Our moving story... it's a long one!!

So, before we left Utah we tried to meet with as many friends as we could. It was great seeing many of you...Me, Mindhi, Bonnie, Rashelle, Carly and Amy

Thomas just liked playing on the slides.
I had a really hard time packing up my house. I love my house. But, I was able to say bye bye.
We had lots of help moving and packing and cleaning, thanks to all of our family and friends. Unfortunately, we were so busy packing, we didn't take very many pictures that day.Thomas was really pooped on moving day.



A week after we packed up the house, Michael, his dad, his two brothers, and his youngest sister Maddie packed up our remaining stuff in both of our cars and drove across the country to St. Louis. I made sure that they stopped at each state crossing and took a picture. Thanks for doing that. Michael is the best husband, and his family was very patient.


They drove through Wyoming on I-80...
On into Nebraska, still on I-80...
They crossed a corner of Iowa...
And finally crossed the state of Missouri.
As a note, I, Michael, am finishing this post, just so there's not any confusion.

We got to St. Louis Sunday afternoon. We didn't actually know where we were going to live. We had picked a house to rent that we saw when we came to check out the city, but our landlord told us that the construction of putting in a second bathroom wasn't done. He had another house available, and offered it to us for the same price. We mentioned this in previous posts. I had to make the decision with the help of my family. I didn't even have Aubree there to approve. We ended up choosing the second house that we had never seen before. It really is a nicer house. Plus, the construction going on in the first house made it pretty much uninhabitable. At least the basement, and it would have been so for a while. I don't know what we would have done with our stuff. We had to secure a gate on the yard fence so we could leave the dogs at the house while we met my cousin Lynn and her daughter Ali for dinner and a Cardinals game. It was fun. The game was a little interesting. We bought tickets a little bit after the game had started. They gave us standing room only tickets without asking. Maybe that's all they had left. We walked around the stadium for a while looking for space in the standing room only areas to stand. It's a really impressive stadium. That night I slept on the floor of the house with the dogs while my family stayed at a hotel. The trailer with all of our belongings arrived early the next morning. I was glad that it made it from Utah. It's a strange feeling letting someone else take all of your stuff. You don't really know where it is at any point. Needless to say, I was happy to see it arrived safely. My family came over along with my cousin Lynn and Ali, and they all helped unload the trailer. Since we've been in St. Louis, the weather has actually been pretty nice. It's been low 80s with pretty low humidity. This is true, except for the day we unloaded the trailer. That day, it was 100 degrees with humidity. The heat index said it felt like 108, or something around there. It was hot! My back and Maddie's back are proof enough.As a funny note, that guy watching down the hall in the picture of Maddie seemed to be very curious as to why I was taking a picture of the back of Maddie. Because it was on a cell phone, I think I had to take it twice to get a good picture. This guy stayed in the hall until we passed so he could see what the fuss was about. As soon as we passed, he made a sound that was a cross between Ugh and Woah. It made me laugh.

Fortunately, my family bought headbands on the way over to my house. It kind of started out as a joke, but they were actually very useful with so much sweat flowing. Here's the headband gang.
We got the trailer unloaded. I don't know how we could have done it without their help. They left on Tuesday, and Aubree flew in on Wednesday. I helped her organize and decorate the house. While this house was in much better shape than the other option, it still had some projects that needed to be completed. The landlord has been good about doing them, just not in the most timely manner. That has been a little frustrating.

Aubree has finished up orientation at her new job and has her first shift tonight. From what she tells me, they do things quite differently here in labor and delivery than they do in Utah. I think Utah is kind of on the leading edge that way, so she's a little frustrated right now. I'll let her say more about that, though, if she wants to.

I'm about done with my orientation at law school. It's been great so far. My classmates are amazing. They are from all over the place and have very diverse backgrounds. They all seem very intelligent. I'm just really excited about everything right now. Ask me that when I'm in the middle of the first semester, and hopefully the answer is the same. One thing that has impressed me about the school and my classmates is that there is definitely a sense of collegiality and support. As stressful as law school can be, I think that will be a great positive of WashU Law.

Thomas has adjusted very well to his new house. He did have to go to strangers' houses for two days while Aubree and I both had orientation. That was a little rough for him, I think, but he survived, and maybe it was even good for him. While I was writing this, he's been playing and rocking out. He's walking all over and is very curious.