A week before Texas - Princess' first 3rd Birthday

A week before we left for Texas was Monday, June 16. As I said before that morning we celebrated Princess's birthday. Derrill gave her the option of a birthday breakfast made by him and she chose Abelskievers (pancake balls). So, Derrill made breakfast. I can't remember what order we did presents and cake.

 She opened a My Little Pony book from us with several My Little Pony figurines included [DW - And you'll notice she's wearing her Twilight Sparkle outfit] and Superstar got her a huge coloring book of princesses. She also received a couple of movies [Aristocats and Ducktales]. She spent the morning playing with the ponies. We went to the store and bought her cake, chocolate with pink frosting and had Oreo cookie ice cream, the children's favorite these days.


Our next goal that day was to pack all the rest of our house so that we would know where everything was supposed to be and have most everything packed for when he got back on Saturday. We spent the rest of the day on Monday at that goal and did not conquer. So Tuesday we got to it again and felt that we were all packed. Tuesday we also had a welcome addition to our family party. Aunt Virginia came to help us clean and care for the children. And truthfully she was also there for moral support so that I wasn't alone with the kids while Derrill was in California for three days.

We took Derrill to Penske on Wednesday morning and he left straight from there to be on his way to California. The kids really loved having Aunt Virginia with us and I really appreciated her support. She helped with some cleaning and really helped with the kids a lot.

Derrill got home Friday night and Saturday my brother Doug came to help fix my cedar chest because some things on it needed repairs. We were glad to see Doug and his daughter. And my kids had a fun time climbing into and out of the Penske truck.

Derrill has some foresight. I had envisioned the elders from the church coming and loading the truck and us having the rest of the day to pack. Derrill did not wait for the elders to arrive at our home. He worked on organizing what was already in the car from California and then started loading our boxes and lighter furniture into the truck. In all reality we did not have all of our things out of the house until I took our kids over to Mike and Genevieves' home after 8pm. Derrill stayed at the house to work on cleaning.

We had planned with my cousin Mike and his wife to stay at their home on Saturday and Sunday night so that we could be out of our home and not making new messes. They were so kind to let us leave our children and our infant with them while I went to help Derrill. We both worked until midnight and were not able to get all the way done cleaning as we had hoped to be.

Sunday we went to church at our old ward for the last time and a sweet sister offered to help us Monday morning to finish cleaning. Mike also came to clean with us before we he went to work. We got it all done, waited way too long to fill prescriptions for the kids and were back at Mike and Genevieve's by 11am (which was when we had hope to be on the road). We ate lunch and finished feeding the children lunch, packed up our stuff from their home and got on the road at last around 12:30 or something. Yay for finally leaving on the adventure we had planned so long to take!

- Joy