Happy 4th, Katelyn!

Kate is FOUR!

Kate's birthday started with strawberry rolls (like cinnamon rolls but with pink frosting) for breakfast.

After the brothers were off to school, we headed to Build-a-Bear. More than anything for her birthday this year, Kate wanted to get her dolly's leg fixed. She got her last year for her birthday, and she's been well-loved in the mean time. 

I also couldn't resist getting her this year's pay-your-age birthday bear. While the saleslady did the stitching, we wandered around shopping for clothes. She picked out a new outfit for Dolly, an Anna (from Frozen) dress outfit. We also got the new birthday bear a birthday t-shirt and tutu.

After lots of pictures, we headed next door to Claire's, where I got her a little unicorn lip gloss.

Next up was lunch at Chick-fil-a. She had nuggets and fruit and played on the play place.

Then we headed to HEB to pickup her unicorn cake and some pink ice cream before heading home for a nap.

For dinner, she picked spaghetti, meatballs & salad (Ranch, croutons, carrots, cucumbers). Then she opened her presents - a new backpack for school, a pink ballerina bear, sparkly play dough, and two Pinkalicious books.

After presents, we did the unicorn cake and ice cream.

And there was even some time to play with the new play dough before bed.  It was a great day!

My baby is four...

First Day of School

Van Raub Elementary

Boerne, TX

First day at the new school!

Collin - 5th grade, Stewart & Carroll

 

 Brennan - 3rd grade, Hall & Shipman

Ethan - Kindergarten, Lisle

Everyone was excited and ready to go bright and early. Prayers for a great year!

We made it!

Now that the computer is all set-up in the new house, I can give the run-down on the last four weeks. It's been crazy, to say the least. I'm glad I can look back at it now, rather than have to stare it in the eyes.

Tues, May 21st - PACK DAY
We had snow the night before, so the packers didn't arrive until about 10:30 am. There were two, they were men, and they were both over 50. Any preconceived notions you have just concocted reading those describers all were all true - they were slow, they were reckless and they were didn't get the job done. Collin knitted with his grandma-friend RuthAnn after school, and we skipped Cub Scout Pack Meeting. I had done a lot of packing in advance (both to get the house ready for the market and so the kids had less to make messes with), and I am so glad I had. At 8pm, they left, and after getting my tired monkeys in bed, I packed the last 4 boxes I'd purchased with items they'd not done. I picked up Ryan from the airport shuttle stop at midnight and called it a day.

Wed, May 22nd - LOAD DAY

The loaders were our only good experience of the move. There were a lot of them, they covered the floors with protective pads, they used ramps, they had blankets and padding, and they were efficient. I had my last follow-up appointment with the periodontist (from my March quad gum graft and then April re-do) in the afternoon. They were done loading everything by 4pm. Then we had Ethan's preschool graduation. I went to get a treat with my RS presidency before bed.

Thurs, May 23rd - CLEANING DAY
We took a good long time to get the car loaded. We had way too much for the space, but Mr Tetris made it happen. After getting Kate from preschool, we had lunch at Tina's house (RS president) and gave Kate a nap there. The carpet cleaner came about 1pm, but I just left the door unlocked. I picked the boys up from school, and the house cleaners came about 5pm. We went to dinner with the Pauly's (Collin's best friend). They were done cleaning at 7pm, and Tina and I stopped by at 7:30 to make sure everything was good-to-go. The final walk-through was at 8pm. We were done. The house looked great. Tina let us all sleep at her house.

Fri, May 24th - CLOSING DAY
We dropped the biggest boys off at school for their last day and Ethan & Kate at Maddox & Harper's house (Maddox was Ethan's best Church buddy). Ryan & I headed to the 8:30am closing. It was super smooth and easy. After grabbing donuts at Mr Yo's, our favorite spot, we tried to organize the car for a road-trip, and picked up Ethan & Kate and then Collin & Brennan.

We hit the road about 10:30am and headed to Colorado Springs. We checked into the hotel and swam in the pool. We ordered pizza and went to sleep.

Sat, May 25th - Garden of the Gods & Pike's Peak
We woke up early to beat the crowds and headed to Garden of the Gods. I thought this would be much more like a hike, but most of it is really just paved walkways. We had to intentionally seek out paths which were more nature-y. I don't feel like we stayed as long as I would have liked (maybe the kids were tired/whiny?). But it really is a cool pretty place.

After leaving Garden of the Gods, we headed to Pike's Peak. We waited in line to get through the toll booth, and then started the drive up the mountain. It was warm (not hot) at the base, but it got colder, snowier, icier and windier as we ascended. In fact, due to the late snows and never-coming Spring, the top of the mountain wasn't open (18 miles), and we had to turn back at Mile 14. The views were amazing though. I'm so glad we did this once before leaving Colorado.

Sun, May 26th - Manitou Cliff Dwellings & Air Force Academy
Sunday morning we checked out of the hotel and headed to the Manitou Cliff Dwellings. Ryan has always wanted to take the family to Mesa Verde, but we never made it. I picked this activity so the kids could get a feel for a similar history. It was pretty tiny and disappointing though, and we tried really hard but could only fill an hour. It was expensive and not worth it.

Since we now had a lot of time to fill, we headed to the Air Force Academy. Security is really tight, and they checked our IDs, trunk and had us open the doors so they could see the kids. This unplanned stop was actually perfect, and I'm glad we did it. We walked around the Chapel (neat aircraft-like design) and the neighboring statues. We also drove down to the Visitor Center and saw a short movie about life as a student there. The boys all left saying how much they didn't want to go into the military (too much yelling).

Then we drive to Alamosa. We met up with my parents at the VRBO house and went to Chili's for dinner.

Mon, May 27th - Sand Dune National Park & Splashland Pool
The next morning we headed to the store which rents sand sleds and sandboards. After some advice, we headed off to Sand Dune National Park. Even though we planned for it to be cold, we were still surprised how uncomfortable it really was. The wind was bitterly cold and whipped lots of sand into our eyes and faces. The kids and I wore sunglasses the whole time, and Ryan wore a bandanna we'd picked up with the boards. You have to walk across a creek bed to get to the dunes, and it was really flowing and had a good amount of water in it too. Since it was so cold, the last thing any of us wanted to do was get wet. We had a good time figuring out the sleds, and Ryan even made it down on the board a few times. We ended up liking sitting on the board better than the sleds because it slid over the sand better, but the foot bindings were pretty uncomfortable on your tushy. All in all, I'm glad we did this once-in-a-lifetime activity.

I had planned for us to take a wet hike up to a waterfall and also play in the sand and water near the parking lot, but seriously - it was soooo cold (in the 40s)! So we had a little picnic with sandwiches at the tables near the parking lot, and then headed to a hot spring pool.

My mom grew up spending her summers in this area, and she remembers always going to the hot spring pools after playing at the dunes. We ended up at Splashland. It wasn't crowded at all, and the sun and water were warm, even though the air was frigid. We had a great time... until we had to get out. ;-)

We grabbed pizza for dinner back the house and crashed. It's tiring to be on "vacation!"

Tues, May 28th - Manassa Cemetery
Another reason I wanted to meet my parents here was so we could visit the cemetery my mom's parents (and many other relatives) are buried in. When they each died, I attended their funerals, but because Manassa is so far out of the way and I was either pregnant or nursing, I never made it to their gravesites.

Anyway, as we drove to the cemetery, I rode with my parents, and my mom was able to point out the homes of her grandmother and where her summer-time friends lived. I even saw the pasture she used to ride horses in! It was fun to hear her stories and think of her as a little girl. Of course, we also saw their grave sites.

This was a surprisingly somber - no, SAD - experience for me. I miss my grandparents, and I wish I'd have taken more opportunities to see them before they passed. After I was out of the house, college and family always took precedence and time got away from me. I rarely saw them after high school.

After we were done at the cemetery, we said goodbye to my parents, as they had planned prior appointments to select their own plots and also with the engraver for their headstones. So awful to think about, but they want to try to make it easier on us after they are gone.

We started the long drive to Roswell, NM where we stayed the night.

Wed, May 29th - Drive to San Antonio
The next morning, we headed started the last leg of our journey, driving to our new hometown. After picking up Ryan's car (which had been parked at his work all week), we headed to our new "home" - a hotel near the airport.

Thurs, May 30th - Tuesday, June 4th
The next nine nights is kinda a blur. I think I have just blocked it because it was so hard. We spent a lot of time at the hotel pool and various playgrounds I found on Google. We also met the principal of the boys' new school and got a tour.

We even met a few people from the ward at the playground across the street from our new house, even though we weren't in it yet. One day we headed to New Braunfels to see our Peoria friends, the Powell's.

On Saturday, we went to Aquatica (a water park) and Sea World, so we didn't have to spend the whole day fighting in the room.

On Sunday, we went to our new ward (Leon Springs) and found out that we'd be having a special meeting the very next Sunday to put us into a new ward. Oh the irony. While in Colorado, we were placed in a new ward in a new stake with all new leadership THREE times in 5 years. Each ward lasted about 17 months, until the final one which was a full two years (haha, like that's a long time or something). Anyway, to learn that what we thought was going to be our ward was splitting made us feel like we were cursed or something.

Wed, June 5th - CLOSING DAY
I spent the morning packing up and cleaning the hotel room. We headed to our final walk-through, and the home owners were still home, hugging and saying goodbye to neighbors and eating lunch in the kitchen. They were supposed to get it professionally cleaned, but they said they had it done "the day before." Not exactly what we meant. Their Uhaul sat in the driveway. They also were supposed to have the sprinklers serviced and functioning, but the control panel was black. We also apparently didn't make the refrigerator an inclusion, so we didn't have one. Sigh. What a disaster. We finally got a texted-promise from the seller's agent that he'd pay for a sprinkler guy to come out, and we went to closing, about 30 minutes late. The kids had been running around like animals for 2 hours at this point, and luckily Melissa (met on Sunday swapped numbers) said she'd keep the kids for me.

At the title company, the mortgage was all in Ryan's name (I was upset about it, but he tried to get me added a couple weeks ago, and they said they'd have to start over from scratch). But, in the end, it was a good thing, because they spelled my name wrong in EVERY spot. My name is on the title and deed, and they spelled it -Ay instead of -Ey. Anyway, we all know how many hundreds of times you have to initial and sign your name to buy a house, and I had to do all of those PLUS I had to cross out my name, rewrite it and initial the change. Sigh. I guess I should have been glad I wasn't on all the mortgage docs too. When we finally got done, we grabbed the kids and got a celebration dinner at Lupe's Tortillas, a delicious, expensive Mexican restaurant. Then Ryan headed to Lowe's to buy us a fridge, and I headed to the hotel with the kids half-an-hour away for bed. That night Ryan went to Lowe's, then Home Depot and then back to Lowe's bought us a fridge after closing time and brought it back to the house. All the while, I hunted for someone to help him unload it from his truck and into the garage without our appliance dolley, which was on the moving truck.

Thurs, June 6th - CARPET INSTALL
Ryan had spent the night at the house while I was at the hotel, so he let in the carpet-layers, and they started demo about 8:30am before heading to work. I showed up at 10:45 with the kids to meet with the AT&T guy about tv and internet. I also brought all Ryan's things from the hotel, because he'd slept with nothing (no toothbrush!) the night before. It was a full trunk-load. AT&T took 4 hours to hook everything up, and the kids and I sat on the tile floor in the front room with blankets and kindles and noisy pounding for the whole time. I was finally able to take the kids to the neighborhood pool at 3pm, but a vicious, dark storm rolled through at 4pm, and we had to leave. Back to the hard floor and loud pounding. We finally met Ryan for dinner at Freddy's at 5:30. Again, we headed back to the hotel 30-mins away, and he headed back to the house. The carpet-layers finally finished up at 11:30pm.

Fri, June 7th - TRUCK DELIVERY
While I packed up the rest of the hotel and checked us out, Ryan welcomed the next round of movers. THREE guys showed up at about 8am. They came in a car following a semi loaded with 7 of our 11 crates. (Since we had a gap in housing, they'd unloaded our original semi. They'd removed all blankets from our furniture and crammed everything into crates to sit in a warehouse. Then when we were ready for our things, they'd lifted the crates into a semi.) Anyway, they didn't have blankets on any furniture, they didn't cover the floors, they didn't have ramps, there weren't enough guys, it was over 100 degrees with the accompanying southern humidity, and it was a nightmare from beginning to end. I showed up with the kids at 11am, and Ryan informed me he had to go into work and left me with the 3 idiots and my 4 crazies. The idiot handed me an enormous stack of carbon copy papers and as they pulled my furniture - and boxes - across gravel and nails, yelled numbers at me to cross off the list. All the while, Kate asked for food, Ethan asked for me to open wrappers, and Collin & Brennan argued about what the other did in their Minecraft world. I sweat in the insane heat while Allied numbers (from our previous move) and United numbers (this move) were also yelled at me. It was horrible. I finally texted Ryan and said "I need you" and he started the 30 min drive back from work. I thrust the paperwork at him when he pulled in, and he was out there with them until after 7pm.

Sat, June 8th - Unpacking
I thought after they movers left, things would calm down, but it was then that we discovered all the destruction they'd caused. It was so frustrating to see all the gouged furniture, broken glass and missing tools. (UPDATE - Two months later they cut us a check for $1000 to cover all the missing and broken items. It worked out, but it was super unpleasant and a huge hassle.)

Sold!

It happened! Right at 8 weeks, we got an offer. Hooray! 

Fun story... I got a call at 5pm from the showing scheduling service on a Monday evening. We were just finishing eating dinner early because everyone had swim lessons, and Collin had taekwondo, and we had to leave by 5:20pm. The operator informed me that a realtor had just placed a request for a 5:30 showing. 

I said, "Do you mean in 30 minutes?!" 

He said, "Yes, but you can decline it." 

I replied, "Not if I want my house to sell!" 

I quickly got off the phone, and as the kids finished eating, I told them through my panic-induced shortness of breath, "We have a showing, and we have to have the house ready in 20 minutes!" It was 5:02pm. 

And you know what those amazing little monkeys did? They cleared their places, loaded their dishes, and got into their swimsuits/gi. Before I knew it, Collin was wiping bathroom counters and folding nap-time blankets, Brennan was wiping the kitchen table and counters, Ethan was loading the dishwasher, and Kate was putting my shower bottles under the counter in the bathroom. I honestly didn't even tell them what to do.

I've never seen anything like it! I didn't even think they KNEW what to do! But after two months on the market, they just knew what had to happen, and they did it without a single tear, complaint or yell from Mom. 

I sent them to the car and did the final vacuum and mopping and then joined them. I got in the driver's seat and backed out of the garage, and... it was 5:17pm. I pulled over on our street - to put on my shoes! - and gave the most sincere, appreciative compliments to my little team. We had come together and got it done. I was - and still am! - so proud of them. 

The next day we learned that the family who had come that night - the wife is the realtor's daughter - was putting together an offer to buy our house. And we had done it together! It was such a tender mercy that the showing that became "the one" was the showing where we had to work as a team and do the impossible. 

My little guys can move mountains! 

Anyway, a few days later we made an offer on a home in Boerne, TX. It is a bedroom-community on the NW corner of San Ant. The schools are great, and Ryan's commute should be only 30-45 minutes, (rather than one hour drive of most high-rated schools) depending on traffic. We have successfully gotten through the inspections on both ends, so that's a relief. Now we just have to submit documents and sign, sign, sign. 

We will close here on May 24th, take a final farewell tour of southern Colorado, and then drive to Texas. We'll have about a week in a hotel or VRBO there, and then we close on the new house on June 5th. It immediately needs new carpet - before the truck arrives, hopefully - so we'll still have a few more days of unsettledness. It'll be crazy and exhausting, but then it'll be all over. I'm so grateful to see light at the end of the tunnel! 

Eight Weeks

Obviously, I didn't figure I'd be using that title. Other than a "bomb cyclone" blizzard, snow day, bladder infection, four kid colds, three vomiting bugs, two price reductions, one house-hunting trip, one braces removal, six haircuts, quad gum graft and a mother-in-law visit... Nothing has changed. Still on the market. Still no offers. Almost no activity the last week either. Sigh. That's the update... or lack thereof. I'm still standing.

Three Weeks

Today marks three weeks since Ryan left and that the house went on the market. I am doing better than I expected, but there have definitely been some tears and lost-tempers. Showings - which I can't plan ahead for - are frustrating, and Open Houses are generally poorly attended. It is super cold - got down to -11 without windchill last night - and we got about 6 inches of snow Friday through Sunday.  (I had an Open House on Saturday.) The weather isn't really cooperating, to say the least. I hope Spring is around the corner.

I'm tired of cleaning, especially mopping these beautiful floors. I'm tired of running all the car-pools by myself. I'm tired of doing dishes and making beds. I'm tired of staying on top of fingerprints and other messes. I'm tired of giving all the consequences and breaking up all the fights. I'm tired of entertaining the kids in restaurants, movie theaters and libraries - after cleaning the house for hours - only to be told that our house is "too close to the school" or their "second choice."

I have been so blessed to be served by the members of our ward though. A family from the ward came both Saturday and Sunday mornings to clear the snow from our driveway and sidewalks. Our ministering brother came last Friday evening with a massive ladder to change the battery in the chirping smoke detector at the top of our 20-foot vaulted ceiling. When I failed to be able to install the new control panel on our humidifier, another member of the ward came over to confirm that it was factory-defective (which I then returned and installed the replacement in 5 minutes). We have also received four unrequested dinners from three different families, as well as being invited to eat at two different families' homes (and feeding my four children is no small feat). We have crashed in two different homes during showings - each with only a moment's notice. Many more people have offered their homes for our use, and I'm sure I'll still have a chance to take them up on their offers.

Ryan is super happy with his new job and responsibilities. He spends his free time looking at houses with his new best friend, our realtor Jeff. He also goes to the temple (which is in the neighborhood he is renting in) and for bike rides. Of course, he is also working. The weather, unlike here, is almost perfect, and he's loving it. His accommodations are less than ideal (loud tvs until 1am accompanied by obnoxious laughter and multiple cats in the bedroom next door), but he's a trooper. In order to save money, he is renting a room in a home of a member of the Church. They are an older couple whose children are all out of the house. It's a short-term solution, of course, until we can buy a house and the rest of the family can move down.

My plan was to move as soon as we close on this house, even if the kids were still in the middle of the school year. Unfortunately, it's looking more and more like the house won't close until school gets out anyway. So much for being able to get them started before summer break. The best laid plans...

Please pray for us to be able to cope with being apart and for someone to buy our house, so we can be together as a family again.

We really are doing better than I expected, but of course it's still hard. There's our update. Love you all!

Xcaret 15-year adventure!

The Monday morning after Brennan's baptism weekend, we headed to the airport for our much-anticipated 15th anniversary trip. My mom and dad stayed with the kids 7 days so we could get away. After all the stress of Ryan quitting his job and getting the house ready to sell, it was amazing to get away together as just the two of us.

Happy 15 years to us!

We flew into Cancun, but we stayed just south of Playa del Carmen in the Xcaret Resort. It's called an "all-fun inclusive" which means our food, activities, transfers and excursions were all part of the package. It was an amazing adventure! Ryan and I did all kinds of things we'd never done before, and we had a great time being kid-less. Thank you to Grandpa & Grandma for that!

MONDAY
We were pretty exhausted by the time we arrived (up at 4am, 1 hour to the Denver airport, 4-1/2 hour flight, 1-hour airport transfer followed by the 1-hour resort tour). We headed to the beach and to check out the pool. I hadn't eaten all day, so we ended up at the pool-side fresh fish buffet for an early dinner. After reading in the hammocks in a private cave, we headed back to our room for room-service (our first 1st of the weekend) dessert.

TUESDAY

Our first pick of parks was Xplor. We checked out bikes from the hotel and headed over in the morning after a bite to eat at the buffet. We went for a drive in a jeep. We also went zip-lining (first time). We did some hammock-splash zip-lines (first time). We took a double kayak with hand-paddles through an underground cave (first time). We also swam in an underground river, which was freezing cold (first time).

After lunch and some balcony hammock time, we got cleaned up and took a boat ride to the lead park for their evening ethnic show. We got there early though, so we had time to ride the scenic tower and look around the whole area from above. It was gorgeous. I totally loved the evening performance too! The first half was Mayan sport demonstrations and then a reenactment of the Spanish arriving. The second half was a dance or music demonstration from each of the Mexican states. It was awesome. We took lots of videos for the kids.

WEDNESDAY
Today we went on our first excursion. Along with about 20 other people from our hotel, we explored 4 different cenotes, underground caves. Each cenote was a different type, but since all were in the Mayan language, here's my summary in English.

The first was a cavern cenote, and we did an assisted rappel into it. We swam and I did my first cliff jump, though this one seemed more like a diving board.

After pasteries, we headed to our second which was an ancient cenote where we could choose between a strap zip-line or bar zipline. Ryan also did the optional cliff jump.

Next, we went kayaking through a semi-open cenote and then snorkeling in a cavern cenote and had a wonderful lunch in the jungle of soup and sandwiches.

Our last stop was an open cenote, where there was a water slide and bar zipline. We also floated down the river in an inner tube and did another cliff jump together, much higher and much more cliff-like.

This was our favorite day for sure.

In the evening, we had reservations to the Japanese restaurant, where I had raw fish and sushi for the first time. It was all amazing!

THURSDAY

This was our longest excursion. We took a bus to Chichen Itza, which was about 3 hours away. We ate breakfast on board the bus. Though I wouldn't have wanted to miss seeing one of the Seven Wonders of the World, this was one long, hard day. We didn't really like our tour guide, and it was hot and tiring. I didn't realize Chicken Pizza (as our guide playfully called it) was such a large compound. After a long tour and a short free-time, we headed to lunch in a historical town called Valledolid. There's a semi-open cenote right in the middle of town we got to walk around too. It was beautiful.

When we got back to the hotel (12 hours after we left!), we decided we couldn't miss the chance to do zip-lining after dark, so we changed and headed back to Xplor Fuego. We were tired, but it was awesome! Like most evenings, we finished up with nutella crepes and ice cream at the hotel buffet.

FRIDAY
We needed to hit the last two parks near the hotel, so we grabbed bikes to head to Xcaret, the leading historical park. The highlights of our time there were helping make chocolate and taking a boat tour. We also saw a bunch of animals (zoo and aquarium like) and explored a Mayan village.

After a buffet lunch, we biked over to neighboring Xenses. This was my least favorite park. It was divided into two sections, and every activity has to be completed to reach the next. The first half was a topsy-turvy town, water-slide, bird-fly zip-line, salt-water bath and then mud-bath.

The second half was optical illusions with giant/midget, a pitch-black experience in 5 different biomes, garden of Eden water-fall and cave experience. I hated the mud and darkness activities so much, they tainted the whole day for me, sadly. Ryan thought it was all pretty cool though.

Friday evening we had reservations to the hotel's Caribbean show. It was nothing compared to the Xcaret show, but it was a dinner theater, so that was fun.

SATURDAY
We started early again with a one-hour bus trip to Tulum. Our guide was no better than our Chichen Itza guide, and we didn't get nearly enough free time. Our experience was much the same as our other Mayan tour, unfortunately. Tulum is located right on the Caribbean Sea, so at least it wasn't so hot.

After our tour, the bus dropped us off a Xel-Ha, another park. At Xel-Ha, we had lunch and then spent the afternoon adventuring - huge water slide, snorkeling, tubing, cliff-jumping, jungle biking, walking a floating bridge, and cenote exploring.

After getting cleaned up, we went to our reservations at the Las Cuevas restaurant, which was a Brazilian steakhouse down in the caves. The food was great, but we had a rowdy bunch at the table next to us that kinda ruined our time.

SUNDAY
Time to come home. After a little breakfast, we got checked out of our room and started our trek home - one hour to the airport, 3 hours of waiting around, 4-1/2 hours in flight, customs, shuttle to long-term parking and then 1-hour drive home.

It was cold and snowy all while we were gone, and it was a rude awakening to come back to. I truly missed the kids this trip, and I wouldn't have wanted to be gone any longer. Unfortunately, it's now time for real life - Mom & Dad left about noon today, the house officially goes live tonight, and Ryan leaves for good in the morning. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. That's my motto right now.