It is official...

We will be flying out of Salt Lake on March 8! Matt found us a house in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. It is minutes from the Connecticut border where his work is. I am starting to get nervous. We are so excited to start the next chapter of our lives, but very sad to leave all our friends and family here.

He made it!

I got several more state line pictures, it was amazing how excited we would all get to see where Matt was. The weather was pretty scary in New York, especially in our little ice skate of a car. He made it to Connecticut Saturday night. He is loving his job! He is hanging out in a hotel until he can find a place to stay. We sure miss him!!

As for us, we will stay here until he finds a place for us to live. It is really hard not knowing when we will be leaving. We are just soaking up our time with family and friends. With this wind we are having we may all be blown to Connecticut! Yea, I can finally spell it!

The first leg of the incredible journey

We got all of our stuff packed in the ABF trailer on Tuesday. We have the greatest family, with their help it was done in 2 hours! I can't even begin to tell you how cold and windy it was. Very different from the hottest most humid day we unpacked our trailer in Bloomington (thanks Searle family!!!)
Matt took off in the little blue Saturn around 5. At 10:30 I called to find out how he was doing. "I don't want to tell you this, but..." was how the conversation started. He was 25 miles out of Rawlins, WY aka the middle of nowhere and was having car trouble. The engine was running but the car wasn't. He pulled over and tried to figure out what was going on. He ended up calling a tow truck after about 45 minutes of waiting in the cold. I checked the weather to see just how bad it was, this was the severe weather alert:

...WIND CHILL WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 11 AM MST THIS MORNING...
A WIND CHILL WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 11 AM MST THIS MORNING.
* WIND CHILL VALUES...VALUES OF 25 TO TO 35 BELOW ZERO WILL CONTINUE THROUGH
THIS MORNING.   * IMPACTS...BITTERLY COLD WIND CHILLS WILL CREATE DANGEROUS
CONDITIONS FOR THOSE WHO MUST VENTURE OUTDOORS...AND ANY LIVESTOCK IN AN
UNSHELTERED AREA EXPOSED TO THE EXTREME COLD.   PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS
ACTIONS...   THE WIND CHILL IS THE TEMPERATURE YOUR BODY FEELS WHEN THE AIR
TEMPERATURE IS COMBINED WITH THE WIND SPEED. WITH WIND CHILLS BELOW MINUS 30
DEGREES...FROSTBITE CAN OCCUR IN AS LITTLE AS 5 TO 10 MINUTES. THE MOST SUSCEPTIBLE
PARTS OF THE BODY ARE THE EXTREMETIES SUCH AS FINGERS...TOES...EAR LOBES...
OR THE TIP OF THE NOSE.

Little scary!  This was a warning for 500 pound cows, what about my cold little
husband! By the time the tow truck got there he had been sitting in the car for
90 minutes! He went into a mechanic and they said it was the fuel pump filter.
They had to call one in which ended up taking 36 HOURS!!!

Things are good now, he keeps texting me pictures when he crosses into a new state.
The last one I got was Illinios.  He will be going through Indiana next, that kind
of pulls on my heart strings!

I took Rocky to Wheeler Farm to feed the ducks, he didn't want to share their food with them.
Rocky's favorite place to be is dancing on Grandma's kitchen table!
The only way Rocky will eat vegetables is through a syringe, he loves medicine! Cooper calls it a carrot shot.
Medusa by Cooper
Coopers self portrait. Note the crazy hair and the missing 2 front teeth!

Basketball

Ruby has been playing on the Junior Jazz basketball team with some girls from our neighborhood. They had the greatest coach ever, Matt! He was so cute with them. I am so impressed with how patient and positive he was with them.

Ruby has made 3 baskets so far this season. The first one, was on my birthday, I totally cried I was so happy for her.

Coop is playing on the Biddy Ball team with his friends. He made 2 baskets. I love how they look at you after they do a good job on something with that look of pride. It makes being a mom the best job in the world!

Rocky has a love hate relationship with the games. He hates being held down during the games but loves any chance he gets to escape and get a ball. That boy LOVES balls!

I am so proud of the progress both of my dudes have made this season. Way to go Riches!

Snowmen

I looked out the window and saw my father in law building a snowman all by himself. The kids ran out to help. Papas snowman is the big tall one, and the kids made their first snowman all by themselves. It is amazing just how much fun the snow is. We won't be lacking in the snow department in CT. They have TONS!!!

Busy days...

We found out Matt got his offer on a Tuesday, Wednesday we had a Questar commercial filmed at our house (hence the wild animals), and Wednesday night, I was in charge of New Beginnings (a program for the young women in my church). That was a crazy 30 hour period of my life! Since then I have been packing like a crazy woman.

We are currently waiting for our ABF trailer to show up so we can pack it. As I wait, I am watching snow being blown all over the place with temperatures below freezing. To be honest, it doesn't look very fun to be packing the trailer today. Once the trailer is packed Matt will hope in our little blue Saturn and drive across the country. We will stay here until he finds a place for all of us and then we will fly out. Wow this is real! Really exciting!