The Move

Before leaving Spokane, we sold many of our things including both of our cars!  What we wanted to take with us we packed into 2 tiny Uhaul U-Boxes (about 8'x5'x5') which were then shipped to Miami.  My parents came up to Spokane and helped us pack up.  Then they brought the kids and I down to Salt Lake for 2 weeks while Jack finished up his intern year in Spokane.  Rather than pay more rent in our apartment, Jack decided to secretly live in the hospital.  He slept and showered in an on-call room, ate in the cafeteria, was pretty much bored every night.  But it worked out well since he didn't have a car to travel to and from work anyway.

Meanwhile, the kids and I had a great time in Utah.  We swam a lot, saw a lot of family and friends and just played!  Jack felt bad that the kids were too busy to even miss him.

I'm always surprised how beautiful Utah is every time I come back, especially Holladay.

Jane was afraid of so many new people, but she actually reached for her Uncle Steven and let him hold her.  I wonder if she thought he was her dad?

The kids got to see their cousin Brad!

We went swimming pretty much every day.

Jackson adored my sister's puppy Charlie.  I think the feeling was mutual.  It almost made me want to buy him a dog.  Almost.

Sarah and Ash graduated from Olympus High School, I was glad I could be there for it.

Grandma made a slip-and-slide

We went to Sliver Lake, my favorite.

Thom and Cynthia had their new baby boy, Stone.  I'm so glad I got to meet him!

We met up with some friends, including some old pals from medical school.  We sure miss them!

Getting messy with chalk.

No trip to Utah is complete without a trip to Cowboy Grub.

Jane also liked Charlie.  I think he thought she was another puppy.

Finally it was time for me to fly to Florida.  I flew for 7 hours with the three kids by MYSELF.  It was just about as awful as I expected.  I thought Jane would be hard, but Jackson was the one who had a hard time. He was terrified of the plane and overly tired on top of it all.  I had to drag him crying onto the plane because he was so scared.  Then I had to endure eye rolls and whispers of, "Oh my gosh," from rude passengers while my kids laid in the isle crying while I begged people to switch seats so the four of us could sit together. When we stopped in Chicago to switch planes, Jackson had to be dragged screaming off the plane and then laid on the floor in the airport crying for an hour while people either laughed or rolled their eyes at him.  At one point during the layover he decided to run away, and one lady trying to be helpful told him that she was going to steal him if he didn't stay with his mommy.  He cried the rest of the day and clung to me thinking that he was going to get stolen.  On the second flight he was too afraid to use the bathroom so he peed all over me and all over the bathroom floor and then spilled his Sprite on me.  Then Jane ripped out my earring.  By the time we landed I was covered in sticky soda, pee and blood!  It was truly awful.  I was so happy to see Jack again when we landed!

Halfway through the flight from hell.

Our first night in Miami we went to see the beach near our house.  Jane LOVED the sand.  The water was so warm and the night was clear and beautiful, it was a wonderful welcome to our new city.

We drove downtown to see Jack's new place of work.

Paul, Kim and Sarah came to Miami the night after we arrived to help us move in.  I think we all thought it would take a couple of days and then we could spend the rest of the week playing.  Not.  Since we'd sold so much of our stuff we had to replace it.  We had orginally planned on shopping craigslist, but since it takes so long to drive anywhere in the city, we gave up and went to Ikea.  THen we spent days constructing Ikea furniture.  We struggled to unpack because, in typical Miami fashion, our home is short on storage.  It only has two closets! No pantry, no linen closet, no nothing!  Plus there is only one drawer in the kitchen.  Grrrr.  Since we'd also sold our cars, we had to spend a lot of time looking for new cars.

We were so grateful the Stringhams were here to help us.  I don't know how we ever would have done it without them!  Sarah spent everyday trapped at the hotel with the kids; taking them swimming and playing with them there.  The kids adore her and it was nice to know they were having fun with her while we worked.  Paul and Kim worked their tails off helping us unload, assemble Ikea stuff and look for cars.

We scored on a used minivan with low miles for a great price.  I love it!  It is SO nice to not have to shove all 3 kids in the backseat anymore.

Sarah took the kids mini-golfing.  She was a saint and even dealt with Jane who is still breastfeeding and was pretty fussy without me there to nurse her.

The kids were so worn out from swimming, Hannah dozed off in this restaurant. Hannah NEVER dozes off anywhere but in her bed, so we knew she must have been very tired.