We Made It!!

We had a long week last week getting ready for our big move on Sunday. First, we welcomed Daddy home early Monday morning. Jack was thrilled to see Justin (in fact, I think "Daddy" has now replaced "Mommy" as his most-said word.) Justin somehow went from San Francisco to Hong Kong to Shanghai to San Francisco to Boston in a five-day period, without any jet lag!!!, and he hit the markets in China to get all of us super cool silk loungewear. Here is Jack's outfit:

"Mom, I think this is pretty cool! Especially because DADDY is home!!"

I can't describe the feeling of having Justin home again. I think I drove him a little crazy because I was constantly following him around, just wanting to be near him. I am amazed sometimes at how strong my husband is and how he handles huge, life-changing events (the stress of a new job, being away from us for six weeks, a trip to China, all of the moving arrangements, getting the house ready to go on the market, preparing for a 6.5 hour flight with Jack, etc etc etc...) He truly is stronger than me emotionally because I was kind of a wreck. 

We spent Monday and Tuesday having inspection after inspection on our house from the relocation company, the realtor, and other parties. Tuesday afternoon, they came to pick up my car. Here it is getting loaded onto the shipping truck. Sniff sniff! I think this is when it finally became real in my mind. We probably won't see it again until late this week. It's currently in Kansas :)

After that, things picked up. Jack had his last day at school on Friday, where he proceeded to get a fever on his last afternoon. After a lot of rest, he seemed to be doing better on Saturday. We spent time with lots of old friends, including Carmie and Dan from my office, and Sam, Tony, Raegan and Colin Breen on Saturday night. They were nice enough to bring us pizza for dinner as our house was pretty much all sterile and packed up! (And we had no way to dispose of trash on Sunday!) 

For me, it was a blur of sleepless nights and stress and nostalgia all mixed together. I am proud to say that I lived in Boston, that I am "from Boston," that it was home. I will miss our house (mostly.) But I am excited about so many more things, including spending some relaxing quality time with Justin exploring our new home. While Justin was with us last week, we spent so much time and energy getting things ready for the move that we didn't really get any quality family time. So that, I am very excited about.

On Sunday afternoon, after a last-minute scramble, we headed to the airport. Justin, who was cleaning out the basement and garage all day, didn't help me pack. When we finally loaded our rental Prius, we both panicked. How did we get this much stuff??? Here is a list of what we brought with us and had to carry BY HAND through the airport because someone (cough cough JUSTIN) wouldn't pay $5 to rent a cart:

1. Large red suitcase (the biggest the airline would allow...mine)
2. Medium black suitcase (Jack's)
3. Small blue suitcase (Justin's)
4. Umbrella stroller
5. Car seat
6. Diaper bag (Jack's large one)
7. Backpack (Justin's)
8. Backpack (Jack's)
9. Big camera backpack (Justin's...)
10. Jack's lunchbox

Anyway, somehow we made it. We checked most of the stuff (but not enough!) and got on the plane. Thankfully it was an on-time flight and they even made it faster than usual (in 6 hours, 10 minutes.) It took off at 3:59pm. Jack was wide awake and super excited about his "hair pane ride" and made sure to show everyone his shirt. He even got ahold of the camera at one point and took this picture. Good job buddy :)

Jack's got mad photography skills.

Poor Justin, who had been working non-stop all week (well for a bunch of weeks!) tried to get some sleep. Jack wasn't having it. He'd wait until Justin dozed off and then poke him in various places, or take off his glasses, and yell "Daddy!!!! UP!!!" 

"Daddy!! UP!!!"

We entertained him as best we could with TV, movies, books, markers, stickers, food, water, milk, juice, walks to the bathroom, and help from some nice flight attendants. However, he didn't fall asleep until 5 hours or so into the flight (at about 10pm EST, 7pm PST.) 

FINALLY!!

He was then immediately awake when we landed and deplaned, and all through baggage claim, getting the rental car, and getting all our stuff (see above!!) into the car. We do have a very nice rental car, which is good. Much better horsepower than the Prius. :)

Driving down to Cupertino, I remembered why we moved. The route is so beautiful with mountains and palm trees all together, and everyone is so nice. We made it into our temporary place (it's a pretty nondescript apartment, a lot like what I lived in at Polos on Park in Tallahassee.) We have two bedrooms: one king bed and two twin beds. Jack did great in his twin last night but he was pretty exhausted. 

Jack woke up this morning at about 5am PST (8am EST) which was pretty good, I thought. He went down for a nap at 10:30am PST (1:30pm EST) and is still asleep (it's 12:15 now...yay!) I hope he gets a good nap and won't mind staying up a little later tonight to get onto California time. I think it's going to affect him less than it will me!

The only hiccup happened when we got into the car to take Daddy to work. Last night, we were both starving so I had run to Whole Foods to get dinner. I accidentally left the lights on our rental car when I parked it in the garage...oops. Poor Daddy had to walk to work. Luckily it's not too far, but still. I felt ashamed!!

I will post more soon, pictures of our digs and our new town. I just wanted to commit our trip to history and let everyone know that we were doing A-OK!