The Move to Maryland

All right.  I know I have some explaining to do.  Almost no one knew we were moving to Maryland, mostly because until a week before the move Kimball and I weren't sure it was happening either.  We knew there was a possibility for a few weeks before, but we were always told someone else had to give the okay until one morning Kimball finally received his orders requiring him to check in the day before.  That's not even me trying to make a point, Kimball was seriously a day late the morning he received his orders.

Kimball called in and explained that since we lived in Utah we would need at least a few days to get out there.  They gave him about a week and a half.  So that afternoon we bought a bigger car to haul the family across country and I scoured the internet looking for a place to live.  It was probably about three days later that we began our 35 hour road trip.

The trip was actually a lot easier than I expected.  Kimball is a marathon driver it turns out.  Over the whole trip I only drove for about 3 hours.  We listened to audio books the whole way and thanks to our awesome new car the kids were able to watch movies and even play the wii.  It cracked Kimball and I up because most times we stopped the kids would complain about us interrupting their game or something.  Apparently its a different world now, but at least it helped the trip go by smoothly.  Savannah was the only thing dragging down our time on the road.  We had to stop at least every four hours during the day to feed her.  All in all, she did great too and it was probably the best thing for everyone to get out and stretch.

The kids had a cush ride.  Poor Savannah!  You can see how things piled up around her.

The first day we made it just outside of Independence, MO.  We woke up the next morning and did a little site seeing.  Kimball was born in Independence so we drove through his old neighbourhood and even stopped at the house he was born in.  The family who lives there now let him walk through and see the room again.  It was a fun little detour.

Independence, MO LDS Temple

Kimball was born right inside those upstairs windows!

After that we headed on to St. Louis.  This was a really cool city to drive through.  We didn't stop to save time, but I got to see the arch from the car!  Woo-hoo!!

St. Louis, MO LDS Temple

By the time we got to Nashville it was dark, but it looked like it was probably a neat place to see.  We finally finished day 2 of driving at about 2am in Johnson City, TN.  Kimball's brother Warren, sister SaraLyn, not to mention oddles and oddles of fun cousins all live near here.  We had so much fun!  Kaden is crazy about Warren's boys and had the best time wrestling with them on the trampoline.  Jo had fun just having so much attention, and I don't know that Savannah cared either way about the whole thing, but she probably liked being out of the carseat!   Two days later we piled ourselves back in the car to finish the last leg of our drive.  I'm proud to say that in a 35 hour drive we made it about 34.5 hours without incident.  Unfortunately about a half hour away Jocilyn got car sick and threw-up all over herself.  When we finally made it to Odenton (our town), we toured two town homes signed the lease on one and kicked the realtor out the door so that we could give Jo a bath.  The last 30 minutes were nothing if not eventful, but we did it!

Now that we're here we're working to make it home.  Kimball and I aren't sure how long we'll be in MD, we would like it to be for a while, but with our track record who knows.   Kimball loves his job!  He's working hard and doing great from what I hear.  Kaden is having a great time at school.  Jo and I walk him to school every morning while Savannah helps Dad get ready for work.  When I pick Kaden up at the end of the day he always has a bunch of friends saying good bye to him which eases my worries a ton.  Jo stays home with me and Savannah each day, but I'm working on getting her in preschool and hopefully some dance lessons soon.  I'm keeping myself busy just getting unpacked and trying to get things in order.  Almost every weekend we've gone out for an adventure somewhere.  Maryland has been a fun place so far, so I'm counting on having a lot of family come to visit, hopefully this will help bridge the gap a little.