This picture was taken at the beginning of March in our front yard! You can’t really see but that is our house in the background. I’ll post pics of the house soon!
We spent a wonderful 3 weeks in Utah visiting family and friends! It was so nice to have some down time and be with loved ones after such a chaotic previous few months! Because the kids didn’t start school in Cali until January 11th (if we were lucky enough to get them in to the schools – long story), I decided to stay at mom’s while Adam headed down to start work. Once the week was over the kids and I headed south to start our new life in California!
Since we hadn’t closed on our house yet, and school hadn’t started yet, we went straight to Orange County to stay with Adam’s parents. One of the first items of business for the kids was, of course, Disneyland! We were able to get the “Two-fer” passes where we got a day at Disneyland and a day at California adventure for the price of one day either park. Great deal. The kids and I had a great day at Disneyland while wonderful Nana and Gramma helped take care of Avery! It was the first time in YEARS that I didn’t have to take a stroller to Disneyland! It was Heavenly! AND, the kids could all go on all the rides! We had sooooo much fun! 
You’ve seriously never seen 4 kids who absolutely LOVE Disneyland as much as these kids! We had such a fun day!
All four kids were chosen for the Jedi Training. Logan even got to fight Darth Vader. We went back a few weeks later to California Adventure and brought our neighbor from CO, who now lives in CA with us! FUN day!
After a few days of working through the logistics of the school district here, the kids were able to start school. Spencer was able to start at the school in our neighborhood and because of over-crowding, Annie and Garett started at a school about 10 minutes away! They were “diverted” and put on a wait list at the neighborhood school. I seriously could spend an hour ranting about how C-R-A-Z-Y they do things here. It’s soooooo ridiculous! They make it SOOOOO much harder for these kids to start new schools because they basically have to be the “new” kids twice. If moving and changing schools isn’t hard enough let’s just make young children change schools twice! Jeesh!!!!!
Thankfully the kids adjusted quickly to their new routine, though I was not too keen on it. Being bused for the past 6 1/2 years was dream compared to having to drive all over Timbuktoo getting kids dropped off and picked up at the right place and time. But, it has worked out and they were back in school!
Once the kids started school we moved into the Residence Inn until our home here closed Escrow. What a treat that was to jam 7 people, one being an infant, into a small little hotel apartment. Other than not having TIVO, we did okay for those 4 weeks and before we knew it moving day was upon us!
Ever since we arrived in California we’ve had a few “welcome back to California” experiences that have reminded us why we love (and sometimes don’t love) this state! The beautiful warm days are a definite reason we love it here, living close enough to family that we can have dinners together every other Sunday and of course Disneyland days remind us of all the wonderful things this state has to offer. Well, the morning before we were supposed to move into our house, I walked out of the hotel to take the kids to school and to my complete dismay and eventual devastation, saw that the back window of our car had been bashed in while parked right next to the door leading into the hotel. I immediately went through the car to make sure nothing had been stolen and everything appeared to be in its place. No cell phones were in the car and our Ipod’s were still sitting right where we’d left them. My girlfriend came and picked up the kids to get them to school while I waited in the parking lot for the police to arrive. The nice hotel maintenance man came out and helped me clean up the glass and after an hour and a half of waiting the mess was cleaned up and a plastic bag was taped to the window so I could at least drive around. The police never did show up and since we didn’t think anything had been stolen I left. As I was driving down the street listening to the rattle of the plastic bag I felt like a huge boulder was thrown at my chest when I realized that our video camera had been in the back of the car and it was gone. We bought the camera a few weeks before Avery was born. Everything from the day she was born to that day was on that camera. Stupidly we hadn’t downloaded anything onto our computer yet. To say I was devastated is an understatement. I called Adam to tell him and SOBBED like I’d never sobbed before. The day Avery was born was such a special day for us and losing all the footage of it absolutely tore my heart out. To date we have not seen the camera again and all those documented memories are gone! Just writing about it brings back the same gut wrenching feeling I had that day and its been 3 months! AARRGGG! Dumb hoodlums and dumb California!
THINGS WE DON’T LOVE ABOUT CALIFORNIA
THINGS WE DO LOVE ABOUT CALIFORNIA
Marin is such a cutie! Nana and Granddad coming to see us when they’re staying at their CA Condo.
Uncle Ryan, Avery, Adam and Zoey Uncle Daniel LOVES Logan, Lucy and of course Jill :-)
Papa and his baby girls Gramma and Auntie Nicole Auntie Laura, Uncle Kevin and Zoey
Moving day was exciting for us as we got reaquainted with all of stuff! Though I’m not a fan of moving, it’s always fun to sort and toss stuff as you pack and unpack boxes!
Within a week of moving in we were pretty much all unpacked and other than a few decorative items we were starting to feel that we were home. The kids had fun getting to know their knew surroundings, and figuring out where everything had been put during the unpacking process! Our new house if very different from our old house, especially the no basement part, but everyone seems to be getting used to it!
And now that we had a house and had all of our stuff, the reality that we were back in California started to set in! It’s time to make it our HOME!!!!
