We left Newark airport at ~9 PM on Wednesday for the direct flight to Dublin. That's a red eye, landing at ~9 AM Irish time. The flight was about 6 hours, with a 5 hour time loss. I slept most of the flight, as did Keely. James didn't really sleep at all, and Quinn slept about 2 hours. The plan when we got to Dublin was to stay up until a normal bedtime and then we'd be fully adjusted the next day. This plan worked pretty well, except for by dinnertime the kids were pooped. Keely slept on the bench in the Irish pub through dinner. Quinn was a bit 'fussy' (not sure that is the right word for a 9 year old) by dinner and we were all tired. We did make it until 11 PM before going to sleep though, but then slept until 9:30 AM. And we would have kept sleeping if Nana and Papa hadn't knocked on our door :)
Back to the beginning...we landed in Dublin, got some Euros and took the AirCoach downtown. Papa thought this was a helicopter :) but it was just a Coach bus. We only had to walk around the block to our hotel and were able to get a room to throw all of our stuff in while we started exploring the city. After a bit of freshening up, we walked down by Trinity College over to the Grafton Street area. There are tons of shops, restaurants and entertainers on this pedestrian street and the surrounding areas. It was very busy, being a Thursday and there seemed to be a lot of people going to and from work and meetings. We stopped for lunch in a little cafe, and were immediately confronted with two realities of Ireland - the high cost of food, and the lack of root beer for the kids :) Quinn quickly became a 'Coca Cola' kid and Keely tried Black Currant Juice, but later switched to Fanta or Club Orange (orange soda).
After lunch, we walked out to St. Patrick's cathedral...an old, Anglican church. The cost was pretty inexpensive (15Eu for a family, or about $20 USD) and it was very interesting with lots to see. One of our favorites in this church was the Door of Reconciliation, which two warring families used to reconcile many years ago. That night, we ate dinner at John Gogarty's, an Irish pub. This was probably my least favorite dinner, because I tried Irish coddle (sausage soup with veggies). We also began our sampling of brown bread - everywhere in Ireland, they serve brown bread with dinner and it's always different. My faves were not in Dublin, but in Glengariff and either Bunratty or Ballynahinch (castle). Like I said, the kids were pretty tired by this point. We then crashed at the hotel, after the kids had some ice cream from the hotel bar for dessert.
Oh, to mention the hotel - O'Callaghan Davenport is where we spent these first two nights. This was a nice hotel, pretty centrally located with nice size rooms. They even had American plugs, but upon using them I thought I fried my iPhone battery. For the remainder of the trip, it wouldn't hold the charge and the battery kept dying out way too quickly. I was fearful but thankfully when charged on the plane ride home, it's back to normal. I just think the voltage is different. Another note - the kids' DSi game systems would not charge the entire trip, even using an adapter. A quirk of traveling abroad, I suppose.
Our second day in Ireland, and last day in Dublin was also Nana and Papa's 39th anniversary. After breakfast at the Kilkenny (kind of like Nordstrom with a department store and a cafe), we headed down to the River Liffey (river that bisects the city) and checked on the boat tours. We booked a trip later in the afternoon and that left us time to head to the Guinness storehouse. We took Dublin's new light rail system, the Laos to Opideal Sans Seamus stop (St. James' Hospital in Gaelic). I liked learning a bit of a new language and tried to use it when I could read the words somewhat authentically :) Guinness was fun for all...they have 8 floors to tour starting with the 4 ingredients and moving up each level to another step of the brewing process. There is a floor where you taste the roasted beans (tasted almost burnt, like coffee beans) and then you get your sample of the beer (probably 1/4 or 1/8 pint). Finally, you get up to the 8th floor which they call their Gravity Bar, with 360 degree views of Dublin and surrounding areas. It's pretty crowded up there but if you're lucky to get a seat by a window, it's a nice view. We all got our included 'free' pint and the kids got a 'free' soda. Of note, I drank my whole pint by myself and James got the 'perfect pint' identified by a shamrock in the foam, only achieved when the beer is poured, settled and topped off perfectly. He was the only one in our group to get one, fitting since (a) he loves Guinness and (b) he finished not only his, but part of Annie's and Nana's pints. After Guinness, we headed back to the River for our cruise. This was an hour long trip, and very interesting to learn some of the history of not only Dublin but Ireland as well. The tour inspired us to walk down the river front past the State buildings to see the Famine statues. This is a huge part of Ireland's history and I was unaware of the details of this 'Irish Holocaust' as some call it. I was so intrigued that later on in the trip I bought a copy of 'Famine in Galway', a historical narrative of the time between 1845 and 1850 when so many Irish died, or left the country trying not to die, for really no reason at all. For dinner that night, we tried another pub called O'Donohue's. Better food, great waitress, and a lot of drinks were poured. Another notable from Dublin...Papa and his first hangover, err I mean stomach virus :) It seems Dublin brought him to his knees and the combinations of drinks between noon and midnight ended his 'iron stomach' reign. He was so ill that we had to leave him in Dublin on Saturday morning while we went on ahead. He joined us at about 1 PM and was ill for the remainder of the day, really not returning to his usual self until Sunday morning and thus missing our first day touring the countryside and the entire time in Kinsale. I think he learned his lesson :)
On Saturday morning we met our driver Gene O'Sullivan, who would be our tour guide for the next 7 days. More on him, and our trip to Kinsale by way of the Irish National Stud Farm and the Rock of Cashel, in the next installment...
July 14, 2011
Stateside
As of late June, we were finally getting settled in our new home in Virginia. We had joined a gym close to our home, joined the neighborhood pool club and visited several times. The kids even started to meet some other children, both at the pool and in our general vicinity and surrounding streets. The boxes were dwindling at the house and most things had been unpacked and organized into their new resting places. And then, we left on our long planned trip to Ireland. We left home on Tuesday, June 28th and did not return until Sunday, July 10th. Almost two weeks!
The trip was wonderful. I will attempt to capture most of what we did while visiting this gorgeous country, and I think it will take 7 blog posts to do that. We took almost 1,000 pictures among the 7 of us, and I will not attempt to include all of those pictures. What I have decided to do is create slideshows of each 'stage' of the trip and include them with the written detail of our travels. I'm sure I will forget the little things (i.e. all of the tiny towns and villages we drove through and in some cases, stopped). But I will hit the 'high points' and attempt to detail our trip.
So that I don't forget, here are the 'installments', listed in order of our trip itinerary:
Dublin
Dublin to Kinsale
Kinsale to Killarney via Glengariff
Killarney National Park
Killarney to Galway
Galway to Ballynahinch
Ballynahinch and Bunratty
First stop...Dublin!
The trip was wonderful. I will attempt to capture most of what we did while visiting this gorgeous country, and I think it will take 7 blog posts to do that. We took almost 1,000 pictures among the 7 of us, and I will not attempt to include all of those pictures. What I have decided to do is create slideshows of each 'stage' of the trip and include them with the written detail of our travels. I'm sure I will forget the little things (i.e. all of the tiny towns and villages we drove through and in some cases, stopped). But I will hit the 'high points' and attempt to detail our trip.
So that I don't forget, here are the 'installments', listed in order of our trip itinerary:
Dublin
Dublin to Kinsale
Kinsale to Killarney via Glengariff
Killarney National Park
Killarney to Galway
Galway to Ballynahinch
Ballynahinch and Bunratty
First stop...Dublin!
June 22, 2011
A Little R&R
On Saturday, we took a little break from what has been the constant cleaning, organizing and unpacking that our lives have become since we moved into the house. The kids were going a little stir crazy from all the time in the house and all the trips to Home Depot :) So we decided not to do that for a bit, at least for some of the day on Saturday. (You couldn't expect us to take a whole weekend day off, of course!)We debated a few ideas...there is so much to see and do in such a short distance. And we have plenty of time and opportunity to do it now!We decided to head downtown to see the Jefferson Memorial. That one is the hardest to get to from Metro, but we did initially intend to take the Metro. However, after trying to park and locate the Pentagon Metro stop unsuccessfully, we ended up just driving downtown. We got a nice parking spot in the small lot right on the Tidal Basin and walked the short distance around to see Thomas.
Oh, first though I should mention a quick unintended side trip we took on our way downtown. I took a wrong turn (that's how we learn the roads...seriously!) and we ended up driving right past the parking lot for Roosevelt Island. I've never been before, but our neighbor told us about it and we decided to stop since we were driving right by. There's a footbridge from the parking area to take you across the Potomac onto the island which sits right in the middle between Virginia and the District (oh, I should mention that we decided to start calling DC 'The District' since we are now locals as it seems the thing to do). Anyways, on the island are a few trails and quick hikes but also a monument to Teddy Roosevelt. It's pretty impressive, although certainly off the beaten path. The monument area is under renovation but it's a nice quick walk up there to explore. I'm sure we will be back to try the other trails :)
Anyways, back to Jefferson. After visiting the memorial, we walked back around the Tidal Basin and rented a paddle boat for 4. We spent time boating around and enjoyed nice views of Jefferson and Washington monuments. 
The kids loved it, and Quinn even tried his hand...err, feet at paddle boating. It was tiring but fun!
We then headed home, and got there in about 25 minutes. I'm still in awe that we can be to such incredible (mostly) free amenities and be home that quickly! In fact, I should mention that I'm still in awe that we live in Virginia. There's just something about this area that I love, and that feeling has only been renewed in our first 2 weeks here. Yes, there's traffic and yes, houses cost more - but it's all worth it to me and I don't feel like our quality of life has suffered. I'm hoping my answer is still the same in the days and months to come, but for now I am very happy we moved back to the East Coast!
June 16, 2011
School Visit
On Tuesday afternoon, we had a tour of the kids' new school. It is a public K-5 elementary school that is about 2 miles from our house. The kids can walk or bike to the school in about 10 minutes, or a drive is 10-15 minutes (because of the roundabout way you have to drive there).
We met with the principal and she gave us the tour and answered all of our questions. The school is undergoing a pretty major renovation that began in April 2010 and will mostly be complete when school opens back up in September. Evey room is being redone in some way, and we got to see the brand new (and huge) library, new classrooms & new blacktop and playground area. The school has two levels and made Blessed Sacrament seem tiny.
When we got to the school, all of the kids were in the gym watching a performance by the 5th graders who studied World Civilizations this year. They were all dressed up and singing cultural songs...it was quite a production! I was amazed by the diversity of the kids sitting in the audience...looking out over the sea of students there were so many different faces. The signs for the bathroom were in English, Korean, Spanish and Vietnamese. That's a sign of the diversity for sure!
In terms of size, it's a big school...there are 4 classes each for grades K-3 and 3 classes for grades 4 and 5. Each class has only 18-22 students! Compared to BS, Quinn had 32 kids in his class and Keely 25 so that will be a much nicer ratio. They also have advanced programs available to all children, both in class and in an advanced learning center. I was really impressed with the facilities and opportunities for advancement!
The school day runs from 9:15 AM to 3:55 PM, and they do have child care before and after if needed. They also have a morning program run by teachers at the school with various activities (i.e. gym games, drama, music, art, math, science) - you can drop the kids off at 8 AM and they can pick a different activity each day. This is free and occupies the kids from 8 until school starts - a great option to extend the school day for working parents. Obviously we don't need any of these extended options initially but it's great to know they are there!
While we were there, I got all of the registration paperwork and I've started filling it out and getting all of the supporting documents. I think we were all excited by the school visit and the kids are looking forward to starting in September!
As a side note, the cleaning continues at the house. The house has had only 2 owners, D (since their last name started with a D) and S (similarly because of their last name). D lived in the house from 1953 until 2000. S for the last 11 or so years. Apparently, S had a theory when they moved out - leave anything that was D. Their other theory was not to clean out anything, just pile their stuff in with D and then take it back out (or so it seems). Hence the goodies from before 2000 and sometimes as early as the 50s that we are finding throughout the house. So anyways, we have two sheds in the backyard...both good size and in good shape on nice concrete slabs. The bigger one is going to be a true shed and James told Keely that she could have the smaller one for a playhouse. In cleaning out the smaller one yesterday, they found an old copy of the Washington Post from April 3, 1994!
It was fun to browse through it last night...relive some of the stories that were prominent in that year and see some of the grocery ads and how cheap things were 18 years ago. Too bad the paper wasn't older, it may have been worth something! Ah, the joys of buying a 1950s house continue :)
We met with the principal and she gave us the tour and answered all of our questions. The school is undergoing a pretty major renovation that began in April 2010 and will mostly be complete when school opens back up in September. Evey room is being redone in some way, and we got to see the brand new (and huge) library, new classrooms & new blacktop and playground area. The school has two levels and made Blessed Sacrament seem tiny.
When we got to the school, all of the kids were in the gym watching a performance by the 5th graders who studied World Civilizations this year. They were all dressed up and singing cultural songs...it was quite a production! I was amazed by the diversity of the kids sitting in the audience...looking out over the sea of students there were so many different faces. The signs for the bathroom were in English, Korean, Spanish and Vietnamese. That's a sign of the diversity for sure!
In terms of size, it's a big school...there are 4 classes each for grades K-3 and 3 classes for grades 4 and 5. Each class has only 18-22 students! Compared to BS, Quinn had 32 kids in his class and Keely 25 so that will be a much nicer ratio. They also have advanced programs available to all children, both in class and in an advanced learning center. I was really impressed with the facilities and opportunities for advancement!
The school day runs from 9:15 AM to 3:55 PM, and they do have child care before and after if needed. They also have a morning program run by teachers at the school with various activities (i.e. gym games, drama, music, art, math, science) - you can drop the kids off at 8 AM and they can pick a different activity each day. This is free and occupies the kids from 8 until school starts - a great option to extend the school day for working parents. Obviously we don't need any of these extended options initially but it's great to know they are there!
While we were there, I got all of the registration paperwork and I've started filling it out and getting all of the supporting documents. I think we were all excited by the school visit and the kids are looking forward to starting in September!
As a side note, the cleaning continues at the house. The house has had only 2 owners, D (since their last name started with a D) and S (similarly because of their last name). D lived in the house from 1953 until 2000. S for the last 11 or so years. Apparently, S had a theory when they moved out - leave anything that was D. Their other theory was not to clean out anything, just pile their stuff in with D and then take it back out (or so it seems). Hence the goodies from before 2000 and sometimes as early as the 50s that we are finding throughout the house. So anyways, we have two sheds in the backyard...both good size and in good shape on nice concrete slabs. The bigger one is going to be a true shed and James told Keely that she could have the smaller one for a playhouse. In cleaning out the smaller one yesterday, they found an old copy of the Washington Post from April 3, 1994!
It was fun to browse through it last night...relive some of the stories that were prominent in that year and see some of the grocery ads and how cheap things were 18 years ago. Too bad the paper wasn't older, it may have been worth something! Ah, the joys of buying a 1950s house continue :)
June 14, 2011
Home Again
We are slowly settling into the 'new to us' house. Moving day was very eventful, and not surprisingly long and tiring. The challenges of moving into a house built in the 1950s became evident pretty early in the morning. Some of our furniture would not fit down into the basement because of the smaller doors. We were donating a refrigerator, washer and dryer to Habitat for Humanity ReStore and just getting the fridge out of the basement was a huge challenge. The doors had to be removed before it could be fit out. We also had to coordinate the large amount of trash that the sellers had left on the curb when they cleaned out the attic. I use the term cleaned out loosely, because we found all kinds of goodies up there when we explored it and tried to put our own stuff up there. By goodies I mean mostly empty boxes and not the $50k in cash I was hoping to find :) So back to the furniture not fitting...our leather sectional was in no way going to fit downstairs, even though it would make a better fit for the recreation room turned family room with the 52" TV. So we compromised and put it in the living room upstairs. No big deal. But that meant the living room furniture had to go in the basement, and that took 3 tries and removing several pieces of the couch before it finally fit through the door. I was seriously crossing fingers and not watching as the movers tried time after time to maneuver it through. In any event, it fit and everything else followed suit pretty nicely. By about 4 PM, we were all 'in' the house - albeit with things in the wrong places and boxes seemingly everywhere.
The first few days were busy with unpacking boxes, moving furniture, cleaning and organizing. Who am I kidding?!?! It's all still going on, of course! But we have the kitchen and dining room done, and only a few boxes remain in the living room. The kids room are still a work in progress, mostly because they lost a lot of storage space from the built in shelving units in their closets. Keely's room is in better shape than Quinn's. The basement is coming together too, but there are still lots of boxes down there (mostly books). I've got the easy job, going to work during the day while James is here organizing and working on the house. We've made several trips to Home Depot, a trip to IKEA and lots of trips to the grocery stores to restock the pantry. I definitely forgot how much money goes out the door when you buy a house. It seems like a never-ending credit card swipe :(
In other news, today we will be visiting and touring the kids' new school. The neighborhood is very quiet and we haven't met many people yet. Patience is a virtue here, and the schools are not even out for summer yet. We did meet our next door neighbors, and they had us over for dinner on Saturday night. It was great, they are very nice and we got along well. They have one daughter, she is 10 and has autism. It is not a great match for a friend, but the kids did enjoy playing with her on Saturday night. We know there are other kids around because we see them at the bus stop so time will help meet them I am sure. It took 5 years before the kids had friends in our neighborhood in Utah, so we know it takes time. I guess I was just hoping for a busy kid-friendly neighborhood, but kids just don't play outside like they used to and friends seem to come from school and activities (sports, etc.). Because the houses in our area are older, there is quite a mix of ages in the area - from elderly original owners to newer young families to mixed families with interesting combinations of aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.
We are getting settled and I am happy with the house. It's beginning to feel more and more like home, and it's definitely good to have a home again. My goal is to get settled before we leave for Ireland in two weeks. I think it's do-able!
The first few days were busy with unpacking boxes, moving furniture, cleaning and organizing. Who am I kidding?!?! It's all still going on, of course! But we have the kitchen and dining room done, and only a few boxes remain in the living room. The kids room are still a work in progress, mostly because they lost a lot of storage space from the built in shelving units in their closets. Keely's room is in better shape than Quinn's. The basement is coming together too, but there are still lots of boxes down there (mostly books). I've got the easy job, going to work during the day while James is here organizing and working on the house. We've made several trips to Home Depot, a trip to IKEA and lots of trips to the grocery stores to restock the pantry. I definitely forgot how much money goes out the door when you buy a house. It seems like a never-ending credit card swipe :(
In other news, today we will be visiting and touring the kids' new school. The neighborhood is very quiet and we haven't met many people yet. Patience is a virtue here, and the schools are not even out for summer yet. We did meet our next door neighbors, and they had us over for dinner on Saturday night. It was great, they are very nice and we got along well. They have one daughter, she is 10 and has autism. It is not a great match for a friend, but the kids did enjoy playing with her on Saturday night. We know there are other kids around because we see them at the bus stop so time will help meet them I am sure. It took 5 years before the kids had friends in our neighborhood in Utah, so we know it takes time. I guess I was just hoping for a busy kid-friendly neighborhood, but kids just don't play outside like they used to and friends seem to come from school and activities (sports, etc.). Because the houses in our area are older, there is quite a mix of ages in the area - from elderly original owners to newer young families to mixed families with interesting combinations of aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.
We are getting settled and I am happy with the house. It's beginning to feel more and more like home, and it's definitely good to have a home again. My goal is to get settled before we leave for Ireland in two weeks. I think it's do-able!
June 7, 2011
Another Closing Story...
When we arrived in Virginia, we headed over to our new house for a walk through. It went well, and was mostly purposeful in informing me of things that are present in the house that I couldn't remember or hadn't looked at during our short visit in April. I am slightly embarrassed to say we only spent about 20 minutes, or maybe half hour in the house and I didn't even venture into the backyard or the garage. Crazy, I know. In any event, I was pleasantly surprised with a lot of the features I saw at the walk through (i.e. ceiling lights, closet space - a coat closet and a linen closet!). My realtor was laughing as I walked through exclaiming over the littlest of things...but I honestly didn't know what was there in some cases.After the walk through was the closing. For the second time in less than a week, we walked into a title company - this time as buyers. This was a face to face closing, meaning the sellers sat across from us and we all signed documents at the same time. It's the first state where we have ever done that. It was interesting, and I liked it because we got a chance to ask the sellers some questions and receive immediate answers. We also got a feel for their moving out of the house as we were worried about the amount of 'stuff' in the house and how they were planning to get it all out in time. I left feeling more confident that they would actually be cleaning the house in addition to moving out their stuff. However, we still don't know but we'll find out for sure tonight...
The sellers have been renting the house from us the last week. We agreed to this to appease them because they wanted to be in the house until June 24th, but we compromised on June 7th. So we've been living in hotels since May 26th. We stayed in an extended stay here in Virginia for 3 nights when we arrived, then checked out on Friday and back in on Sunday for another 2 nights. That's 10 nights of hotels in total, in case you lost count. The reason for the check out was to head to New Jersey for the weekend - with two bonuses, two nights out of hotels and to see family.
The trip was fun, albeit exhausting. We saw lots of family, and it confirmed the true reason for moving back here. To be a 4 hour drive (yes, even in traffic) away is really amazing, and to watch the kids play with their cousins & to be spoiled by their grandparents truly makes the stress and struggle worth it.
Now we are focused on one thing, our move into the house. We will spend the night there tonight on sleeping bags, and the movers will be there at 7 AM tomorrow. We are so excited to get settled and I can't wait to sleep in my own bed again!
June 2, 2011
Stop #5 and Arrival in Virginia!
Well, I've gotten way busy and sidetracked so I didn't get to write about the remainder of our journey so here goes...
We awoke on Monday morning in Chicago and had another 8 hours of driving ahead of us. The good news was that it was our last long day of driving. We had purposely planned the last stop to be Pittsburgh leaving only about 5 hours remaining to Virginia. The drive from Chicago to Pittsburgh can be described with one word: tolls. We drove through Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania and paid to be on every road that day. Despite the stops at toll plazas, we made good time and it was nice to have the drive broken up into so many states (instead of 10 hours in just one state). We stayed at a hotel just outside Pittsburgh, primarily because it took pets and was inexpensive with the bonus of an outdoor pool. For the first time the whole trip, we got to swim on Monday night. We also had ice cream for dinner...because sometimes it's okay to do that! We did that one night on our trip from Virginia to Tucson too, and it always sticks in my memory. Anyways, the only regret I have about our hotel location was the traffic we encountered upon leaving on Tuesday morning. Honestly it was less than a half hour delay, but we were getting an early start to make sure we got to Virginia in time for our walk-through at 1 PM. Even with the delay though we arrived at about noon, in time to stop at a bank to get the cashier's check we needed for our closing.
Two points of note about this journey...we crossed into Eastern Time Zone on the drive from Chicago, and we passed over the 2,500 mile mark of driving!
When we crossed into Virginia, Quinn exclaimed "I'm home!". Meaning he was born in Virginia...not the same part of Virginia, but the same state nonetheless. And Keely did a 180 on the 5 day journey...she went from bawling in her bedroom in Utah and not wanting to leave, to saying she doesn't care what time it is in Utah because there's no one there she cares about :) Ah, the drama and mood changes of a 7 year old. In all seriousness though, I think the journey itself was therapeutic and allowed us to have a smoother transition to our new state. We had plenty of time to reflect and adjust, and now we are all excited to be here starting a new adventure!
We awoke on Monday morning in Chicago and had another 8 hours of driving ahead of us. The good news was that it was our last long day of driving. We had purposely planned the last stop to be Pittsburgh leaving only about 5 hours remaining to Virginia. The drive from Chicago to Pittsburgh can be described with one word: tolls. We drove through Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania and paid to be on every road that day. Despite the stops at toll plazas, we made good time and it was nice to have the drive broken up into so many states (instead of 10 hours in just one state). We stayed at a hotel just outside Pittsburgh, primarily because it took pets and was inexpensive with the bonus of an outdoor pool. For the first time the whole trip, we got to swim on Monday night. We also had ice cream for dinner...because sometimes it's okay to do that! We did that one night on our trip from Virginia to Tucson too, and it always sticks in my memory. Anyways, the only regret I have about our hotel location was the traffic we encountered upon leaving on Tuesday morning. Honestly it was less than a half hour delay, but we were getting an early start to make sure we got to Virginia in time for our walk-through at 1 PM. Even with the delay though we arrived at about noon, in time to stop at a bank to get the cashier's check we needed for our closing.
Two points of note about this journey...we crossed into Eastern Time Zone on the drive from Chicago, and we passed over the 2,500 mile mark of driving!
When we crossed into Virginia, Quinn exclaimed "I'm home!". Meaning he was born in Virginia...not the same part of Virginia, but the same state nonetheless. And Keely did a 180 on the 5 day journey...she went from bawling in her bedroom in Utah and not wanting to leave, to saying she doesn't care what time it is in Utah because there's no one there she cares about :) Ah, the drama and mood changes of a 7 year old. In all seriousness though, I think the journey itself was therapeutic and allowed us to have a smoother transition to our new state. We had plenty of time to reflect and adjust, and now we are all excited to be here starting a new adventure!
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