Shakespear Shuffle

Exodus

About 3 weeks ago we started our exodus from Springfield MO to Gearhart OR.  We used a pod to move & it took 2 weeks for our stuff to get to OR.  With all that time to kill we decided to go to TX first to say goodbye to all of our family there.  I'm so glad we did!  It's always fun to be together.

Dallas

Jeremy's brother Joel & his kids Cole & Kylie live in Dallas so we hung out at their place for a couple of days.  We went downtown to a great park, rode a trolley, ate lunch from a food truck & got gelato.  I think that may top even Andy's frozen custard for me. Yum!  As you can see from the pictures Emma became quite attached to Cole.

San Antonio

Next up was San Antonio to visit the Turners.  On the way we stopped & had a picnic with Marisa (my friend & roommie from BYU).  It was so fun to see her!  We laughed about how weird it was that it seemed so normal to see each other again after about 7 years! Time flies. 

Love cousin time!  I took about 15 pictures of all the kids together & they were all really funny.  It was hard to pick one.

Had to get one of the "older" boys.  Pretty soon Dallen & Thomas will be in that category.

They took us to the Guadalupe River which was a blast!  I think if we lived there we would go every day to stay cool.  The water was so nice & it was beautiful.  Dallen was so relaxed he even took a nap in my lap for about an hour at 9:30 in the morning!

Jeremy (I think) found a walking stick-all the kids loved it

 

Houston

The last stop was in Houston to see Jennie & her family, Nana, Poppie & Steven.  Sadly we missed Alyson this time!  Nana & Poppie have recently sold their home in Austin & have moved close to Jennie.  We love their neighborhood!  They live two houses down from the pool & I love their tradition of swimming after dinner.  It was so much fun for the kids & we practically had the place to ourselves.

I adore this picture of Hunter & Michael.  Such happy, silly boys!

All the kids at the aquarium (shhhh actually it was just an amazing pet store with lots of tropical fish but the kids wanted to go to the aquarium so that's what we called it.  Is that bad?!)

On the road again

So we logged 50+ hours on the road in the two weeks we were traveling.  Phew!  The kids were amazing as usual.  We had to drive both cars so Jeremy had Emma & Justy in his little car & I had the other 3 boys in the van.  We bought walkie talkies so we could communicate easier than on our phones.  That was fun.  We only drove 6 hours a day which made it bearable.  That was a good thing too because Jeremy popped a tire on Monday.  And then on Wednesday we stayed in Moriarty New Mexico for about 4 extra hours to get a radiator tube replaced.  We got to know the town quite well I think.  We went to two parks, had a picnic, went to the one grocery store in town & visited the public library for story & craft time.  Actually we were so grateful both times we were right next to a car shop that could help us out.  Everyone was so nice!

We stopped to visit one of my mission companions Amanda & her cute family.  So fun to catch up!  I was thinking about this we were only companions for 6 weeks & besides attending her wedding reception I haven't seen her since the mission.  I haven't really spent much time with this girl but she was one of my favorites & I love her!

We visited my Grandma Turner in Utah (always wonderful to see her).  She took us out to eat & bought the kids chocolate chip cookies.  Dallen started to eat his in the car & he fell asleep with only half the cookie eaten & with chocolate all over his face & legs.  It was so funny!  He was one tired kid this whole trip.

Hotels are always an adventure.  It's fun to figure out how we're all going to sleep :)  Especially when Priceline hooks us up with room with only 1 king sized bed.  That's always tricky!  Hunter chose to sleep on a chair in the closet on one of those nights.

Loved all the memories we made on our trip but we are sooooooooooooo grateful & happy to be settled in our new home!