We Made It

We made it.  Yorktown, Virginia is now home.  I have no pictures.  Don't think I've taken a single one since we arrived here on Wednesday, so just words.

It's been a journey since leaving Vegas.  Just for my memory's sake, here's how our trek went.  We all drove out of our home of seven years on the evening of Sunday, August 19th.  Stopped just a couple hours down the road in St. George, Utah.  Packed up again the next morning and traveled to Grand Junction, Colorado.  Enjoyed a late afternoon swim in the pool and pizza dinner in the hotel room.  Super easy.  (All had gone too well up to this point!)

Monday/Tuesday morning was horrible.  Gaby's problem tummy wreaked havoc on her and all three of us were up pretty much all night.  At about 4:30 am, I also noticed she had a fever which didn't let up for over 24 hours.  The drive to Colorado Springs was full of tired, sick girls and lots of crying.  Did I say "lots"?  Sorry, I meant, LOTS! :)  It was my birthday too.  Ronnie kept apologizing for having to spend my birthday in the car with all the crying....  Really and truly, I was happy.  It was a hard day, but I was with my crew, so all was well (and I never lost my patience!  God is good!)

Wednesday morning, we had breakfast with friends of Ronnie's family who knew him from about age 13 on. They also cared for us so well while Ronnie was at the Air Force Academy.  I almost always stayed with them when I came to visit him and they were always most gracious hosts.  We'd never been out to Colorado with any of the kids, so they got to meet our foursome.  I was amazed at how much Mrs. H. knows about each one....just from Christmas letters mostly.  We felt loved on by them again and they seemed touched that we stopped in the Springs just to share our family with them.  Really special.

We drove to Denver that evening so we'd be close to the airport.  We had a major hotel snafu and ending up having to find another hotel.  I was maybe not a fan of it.at.all. and at this point, was pretty dang tired and emotionally spent.  I also maybe had my first breakdown and maybe considered running myself over with the U-haul trailer.  Remember, this is all just hypothetical. :)

The next morning, the girls and I flew out of Denver to DC where we were met by Ronnie's parents.  The flight was fairly uneventful sans the first 10 minutes when Elena decided to have the biggest meltdown of her life.  Everyone keeps saying it was the air pressure, but we hadn't left the ground when it started! :0  It was violent, but thankfully, short lived.  She worked herself into a tizzy and passed out on my shoulder for the next 20ish minutes.  Oh boy.

Got to Ronnie's parents.  The overwhelming feeling was pure and utter joy to not be in a hotel anymore.  The second overwhelming feeling came just after I got the girls in bed and realized it had been five solid days of 24/7 kids.  Love my babes to pieces, but afternoon nap/quiet time is also sacred to me!  It is preserved at all cost!  Without it, or even five minutes to myself  in five days....whoa.  It was a good, really good, few days with Ronnie's parents and just the girlies.  The boys finished the drive in just three (long) days and arrived on Saturday evening.  We all enjoyed Grandma and Grandpa for a few more days and headed down here on Wednesday, August 29th.  (I forgot to mention that Ronnie and I left the kids with Grandma on Monday and drove down to Yorktown to register the boys in school and pick up the keys to our house in their Mercedes!  Sweet!  I'm not a "car girl," but that's nice ridin'!  And it was quiet!  Very lovely.)

I'll detail the saga that has been our moving into this house soon.  Let's just say, it's been a lot more work than we bargained for (and was advertised).  But....there have been some amazing blessings to us being here as well.  I'll let you know soon, but I/we are tired.  Been working our backsides off since we got here and desperately need some rest.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all of you who have prayed us through this move.  We felt your covering all along....except maybe that Tuesday in the van!  Just kidding!  Seriously, bunches of thanks.

Dining Out

Saturday evening, Ronnie's squadron celebrated their 95th anniversary with a formal dinner.  We got all gussied up.  Too bad you can't really see my handsome hubby.  That first kid of ours is TALL!  The best part of my ensemble, you ask.....oh yes, I wore the same earrings I wore to PROM with Ronnie!!  Just happened to have saved those black sparkly suckers for another special occasion.  Ah....prom....just like five years ago....ha!

Great evening.  Ronnie was the "Vice" (read MC), so I had to sit without him most of the evening, but it was still enjoyable.  He's so good at MCing type gigs.  He's pretty much "it" any time there's an event. The dining out was held at the Club with all the usual military traditions of a flying squadron.  Yes, grog bowl and all.  Yuck!  

We took a photo with all the kiddos before we left.

There was a gal there taking professional photos of all the couples.  I hope those turn out well.  Ronnie's parents were also there with us.  The squadron needed a big wig for a guest speaker, so since we just happen to know (and love!) a certain lieutenant general, he was invited to speak.  I don't have any pictures with them.  We got some taken there of all of us.  Looking forward to seeing those too.  Anyway, Ronnie's dad was amazing.  His speech was truly inspiring and spoke to all of us, not just the military folk.  The room was silent while he spoke.  I don't think I've ever witnessed Ronnie's squadron do anything silently.  Rowdy bunch!  And a very diverse crowd with super young enlisted guys, all the way up to vets that were part of the squadron during the Korean War.  Pretty hard to engage all of them, but he sure did.  It was cool.  Very proud to be his daughter-in-law.

I'll try to post some of the other photos when we get them.  You know how that goes with me though!  May or may not happen. ;)  In the meantime, this is my fav.....at Clayton's request!