A long story coming up...

In the summer of 2011 we moved to an area of San Jose called  Almaden.  Simply put, we fell in love immediately, we never wanted to leave, literally never, never.  I planned to live out my days there.

So, last march 2012, mike came to me and said that his boss was looking for people to go out to austin for his work.
 Mike came home and says "hey wanna move to Texas??"
And I was all, "no way!!  Why would you have to even ask??"

So that was that.

In April or May, mike has to take a trip out to austin for about a week for work.  Every night I would get a call from Mike, and there was just a smile in his voice, just telling me all about the city and just how much he loved it there.

 He says,  "Jaime, are you sure you would never move here?
And I was all "no way, I'm good.  It's freakin Texas!"

Very next day, (no joke). I talk to a mom at school, and she tells me that they are moving to austin. What?!?!  She says these exact words "Look, I am a Californian through and through (which describes me, to a tea). And I am so excited to move there!  It's such a great city, and they have everything there!- go home and google it."

So, reluctantly I did.  And it's true, the city is beautiful!  And looks awesome.  And you can't even compare the cost of living from there to San Jose.  At this point, I am starting to get a little persuaded to possibly move there.

I tell mike, that my feelings are changing, and we decide that he should talk to his boss about a possible transfer there.  His boss, thought it would be a great move for him and their group.

So, we think its all going to fall into place, and that we'll be there before the next school year, but in June every bodies roles at work got switched.  And his new role wasn't going to fit in austin.  So, we just figured it wasn't the right time.  And we loved our life anyway, so no worries, right!

Well, at the beginning of November, someone approached mike about an opportunity in austin, doing something totally different.  So, we agree he should at least try, and see what kind of offer he could get.  And he got a great offer!  He accepted. And we signed on to leave first thing in January 2013.

As excited as we were to go somewhere new, I was so overcome with sadness about leaving all of our friends and our ward, who had become our family.  I dreaded telling people.  When people found out, and I had to talk to them about it, I cried every time, and just had to walk away.  It was even harder when people started crying first, when I told them.  It's mid February, and I still cry.  I'm so pathetic!

Anyways, enough of  the sad part.

We started our drive a few days before Christmas, and went to spend some time with our parents in St.George.  We had a great Christmas, spent 10 days there.  Then mike flew back the next week to San Jose for 4 days, and dealt with the movers, and getting his car shipped.  Then he flew back into Vegas, where me and the kids  picked him up, and we left for Texas from there.

The first leg of the trip was to Albuquerque, NM.  It was actually a very pretty drive, we saw {what looked like} parts of the Grand Canyon, beautiful mountain areas through north Arizona.  That night the kids slept well.  Then we left first thing to Abilene, TX.  We will forever remember Abilene, because that was the night that everything went  bad...Mike got a speeding ticket, for 8 miles over the speed limit, Chloe gave Riley a black eye, from throwing a book at her.  It was probably the loudest scream I have ever heard from one of my kids.  It was pretty bad.  And it resulted in Chloe getting her precious blanket thrown into the garbage... For real. And then getting the wrong address to the hotel, not once, but twice, after arriving at these hotels, which were not close in proximity.  We finally got inside to a beautiful hotel room, with the most comfortable king size bed!!  We all slept well!  The whole trip, Tysen had the worst cough, and that morning he woke up with the worst coughing fit for about an hour.  It was so sad, we put his crib in the bathroom and turned on the shower, so the room would get all steamy, then laid him down.  He finally fell asleep, and slept from 7 am - 11:30am!  Whew, he must have needed that!

And, now we begin the final leg of the trip into Austin!  The drive from Abilene to Austin, was, well, UGLY!
It made me so discouraged about where we had decided to take our family to.  I quietly slipped my sunglasses on, and just sat and cried for a good hour.  Then I got a hold of myself.  We came into Austin, and just like everybody told me, it was pretty.  Lots of pretty, green trees everywhere.

We went out to eat that night at some chicken place.  It was kinda funny walking in there.  They had 2 TV's going, both with FOX news (which would never be broadcasted publicly in CALI).  I walked up to order and asked the lady if they had grilled chicken, and she looked at me like I was crazy..."No ma'am, everything is fried here"  That was my first ma'am.  Well, twist my arm, give me some fried chicken!! Welcome to Texas!

Our first night here, all the kids went to sleep OK.  But at about 3 am, Tysen woke up with another coughing fit.  He wouldn't sleep.  SO we did the shower trick again and opened the bathroom door into the room, so it could get nice and steamy.  And it worked!  Mike and I lay back down, when we hear a tiny beep, then, beep, beep, and finally a full on fire alarm going off in the house!  The steam had caused the fire alarm.  We call the property emergency number - no answer.  We call the local fire dept.  the guy has no idea how to turn it off.  so, it continues for a half an hour!  As we try to fan it with our pillows.  Luckily, not one kid is waking up through the whole fire alarm.  And it finally stops and we can get back to sleep.  I felt bad for Mike, he had to start work the next day.  Crazy first night!!


I had images in my head of all these pictures in a slide show, with the song by Phillip Phillips "Home" playing in the background...
"Hold on to me as you go, as we roll down this unfamiliar road...Cuz, I'm gonna make this place your home..."

The words to that song, completely described my life at that moment!


This is our trip to Utah - 11 hours

UTAH!

Do you see this packed car!!  It took some serious work to fit everything!

Here are the kids in front of  My Mom & Dad's - we're ready to Leave to go get Mike from the Airport in Vegas.  This was a melancholy morning

NEVADA!ARIZONA!

Almost to FLAGSTAFF - I thought this view was beautiful!At the hotel in Albuquerque - 21 hours

 We stopped to play in the snow

And we finally made it!

TEXAS!

At our final hotel in Abilene! 27 hours...ready for only 3 more hours to go until Austin!

What a trip!  The kids did so good, of course every road trip of this magnitude has its highs and lows, but it definitely was a bonding experience for us!  And we made it safe and sound!