June Recap - The Move

Well, we live in Wisconsin now. It was a long and winding road to get here but we made it.

The path-
End of May, Joe left for River Falls and Joe and I began my last week of work and 2 weeks total sans Joe. Lame. June 13th Z and I made the drive to Manassas, VA for Hannah's graduation. Highlights of the trip include:
- Z yelling at me to stop once an hour for the first 4 hours.
- a monsoon in PA/MD that flooded the road and considerably slowed us down
- about that time the check engine light popped on
- when we finally got into VA and breathed a sigh of relief, we hit stand still traffic. Z was not amused.

We finally made it and it was worth the harrowing journey to see Miss Hannah walk across the stage. I felt so proud and so amazed to think of what a little girl she was when I first met her and what a young lady she is now. Astonishing.

We had two days in Syracuse to wrap everything up, which was pretty overwhelming and directly led to me sleeping maybe a total of 8 hours in three days. But! We were so thankful for our friends helping us out. Not only did they get the truck all packed up but it was just a relief to see their friendly faces. We miss everyone a lot.

On June 19th we embarked on our separate adventures- Joe driving our moving truck and Z and I flying for the first time together. Joe's trip was long and exhausting (his second time driving from Syracuse to River Falls in 2 weeks), but thankfully was also uneventful. Our flights were not as long, but probably equally exhausting (for me) and unfortunately, not uneventful. My trend of having all of my flights out of Syracuse delayed continued which led to me running through the Philly airport with a sleeping baby strapped to my body only to discover they had given away my aisle seat and I now had to sit in the middle seat with a very wide awake and curious 1 year old. I was completely sweat drenched and disheveled by the time I plopped down in my seat but was thankful we made it onto the flight. I was also lucky to have very kind seat mates, one of which even put "Planes" on for Z to watch which was a very nice gesture even though Z didn't care about anything except trying to type on the guy's laptop. Overall, Z was good, just extremely squirmy and wanted to socialize with every person in his general vicinity. He literally did somersaults in my lap multiple times trying to look at everything. By the time we landed I was so tired I felt drunk. Apparently, Z was also tired because he passed out as soon as we started walking through the airport. Dang kid just refused to sleep on the planes.

But, HUZZAH! I landed to friendly faces when my brother Aaron and his wife Becky met me at the gate and helped me get to our car. We're so grateful that they came to help us move and just be with me those first few days so I wasn't alone in a new place with a baby while I was waiting for Joe to arrive with the truck. Their presence made everything a lot easier and more fun. Joe also picked up his brother Zac on his way, who in turn enlisted the help of a buddy of his who lives nearby to help us unpack. The siblings, I am very thankful for, like I said, but Justin I had maybe conversed with once at Zac's wedding so it was pretty above and beyond for him to drive out and help two strangers unload their moving truck.

So! We are successfully moved. Our to-do list is still super long but every day I get at least one thing done and I see a light at the end of the tunnel. Boxes are still everywhere but they are slowly decreasing and at least we are all sleeping in our own beds and have food in the refrigerator. So far I really love River Falls. It feels like my kind of town and reminds me of my hometown a bit. It's beautiful and I legitimately have sweet little birds chirping outside my window all day like I'm Snow White or something. I've met some really friendly people while exploring the downtown and basically everything I could need is in walking distance. The only downside so far is that I woke up Monday morning with a terrible cold which is making unpacking so much harder. Bah!