Moving Days

After months of anticipation, it was finally time to move to Colorado.  Hooray!! The kids finished off school in Thayne with a bang.  Emma threw up unexpectedly on Thursday night, so I didn't let her go to school Friday morning.  However, she was totally fine and begging to go to class.  Her teacher called and said Emma was receiving an award at the school assembly that afternoon and asked if she was well enough to come for that.  I agreed, so Emma, Joely and I went after lunch on Friday and checked Emma in.  Since she was receiving an award, I decided to stay and watch the assembly.  Sure enough, Emma was one of two kids in her class to earn the "Most Improved in Reading" award.  Mrs. Crittenden, Carson's teacher, saw me and asked me to stay until after the assembly, because Carson would be receiving a special award in class.  So Joely and I stayed the whole time and got to see Mr. Pierantoni give Carson an award for his amazing accomplishments with AR.  I was glad I was able to be there and that both teachers made the kids' last day special.  Our school experience in Star Valley was amazing.

Dave and his dad arrived late Friday night (the 22nd).  They drove to Afton to pick up the Uhaul truck the next morning, and the process of loading the truck began.  I had almost everything boxed already, so the first order of business was loading all the boxes into the truck.  Brother Jenkins and his sons, Jared and Vern, unexpectedly showed up at our door ready to help.  Within about 30 minutes they had every box loaded and were asking what else they could do.  We mentioned that we could use some help loading the piano and that it generally took four men to do it.  Before I'd even finished talking, Jared and Vern picked up the piano on their own and had it in the truck.  It was AMAZING!!  They were amazing.  And we were so grateful for their help, which came at just the right time.  Brother Jenkins checked in a couple more times throughout the day, just to make certain that we were alright and continuing to offer his help.  I love our Freedom friends!

Dave, Dad and I just kept trucking the rest of the day, gathering items, taking apart beds, and cleaning as we went.  By evening we were just about done and exhausted.  The kids still had lots of energy and spent over an hour entertaining themselves in the cab of the truck.  Honestly, it was nice to have them out from underfoot, and they were in heaven.

Dad treated us to dinner at Hub's, my favorite restaurant in Thayne (there's only three, so it wasn't hard to pick:)!  We filled up on yummy barbecue sandwiches and seasoned fries and then went back home to finish the clean up.  Finally, the kids were in their sleeping bags and everything else was loaded into the truck.  We could take a deep breath and relax.  It felt so good to have that end of the move mostly done.

That wonderful feeling was short lived...

Carson came in to our room about 2 o'clock in the morning in a panic.  He wouldn't talk to me, so I was encouraging him to come closer to me so I could find out what was wrong.  I shouldn't have done that.  On his way to my side of the air mattress, he threw up EVERYWHERE!  Talk about bad timing.  All of our towels and the washing machine were packed...everything was packed in the truck and very inaccessible.  Thank goodness Dave was there.  He jumped into superman mode.  I got Carson cleaned up while Dave figured out how to clean up the awful mess.  Carson threw up a few more times in the night and woke up still not feeling well.  Needless to say, our plans of being on the road by eight the next morning didn't happen.

We slept until 9 and slowly finished our preparations to leave while Carson continued to throw up.  What were we to do?  All the stores and doctors in Star Valley were closed until Monday morning, and we had to be in Colorado by Sunday night so Dave could be at work the next morning.  Plus, everything was in the truck.  So, we said a prayer and off we went.  Dave, Carson and a bucket rode in the truck (because it was easier to clean if necessary) and the girls and I followed in the van.  We had no idea what to expect of the trip, but luckily Carson had gotten everything out of his system and didn't have any troubles.  We stopped at every town along the way for a bathroom break (another problem Carson was having), but we eventually pulled in to Fort Collins.  We dropped the truck off at Uhaul (they were letting us park it there until we moved in to our house on Wednesday) and drove to Grandpa and Grandma McClure's house.  It was the most welcome sight!

We were pretty certain that a tummy bug was going through our family since Emma and Carson had both had problems.  Sure enough, Joely threw up several times the next night.  On Tuesday I felt yucky, but was able to take the kids to Pioneer Ridge Elementary and get them registered.  They both were able to meet their teachers and seemed excited about the new school.

On Tuesday night, Dave got the bug.  He was so sick and didn't sleep all night long.  By Wednesday morning (our moving-in day), he was terribly exhausted and weak.  But he made it to our final walk-through and closing and truly was Superman as he helped unload the truck.  I don't know how he did it, but he willed himself to keep going and managed to get everything done that he needed to all day long.  Thankfully our new ward was extremely helpful...we had tons of great men and boys show up to unload the truck.  They, along with Riley and Brennan and Mom and Kacie, were life savers!

We are so grateful for all the help we received!

Look at him go!

Look at all the little boys who came to help with their dads!

Grandpa McClure had just had foot surgery, so he spent the afternoon watching from the living room.  We're just glad he was there.

Grandma and Kacie were awesome helpers. So grateful for them!

Home Sweet Home

Finally, we officially had the truck unloaded.  Dave dropped it off at Uhaul while the rest of us grabbed some dinner at Wendy's with the McClure clan.  Then we picked him up, grabbed the rest of our stuff from the McClure's, and headed HOME.  It is so nice to be able to say that.  We could hardly wait to be in our own house and all back together in one place again.  We had been blessed by the kindness of extended family and good friends during our 4 1/2 months apart, but now we are back together as a "normal" family and boy does it feel good!