Moving Time!

After a busy and hectic month, moving day came quickly.  It came on a beautiful, clear Monday, January 26th. 

The moving trucks showed up around 9:00 a.m.  

This first one held all the packing and loading supplies.

The bigger one, where 90% of our stuff was loaded into, stayed on the street the whole first day.

Day 1 was packing.  I had 4 strange men in my home, packing up every single thing I owned.  It was very strange to go from basically living normally the day before, to having my entire house packed up in about 10 hours.  I'm not going to lie- it was fabulous not having to worry about packing anything and sitting and watching other people do it for me.

Their moving boxes had this on it.  We knew we were in good hands!  If it's good enough for the Seahawks, it is good enough for us.

The 3 little girls were loving all the commotion and wanted to be right in the thick of all the packing.

They also wanted to play and run all around while the men were packing.  When I say it was nice to "sit and watch" I actually didn't do a lot of sitting.  Keeping Olivia out of everyone's way was a full time job.  Luckily, Leah and Lexi were great entertainment for her and a huge help.  During Livy's nap time, we all were able to relax a bit.

My packed up kitchen!

With all of our cooking/baking supplies and most of our food packed up, we had to eat out for dinner that night.  I had kept some paper plates, bowls, cups and silverware out and had milk and cereal for breakfast in the mornings.  I had the big kids take hot lunch at school (a very rare treat), so we didn't have to worry about packing lunches.

Day two, Tuesday, was loading day.

This was a tricky day for us.  The twins were at school all day (their last day of school here) and that left just me and Olivia at home.  Without any big sisters to entertain her, she was extra busy.  And since it was loading day, the movers had the front door wide open all day and as soon as Livy found this out, she tried to make an escape for the front door every 3 minutes.

Escaped!

And climbing on anything she could!

The movers, for the most part, just labeled things pretty generically.  "Master bedroom, living room, family", etc.  The extra bedrooms were just labeled "bedroom."  But Chloe's room must have had enough pictures and signs up that they knew her name and labeled all of her boxes with her name on it.  It bought it was cute.

I was glad to see how much precaution and prep work went into the whole process, including padding the banister and the front door, and laying down sticky paper to help save the carpet from stains.

I needed a break from chasing this sweet girl, so I put her up on some boxes and she was too afraid to get down.  It gave me a few minutes of peace.  She did not love it.

The kitchen table got taken apart and loaded this day, so the twins had to have their after school snack on the floor.  Their "snack" was leftover cake that Ben brought home from another party at work, celebrating his last day at Boeing.

With no furniture and no toys, the kids were left to their own devices to play.  An empty box helped for a little bit.

My visiting teacher's brought over a super yummy dinner, which we were so grateful for (we had nothing to cook with, and it was nice not to have to go out again).  We all ate on the floor, minus Livy.

Cynde stopped by after dinner for one last "see you later" farewell.  Man, we are going to miss this sweet lady.  Watching her leave that night was really hard.  We love you Cynde!

One last snuggle with Olivia!

The movers had a long day that day.  They didn't have everything loaded until about 9:00 p.m.  With no beds or furniture, we set up an air mattress and had reserved blankets and pillows for sleeping with.  We also had no internet and felt a little lost without that.  :)  Luckily we were exhausted and went right to bed.

Wednesday was a busy, busy day for us.  I had my last OB appointment at the doctor in the morning, and then we had some last minute errands to run.  Back to the house to pack up our remaining stuff.  For as amazing as it was to have packers pack, load and move us (it really was amazing), they sure left a lot of random stuff laying around the house.  They wouldn't move anything liquid, so we had numerous large boxes filled with Costco sized shampoo bottles, soaps, etc.  And then one bathroom they didn't even pack.  The shower curtain was still up, the towels, all the bath toys and accessories.  Lots of random odds and ends were left in the kitchen, probably because they weren't sure if we would need them left out.  I had to load up all of our kitchen fridge and freezer food and we double and triple checked every closet, cupboard, drawer, etc to make sure we had everything.  Chloe and Mitch were just getting home from their last day of Auburn school when we were running around like crazy people, trying to get everything loaded so we could start for Tri-Cities at a semi-decent time.

The cleaning company I hired showed up right as we were loading up to leave.  Hiring someone to clean my house to get it ready to sell was one of the best decisions I've ever made.  It was one less thing I had to worry about and to get it sparkling clean, enough to sell for top dollar, would have taken us hours and hours (it ended up taking 4 or 5 professionals hours and hours and hours).

Ben snapped one last picture of our house, with me on the from porch.

Ben took a few of the kids in the truck and the rest with me in the van.  I took this pic on my phone as we pulled out onto the main road behind our house.  It was as if this beautiful sunset was just for us.  I was in tears before we even left our driveway.  I recorded my feelings on Instagram as this "An emotional departure as we bid farewell to the only area our family has called home.  A new adventure awaits us, but the beautiful city we love and the many wonderful friends and loved ones we leave behind will not soon be forgotten.  We left a piece of our hearts in Seattle tonight."

We arrived in Tri-Cities around 9:00 p.m. or so.  The kids were tired and so were the drivers, but we had great traveling weather and a smooth trip.  We stayed with Ben's parents, as we were homeless and supply-less.  :)

Mitch's Auburn classmates sent him home with this sweet note, saying goodbye and signed by everyone.  Chloe had something similar.  Mitch's teacher even sent him home with a new book.  All 4 of the school kids came home with all of their supplies and current projects and we had an overwhelming amount of "stuff."

Thursday, I went and registered Chloe and Mitchell for school first thing.  They told me they could start the very next day!  Our rental house was available, but the moving company wouldn't be bringing our stuff by until the next day.  We stopped by the house, as it was my first time seeing it in person.  An empty, clean house sure is a pretty sight!  It wouldn't be empty for long...

Friday, the kids started their first day of school in Pasco School District.  It was also the last Blue Friday of the year, and you better believe they had brought their Seahawk gear.  We are glad to still be in Washington State and rooting for our home team!

In front of their new school.  These two were such troopers and so positive about starting school in a new city.  They have done amazingly well and we are so proud of them.

Ben's parents watched the little girls all day while Ben and I hung out at the new house.  It was moving day- AGAIN!

The movers showed up around 9:00 a.m.

98% of our possessions, inside that truck.

My job was to do inventory.  Every single item or box had a number on it and as the movers brought it into the house or garage, they would yell off the number and I would find it on one of these 14 papers and mark it off. 

Ben's job was to direct them to where to put stuff and he maned the garage to neatly stack and organize everything.  We knew that we wouldn't be unpacking a great deal of our stuff until we moved into a permanent house, but still wanted it all accessible and neatly organized so we could still get around out there.  He did a great job.

I could barely watch as they brought in my piano!

Our backyard has a fun fire pit

And the best thing of all- a play structure!  We have never had our own play structure and the kids were beyond ecstatic about it.  The thrill still hasn't worn off, even 2.5 months later.  The first few weeks, the kids would sneak outside any spare minute they had, including before school and as soon as they got home from school.  We love this rental!

Livy (and the twins) had a fabulous day with Nana and Papa and I don't think even missed us at all.

By the end of the day, my house looked like this in every room- boxes stacked everywhere!!

My poor, poor kitchen was beyond messy.  I HATE a cluttered kitchen, so it nearly drove me crazy.

We left behind clear, sunny skies and 50 degree weather in Seattle and were welcomed with clouds, rain and 30 degree weather.  

Our first Sunday there was Superbowl Sunday with our Hawks playing the Patriots.  We were so excited to watch the game (although kind of sad not to be in Seattle during this back-to-back Superbowl appearance year).  Just watching the game on TV in the Seattle area is so fun.  Most people here are big fans too, but we were sad to miss out back home.  The Seahawks lost, but it was a great game and we are still green and blue strong!

The next week, the kitchen was my top priority in organizing.  Whew- I could finally sleep at night!

Livy was my big helper in unpacking the next week.  She found all sorts of things to climb into and tear apart.

It was all fun and games until she got her leg stuck in the banister.

After just a week or so, we had made a huge dent in unpacking.  All of the main stuff was unpacked and we had gone through practically everything we owned, deciding what should be unpacked and what should stay boxed up.  I threw lots of stuff away and we made many large boxes full of stuff to take to Goodwill.  Over the next few weeks, at a slower rate, we finished up all the organizing and unpacking.  I am glad to be done unpacking and have been enjoying a few months of calm and peace.  Ben's parents and siblings were fabulous with helping us.  People watched kids whenever we needed it, his mom and sister helped me unpack multiple times and his two other sisters brought over dinner on 2 consecutive nights right after we moved in.  We have the best family!