June in Virginia - Part 1

The weekend we arrived in Virginia was also the 70th Anniversary of D-Day and since Bedford has such strong ties to D-Day, there were lots of activities that weekend including a parade!  We loaded the boys up and found a nice, shady spot to view the parade.  My friend, Noelle, showed up with her little boy Owen and joined us for the parade.  

To say we were a bit disappointed with the parade would be an understatement.  To be honest, I didn't have HUGE expectations but considering the community's ties to D-Day and ceremony they hosted at the D-Day Memorial the day before, I did expect it to appear that someone had put a bit of effort into securing entries.  Not a single marching band from our own county participated in the parade but two marching bands from neighboring counties marched and did fabulous jobs!  Those who did participate seemed to really enjoy themselves and to see the veterans who were riding in the parade was a wonderful experience.  The boys were given little flags to wave and of course collected quite a bit of candy that was being tossed by the parade participants.  

It was nice to see VMI Cadets leading the parade presenting the colors.  We told Kemper that when Daddy went to college, he had to wear that uniform and he thought that was hilarious!  Even if, the parade was a bit dinky (less than 15 minutes worth of entries), the boys had a good time and enjoyed seeing the old cars, the bands and waving to people.  

To round out our first weekend in Virginia, we went with Grandma Rita and Grandpa Phil and then went down to MeMe and Grandma Peggy's church for their annual Sunday School picnic.  Hitting two churches is each Sunday is challenging with the boys but it means so much to Grandma Peggy to see the boys and to get to show them off so we always give it a go and hope for the best!  After the church service, everyone headed outside for a delicious potluck.  We had a birthday party that afternoon so I left a bit early with Hudson and took him to Grandma Peggy's for a nap.  

We were lucky that we got to Virginia just in time to attend the 7th birthday party of a sweet little girl.  I grew up going to church with her dad and now, she goes to Grandma Rita's church and is usually at MeMe's church, too!  She was having a tie-dye birthday party at her Granny's house so the kids could swim, too.  The tie-dye station was so neat and the guy running it had a TON of colors and all sorts of designs.  Kemper and Hudson each got a shirt...orange and blue, of course!  We did all of the twisting/rubber banding/squirting of colors at the party and took the shirts home in ziploc bags to wash the next day.  Aside from getting out of the pool long enough to quickly make a shirt and grab a cupcake, Kemper was a little fish!  Hudson almost slept through the entire party but woke up in time to come swim for about 20 minutes.  

To cap off our first weekend in Virginia, Uncle Charlie came over and played with the boys.  Hudson is a BIG fan of Uncle Charlie!  We played basketball, rode bikes, played with the stomp rocket and with the balloon rockets.  I was worried about finding things to keep the boys busy for our 3 weeks in Virginia but luckily, we stayed fairly busy and found plenty to keep them entertained!  A trip to North Carolina, a trip to the zoo, many sleepovers with Grandma Rita and Grandpa Phil and even a Chuck E Cheese trip for the boys!  

The trip to Alabama and settling in

We knew that it was going to be a long day on the road and we were traveling with 3 vehicles.  James was driving his truck, my dad was driving his car and then mom and I were in the van with the boys.  The gentleman who was going to be meeting us with the keys to the house and doing the walk through needed us to meet him by a certain time so we decided that James and Dad should push on with fewer/shorter breaks while Mom and I would take our time and take breaks as the boys needed them.  

Right after I snapped this picture, he woke up.  All it took was turning a movie on for Kemper and his eyes popped open and he was asking for headphones.

The night before we left, the boys spent the night with Grandma Rita and Grandpa Phil.  We picked the boys up at 8am and were on the road by 8:15.  We had a 10.5 hour trip ahead of us with no breaks factored in.  Our hope was for Dad and James to arrive around 4:30 (Central time so we would pick up an hour along the way) and for mom and I to get there by 6.  

Welcome to Alabama!

Our trip went pretty smoothly with no major hiccups.  I drove the first leg to Sevierville, TN where we stopped for lunch and then Mom took over for a bit.  The boys did AWESOME (with the exception of Hudson deciding to snap his headphones in half as we were pulling off the interstate for an ice cream stop)!  Kemper is always such a great little traveler and Hudson has gotten better over time.  We had made the decision to turn his car seat around right before we left Tennessee so that he would be able to see the movie and to make it easier on Grandma Rita and I to hand him things along that drive.  That has helped some but he still gets bored and tired and makes sure everyone in the car knows it.  

The before and after of Hudson's room

We didn't have to make nearly as many stops as we were expecting so the guys never got all that far ahead of us.  They arrived to the house about 45 minutes before we did and got started painting Hudson's bedroom.  It was a very PINK shade of pink and while he's still little enough to not care, the landlords had said we could paint it so we went ahead and painted it a neutral.  

The boys were SUPER excited to get out of the car and check out their new house.  A wrestling session with Daddy in the empty living room was just what they needed to blow off some steam.  They checked out their rooms, ran around the empty house and enjoyed exploring all of the little nooks and cranies.  We went and grabbed dinner then checked into our hotel.  The guys headed back to the house to finish up painting and then everyone crashed.  We had an early morning and a busy day ahead of us!

Kemper conked out after a long travel day.  

James and I headed over to the house around 8am to wait for the movers.  A truck showed up at 8:15am but they just dropped the trailer off and told us that the unpackers would be there in a little bit.  They showed up around 9am and got to work.  

The above picture shows our inventory from when they packed us up in Tennessee.  Every box or piece of furniture gets a numbered sticker and when it's brought in the house, the number gets called out and I have to check it off.  James stood in the garage and called numbers out while telling them where to take the boxes/furniture.  MeMe and Pops were on kid duty.  Kemper was such an angel and stayed out of the way and entertained himself with no issues.  Hudson was a handful, as usual, and I think MeMe and Pops were worn out by the end of the day.  We had a crew of 8 movers and 2 of them were women.  They were there to unpack boxes but we asked them to not unpack since having piles of stuff just stacked around the floor was a thousand times more daunting than the boxes.  We had them unpack a select few things such as our crystal and picture frames just to make sure nothing had broken and needed to be noted.  The truck was unloaded and furniture was put together by 4pm.  

We have received the warmest welcome of any of our duty assignments in Alabama.  I think James met all of our neighbors while standing outside and directing the movers.  Hudson was excited to meet the dog from next door but I'm not sure how excited the dog was to meet Hudson.  Our neighbors to the right brought over a chicken pot pie casserole for us with a lovely note saying that since moving was so hectic they thought they would help us out and take that task off of our plate for the night.  We were so thankful for their kindness and the delicious casserole was devoured by all!  

Our main goal for the first night was to get all of the beds made and ready to be slept in and then to work on the boys rooms until it was their bedtime.  I don't think anyone had problems going to sleep that night.  Thanks to MeMe and Pops, we had 95% of the boxes unpacked and put away by day 4 of being in the house.  They were here through Monday and by the time they left, things were looking great!  After being told by the movers that they wouldn't come back for the boxes if we didn't let them unpack, our move coordinator through the Army told us that was false and they arranged to have the boxes picked up which definitely lit a fire under us!  

We are really enjoying Alabama thus far and love the house.  This is the house we decided to rent having only seen the outside and a few small pictures of the inside.  I am so very happy with our choice and we have plenty of room and storage for all of our stuff!  One thing that we've (well, I've) had an issue with is that the previous tenants had 2 large and apparently very fluffy dogs.  We didn't realize that when carpets are cleaned, they don't vacuum beforehand.  After the first couple of days, my allergies were really acting up and giving me a hard time.  We vacuumed and had to empty the vacuum probably 20 times and could have made an entire new dog with the amount of hair we got up.  Blech.  Thankfully, the purchasing of some super duty allergy air filters and vacuuming almost daily has really helped.  When we house hunted for this house, we made sure to ask if there was a linen closet after moving into our Tennessee house and realizing there wasn't a single linen closet but now, we'll know to ask if they have allowed pets (and I don't even want to imagine how bad of shape I would have been in if the previous tenants had cats).  

Hopefully in the next few days I'll have pictures of the house now that we're all settled and can get a house tour up.  School starts in 3 weeks for Kemper and James started last week so the boys and I are trying to stay busy and meet new friends.  Kemper is most excited to start school so he can make friends but I have a feeling Hudson isn't going to be pleased when his buddy isn't here to entertain him this fall...little does he know he'll start his own school a few weeks later!