Our Trip Down to Calexico

Our trip. Three words.

I can't believe we did it.  It was slightly disastrous, mostly frustrating, but It. Is. O.V.E.R.
A week before the move, I did something to the tendons in my left wrist. It hurts, a lot.  Especially after it hasn't moved for a few hours (so after I wake up from sleeping). The doctor said it should be better after I have it in a brace for awhile. Well, I don't know what "awhile" means but three weeks later and it still hurts pretty bad.  
Anyways, the reason I am explaining this is because we had minimal help unloading the U-Haul. And when I say minimal, I mean Trent, me and Rita. So there I am, unloading all furniture (washer, dryer, refrigerator, corner hutch, our freaking heavy bead frame, couches, you get it.) with Trent.  But I am getting ahead of myself. First, the journey down here.
We left at 10:30 in the a.m. Saturday morning! It was hectic, but we had a lot of help and we are eternally grateful! Thank you RMS 18th Ward and our Cambridge Court team! It was sad. It was hard. It was scary.  The last time that I have moved to a place where I knew no one was the 6th Grade. So the fact that we are moving to Mexico, with no contacts or family close by - and to an area I have never seen- is... well,,, an adventure??
Driving with a newborn and toddler is awful.  In Rexburg, everything is within 15 minutes - max. So Porter is not adjusted to being in his car seat for long periods of times. Between feedings and tantrums. We stopped. We stopped. We stopped again. We would have stopped even more if Rita wasn't in the backseat with Porter and her Mary Poppins bag. Thank you, Grandma!
In the Salt Lake Area, we decided to stop at an aquarium and let Porter run around.  We also met up with my brother, sister-in-law, and their new little girl who was born two weeks before Brooks! My  first niece! Adeline is perfection!

After this aquarium trip, I decided I should adopt an otter as a pet. 

My brother and Brooks. Uncle Brett is definitely loved!

Touching starfish.

Just drinking our Slurpee.... 

WITH SHARKS!

After that we headed back on the road. We only didn't get much further (remember all those stops), and eventually cut our losses and stopped at a hotel about 8:30/9:00 at night.  We had driven ALL day, but had only conquered five hours of our actual drive time. We still had 9 hours to go the next day before we hit Queen Creek.  I was done. I was selling Trent's trunk and hopping on the next plane. I was angry. I was grumpy. And so was Porter and Brooks. It was not our brightest moment.

The next day, through Heaven's mercy, was a lot better stopping and driving wise.  We started driving around 9:30 in the morning and arrived at Flagstaff between 3 & 4.  I suggested we let Porter play at a park because he had been sitting in his car seat for so long.  I found a public park and led the way.  Well, the public park was surrounded by apartment buildings and on a very tiny road with cars lined up on both sides. So of course, there was not parking for a 27 foot U-haul truck, so Trent left to find parking elsewhere while I fed Brooks in the car and Porter played with Grandma in the park.  A few minutes later, I got a phone call from a distraught and defeated husband.  He had hit an overhead structure while trying to park the U-haul, and it had put a hole through the top of the truck.  You guys, he was so mad at himself. So mad. I felt so bad. 

So obviously, after we made a few phone calls, we left that area pretty quickly and headed back on the road.  We drove the rest of the way and made it to Queen Creek between 9-10.  

I was over this whole moving thing.

The next day was full of expensive adventures.  We leased a new car, bought some chairs for our dining room table, you know, big kid stuff.

We also had a SUPER fun Memorial Day BBQ with family and friends. 

I'll talk about our drive into Imperial and me seeing our new home for the first time. 

That is an entire post itself.