For those of you that have followed along for a bit, you may know that we made a big move last August from California to Colorado (read about the journey here). It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, but also one of the most exciting. We moved away from all our friends and family to a place where we didn’t know a soul (save for some of my husband’s new coworkers), and it was a huge transition and time of growth for me personally and for our family as a whole.
We know without a doubt that this was the right move for us; God has shown that to us time and time again, but it was still hard saying goodbye and it is still hard being away from those we have grown up with and come to regard as family. So when my husband said he had to travel to Portland for a work conference for 5 days, we came up with the plan to drive to California, where I would remain with the kids while he flew to Portland. That way, I wouldn’t pull my hair out being alone with 2 children and a 6-month baby bump and no family around to help.
It was so much fun seeing all of our loved ones again, and nice that it’s only been 6 months since we left so friendships are still very intact and fresh. We had a BBQ with friends, had play dates, attended a birthday party, had girl’s night out (mommy did, at least), went to Disneyland (of course), relaxed in the warm, warm sunshine, had a baby shower for yours truly, spent time with extended family… the list goes on.
We were there for 10 days, so there were lots of opportunities for fun. I even took advantage of my husband being gone and sent the kids to my mother and father-in-law’s for 2 nights. I was all on my own and hardly knew what to do! Don’t worry, I didn’t find it too difficult to entertain myself. My girlfriend took a day off of work and ran errands with me at Ikea (kid-free Ikea is THE BEST) and Target (I went to Target 4 times on that trip… I think I have a problem), and then we had lunch in trendy SOCO (South Orange County). Oh, and I slept really, really good while the kids were away!
So basically, having my husband gone was a real hardship.
I also took advantage of the warm weather to snap some photos for What I Wore Wednesdays here on the blog, since Colorado has been so chilly. And I wore some of the new maternity clothes that I recently made, which made me feel very accomplished.
Driving across 4 (5?) states with 2 kids was quite an adventure as well. Especially the first day when we tried to go through the mountains in Colorado and had to turn around and take a different route thanks to the snow… it wasted about 5 hours of our carefully planned trip. But the kids were absolute troupers! Having a DVD player in the car was our saving grace… we bought one last Thanksgiving on Black Friday for only $69 knowing this trip was coming, and it was worth every penny! We saw some beautiful skies and mountains, had some scary driving in heavy snow and had our first experience peeing on the side of the road (next time, I WILL remember to bring the travel potty).
All in all, it was such a great getaway. Even though I was working throughout the trip, there was lots of down time. It is just a further reminder of how blessed we are to have so many amazing friends and family (old and new, California AND Colorado) and what a gift it is to be able to travel and experience life with my wonderful little family of 4 (technically, it was 5, I guess!).
In short, don’t be afraid to travel with youngsters or to make huge, giant changes in life like moving far, far away; it has created some of the most memorable and fulfilling moments of our lives thus far!
Here are some more snapshots of the good times we had:
