Landrys 3rd bday

Landrys' birthday was celebrated a little different this year, not only did we do it a little bit earlier, but we combined it with a going a away gathering.  Bryan arrived home a few days earlier to help get the house all packed up.  He actually surprised me and came home late at night, a day before I expected him.  It was so nice to have him home, 5 weeks was a long time for us.  After a back and forth debate, a lot of weather watching and calculating our monies we decided to have a moving company drive the moving truck to Utah.  We felt good about this, especially after hitting some snow in parts of Nevada.  Am I really moving to snow....oh man this is going to be a HUGE change.  I might just become a bear and stay in all winter ;)

We were so blessed by so many people in Yuba City that offered to help our family in different ways throughout this move.  From people watching our kids all day, providing a meal for us, helping me clean, pack, disassemble bikes, and even help with hotel accommodations for the two nights we were homeless.  We felt so much love from so many, it was really making it that much harder to leave.

It rained the whole day before the move and I thought oh man, this is going to be fun, but miraculously the sun came out on moving day and everything went pretty smoothly.  Despite having to find new homes for some of our belongings, we had so much help, it went pretty quickly.

I'm regretting that I didn't take more pictures of that day, I think part of me was in denial that we were really packing up and leaving.  I know that is no excuse for no pictures, but it's true.  After we packed up the truck we headed over to Dean and Melanie Bessas house for a little open house.  Wow, that was a lot harder than I expected.  So many of our good friends, who have become like family to us, were there to wish us well.  I couldn't even handle watching my kids say goodbye to their friends without tearing up.  Eight years is a long time to be in one place, especially while you are raising your kids.  After saying goodnight to the puppies at the rental house, we headed to the hotel and slept hard.

The next day I rose early to head back over to the house to finish my cleaning jobs.  My dear friend Lindsay offered to come help me, despite it being on Sunday (I still owe you my friend).  After we headed to Fairfield to celebrate Landry turning three and to say our dreaded goodbyes.  This post might give off the impression that this was a depressing experience, but honestly moving so far away is hard....well it was for some of us.  We were all excited for the new adventure it would bring and to have this opportunity to better our future, but it's hard to leave the ones you love behind.

Olivia made an awesome cars cake for Landry, he loved it!  It was the first time in a long time that we had all of the cousins from both sides of the family all together.  Here are all of them, aren't they cute, I love them all.    

I can't even remember that last time we took a family picture with all five of us.

Uncle John, brought be the most amazing camera collection ever....antique ones.  I love them and can't wait to put them up in the new house.

After another tearful goodbye we hopped back into the car for on last drive to Yuba City.  We have done that drive a million times over the years, so many trips, so many memories were on my mind.  I don't know why I have to be such a sentimental person about such minor things, but I am.  A lot of our family traditions worked around trips to Fairfield/Vacaville.  It will be time to make some new ones and I know it will be fun.

The next morning we needed to meet the Realtor at the old rental home and hand over the keys.  Had one last lunch date with Lindsay and Will at CostaVida, purchased our snow chains and hit the road.  This is probably where I should mention that I failed to call the moving truck company right after we were done loading letting them know that we were ready for a pickup.  This meant that the truck was going to arrive two days after we would arrive in Utah....perfect.