The Big Move

A new tradition, the last & first day in our homes we take a picture so we can see how we've changed.

Our move to North Carolina came a little faster than expected. We found out that before we'd be allowed in a house at Fort Bragg we had to be out of the house in Fort Huachuca. I was able to get the movers to the house in 5 days to pack it up and take everything away and we were fully out of the house in 7 days. Generally you plan a move about 2 weeks out at the earliest. We weren't going to do that since Dusty was needing to take his leave to travel with us ASAP. So far everything in the Army has been learn by doing and we are learning a lot!! The moving company we had for this move was much better than the last. They did an awesome job packing everything and didn't complain much when I asked them to repack things better. Our driver was great too. He was very interested in my ACU diaper bag. He sells ACUs at great prices and wants to work out a deal so he can sell the bags in his store in Sierra Vista. He makes deliveries to Fort Bragg often so I think we might be able to work something out! Here are some pictures from the move:

They argued over who would "ride" the bike up the ramp. None of them had been on a motorcycle. This gentleman was the lucky winner.

All of our stuff, tucked in tight!

The driver let Niran and my friend's 2 boys sit in the cab of the truck and honk the horn!

Niran's buddy, Lex, he would follow him around and do whatever he did. I miss Allana and her boys. She kept me sane during this day of moving...well, somewhat sane!

Another new tradition, our first & final night in our home we'll be ordering take out and watching a movie. These are very sweet little boys!!

Dusty flew into Phoenix and his dad was able to pick him up and spend the afternoon with him. I finished up everything at Ft Huachuca with housing there so we could get on the waiting list at Ft Bragg before heading up and meeting with Dusty. It had been 6 weeks since we had last seen each other. Niran was so happy to finally see his Daddy. Calvin at this point had been away from his Daddy for over half of his life. He had also grown a lot since Daddy left for Airborne School. We then spent a few days in Globe with his Dad and then went down into Phoenix to visit his sister and some friends before heading east.

It took two days to actually get our trip going and we were behind for most of the trip. Our first day of traveling Dusty, Niran and I got food poisioning. We stopped early the first night and traveled slow the second day due to Niran throwing up constantly. We were supposed to spend half a day with my dad's family in Louisiana, but instead spent most of it trying to catch up on driving. We were able to still eat dinner with them. We had homemade gumbo, jumbalaya and other yummy treats made by a true Cajun =) It was great being able to meet this side of the family. My dad always talked about them so now I have faces to go with names. I'm looking forward to being able to visit them more. They are only two days away from us.

Part of my dad's family

We got into Fayetteville/Fort Bragg early in the evening and made our way to our friend, Brownell's apartment. He was at Fort Huachuca for the same training as Dusty and was kind enough to let us stay with him while we waited to get into our house. We stayed with him for 3 weeks before being able to move into our new home!

North Carolina!! So close!! Enjoy those trees as well, that's all you can see from the roads. No mountains way off in the distance, just trees right there!

Yup, we made it!!!

And our first family photo in North Carolina!!