Moving Days

It happened on Cinco de Mayo, the 5th of May! It was a Sunday and it was moving day at the Jennings House! And it arrived in the form of this HUUUGE truck. It blocked our neighbors' driveway too, this thing was massive. Our stuff didn't fill it all but they had another small family's stuff to fit in there as well.

And then they got to work. Day one was just packing boxes, wrapping all our pictures, and disassembling all the furniture. You know just packing up our entire lives! There was a team of 4 movers and they did an amazing job.

 While Jackson did like seeing the huge truck, it was all a little too much for him so for most of the morning he hung out in the living room / front of the house or outside on the patio.

Abbie walking around outside

Then we went to church and said goodbye to some of our friends there. We didn't stay too long because Jackson was still not doing too well. For the first time in his life he actually didn't want to go to nursery if that tells you anything. But then I came home and the movers were just finishing up. They arrived at 8 and were gone by 1:30. Not too bad for packing up an entire house!

They left me a little counter space in the bathroom luckily...

 While all dressed up we took some graduation pictures! Since we missed the big day on Friday we had to put the cap and gown to use before we needed to return it. So, here it is! I really am so proud of Tyler for sticking with his goal and after jumping through a series of hoops, even getting his company to pay for the degree!

 At this point we had it arranged for Tyler's parents and Jackson to stay the night at a Disney Resort. The relocation company paid for one night hotel in Florida as part of the package. Even though we didn't "need it" since the movers didn't take apart our bed until the next day per our request, it was best for Jackson to be out of the house that night. He had a lot of fun over there with his grandparents, but still wasn't quite back to our normal Jackson yet.

Tyler and I stayed at the house doing some last minute cleaning and packing we needed to do while Abbie took a nap. That evening we went over to the Hilton and it was so nice! They were upgraded to a suite and even though they weren't actually going to Disney it was nice resort for non-disney goers too. And now I'm mad that I have no pictures! But it was this hotel.

The next morning the guys were back and ready to load the truck! I love these two pictures below that show Abbie just walking around watching the madness, totally oblivious to what was really going on.

Meanwhile Jackson was having the breakfast of champions over at the hotel! He finally got his appetite back and we were so happy he had a buffet of food to devour that day.

They finished around 1 or 2 again and I guess I didn't take any pictures that day but Tyler took these and put it in an instagram collage.

The last thing they packed and loaded was Abbie's crib. We let her take that nap while everything was loaded and when she woke up the house was empty. The movers finished up and a little bit later Jackson came back to see the truck drive away and see the empty house. It was really hard for him, he was still so irritable and seeing things was confusing to him. We had some friends come over and say bye but it was really hard while Jackson was there so distraught.

Our flight was later that evening and since our cars were also being moved, we needed a ride to the airport. None other than Jacque Munns, the woman who made us a part of her family, we stayed at her home for weeks, convinced us to live in Windermere, and sold us our house, she drove us to the airport. Honestly it would have been really emotional had there not been as much going on with Jackson.

But we also said goodbye to Tyler's parents, Terry and Vicki were so amazing that whole weekend and I couldn't think of anyone better to be there for Jackson. They were up with him that night in the hotel but did not complain once. It was not the trip to Orlando they had been envisioning, that's for sure!

But getting to the airport and onto the airport was really the first time our family of four had been together just us in over a week. We were just so grateful to be together, to be healthy, to be so blessed and to be on a quick 2 hour flight to Hartford after all our things were moved for us. The kids stayed awake the whole flight but were generally happy. When we landed they were getting pretty tired and were both asleep within seconds of driving away in our rental car.

We got to our hotel around 11 pm and were so ready for bed! But we couldn't sleep long because the next morning we were going to close on our house.