We Made It!!!!!

We're heeeeeeeeere!!!!!!

We finally made it. Successfully. All of us. With no casualties, difficulties, and best of all, avoiding any major bodily function disasters along the way. True to form as has been the theme with this move, everything has seemed to fallen into place. Literally, our path to Seattle was laid brick by brick, with everything working out that needed to be worked out. Thank you, Universe.

We even successfully navigated through the airport. In a carefully coordinated effort reminiscent of The Storming of Normandy (by way of William the Conqueror, of course), we managed to maneuver through Orange County Airport and Seattle International with 2 kids, 4 dogs, 3 checked luggage bags, 4 carry-on bags, 1 diaper "system, 2 toddler backpacks, 2 car seats and a bottle of water. Check it out:

With some initial shockingly helpful assistance from my mother and brother this morning (which of course involved unnecessary nagging on my mother's part), Andrew and I were on our own in Seattle. So how did we do it?

1. pack up as much bullshit in the stroller as possible. For once, I was extremely happy to have such an insanely large stroller.

2. stack up all the luggage on one cart according to size, larger on bottom and ending with the smallest and lightest.

3. repeat step 2 with the dogs.

4. take a deep breath, pray to God that we don't lose a kid or a dog along the way, and go!

So to resounding cheers, gawks, pointed fingers and even a little laughter, we moved from the baggage claim all the way through the airport just the two of us pushing away, a stroller in one hand and a cart in the other.

Then Andrew and I parked to the side (as pictured above) and he ran out with both kids and both car seats, swung over his shoulder like a madman in war, to get our rental car.

I, of course, stayed behind with The Stuff. And had to figure out how to move all this shit outside to the curb to make it easier to load. I had consolidated into 2 carts and 1 stroller, and began to proceed when a very nice security guard exclaimed, "Oh. My. God." He must have caught the panicked expression on my face as I realized the incline to the outside was a bit steeper than I had originally thought, and Fiona was going down and fast. He asked if I needed help to which I replied something to the effect of "uh huh" and he helped me wheel everything out. I repositioned everything back onto 3 carts and 1 stroller and proceeded to wait the next year until Andrew arrived with our rental car.

I was expecting a dreaded minivan when a sleek black Tahoe drove up and Andrew, half-crazed with stress, flew out and quickly started to load everything. So quickly, in fact, he packed our phone...which we needed. So we had to unpack the entire trunk to find the phone, then repack it again.

Good times.

Well...we made it. Dogs are safely residing at their new pet hotel near town and we're checked in our posh Euro-style suite hotel in our new home town. The kids were champs on the airplane with Trajan sleeping through the entire flight, only occasionally dropping T-Bombs while remaining completely content and asleep. And Cati who drew, ate, and listened to the ipod the entire flight with not so much as a peep. And even Andrew only got on my nerves once.

Well, our luck was used up then because the kids were a nightmare for dinner. But no matter now - we're all safely tucked in bed and ready to pick up our keys tomorrow and meet Ramon and "Dude" to load up our stuff into our new place!

Wish us luck! Let's hope nothing is broken!