From Utah to Texas

I guess change is always hard, but this time I didn't think it would be that difficult. James graduated, I was finishing up my 3rd year of teaching, and we were moving to live by a lot of family and friends. But still, it was hard to leave Utah, Angie & Dane, my job, BYU, friends who I might not see very much anymore, Cafe Rio, and all the memories that we made there. I really had a great time there, and I'll miss it.
We were preparing to move for a few months, so James sold our stuff on craigslist like crazy. We sold all of our furniture, even down to our bed, and thankfully Clark and Joey let us borrow their air mattress. We got pretty good money out of our furniture, so we weren't sad to see it go or sad to not have to move it. As for the rest of the stuff, James is the "master packer" so we didn't have any problem fitting it in our 2 cars. He master-packed-space-vac'd several things in garbage bags and was very proud of his method. He worked on it to get it just right so no air would escape from the bags. Here he is happily sucking the air out of the bags without the store bought gadgets.
The last few weeks were crazy with the end of school cleaning, graduation, and packing, but we got everything in as we wanted. I really loved my class this year, and it was sad thinking I wouldn't see them come back and visit next year from middle school. The graduation was really nice. Julie also was moving to Texas, so it was a sad goodbye to all of the staff and friends we worked with for 3 years. I'll really miss working with those wonderful people. Here are some of them:

Before we left, we did the traditional hike to the Y with our friends, and it was quite the hike! I wouldn't do it in Texas weather for sure. I convinced the group to take a break at each bend and take a picture or just enjoy the view. =)

And we finally made it to the top...

And we made it - 20 hours later - to Texas! It was a long drive following James in his car, but we made it thanks to music, family phone calls, and Harry Potter. Now, we'll be with James's parents for awhile until we find a place to live! And in August, Clark and Joey will come to join us with several boxes of books and frames that we left for them to bring in their truck. Thank you!

It's good to be home.