our Shutterfly site.