Stops #3 & #4: Minneapolis and Chicago

We have come a long way in these last two days of driving. We are more than halfway through our drive across the country, actually we were over halfway when we reached Minneapolis yesterday. The drive from Custer to Minneapolis was long...very long. South Dakota was a very boring drive. It got more interesting in Minnesota, because we could keep an eye out for the many lakes.
We spent last night in The Grand Hotel in Minneapolis. We didn't arrive until about 8 PM after a very long day of driving. We headed out to dinner and found a nice restaurant called The Local Irish Pub. No one tried their Irish cuisine, but it was really good food. The hotel was fancy (Keely concurred). I am not sure if I was just tired or what but the beds were so comfortable and for the first time in a while I did not wake up with any aches or pains in my neck or back. I just have to put a plug in for the Kimpton Hotels. We are staying in another one tonight, the Hotel Allegra in Chicago. If you are ever traveling with pets through a city, these hotels are wonderful. They offer pet supplies (beds and bowls) and have great rates, plus they have a program called Kimpton Kids where they give the kids bags with goodies. It's been a wonderful way to experience the city we are staying in...first Minneapolis, now Chicago.
We made the drive from Minneapolis to Chicago today. After yesterday's drive, it was a piece of cake. We also went through Wisconsin, and I was super excited to add another state to my list :) We got here about 5 PM, and were able to walk around Chicago and explore a bit. We went to Millennium Park and then to a pizza restaurant that I ate at during my 2007 visit to Chicago. Unfortunately, it was not as good this time around and now we have to have real pizza when we get to Virginia!
We've crossed through 6 states. We have crossed the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. We've crossed into the Central Time Zone. Tomorrow, we will cross into Eastern Time Zone and travel to Pittsburgh. I can't believe this cross country journey is nearing its completion, but we are eager to start this next journey of our life in Virginia!

Stop #2: Custer, SD

Today we drove about 400 miles, mostly in Wyoming until we reached the Black Hills in South Dakota. The drive itself was pretty uneventful. The kids had their good moments, and not so good moments. James took these pictures in one of the quieter moments...The animals were well behaved. They pretty much slept the whole trip. Rudy in the front passenger seat on either James or my lap, and Callie in the back on her dog bed. The first night in a hotel was good too, except when Callie started hearing voices in the hallways early in the morning and began growling and getting up to check out the source of the noise. She was coaxed back to sleep, but she made for an early wake up call so we ended up getting on the road by 8 AM, not a bad thing at all. We made it to Custer by 3:30 PM and our only stops were for a potty break and then lunch. All in all, not too bad!

When we arrived, we headed out to see Crazy Horse Memorial. James has already been on a work trip and we've known a bit about it but I really enjoyed visiting and learning more about the progress and history. I learned that it is much more than a sculpture in a mountain, but a tribute to Native American Indians and its ultimate build out includes a university and medical center. I hope that I can be around to see this memorial come to completion, but it seems like such an impossible task.
Next we headed to Mount Rushmore. To be honest, it almost pales in comparison to Crazy Horse (Mount Rushmore could fit in just the head of Crazy Horse!). I wonder how many people who visit Mount Rushmore actually venture the 20 minutes over to Crazy Horse. In any event, there's not much to see at Mount Rushmore besides the actual monument. It's pretty cool to see because you get close to it, but we were only there for about 30 minutes. I'm glad to say we've been there, since it's highly unlikely we will get to this part of the country again anytime soon. The Black Hills are really pretty too, lots of pine trees and it sort of reminds me of Oregon. We ate dinner at the German restaurant at our hotel, and it was very tasty. Now we are all pooped after a long day, and we're going to try and get a good night's rest to prepare for our longest day of driving tomorrow.

Stop #1: Rock Springs, WY

We've made it to our first destination, although it's merely a stopping point until we reach our true first destination of the Black Hills in South Dakota to see Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse. The movers finished up at the house by 4 PM and we headed out shortly after. We were all sad to leave our house, especially Keely. She was crying for some time, and struggled to compose herself. Truth be told, she was being a little dramatic...but really it's been the only home she remembers and it is tough to leave it. I was on the verge of tears most of the day whenever I walked through and saw the empty rooms. About mid afternoon, I found out we weren't the owners of the house anymore :( The deal was finalized, funded and recorded and our proceeds are now being wired over to our Virginia title company for our closing on Tuesday. Our neighbor snapped this picture of us right before we left...So for the next 5 days, we are nomads. We have no home and all of our belongings are on a truck or in our car. It's a strange feeling, and a bit unsettling. We will be like this for almost 2 weeks so I guess we had better get used to it.

The trip to Rock Springs was only 3 hours and really went well, considering it was the longest Callie has ever been in a car and the first car trip for Rudy in over 6 years. The only snag was Rudy vomiting when we made our first pit stop. Thank goodness for napkins and paper towels...and we were all cleaned up in minutes. We'll head out pretty early since we have 7 hours to drive and we want some time in the afternoon to see the sights.

Next stop, Custer SD!

Houston, We Have a Closing!

The saga of the house sale in Utah seems to be on its last legs, thank goodness for all involved parties. We thought the closing was going to be today, but were pleasantly surprised with a noon call yesterday saying the documents were ready and that we could close at 3 PM! What a relief. It was almost dream like walking into the title company with our realtor. The deal's not entirely in the books yet, but it should fund and record today or tomorrow so then we will have our money to close on the house in Virginia on Tuesday. Just in the nick of time!

So one chapter is ending, a new beginning. The house is almost all packed up and we are to head out later this afternoon. I'm not sure I ever detailed our stops along the way to Virginia but quickly, we will be in Rock Springs, WY tonight...then traveling to Custer (SD), Minneapolis, Chicago and Pittsburgh before arriving in Virginia on Tuesday.

I intend to blog along the way, in hopes of reducing the effort at the end of the journey. We are so happy we have the house closing out of the way, so now we can focus on the trip. There is still much to be done, but we have crossed a major hurdle and it is truly a relief. I am a bundle of emotions today, and it's hard to see our house almost empty. This has been our home for 6 years and it's sad to leave it. Hopefully I can hold it together in front of the kids...Keely's at a last minute play date and Quinn is hanging out with our neighbor. We have been truly blessed with our surrogate 'family' out here in Utah. Okay, signing off now before I get emotional again.

Next stop, Rock Springs!

What A Girl Wants

It seems every girl wants something they don't have...if you have blond hair, you want brown. If you are tall, you want to be short. If you have blue eyes, you want brown. You get the point. In Keely's case, she has straight hair but wants curls. Enter an inexpensive set of foam rollers. And voila, she has curly hair! She puts them in at night...err, I put them in...while her hair is wet. She sleeps in them (how they are not uncomfortable is beyond me, but you know what we women will do for beauty) and when we take them out in the morning, she's all curls and super happy with her hair! People always compliment her, and then me - they actually think I get up early to curl her hair before school - but they obviously don't know me well because that is way too much to ask of my non-morning personality. I took some pictures of this latest curling session...before and after. In other news, the kids are finishing up the school year tomorrow. Well, they were really pretty much finished as of yesterday because they cleaned out their desks and today was Field Day. An event run by moi, and I am happy to say the word on the street was that it was the best Field Day ever...even though it was moved indoors by another rainy day. I am so glad to be done with my job as HSA president, and as always in shock that another school year is over. And it's especially bittersweet this year as it is our last and we will miss this school so much. I'm always happy to get to summer break...it means relaxed bed times, no homework, etc. And this year the kids will have a super long summer break, since school doesn't start until after Labor Day in Virginia. They are very excited about that!

Still Not Closed...

The saga of selling this house continues, unfortunately. I thought we would be done by this point, but nothing seems to be able to go smoothly on this process.

We were told yesterday that during the conditions review, the lender identified a few more conditions that they need to submit prior to a final, final approval and closing document generation. It was nothing on our end, and it must have been pretty simple since they were able to turn the conditions back around to the lender in about a day. But the time frames with this lender have been so long, and now they are back in another 3 day review. Another holding pattern, another Tuesday expecting a response. And another delay that pushes us closer to our departure date. I've vented enough to James, and whoever else I come in contact with. I'm sick of venting about this, I am sick of dealing with it...I just want this house closed and our money in the bank. We are scheduled to leave Utah on Thursday. This latest delay has us closing on Wednesday, at best. Another delay (and honestly, nothing would surprise me at this point) would push the closing back another 3-4 days, and mean that we leave Utah without this deal inked. And then impact our closing in Virginia, still scheduled for May 31st. At this point, a Wednesday close means the money is in our bank account by Friday and that means we can still close on Tuesday.

So for now, that's our hope. I really don't want to leave Utah without this deal done. I just want to be able to enjoy some part of this journey stress-free. I still feel torn about planning for the future. Yes, I have done things to plan for living in the new house. But there are still things to be done, and I am putting them off a bit until we hear on a definite closing. That means the list keeps getting longer and the time to check things off the list gets shorter. It's so frustrating. I guess I wasn't done venting after all!

In the meantime, the house is getting pretty packed up and it looks and feels like we are on the verge of moving. We have all of our hotels booked for the trip out to Virginia, and the time there before we can move into our house. All we need now is to sign these darn closing documents before we head out on Thursday evening!

Good News

Continuing on with the saga of selling this house...

The decision on the buyer's loan was supposed to come out on Tuesday. Well, Tuesday turned into Wednesday. Then we were told we would hear on Thursday. But they were practicing a principle I love...under promise and over deliver. I got a call Wednesday afternoon with the good news. The buyers loan is approved! It just had a few conditions (very typical) one of which was the roof repairs from the appraisal. We already had a roofer on standby for Friday, but with a few phone calls it was set for Thursday. The work was done late yesterday afternoon. The appraiser came out first thing this morning, took some pictures and told me all was good from his perspective. Just what I wanted to hear. The lender should be submitting back to the underwriter today with all conditions met, then we have been told it will take 3 days to underwrite, then 2 days for closing documents. So that puts us at next Friday (or thereabouts). We've written an addendum asking the buyers not to pay rent back, and giving them possession on May 27th (a few days earlier than original date). I won't count my chickens before they hatch, especially with the ordeal we've already been through - but it looks like this deal will be polished off here in a week or so.

On the Virginia side, things are going swimmingly. All is in order and our loan on the new house is in underwriting. I have to finalize home insurance and get utilities lined up.

So things are looking up after a long period of uncertainty. It's good to finally be able to plan the trip back East, and our time there when we arrive. There's a long list of things to do, but it feels great to be able to check things off that list. Only 13 days until we leave Utah!

Mother's Day Recap

I had a wonderful, relaxing Mother's Day. It started with breakfast in bed...prepared by James, with Keely :) She is my little shadow, and sat with me eating her bagel and drinking water while I drank my tea. To be honest, James sat with us for a bit too. After that, the kids and I watched The Simpsons movie. They have seen it with James, but I had not and I was sick of not getting the jokes so I agreed to watch it. It was quite funny, a little crude at times but cute. And now I get all their jokes, that they seem to repeat over and over again thinking they are funny each time :) After that, I got my present...the annual video of all of our pictures from the last year. I love this gift as I have mentioned before and it's the only thing I ever want for Mother's Day. It didn't disappoint this year, with more effects and great new songs. We went to church at noon and then were out and about to some stores. When we got home we ate some appetizers and skyped with Lois, Ryan and adorable Adelia. We hate being so far away...and after seeing how big Adelia is getting and how funny and smart she is, I know we will have to see them this summer! Skype is a great way to bridge the gap between visits though :) My day ended with a dinner out. We were headed to Fratelli's for Italian, but it was closed. Ah, most definitely one of the things I will not miss about Utah...stores and restaurants being closed on Sundays. Our backup choice was our favorite Japanese restaurant, Bonsai. It was so filling and very yummy as usual - and I love that it's a different type of cuisine that all 4 of us enjoy! Although the weather was not nice - rainy and cooler - the day was perfect...spent with my 3 favorite people doing things we all enjoy, and I can't ask for anything more!

House Updates

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming...updates on buying and selling houses :) I wasn't ready to write about this but I think now I can. Things seem to change moment to moment and it's been hard to pick a point to update. I literally had this post written 2 days ago, and then not less than one hour later, it was incorrect. So I might as well update now because next week things are going to change again.

On the selling of our house in Utah...the buyers asked for yet another extension to get their financing in order. With some initially bad news middle of last week, the lender fought back with a vengeance and was able to get them another shot. Seriously we are so grateful to this lender...she and her staff have gone so far above and beyond what everyone expected and we intend to thank them properly once this whole process is over. The good news finally came on Monday evening. We got word that the buyers had been approved for financing! We lived in that bliss for about 36 hours until the world came crashing down again. Because the terms of their loan had changed, they got sent back to the end of the line with the lender and it was going to take another 4 days before an underwriter would review their file. The appraisal had been scheduled for Wednesday afternoon...they were ready to cancel but kept it scheduled at our realtor's insistence. The appraisal results came in late yesterday. The first appraisal had come in right at selling price with no conditions. We couldn't expect to be so lucky this time - it came in $15k above asking price, but is contingent on some roof repairs due to some damaged shingles in the troughs above our front and back roof pitches. So now we are getting some roof estimates...while we await the decision of the lender. They expect that to come in on Tuesday. At this point, nothing would surprise me and it's getting harder to stay optimistic. The buyers submitted yet another addendum extending the contract dates...that's #10 for those who've lost track. The new financing and appraisal deadline is May 13th and the new closing deadline is May 20th. This scares me on so many levels. We are set to leave just 6 days later. All of our eggs are in this basket. So much hangs on the decision of this lender. I can't even fathom the possibilities of this deal falling through because it literally changes everything. So I try not to let my mind wander there...at least not too often. We cannot purchase a home in Virginia without closing on this house, but that's exactly what we are set to do...

On the buying of a house in Virginia...our trip was very eventful. We looked at 7 houses. We initially decided on one but were in a multiple offer situation and didn't want to go into a bidding war. So we decided on another house about a mile away. We were initially told that it was close to having a contract with another buyer, so we thought we were headed to option #3. But at the eleventh hour, the sellers canceled that contract and decided to work with us since we are such well qualified buyers. The only snag was timing. They wanted to stay in the house until June 24th but we pushed back to June 7th and they agreed. It leaves us with about a week of time between arriving in Virginia and being in the house. Not exactly convenient with 2 pets, but we're going to figure something out. The purchase of the house was also contingent on the sale of the house in Utah...putting everyone in a waiting game while we awaited the decision on our buyers' financing. It's all so intricately tied together and now I feel like we have started a cross country drama with a domino effect to who knows how many buyers and sellers. In any event, things are moving along with the purchase - we have already gone through the home inspection, appraisal and gotten all of the paperwork to our lender. The sellers actually want to close on May 31st and then rent back from us for 1 week, so that's the current plan.

So that's our update. This is definitely an emotional roller coaster and I am entirely sick of it all. I feel like it could fall apart at any time....crushing all of our plans. We haven't even started packing yet, or booked any hotels because of all of this uncertainty. It's definitely been a test of my patience, and now we must wait again until Tuesday for yet another decision that is out of our control.

Her Very Own...

I'm interrupting what has become a litany of house buying and selling updates for something much more fun. Being the younger sibling, Keely has always had the hand-me-down bikes from Quinn. She got his blue Giant tricycle, and then his red Specialized bike when she needed her first 'real' bike. Being that they are two years apart, they would always outgrow their bikes at the same time so Keely inherited when Quinn moved up in bicycle size. Being the girly girl that she is, one might think that she would have complained and asked for a pink (or more girly) bike. But she never did. She happily learned to ride that red bike and loved it for these last couple of years. But now Quinn is still on his bike and not ready for a new one. And Keely is way too tall for the red bike. So we knew it was time...she would get her very first bike of her own. She decided on a cruiser like Mom. And she has been loving riding it all around the neighborhood any chance she gets (which pretty much means anytime it's not Spring snowing).

The bike has been great...aside from a little scare right before we left for Virginia. She parked it outside behind my car and I proceeded to run over it :( Luckily, it suffered minimal damage and only lost its pretty pink front fender. I think she learned her lesson on where to park her bike from now on!