The Ark Has Found Land!

Almost all of us are settled into the hotel in Connecticut and we'll likely be residing here until mid-week. The trip to Connecticut was a bit more stressful than I had hoped. Picture this:

We arrive at the Portland airport almost 4 hours early so we have enough time to check in 9 bags, 5 passengers, 3 hermit crabs, 2 very scared cats and 1 unsure puppy. We were the second in line when they opened the United desk for the day. The United airlines folks then proceeded to shuffle us from one person or one line to another. (I think the real story is that no one wanted to take the time to check all of us in.) We barely made our plane because of all the shuffling. I was not a happy mom. We flew through Chicago and then ran into storm problems and got delayed almost two hours. We finally arrived and it took a stretch limo and town car to get us from the airport to our hotel due to the pet carriers and luggage.

The pets are doing OK at the hotel. Apollo spends most of her time snoozing and sleeping on my bed. (This isn't new behavior on her part. Sleeping is a major life activity for her.) Erte is stalking everything in the room and comes out of hiding a bit more each day. She's taking to hanging closer to the hotel room door and is becoming more curious about what might be on the other side of the door. Right now Erte has decided sleeping with the youngest three members of the house is the place to be. Jayke, the pit bull puppy, is generally happy go lucky and is fine most of the time. He's kind of part dog, part chicken and so is pretty jumpy about noises. The room that sits next to his has a small dog next door and it keeps barking at him through the locked adjoining door. :( Poor Jayke. We found a nice dog park today that has open space and a small creek to play in. Rowan and Riley weren't too excited about the dog park because the dogs like to lick their faces and jump on them. I guess they're just the right height for dog kisses.

The good news is that the youngest three members of my house were great travelers and were not a source of stress at any point in our trip. They have done well at the hotel, especially since they have access to a swimming pool. Jayden is turning into a major fish and Rowan and Riley are following suit it seems.

I work tomorrow so big sister Taylor is on duty with the youngest three. They have a day of swimming, lunch, Hannah Montana and dog walks planned for the day. Our furniture arrives at the Connecticut house Tuesday morning so we'll be unpacking starting Tuesday. (Yeah!) I can't wait to eat something from my kitchen and sleep in my bed. And keep in mind the only reason I have a kitchen is that they come with the rest of the house. :)

We did sneak away for a day after the house was packed up and spend the day with my brother's family who were on the Oregon coast. It was great seeing them all, though there were several missing family members. They have all become such great adults.

I will say leaving the Northwest was harder than I thought it would be. It didn't help that everyone was telling me that my Mom was crying a lot about the move. You never want to hear that you're making your Mom cry. I'm hoping she'll come visit us soon. It's also hard to leave friends and family members that are so close by.

Devin will be out next weekend for the summer. She's my point person with the house in Vancouver as the wood floors are being redone and the carpets cleaned. Dan will arrive Wednesday night for a number of job interviews Thursday through Tuesday. Hopefully he'll land a job here soon and join us here.

I hope everyone has a great 4th of July. We're going to try to find something fun to do here. This area seems to have a ton of amusement parks so we plan to find something with water to play in.