we made it!

 Last day with Daddy

  We are back in NY! Occupy Journey lane has begun. And almost 1 week down...eat that deployment! Micheal has successfully arrived in Afghanistan- and made it to his FOB in record time. He's been able to call a few times and sounds pretty upbeat- just tired from days of traveling. Right now he's meeting with his counterparts and trying to acclimatize to the new time zone. Sounds like the unit they're replacing is pretty pumped to see his unit showing up-aka they get to go home!

We are pretty much all settled in and trying to establish a new routine and catch up on some sleep. This last month has been pretty stressful. I think we all breathed a collective sigh of relief when the goodbye was over and the countdown could start. My parents arrived in CO last Thursday despite the blizzard in Albany. I think it's the Pilon Law- doesn't matter if it hasn't precipitated for 90 days straight- if they're going to fly, it WILL snow. Haha. Anyways they made it to CO by 1130 am and we had the truck all packed by that afternoon. The new truck cap is awesome. Might be hick but it gets the job done. I actually had room to spare!  Friday it snowed all day in Colorado so we spent the day finalizing some packing and organizing and tried to go to bed early. I didn't sleep at all. Nulkie had to be dropped off at 1:30 am and it was 6 degrees and icy outside. I was like- wow they never show this in Army Wives! So once we said our goodbyes i drove back home where my parents had unplugged all the appliances and had everything ready to go. We were on the road by 240 am. My dad was nice and took the first shift of driving since i was pretty much wiped out. He made it to KS before he needed a coffee! It was funny- in the gas station we took Gabe in to use the bathroom and pick out a snack, so at 540 am he's perky as can be and picks out a huge lollipop. I was like no way buddy- you can have choc. milk!

 Can you find the 4 racoons in this picture?

 

   My mom drove next and by around 8ish i realized we were going to be passing Junction City, KS by around 11am so i called up Matthew to see if he wanted to rendezvous. I had turned down his offer the night before since i didn't think we'd want to stop. Turned out to be a great break! We met him at this BBQ place and had some smokey brisket sandwiches for lunch and had a little visit. Gabe was pretty excited to see Uncle Matthew. After that we had like 6 more hrs till Ft. Leonard Wood where we stayed with some friends. We rolled into their house around 640sih and it was like heaven. Kristi & Daniel had a delish soup simmering and Clay & Cooper were ready to play! It was so cute to see Gabe with his old buddies again! And wonderful to see our sweet friends. We miss them! Gabe even slept over in Clay & Cooper's room :)

 I love this mini-table they have. It matches their normal-sized one!

 amazing fort- Daniel (their dad) made/desigend it for them.

 I mean, come on! This is in their playroom- Nulkie's job is to build one for our kiddos next!

 buddies!

 Evie took a shift at driving. It's only fair she's pulls her weight too.

 Sunday morning we had a nice breakfast with the Walkups and hit the road by 9:30. We made it to Columbus, OH where we stayed in a dog-freindly hotel with a pool. Gabe had a ball swimming! It was a brand-new holiday inn Express-very nice actually. Monday morning we started out by 830 and were home to Glenmont by 7pm. We were about 2 hrs from home at a rest stop when both Gabe & Evie lost it. Gabe just started hysterically crying from exhaustion and Evie was upset to be stuck in the carseat again. But we made it! Gabe did not nap much and Evie only took little catnaps throughout the trip. So it challenged our creativity to entertain the kids for 30some hours in the car! I think my mom now has her masters in backseat-child activities!

 This was a jungle my mom set up for Gabe. He was hanging animals off it.

 The dogs slept on the floor in front of Evie's carseat. They did great.

All in all we could not have had better weather for our roadtrip. It was cold- but mainly clear and sunny. We didn't hit too bad of traffic either. And the truck drives so smooth. Once we rolled into the driveway, Wes had pizza and wine waiting for us. And the fire going. Can't ask for much better than that! So far Gabe & Evie are roomies most of the time. Except afternoon naps because Evie sleeps at a different time than Gabe- so she's in my room in a pack n' play then. Gabe is loving all the toys and space around here. He likes all the people too :) He LOVES to ask to wake up Uncle Wesdawg at 7am. Haha. Evie is happy as can be. She's sitting up now for long periods of time and loves it. She likes to be in the middle of all the action. I'm pretty much settled in my room too. We are just so grateful to be here. It feels so peaceful- and SUPER nice to have all these extra pairs of hands to help with the little guys! Hope you all are doing well. Sorry for the blog hiatus- was just too tired/busy for an update.