We're Here!

First off, today is our anniversary.  Eight years!  I can hardly believe it's been that long.  We're not doing anything too exciting today since we're still swimming in boxes and packing paper, but we're glad to be here and glad to be getting settled.  And don't pity us too much, Jeremy's company has taken very good care of us thus far - I didn't have to pack a single box, but I don't have any unpacking fairies on this end so we're busy this week!  Lots of things to come, but for now, here's a summary of our trip.

We...

• Drove over 2900 miles
• Drove through 10 states
• Saw 2 sisters, 2 brothers-in-law, 1 brother, 1 sister-in-law, 5 aunts, 4 uncles, 1 grandma, 11 cousins, 4 nephews and 3 nieces! (and some friends!)
• Bought 1 car
• Drove separately for 800 miles
• Stopped about 40 times on the side of the road for the boys to go to the bathroom - Connor officially completed his boys-pee-in-the-dirt-rite-of-passage
• Had only 1 pee-accident in the car (way to go Connor!)
• Stayed at 4 different hotels and at 2 different family members' houses
• Arrived in Oregon and said we WOULD do a trip like this again
• Unpacked for a few days and vowed we would NOT do a trip like this + a move again :)

It really was a success.  The trip went really well, the kids did amazingly well, especially considering how far we traveled, and if we didn't have to unpack a whole house on the other end, we'd probably do it again.  It was great to see so many wonderful people that we haven't seen in a long time.

Here are a few - er, a lot - of pictures from the move/trip.  More to come about Oregon later...

 The boys looking out at the river at our hotel in Pittsburgh the night before we left.

 Swimming!

 The giant moving truck maneuvering through all the cable lines.  That's Pittsburgh!  (And no, we in no way filled up that truck.  He was picking up multiple loads after us).

 Anna napping during the loading.

 Goodbye house!

 About 5 minutes after we finally hit the road.  Exhausted kids.  We drove 12 hours to Des Moines that night, arriving about 3am.  Yikes.

 Goodbye Pittsburgh!!!

 In front of Des Moines University about to get the tour from Sam. :)

 We got to spend an entire day in Des Moines with Heidi and Sam.  It was so fun to see them in their cute place and enjoy a day off from driving.  Eli pretty much worships Sam so he was thrilled to be there!

 Although he looks anything but thrilled in this picture!  Haha.

More swimming! :)

Sittin' poolside with this cutie-pie.

 Our caravan getting ready to take off for Idaho!  We knew we wanted to buy a 2nd car anyway, and this way we could get all our stuff that was in storage in Utah AND we didn't have to pay sales tax since we registered it in Oregon!  Woot! It was a busy 45 hours in Utah.  We bought a car, picked up our stuff, talked to our renters about selling our house, visited our old ward, and had some awesome family get-togethers.

 In Idaho - Jeremy with Connor and Sydney - fireworks with those two two-year-olds!

 Eli was in absolute cousin heaven with Russell.  They lived outside for a few days.  We were there for 2 days and 3 nights - a wonderful break!

I think my sis-in-law has some better ones of these, but here's Anna with her cousin Kamryn who is just 13 days younger.  Anna looks huge and bald!  Kamryn has a TON of dark hair.  So cute!

 A view of Mt. Hood as we drove along the Columbia River!

 Beautiful!

 Happy to be out of the car and eating our last meal out!

Sweet sleeping girl on the floor while we were unpacking.

And a picture from today.  So happy!  You can see our GREEN backyard through the back door behind her. :)  I'll put up more pictures of our house and yard when we get things under control around here...whenever that is...