The Big Move

In conjunction with Brandon's graduation he also got a new job. When this job first popped up everything about it seemed great; except for the fact that it was located in Madison, Wisconsin. Not that we had anything against Wisconsin; it is just that it is 1400 miles from our nearest family. However, it turned out to be an opportunity we couldn't pass up, and we are truly grateful for how things have fallen into place.

Once we decided that Madison would be the place for us, we needed to figure out how to move the four of us, a dog, and all of our stuff to the other side of the country. The thought of being stuck in a car for 3 days with five year old and a one year old was a bit intimidating, but with some help we made it through.

On the evening of May 26, Brandon's parents and sister, Rebekah, flew in from Utah to offer their help. The next day was set to load up the truck and begin our move. First thing in the morning on May 27 Brandon and his dad went to go pick up the truck and car trailer. We loaded and cleaned until about 4:00 in the afternoon. After we got checked out with our landlord we were set to go. Brandon was driving with our dog Max and his Mom in a 26 foot truck with a trailer carrying one of the cars. The rest of us piled into our newly purchased Toyota Highlander.
We decided to travel to Flagstaff, Arizona that first night to get a head start on our journey. We stayed their Thursday night before we started the rest of the travel.

Friday morning, May 28, we set off for the first real leg of our trip. We traveled 600 miles from Flagstaff, through New Mexico, and into Amarillo, Texas. The kids were all geared up and ready to go. Here are a couple of pictures of them ready to go on Friday morning.





All things considered the first day went well. The hardest part was that because Arizona does not participate in daylight savings time we would be losing two hours as we traveled to Texas. Because of this, we didn't get to our hotel until 11:00pm, but at least we made it. Fortunately, this was the only time change we had to deal with through out the trip.

On Saturday, May 29, we were able to visit with Brandon's cousin and her family before we left Amarillo. It was fun to take a little break from driving to see them. Once we were back on the road, this leg of our journey was set to take us 545 miles from Amarillo, through Oklahoma, and in to Springfield, Missouri. The kids were getting a little sick of the car at this point, but they were still troupers. JT had fun watching The Incredibles and Up on Grandma's portable DVD player, and spending time with Grandma and Becca. We made it to Missouri without any trouble.

Finally on Sunday, May 30 we were set for the last leg of our move. We traveled from Springfield, through Illinois, and finally into Madison, Wisconsin. We found a sacrament meeting to attend and then set off on the road again. At this point the kids, and all of us for that matter, were pretty sick of the car. Haylee was really starting to loose it with about 200 miles to go, but after a quick pit stop she made it the rest of the way. Below are some pictures of the kids very ready to be done with the driving.



All in all the move went incredibly smooth. The kids were great, the cars didn't have any problems, we didn't get lost. What more could we ask for? It was pretty stressful, but definitely worth it in the end. There is no way we could have done it without the help of Brandon's family. Thanks so much for all of the help cleaning, packing, loading, driving, and entertaining the kids.