The Move Stage 5: Moving in and The last 2 weeks of summer (July-ish - August-ish 2016)

After weeks of being nomads, the moment we'd all been waiting for had finally arrived - moving into our house!

 My Dad and his wife, Terri, graciously flew out to help us unpack and keep the kiddos entertained, which was a huge blessing - Thank you!  It was so nice to have the extra help unpacking boxes and seriously, just knowing the kids were having fun and out of my hair allowed me to work so much more efficiently.  I loved all the picture texts I would get from their adventures too.  Especially the playing with the Emoji pillows at Walmart ones . .  .

Even though this is a reenactment, yes, Kate did, in fact, fall face first into the pillow bin.

You would think that unpacking a house that you'd already lived in would be simple, right?  Well, yes, and no.  Some things were pretty easy - like the kitchen.  But it just takes a long time to put away every. single. item.  The other thing is that we had  acquired some new things and rearranged some rooms, so there was still some figuring out to do.  All in all I'm happy with the way it turned out and am happy to be back in my Florida home (now that it has a secure roof and AC that works!)

rearranging of the den

Kylie had to have her own "desk" in the den too to work alongside her Dad.  So cute.

Kate was way into putting together her birthday Star Wars Legos while I unpacked.  Kept her from undoing my work, so I was good.

Lise's paint job turned out splendid and she was able to decorate it to her hearts content.  Actually, she has never really stopped decorating it, as she continues to rearrange her bookshelf, build a "reading nook", create a homework desk, or update the wall decorations.  The mark of a true artist.

Aly turned her room into a collage o' friends, which is awesome.  I wasn't able to capture it in time while the bed was actually made, but this is probably a more accurate sense of Aly's room.

This is also the cleanest you will see of Kate & Kylie's room, as there is always some sort of  Pony/Barbie/Littlest Pet Shop/Little People Village/Neighborhood going on.

We also turned Kate & Kylie's old room, the largest room upstairs, into "The Kids' Lounge", complete with TV, Wii, computer, and Art table.  It has been nice for the girls to have some space to spread out (which is really just code for more places to make a mess!)

When Chris was setting up the garage he found this snake digesting something big.  Welcome back to Florida!!

As Chris was settling into his new job, he started traveling down to South America to visit all his guys who were deployed in various countries.  Super busy, but they were also able to see some cool ruins and visit some museums.  Glad he gets a little play with all that work. ;)

The beginning of August also brought Kylie's birthday.  She was super excited about her "treasure box" and all she wanted to do on her birthday was go swimming.  Luckily we had a nice friend invite us over to swim in their pool.  Success!

So yeah, once the house was unpacked we had a couple weeks of summer left to enjoy.  Of course we swimming.  In addition, Aly was able to cross "go through a drive through in a cardboard car" off her bucket list.

It was super funny, because the girls tried jumping to get to order, but it didn't work, so I had to follow behind them with the van.  The workers thought it was hilarious and everyone came to look and take pictures . . . which led to them getting kicked out of the drive through by the manager.  They did get their ice cream, however, so it turned out to be a smashing success.

Aly also had no trouble jumping back into water sports.  There is a fun family in the ward who took the Mia Maids out boating - super fun.

Such a fun group of girls

The Move: Stage 4 - Living in a Hotel and Aly's Adventures (June-ish - July-ish 2016)

Well, Aly wasn't quite ready to say good bye after girls camp, and since we still had a couple more weeks  before we could get back into our house, I let her stay with her peeps for a little longer.  Her one friend's family even invited her to go on vacation with them to see the Palmyra pageant and Niagara Falls.  Lucky! (insert Napoleon Dynamite voice there.)

Thank you so much to the Craig family for adopting my child for a few weeks.  She loved, loved, LOVED every second she got to spend with you guys.  We have truly been blessed with wonderful friends.

Love the amazing clouds and those severe thunderstorms that roll in every afternoon in Florida.  It's like intense sunshine, heat, then - BAM! - crazy pouring rain for a 1/2 hour or so and then back to sunshine.  I love the no nonsense, "let's get this knocked out and move on" attitude of the weather here.

Well, as we leave Aly in her vacation bliss, let's see what the rest of the family was doing those couple of weeks, shall we?  I guess you could say we were kind of in vacation mode - in that we were living in a hotel.  But other than that it was just a whole lot of craziness.  First of all, every time we move I (we) get so sick of eating restaurant food.  After a week or so it's just like, "bleh!  Can I get a home cooked meal?!?"  We were staying in a hotel with a mini kitchen so I tried to offset that by bringing some dishes and my crock pot.  It worked out okay, but the hotel room was super cramped and there was no dishwasher.  Oh well, we made it work.   Doing laundry was nice in a way because I could get it all done in an hour and a half.  Using the luggage cart for folding and bringing it back up to the room was interesting though . . .   The other thing I forgot to take into account was the tourism traffic - Yikes!  What a nightmare!  We coulda, shoulda, woulda stayed in Crestview instead (if I coulda, shoulda, woulda found a hotel with a kitchenette) - better for Chris' commute, less tolls over the bridge, and better for getting down to Niceville every day to set up utilities, register for schools, doctor's appointments, etc. - ah the fun of moving!

We also were able to work on our house a little bit while waiting for final inspections and carpet cleaning to be done.  Analise had big plans for decorating her room and so we were able to paint before the furniture arrived - my first time painting - EVER! It turned out pretty well! Unfortunately we had some not-so-good surprises waiting for us when we got into the house.  First of all, we found out that our tenants had 2 cats in the home.  I was having major breathing issues and breaking out into hives the entire time we were there.  This did not make me happy.  Add on top of that we found shingles on the back porch (?!?!) which required some roof repairs to be done along with the AC acting funky which led to us needing to purchase 2 new AC units for the home.  What happened to the Rental management company taking care of the home?!?!  (Come to find out Rental Companies just stick a band aid on everything. Also found out after the fact that our yard maintenance guy quit because of issues with our property rental company too -  but that's another story.)  NOT the smooth transition I was hoping for - especially when Chris was already back at work and school started in just about a month.  STRESS!!

Okay, well enough of all the crapiness.  I'm not trying to complain, and everything got worked out eventually, but I am keeping this blog for posterity sake and I want to create an honest snapshot of our family's adventures - lotsa good, but lotsa craziness too - so that I'll remember that "yes, moving was crazy and stressful and it wasn't all in your mind, Stacy." ;)

So anywho, despite all the hectic-ness, we also had a little fun.  We swam in the hotel pool, watched a lot of Disney TV, read books, and celebrated 2 birthdays (went to see Finding Dory for Lise's birthday and out for Frozen Yogurt for Kate's birthday).  We also hit the beach a time or two.

Lise & Ellie putting on the play, "Cinderella", as the 2 ugly stepsisters.  Another day they came up with a complete circus with Lise & Ellie as the clowns, Kate & Marc as the magicians, and Kylie & Maddy as the Lion  tamer/Lion.  Love all the creative juices that come from playing with the Lawson's.

The thing that saved us were all the fun friends that welcomed us back with open arms and were willing to play with us!  Thanks to the Lawson's for opening up your home and letting us play at your house all. day. long. And for all the people we met at playgroup, or invited us to the movies or went on a day trip with us.  We even got to meet up with Kylie's kindergarten teacher who was down in Destin vacationing!

Our last Hurrah before getting into our home was the 4th of July.  Thanks to the Miller's who invited us over for a BBQ & Shrimp boil and then watching fireworks on the beach.  We actually got to see about 4 firework shows from our vantage point - Niceville, Fort Walton Beach, Harborwalk, and Baytown Wharf.  Awesomeness!

The Move: Stage 3 - Carolyn's & Kentucky Girls Camp (June 2016)

After all the beach house fun, we left Chris to get back to work and "being the boss" while we drove up to Tennessee/Kentucky for Aly and Lise to go to their next girls' camp.  Carolyn graciously let us crash at her house while the older two were gone.  Seriously, Carolyn could make a fortune at the "Paine Hotel" if she ever started charging me for all the times I've stayed with her.  She has been a life saver for our family during more moves and deployments than I can count.  And the best part is, we love their family so much that we actually have a blast staying with them.  Thank you Carolyn, for being the best Sister-in-law a girl could ask for! (And thanks to Rachel and Rebekah, for being Kate & Kylie's buddies!) 

When I went up to drop off the girls I stayed overnight at my friends house and was able to have one last hurrah of working out with my friends and going to Panera.  So going to miss these women.

And how did Girl's camp go?  Well, I wasn't there, so I can't be sure, but I'm pretty sure they had a fantastic time! ;)  (Once again, no pictures from Lise, but I know she was there in all her unique craziness and glory!)

The only time to sleep at girls' camp is during the day . . . 

I know that my girls are going to miss their friends as well - more than we can say.  We love you Kentucky!