Big Changes

By now you all know that we've moved to Florida! Derek's job transferred us to Eglin AFB, it's located in northwestern Florida, or the panhandle. We left the 5th of May and spent four days driving. Yes, I said driving. Derek had the moving van and the dogs and I had the kids in the van. Thankfully my mom, Aubrey, was able to come with me because I would have gone INSANE if I'd had to do it on my own.

The first day we drove to Cheyenne, Wyoming. The day was pretty uneventful, the kids watched a couple of movies, colored some pictures, and actually took a nap. The only bad part was that Becka ended up throwing up but can't say that I blame her. If you've even driven from Ogden to Cheyenne, you'll know about this twisty, swirly canyon. Needless to say, she didn't like it very well but luckily she got it in the bag. After that it was pretty much smooth driving. Although I am glad that I packed some sanitizing wipes in my purse. We had to stop and some pretty nasty gas stations to use the bathroom. It still makes me shudder...

The second day we drove to Kansas City, Missouri. This day was quite an adventure. Nebraska was pretty, which surprised me actually! We went over the Missouri River, which is pretty big! Funny story actually. We were in Nebraska and were getting close to the state line which I thought was at Missouri, so we cross the state line and my mom and I are like "We're in Missouri!" The kids knew we were stopping there for the night so they got excited. Then a mile or so down the road there's a sign that says "The People of Iowa Welcome You!" Mom and I just looked at each other and busted out laughing. Apparently we had to drive through a small tip of Iowa before we got to Missouri. It was a nice drive until we got to Missouri. The midwest decided to welcome us with a fabulous storm. I'm talking black clouds, thunder, lighting. The works. Not to mention that the majority of the time I was driving I was afraid a tornado was going to come out of no where! Ashlyn was terrified the last 45 minutes of the drive and had a death grip on my mom's hand. After 12 hours of being in the car (Nebraska had way to many construction zones) we finally arrived and my mom took the girls to pool to wear them out.  It was nice to have a bit of peace and quiet.

The third day we drove from Missouri to Memphis, Tennessee. This had to have been the worst day of the drive. It was another 12 hour day but the worst part was that most of it was country back roads in Arkansas. Let me tell you, we crossed the state line and could hear banjos playing. Let's just say that Mapquest's shortest drive mileage wise is not necessarily the shortest time. It was very pretty drive through the Ozark mountains but man, there were some shanty little towns along the way. Next time we are sticking to major high ways even if it's a longer distance! Right before we drove into Memphis we drove over the Mississippi River. I haven't ever seen it before and I wish I could have taken a picture, it was huge! I also wished we'd had a little bit more time because my mom and I wanted to go to Graceland so bad. Oh well, maybe the next trip.

The fourth day we finally made it to Florida! The kids were so excited when we finally crossed the state line. We drove through Mississippi and across the southern part of Alabama. It was good thing we only took four days for the drive because I don't think we were going to last another day in the car. I had tried to keep the kids to 2 movies a day but the last day I think they watched movies most of the time! We arrived in Pensacola and stayed at the naval base. We decided to stay there instead of the air force base because there was no limit on the amount of pets we could have in a room. At the air force base we were limited to two.

So after a long day I check in and we go to our room. We were told it had a kitchen, two queen beds, and a pull out couch. A bit tight for a few days but it was okay because we wouldn't have to kennel the dogs. Yeah, not so much. The room had two queen beds, no couch, and two burners. No oven, microwave, dish washer, or anything else like that. We were more then a bit frustrated because there was no way that was going to work for the next three weeks while we found a house. So we ended up putting the dogs in a kennel and moving to temporary housing at Eglin. That night on Navy was really long. My mom slept in one bed with Keyleigh and then I shared with Ashlyn and Becka. Poor Derek took the floor for a little while before he couldn't take it any longer. It's been really hard being separated from the dogs, both for us and them but it really has worked out for the best. The temporary lodging is like apartments so we've been able to cook and do laundry. Thankfully we close on our new house on Friday and can get the dogs back!

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of the drive. I had wanted to take one of the girls at each state line but pulling all three out would have been a nightmare and then them being on the side of the interstate just didn't seem safe to me!

We're here and close to settling in. I'll post pictures of the house and the story with that once we get in!