the MOVE

May we never, ever, EVER have to make another move as grizzly as this one.  From packing our house, to packing the UBoxes, to trying to sleep 2 infants in hotel rooms, to driving through mountain ranges with 2 infants who probably had ear infections....  wow.  Some dark days.  But we kind of want to document them.  Just to remember that life wasn't all smiles and roses this summer!

I'm kind of a stresser and very much a planner, so we started packing months and months in advance.  Kudos to Jeremy for being my box-moving monkey.  What a trooper.  Our front room looked like this for a very long time before the move, with boxes lining every wall.  The babies loved the extra space to wiggle.   

Here are our UBoxes when they arrived.  Our lives were about to be shoved into 3 tiny boxes.  Thanks to some help from church friends, WE FIT!  Still can't believe that.  Jer and those guys filled every last square foot.

Despite my whining, I really did love the drive across country.  I was feeling overwhelmingly patriotic through most of the drive, through the Appalachians, into the open plains, through picturesque towns and huge industrial cities, so much farmland and grazing land.  Loved it!  The Arch was a definite highlight.  It felt fittingly symbolic for our family to cross it on our move from east to west.    

We didn't get pics of Aunt Katie and Uncle Van's safe haven in Colorado, but weren't they a welcome sight.  Thanks for putting us up, the ragtag bunch we were.

Here's Ruthie in her favorite sleeping spot:  the tub!  Her bassinet fit just right.  This wasn't just a moment of desperation on the trip, this is where she slept for 6 solid months.  That's right, folks.  Ruthie's boudoir was our second bathroom from January to June.  It made for some blissful nights for us in our tight quarters in Bethlehem, and we got the most sleep of the trip the one night it worked to sleep her in our hotel bathroom.  Just look at how at home she is!

Here's heaven on earth, aka Midway.  Thanks to Aunt Janet and Uncle Russ for housing us too.  Jeremy looks at any picture of Midway and his breathing slows a bit.  It's peace defined.

Sammy found a new BFF.  Followed Elkie around everywhere, wriggling as quickly as he possibly could wriggle.  What a sweet doggie.

The boys had a super fun surprise when the neighbor rode by on her Clydesdale Sam.  She offered both of them a ride!  Isn't he beautiful? 

The last day was the absolute hardest.  Maybe because we had to leave Midway and GET BACK IN THE CAR.  We pulled into Henderson on the 7th day as six pools of grumpy, crying mush.  It was grueling, even with the welcome stops.  Needless to say, we rested well, and we've all recovered since.  I can't see these pictures without a little whimper of grief though.  Hard times.  Grateful that they're now only memories!

Farewells

It's kind of hard to see these pictures and know that we can't turn back time.  And we can't shrink this massive country.  What good times we had in Bethlehem.  

Here are Jeremy and his co-residents at graduation.  FINALLY FINISHED.  Only 20 years of schooling and training.  Go Jer.  We're very proud.  

We made it!  Scotty was born 6 weeks after Jer started medical school.  Time for a new chapter of our family's life.

Here's a pic of one of my favorite Bethlehemers, Miss Cheryl, the gym childcare lady.  Thanks for taking such great care of my kids for (nearly) 3 years!  I always felt like I was leaving them with their auntie.  We miss you!  A lot. 

Here's my cutest little man Cyrus.  Oh how I miss you buddy!

Cyrus took very, very good care of the babes.  He must have learned from his mama.  (Why do I have no pictures of / with you Amanda?!)  Here he is with "blue one:"

Scotty and his best preschool / kindergarten buddy Gussy.  Aren't they cute? 

A final fun outing to Becky's Drive-In.  The boys (sadly) had never actually been on a teeter totter til this night:

 The babes watched from the sidelines.  Ruthie has *always* done this with her feet in this stroller.  As soon as I plop her in, at least one and usually both feet go up, and she goes into chill mode.  She sometimes falls asleep that way too.  Little tiny baby quirk.

 Firetruck!

 Pony rides!

 They let Ruthie have a mini ride for free :)

Then we watched Madagascar III with lots of fun toys and treats provided by party-lady Amanda.  Thanks for taking such great care of us, Amanda.  You made it impossible for us to claim that we don't have any family in Bethlehem.

Scotty's Primary class threw a party for Scotty.  So sweet!  We love love loved his teachers and all his little church buddies.

Two of my favorite little girlies:  

Scotty's last day of school with buddies Ethan and Samuel (a Brasileiro!).  Missed getting a pic with his super-fantastic teacher Mr. Ivanitch.  I think he was the singular reason Scotty learned to love school.  

 James pretenting to be a kindgartener + Gus and more buddies.  Good times.

And here's our last trip to see uncle Ben.  These pictures make me far more sad than happy.  We miss Uncle Ben so much already, and feel sad that he's all by his lonesome in MD.  So grateful for the 3 years we got to spend near him though, and that our boys will have so many fond memories with him.  He suggested we go to the same place we went on our very first outing, Patapsco State Park.  It was a beautiful day, perfect for wading and taking little hikes.  Ben and James are walking through the tunnel:

 Splashing in the baby waterfall:

 The babes (again) watching from the sidelines.  Not too long now and they'll be fighting me to get in on the action!

Wow.  I miss the east and all its lovely people.  Didn't get pictures with most of our friends, sadly, but we will never forget you!  What a great part of the world.

Random Spring

We're aliiiive!  Just not blogging much these days.  But I'm ready to catch up.  I was scrolling through pics on the computer the other day and realized we have a handful of random pictures that got skipped in Spring blogging that I want to preserve.  So here they are.

The babes had a blast sharing their first swing on one of the first warm late winter / early spring days in Bethlehem:

Somewhere in the madness of Spring, our Jamesy boy turned 4!!  Here's his favorite Chewbacca shirt:

His chocolate chocolate cake:

And his bilibo from Grandma:

We obviously kept it very simple (note the Christmas wrapping paper) but he seemed oblivious.  We love 4 year old James!  He's pretty much the exact same as squishy 2 year old James only with a slightly larger vocabulary and stretched out legs.

Here are all 3 boys "reading" stories.  I snapped this pic because I had a sudden flash forward to these 3 amigos in a few years playing / reading / fighting all day long :)  Sam wriggled his way to the action in his short-lived gecko-crawl.

I have no idea what inspired these, but I thought they were very 6-year-old-Scotty.  I'm including them maybe for no other purpose than future bribery material:

 Here is our exersaucer sea.  If you know our front room in Bethlehem, you can only imagine how "cozy" this was for those 6 or so months, but it was totally worth the minutes of peace they gave us:

Sometime in late winter I went through a tiny-crown-making phase and had to snap a pic of our prince and princess.  (Miss you Healy-girl!)

James' "twin" -- James and Ruthie resemble each other in complexion, disposition, and underbite.  He performs a ritual every time I walk into the room with her:  gasp, smile, and whisper-yell:  "Pwincess!!"  He begged for this pic one morning.

We had a lovely long warm spring.  The babies were in that heavenly window of sitting up but not yet moving, so we sat on the front lawn .often.  They were kept very quiet by the crazy neighbor kids running around.  I stayed out as long as they would let me!

Perky Ruthie enjoying her morning jaunt in the exersaucer:

Scotty totally cracked up when he saw the seatbelt:

And before we packed up, we took a ceremonial picture of Scotty's Art Wall.  He was soooo proud of his pictures.  Something clicked this Spring as far as staying in the lines goes, and he was pretty intense about his first "perfect pictures."  I love the bright colors.  Very Scotty!

Lastly, a favorite shot of Sammy with beaver-glasses eyes