The Move To the Frozen White North

The physical moving of our family from sunny Mesa, Arizona (temp. approximately Heaven) to frozen Kaysville, Utah (temperature much colder than I can currently handle), is finished.  The actual loading went great, aside from a temporary panic when it appeared all our junk wouldn't fit into TWO 26' moving vans.  Things were unloaded, and reloaded, and we were happy not to be forced to choose between our dining room table and our food storage.

Tons of help showed up, and we were loaded and ready to go within a couple of hours.  We have the best Mesa family, women were scrubbing and cleaning inside the kitchen and bathrooms while men were loading boxes and furniture outside.  It was hard to leave.

image found here We got on the road around 1 pm on Monday, a funny little caravan.  Jeff driving one of these lovely trucks, then Kiefer (our 16 year old) in our Honda Odyssey, and then me driving another of these 26' massive motors.  I won't lie, I was freaked out when we picked them up, this truck was huge!  I had never in my life been behind the wheel of one of these.  We racked our brains to try and come up with another solution, after all having our son who's only been a licensed driver for 4 months drive our children through questionable winter weather for 14+ hours was not our first choice.  We just couldn't find another solution.  I prayed, and prayed hard all would go well.  And it was a great drive!

Each car had a two way radio, with Quinn operating the radio in the van with Kiefer driving.  It was better than I could have hoped for, Kiefer far out performed our expectations-driving for 7 hours a day without problem or complaint.

The only hitch in the drive was waking up to a dead battery in the van on the 2nd day.  Someone (who was not Kiefer or Quinn, but shall remain nameless) left the lights on in the van all night.

 Thankfully there were two United Moving Lines drivers who had extra long jumper cables & helped us jump the van, and then we used the moving van to jump their truck's dead battery.  A win-win situation.  And, Kiefer & Quinn got a first hand lesson on how to jumpstart a car-important life lessons-learned on the road!

We arrived safely, and had tons of neighbors show up to help unload our trucks.  It only took about an hour and a half to unload both trucks-amazing!  Our neighbors across the street also made dinner for us & had us over to eat in their home.  Their 16 year old daughter invited Kiefer to go hang out and play games with her friends  that night, and we deemed the move complete & a success!  We're doing well on the unpacking, should be able to post some pictures in a couple of days.  Mostly just have the basement, guest bedroom, and of course our Master Bedroom to finish off.

 If only I could find a way to jumpstart myself as easily as this battery was re energized.  I won't lie, Church was hard yesterday.  Sitting alone, wishing I was back surrounded by friends I know and love.  Missing out on all the shared inside jokes and laughter, not understanding the locations of announced activities.  Mostly just feeling alone.  I knew it would be hard, and it was.  I asked Jeff if I can just fly home to Mesa every Sunday.  He gave me a hug and didn't answer.  I know it will get better, just wish I could jumpstart it.