Day 2 on the Road

We had a bit of a rough night last night with CJ. He ordinarily sleeps through the night, but we think his baby canine teeth are trying to break through. :( Poor little guy! He ended up coming to sleep with us around 3:30am so we all got a later start than we wanted to this morning as a result. We slept through the breakfast at the hotel so we went to Cracker Barrel instead! CJ was double-fisting the fruit as fast as he could!

After eating, we headed over to the Children's Museum of Indianapolis. This place was AMAZING!!! We've been to several children's museums, and this one was by far the best ever!

We could easily see why it is considered "World's Best"! JT and I got super excited as Transformer fans because the very first thing we got to see was a HUGE BubbleBee!! It was really cool.

CJ had a great time too!! He loved the driving cars, and kept saying "vroom vroom"!!

He also had fun being an astronaut,

and a Pirate,

and a Train Conductor!

CJ got to make some friends,

and dig in the Sand!

We ate lunch at the Museum before hitting the road for our 4 hour drive to St. Louis, MO. CJ took a 2 hour nap (all that hard work at the Museum really wore him out!).

We stopped at the world's largest catsup bottle (aka water tower!!), before arriving in St. Louis this evening.

Looking forward to exploring this city tomorrow and hoping that the teething gets better for little CJ!!

The Beginning of a New Chapter

After lots of "goodbyes" over the last few weeks, today we left Ann Arbor and started our road trip toward San Diego!! Although I know God has lots of great stuff planned for this next chapter of our life, we will very much miss all the good friends we made in Michigan!!

I will miss Mom's Nights Outs with my friends:

We will miss having great neighbors:

I will miss catching up with former co-worker friends over food and drinks:

CJ will miss having such a great babysitter (so will we!):

The house is empty, and it was very sad to see it that way...thinking "this is where we brought CJ home from the hospital", "this is where CJ took his first steps"...

Today, we drove from Ann Arbor, MI

to Indianapolis, IN.

I wish I could say we saw some really awesome stuff along the way, but honestly it was mostly farms. We hit a couple of rain storms, and it was really windy, but JT did a great job driving!

A few highlights:

Two Big Boys, ha ha!

An 18wheeler truck that had glass windows on the trailer so you could see the car it was carrying!!

A few water towers that were unusual:

And this one: How immature am I?! But I thought this was funny! Ha ha!

And I wish we could have stopped here:

CJ had a great first day of "road tripping". He did so well considering we were in the car for about 4 hours!!

Napping on the road:

Watching "Cars" on the iPad

JT and I were talking on the drive how it feels good to have everything "done". For weeks and weeks we've been working so hard to get things sold on Craigslist, packed/organized for the move, finishing JT's thesis and presentation, and trying to schedule time to see everyone and do everything we needed to before leaving...now we don't have anything left on the "to do" list! We just "have to" enjoy this road trip with our son! :) We have a fun day planned tomorrow at the Children's Museum here in Indianapolis, and then we are off to St. Louis!

The Big Day

You know when you are planning your wedding, how it is this BIG date?! One that you know is going to come eventually and that you hope everything goes according to all your planning. Then the day comes and it is so surreal that afterwards you feel like the whole thing was a total blur?! Moving is just like your wedding day. That is how I feel, anyhow. It is a big life event that is SO emotional! I knew it was coming, and we did everything we could possibly do to "get ready", but now that it is here I really can't believe it!

The packers came Wednesday and Thursday and packed up the house for us. The military does hire the movers and take care of that aspect of the moves for us (how else could they expect people to move every 3 years?!). But, as a side note, there are SOO many other things that still go into moving that aren't as tangible as packing!

CJ is such a busy toddler, he was really wanting to help pack! (And also VERY confused about where those guys were taking his toys! Ha ha!)

Don't forget to pack my hangers!!

He had to take a snack break from all that hard work, right in the middle of the chaos!

And when all your toys are packed, CJ demonstrated how you can make a fun riding toy out of the trashcan liner!

The truck driver came on Friday to pick up all the boxes and load his truck with all of our materialistic belongings. CJ was a great supervisor!!

It's so strange and sad to see our house completely empty! We have so many memories here, both good and bad. Of course the best thing by far to have happened here is that this is where our family grew to include CJ. We experienced many of his "firsts" here, so it is rather bittersweet to move. But we are looking forward to this new chapter of our life, and all the unknowns (I'm sure both good and bad) that we will get to experience in a new house, as we make a new "home" for our family in California. We have a couple more days here in Michigan, wrapping up some loose ends, saying some more goodbyes and then we start our road trip out west on Wednesday!

Let's Make a Deal

I'm not as good at coupon-ing as I would like to be, but one thing I am proud of is getting a lot of CJ's clothes from children's consignment shops!

I had $10 of store credit left at one of the stores here in town, that I obviously wanted to spend before moving!! To quote a great movie: "If you don't use it you lose it!" ;) So anyhow, I found some great "new" (used) clothes for CJ. Most of them good name-brands too like Gymboree, Polo Ralph Lauren, & Baby Gap. The blue romper in the center with the car is reversible (it was BRAND new with original $55 price tag) and is green with an airplane on the other side!! So, with my store credit, I got everything you see in this picture for just $7!! :) I sure hope I can find some good consignment shops in San Diego!!

The Last First

When you have a baby, there are so many little milestones and firsts. You know, the ones that all the baby books list and that you are supposed to document (if you can find the time?!) I'm a little sad, because today little CJ had his last "baby" first.

Baby's First Haircut!

I found myself feeling so sad about cutting those precious curls off!! But as CJ's hair got longer, he would would get mistaken for being a little girl more and more (even when wearing the most boyish looking outfits!). With the move coming up, I knew we wouldn't have another chance to cut his hair for about a month, so I reluctantly scheduled the appointment.

It is was a kids haircut place called "Cookie Cutters", and they had a play structure in the waiting area, and lots of trucks and planes for the kids to sit in while getting their cuts. And you get to pick out your choice of movie to watch during the haircut. Here is CJ getting his first "snip". I was tearing up at this point! :(

We were worried about how he was going to react to getting his hair cut (especially because he has to be basically restrained to clip his nails), but with the movie (Thomas the Train) playing he didn't even NOTICE that someone was touching his hair, much less cutting it!

The finished product: he definitely looks like a little boy now, instead of a little baby!

The BIG BOY with his bittersweet Momma.

"Toddler CJ" with his proud Dada.

How on earth did my baby grow up so fast!? (I have a feeling I will be asking this question over and over again for the rest of my life!)

Last trip (for a while) to PA & OH

Last week, JT drove one of our cars over to San Diego (so that when we move we can all drive together in the same vehicle) and did some house hunting for us! While he was gone, CJ and I went over to Pennsylvania & Ohio to visit with my family for the "last time" (before the move!) We had a really fun time visiting with my Grandmother, and my Aunts, Uncles, & cousins.

My Grandma lives right next to a park, so CJ really enjoyed going over there and playing on the playground and feeding the ducks!

We also got to spend time with my mom's sister, my cousin, and my Great Aunt & Uncle (CJ's Great-Greats!!)

One thing that is always a "must do" for the area in PA where my family lives is a spillway where there are TONS of carp.

Everyone goes and feeds the fish & ducks old bread. Thankfully the loaf that I gave little CJ to feed the fish hadn't expired yet, because he was more interested in feeding himself! Ha ha! We had a great time!

Then my aunt, cousin and I took CJ to the his first petting zoo. The same petting zoo that my cousin, sister and I got mauled by goats at as children, but thankfully they have redone the layout and the animals are more restrained! :)

CJ LOVED it!! He kept chasing around the baby goat and he thought that the piggies were super cute!!

After a few days in PA, CJ and I took Grandma with us to OH to visit my Dad's sister & her daughter (my cousin). She has 3 kids (and is expecting one more VERY soon!) and CJ had a BLAST playing with them! Especially her son; it was like CJ instantly recognized another "guy" to play rough with!! Too cute!

My cousin has a pool and it was a beautiful day to go swimming! CJ really enjoyed the little boat they had, and I did too because I didn't have to hold him the whole time! :)

Before we left OH to head back to MI, we stopped over for some yummy ice cream!!

We are really going to miss living so close to family, but hopefully we will get a few visitors in California! :)

Like Dada, Like Son

Anyone wanna try to tell me that my two boys don't look alike?

With the very dark brown head of hair my husband has, no one ever believes it when we say he had blond curly hair as a kid! Well, here is the proof!! And it looks like little CJ looks like a "little JT". :)