I some how got landed with packing up the kitchen- we have toooooo much kitchen stuff! It came in handy that I'm such a magazine lover when I need packing materials. I'll let you know if it was a good idea or not next January when we unpack everything.
Yeah, try to photoshop those wrinkles out...ladies.
Ben hard at work packing up our living room! We try to keep most of the boxes that things originally come in.
After the first long day I was already sick of packing and cleaning. HELP ME HELP ME!!
The second day was spent making trips to the storage unit. Thank goodness Ben's brother Matt helped us. He's strong and comes with a truck! We put the picture of Christ right in front so if someone breaks in they know whose watching them. That and prayer are our best security measures.And on the third day we scrubbed....the entire apt...I didn't think it would take the entire day but it did. Oh well in hind sight we got finished and got approved by the land lady who said she'll miss us. The one thing we completely forgot to clean was the oven- oops! They charged us $30 for them to flip a switch and clean up the ashes, lame.
I wish the drive back to Nebraska was uneventful, but it wasn't. We had just made it over the steep Teton pass when our break in both our cars started smoking. Stopping in Jackson Hole to regroup, (and hopefully catch a glimpse of Harrison Ford, no luck though) we decided to turn our journey south towards Rock Springs and stay there for the night instead of trying to cross anymore mountains. Rock Springs is, well, a small gross city with a lot of out of business buildings. At least the next morning we were headed to a better destination: Torrington Wyoming aka Grandma's house! My grandma Gregory lives in the cutest home right on top curve of main street. The best part of grandma's house is the food. We got fresh veggies from her garden, homemade bread sticks (that are to die for), mash potatoes, and homemade fried chicken- I'm getting hungry all over again just thinking about it! She is always the perfect hostess and I can't wait to get back there and see her again!
The last leg of the journey was one that I was very familiar with: I-80 across Nebraska. I've traveled that stretch of interstate so many times I think I have story about every pit stop along the way. Mostly the stories end in one of two ways: we stopped here to go to the bathroom OR we stopped here because it was storming. Ahhh, I-80, so many memories.
The problem with taking the road most traveled is that makes you homesick that much quicker! I seem to go the normal speed until I get to Kearney and want to speed all the way home! Luck for Ben and I (and our 2 cars) we got home safe and sound. Back to the wonderfully over-powering humidity and thunderstorms. Back to the good friends and delicious places to eat. Back to familiar church house and family homes. I couldn't help but keep singing, in my head and out load, 'Oh there ain't no place like Nebraska!'.
The temporary exodus signifies the next chapter in our families life has begun or at least its showing the end of previous one. I'll keep you posted on what happens next. It'll all start (again) at home.
This is Mara and I right after the first round of laser tag- its hard work trying to hunt down teenagers! Plus its set up with two levels that you can run around on so its a good sweaty work out. Each round is about 15mins and I think we did around 7 different rounds. Our favorite round was when a big family came and played and they had about 10 kids between the ages of 9-6. The 6 year old, who was on our team, was really into it and kept running around gleefully shooting everyone! Aw, to be young and fearless. We took breaks from the lightening killing sprees for some arcade action.
Mara was the arcade champion for the night- she got almost double the tickets Ben and I won. I think I'll take her to Vegas next time we go!