Goodbye, Colorado. Hello, California.

Here's a condensed version of the last several weeks of our lives:

August 31st - took our house off the market and listed it for rent.

September 16th - signed an 18 month lease with our new renters.

September 24th - met my parents in Rawlins, Wyoming (the halfway point between our house and theirs) to hand Chloe off for the week; picked up Neil from the Denver airport on my way home.

September 25th - welcomed our first niece into the world: Katherine "Katie" Croft; packed, cleaned, packed, and cleaned.

September 26th and 27th - more packing; more cleaning.

September 27th - spent the night in our Colorado home for the last time.

September 28th - bid Colorado Springs farewell and headed to Parker to pick up Ryan at the Larsen's, who had lovingly taken him off our hands the day before so that we could be more productive.

September 29th - left Parker to head to Fort Collins, where we met and got to hold little Katie for the first time; drove on to Salt Lake to pick up Chloe and take a rest from the first leg of our drive.  On a seperate note, this date also marked my parents' 44th wedding anniversary!

September 30th - met and held another special little baby: Emma Grace Fleming, my best friend/cousin's little girl, who was born 6 weeks premature on August 31st.  Today, in fact, was her due date, and also happens to be her dad's birthday.  Happy Birthday, Brandon!  With the complications that both mom and baby faced during the pregnancy process, it's a miracle that Emma even survived.  She was in the NICU when we went to see her, but finally got to come home last Thursday!  She's a little sweetheart, and I'm grateful I got to spend a few minutes holding and admiring her. 

October 1st - left Salt Lake at 5:11am MST; arrived in Ripon, California at 4:09pm PST.

October 3rd - made an offer on a house.

October 6th - officially went under contract (a miracle considering the 2 other offers we were competing against).

October 8th - Neil left for Pennsylvania for another week of training (bleh!).

And here's what the coming days will bring:

October 15th - Neil comes home from Pennsylvania.

October 18th - scheduled to close on the house.

Did I mention that in the midst of all of this moving business, both of the kids got sick?  Chloe had the icky sore throat, no voice, cough, fever, refused-to-eat-anything-because-it-hurt-too-much-to-swallow (you get the idea) funk.  No strep, thankfully, but it may as well have been!  Then Ryan caught a version of it a few days later.  Doc diagnosed him with "a bad case of the croup" and put him on 3 days worth of steroids.  Awesome timing, right?  It was miserable, but hey, with the help of my parents and some good friends, we got through it! 

Since Neil took off last week, I've been floating around with the kids between the family where Neil's been renting a room from (in Ripon) and my cousin's house (in Pleasanton).  I am so relieved to finally be living in the same state as my husband, and cannot wait until we're living under the same roof!  These last 3 months of limbo living have given me a whole new appreciation for normalcy.

So that's about it!  I'm officially a California girl, yet again!  I'll post a picture of the house once we have the key in hand.  6 more days...