After about a month in Cali, Wade received a job offer from Caterpillar as a buyer. His start date would be July 15th, but we headed down about 2 weeks early to house hunt. We packed up everything in the car and headed back, pretty much, to the same place we came from. Isn't life funny??
The first day was pretty bad, but then the kids seemed to get used to the idea we were gonna be in the car a while.
Our first fun stop was this McDonalds in Southern California. It was made from a train depot!!
And Nora tried to take a picture. hahaha! :)
Headed through New Mexico we stopped to eat and we found this authentic Mexican place that also served Horchata, It's a sweet milk made from rice. Aunt Shelley introduced it to the girls (they sell it in any grocery store in Cali) and my girls LOVED it. So we HAD to get the homemade stuff. Yummy!!
We then stopped by the Grand Canyon!! It was beautiful! We thought we would be there longer thinking the kids would appreciate getting out of the car, but uhm, it required too much walking which turned into too much whining!! Whimps!!! ;)
We snapped a quick pic in between all the tourists waiting for this rock. This pic is seriously as good as it gets! haha!:)
Take a Gander at the beautiful view!! Thanks instagram for that awesome filter I used. lol!
We discovered rather quickly that the road trip was WAY smoother if this little girl was asleep!!
We loved it when we were on historic route 66. Just the history behind it is so fun to learn about!! Texas, by the way, has an AWESOME rest area about Rt. 66. Kind of like a mini museum. Yeah, we're nerds! :)
We of course had to stop at a crackle barrel. Can you travel without eating there?
We drove through Arkansas and stayed 2 nights to visit old friends and pick up the last of our stuff in storage! It is now as if we never existed there, oh, except for all those dang rental properties we have there. UGH! ;)
Nora LOVED seeing her friends there. See that cover I bought for her cast? yeah, it didn't work. Do you notice how I told her not to go in above her chest?? yeah, that didn't work either!! haha!
My sweet Elise!!!
Audrey was CRAZY excited to see her first little girl friend, Brookie, she still talks about her today. I'm pretty sure Audrey is gonna be one heck of a loyal friend! :)
We headed out of Arkansas to ATL, our final stop. Well, after we spent the night somewhere in Mississippi at 1:30 in the morning b/c there was no vacancy at any hotels we stopped at. Geeze! :)
Then we arrived at the home of the most awesome family in the world. The Kuck's let us stay with them while we house hunted and waited to close.
Not a bad place to have to crash, huh?
Nora traded in her old wet cast, for a splint in Arkansas, and then finally a blue cast once we arrived in ATL. what a deal! :)
We rode the Marta and went to the Varsity for their famous hamburgers!!
Nora got her cast off...
We played at this AWESOME neighborhood pool with friends a couple times!!
Played at the Kuck's pool some more...
Elise fell in love with one great big doggy, Zeus!
They loved running up and down the hill in the Kuck's front yard!
And who can resist an awesome puddle? These girls can't!
We then had to move down to south Atlanta so Nora could start school. We moved into a hotel bc we were supposed to close within a week.
I guess Nora found this stressful so started doing yoga. Her kindergarten teacher introduced her to it and she loves it! :)
This is how we did nap time for Elise...
And this is where we were exiled to at bedtime! Yes, we got a couple strange looks, but whatev! :)
And when your kids live in a hotel, their imagination turns it into a magical place. They loved this one area right outside the hotel where the drains were. Who knows? Who cares? It made them happy! :)
As of right now, we are STILL not closed. Long story short we have the WORST mortgage lender in the history of lending. She's awful at returning phone calls and emails, she's lost her temper with Wade a couple times bc of his requests for a simple return phone call, and we're pretty sure she didn't even start working on our loan until about 30 days after we submitted the contract. Her company isn't much better either! I had to go there to pick up our tax forms and found them on the front recptionist desk, face up, NOT in an envelope, Nobody around. Yep, ALL 5 of our SSN's were right there on the first page. WHAT????
Ugh, Ok, I feel better for venting that!! Bottom line, there is no good reason we are not closed on our house. It is what it is, right? Meanwhile a member at our new church here found out we were living in a hotel and called me up (not knowing me) and invited us to stay with them. They have 2 extra rooms and toys as they have grandkids that come over a lot!!
It's been a CRAZY and sometimes stressful summer, but I would be remiss, if I did not see the blessing the Lord has bestowed upon us through it all. Sometimes life is hard, but He has never forgotten us. And I can totally tell that my friends and family have been sending their prayers. I think it's the only reason I'm functioning at a normal capacity right now!! :) So thank you all for your prayers. They may not have gotten us in our house any sooner, but they have sure kept us sane! :)
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