The last month has been full of change and travel! It has been stressful, busy, surprising, fun, and amazing. We moved from Utah to the Washington, DC area for work. In the middle of all of that was the holidays.
We found out that I was offered a job (two actually) in Washington, DC at the end of October. It was a MAD dash to get everything done before we needed to be in DC mid-January. There was so much to do and so little time. We sold the house, sold the cars, bought a new car, sold our furniture and all kinds of other things that we do not need. We seriously had SO MUCH STUFF!! Why do we have it and how did we get it? It is now gone...all except what can fit into a 10x10 storage unit (see below).
Our house sold within two days and then we spent the next several weeks getting things sorted out. We found our home in DC (excited to go back to the same community we loved when we lived in DC twice before). In the middle of all of this was a trip to Hawaii that we had planned a long time prior. That put tasks into an even smaller window.
We are so thankful for neighbors and friends who helped us out. They watched our house while we were gone, they let us use their garage for storage, they received mail for us, they helped us lift furniture...we will be forever thankful for them.
We were in hotels from mid-NOV 2021 to mid-JAN 2022. That is a lot of hotel rooms. It gets to the point that living out of a suitcase is not shocking. We are now professionals at packing up our lives into suitcases and clearing a room to move to the next room! We were on Oahu for Thanksgiving. Our hotel in Lehi is where we spent Christmas. Then we stopped in hotels along the country for the next month. I was thinking the other day that as an metaphor I could use my razor as an example: I bought a razor in Lincoln, Nebraska as I was driving from Utah, opened it in Baltimore, Maryland, used it in Orlando, Florida, and threw it away in Falls Church, Virginia...that is how our months went.
As you can see from the photos, we PACKED up the vehicle for the drive. Were were all surrounded by stuff...I am so grateful for our children that are full of endurance. We had long hours in the vehicle (Pele--named for the silver hair of the Hawaiian Goddess). We had late nights and early mornings. They handled it like champs!
We had a goodbye crew that came up and watched a movie with us and sent us off from the hotel parking spot.
Lady Hiva was so excited that the professional horticulturists at the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium would accept her donation of her passion fruit plant. She grew it from seeds from fruit of her late father's tree on Oahu. She has babied it for years but knew that we could not travel with it. We were happy to know it will be safe and cared for at the Aquarium.
We saw so many states on our trip. We had to drive slowly through parts of Wyoming because it was so snowy and blowing hard. But after a few white-knuckle parts of the drive, we made it all the way to Lincoln, Nebraska. I was telling Lady Hiva that we have been--as a family--into 13 US States this month and over the course of the year, we have been in 24! So amazing.
We drove through some amazing parts of the country. We saw Adam-ondi-Ahman, in Missouri. It was a peaceful place to get out of the car and enjoy some nature for a few minutes. Nearby, was Hamilton, Missouri, where a friend of mine and his family started Missouri Star Quilting Company. We stopped to explore the hometown of JcPenney and all of the new MSQC stores. People were so open and friendly. I loved it.
It was so amazing to see so much of the country in such a short time. There are good people everywhere that we go. We found fun places to eat, laughed with new friends as we stopped to explore, and we looked forward to seeing all that the area had to offer. We were amazed at all of the water in the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. Coming from Utah, that is truly amazing to see.
We were excited to drive through Marceline, Missouri where Disney was born and to see the countryside that inspired Mark Twain. So much history to take in. A great way to start our new adventures!
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