The Move

As I mentioned in the previous post, the day we left OBX was a long day! We hit the road at about 9:30 a.m. and headed north. When got to the house - the new house - at about 4:00 p.m. and unloaded what we had with us. Then we picked up a U-Haul and headed to Fammy's!



It took a few hours to get everything loaded up, and I think we got back to our house at about 9:30 p.m. We had crib mattresses for the boys (Tyler was out cold by the time we got home!), and we borrowed the mattress from the bed at Fammy's for ourselves. We had a big slumber party in the family room that night!



I must have been too tired to take pictures, but here is the morning after.

Luckily, we had a TV and a little DVD player to (try to) keep the boys occupied when the movers came (they showed up at 8:30 a.m. on Sunday morning). Oh, and it was game day, so the boys had their jersey's on.

Tyler was more interested in watching the "mans" and the 'big truck' out the window.










Dining room:





Living room:

Here's a couple of the guys trying to get our big basement couch in through the sliding glass doors downstairs. It didn't work. And they damaged our screen door. *sigh*

The kitchen looks a little better than this now, but not much!! No, actually, it's coming along nicely. I'm nearly finished lining all the cabinets (in cork) and getting everything put away. It's a process trying to figure out where everything should go!

YAY!!! Our bed!!

It probably only took the movers (I think there were 4 of them) about 2 1/2 hours to get everything in the house and unwrapped and set up. Leaving us with many, many boxes to be unpacked. It's going to be a while before we get completely settled. Good thing we plan to stay for the next 30 years!

I took the following day off to accept delivery from Sears of the washer and dryer (LOVE them), and to wait for the cable guy. Sears showed up right on time, at about 7:15 a.m. The cable guy, however, didn't show up at all.

When we called them, they had no record of the appointment and told us our address didn't even exist. Is that right? So what is this 3800 square foot structure sitting on the lot of 8913 Kingbird Court - a figment of our imaginations??? Without coming right out and saying that Comcast sucks (even though it does), let me just say that we only JUST got service (cable/internet/phone) within the last 48 hours. It was a brutal couple of weeks not being able to watch ANY regular TV. All we had were the kids' DVDs. If you'd like, I can recite "Finding Nemo" for you....

Another delivery snafu was with the couch from Macy's. They had told us our couch would arrive in the warehouse on September 22nd, and they would call us to set up a delivery date/time. I thought that was perfect, that I should be able to get them to deliver on that Monday that I was going to be home for the other deliveries. I realized while we were at the beach that we hadn't yet heard from them, so I gave them a call that Friday. "Yes", they said, "your couch is being delivered today." I asked if they planned to leave it in the driveway since they didn't bother to find out if we would be home and we in fact were not! After phone calls to 2 or 3 different numbers, I was able to get the delivery cancelled and rescheduled. Of course, they don't deliver to our area on Mondays (only Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays - go figure!), so there went my perfect plan. But, they came on Wednesday, and luckily Fammy didn't have to work so she came over and waited for them so we didn't have to miss any more work. She also prepared a dinner in the crock pot to be ready when we got home - yay Fammy!!

So it wasn't long before the boys went from this:

to this:

The couch is HUGE, and takes up a good portion of the room. But that's what we wanted - a place where the whole family can pile on comfortably to watch a movie! And it is comfy!!

Oh, and that's one of our new TVs!

Here's a picture of George, who was probably trying to figure out what the heck was going on this time. Though he should be used to it - this is the 7th residence he has lived in since I got him at 7 weeks old. Don't worry, Georgie, this should be it!!

And here is a beautiful Gainesville sunset we saw the first week in the house:

Ah, country life!!

Beach trip!!

Ok, I know our beach trip was a loooooong time ago (nearly a month!), but this is truly my first opportunity to blog about it. The last month has been CRAZY with the settlement, the vacation, the move, the illnesses, etc. All to be covered over the next week or so, but let's just start with the vacation, shall we?

We started out on a rainy Saturday morning (September 26th). We of course had to swing by the new house first to make sure everything was properly locked up, since as of about 2:45 p.m. on the previous day IT WAS OURS!!!! Settlement was quite quick, and relatively painless (if you don't really think about what you're signing!), and they handed over the keys! Surreal, and exciting.

Here it is....

Oh, and yes, that is our new (well, new to us) minivan in the driveway which we had bought I think 2-3 days prior to this. We now need a second car, and we needed one big enough to accommodate a THIRD carseat, so there you have it. I am now a minivan mom!! Truth be told, I love it! It's quite comfortable and has more power than you might think. And of course, it's a Honda.

Just look how comfy the boys look with there new carseat tray tables for eating and playing:

The Legos were a welcome distraction during the 5+ hour drive to OBX, as the portable DVD player we bought would have been if we'd been able to get it to work.....

Luckily, the weather in North Carolina was much better than home, and much better than it had been in the weeks leading up to our trip. People who vacationed in OBX in the few weeks before us had a lot of rain and less than warm temperatures. It was raining when we got there, and raining when we left, but all days in between were perfect!

Probably the biggest outdoor hit for the kids was the hot tub:

but they liked the pool too...

Check out Max's high-flying jump into the pool!!

He's also a contortionist, apparently!

Multi-talented, that kid!

Here's a view of the back of our house from the end of our private walk-way to the beach:

As great as the private walk-way was, it basically just stopped when it got to the dunes and you had to climb down the rest of the way! It was a bit treacherous for the older people in our group - not to mention me at 7 months pregnant!! It was clear that at one point there had been stairs that were probably taken out by a hurricane or something. You can bet that I suggested they be replaced in the comment section of our departure survey!

It's kind of a cool picture though....

Indoor activities included more legos:

TV watching and peanut eating:

Chillin' on Daddy's lap:

Coloring:

Snacking (in cute matching OBX t-shirts from Mimi):

Hiding in cabinets:

And being spun around in a chair by Grand-dad:

There was also eating. A lot of eating. As is tradition, each couple is reponsible for one night's feast (breakfasts and lunches are pretty much ad hoc). Here are some photos of the table on the night that it was our turn and we (read: Mitch) prepared a Mexican meal of tacos, refried beans, Spanish rice, and all the fixins:

Yum!!

Let's hit the beach, shall we???

I know it looks like he has a bad sunburn on his face, but he doesn't. He did get a little bit of sun on his face, but it wasn't that terrible.

Last year, Tyler was the one who enjoyed the surf. This year, it was Evan.

In fact, Tyler was scared of the water this year. Every time Mitch and Evan were out there, Tyler would keep close watch and yell "Look out! Water's coming!" every time the surf came in. And Jake would keep a close watch on him.

Tyler was always quite relieved when they made their way back up the beach!

Other OBX adventures included a trip to the Currituck Beach Lighthouse.

214 steps to the top observation deck. Here are some pictures of the view:

Most in our group made the trip up.

A few of us didn't!! Again - 214 steps to the top!!! Mimi, Grand-dad, and I decided to sit this one out. Mitch took a picture of us on the ground!

Time to climb down!

Also part of the park where the lighthouse is, is some sort of nature/wildlife preserve. Not sure what makes it a nature/wildlife preserve... Seemed more like just a walk-way over a swamp to me.

We did encounter this itty-bitty little snake. The little boys were thrilled!!

The Holmquist clan:

And us:

And finally, on the last afternoon, there was a trip to a local playground where Tyler, Evan, and cousin Max had a blast.

(in more cutesy OBX t-shirts from Fammy!)

I forgot about camera orientation on this video of Evan on the slide, so forgive me if it gives you whiplash!

I was better on this one!

On our final morning, the boys made sure to give Mimi some extra loving before we loaded up the car and headed home. It was to be a loooooong day. More on that in the next post!