The Move to Texas

While living in Alabama we kept approximately 40% of our things packed up (decorations, wall hangings, most cold weather gear, etc.) because of a few reasons.  1.  At the end of the twin pregnancy Rachel didn't have the energy to unpack everything  2. We knew we would be re-packing in six months anyway and 3.  The house in Alabama was small and we didn't have much room inside the house but we did have many spacious closets and a storage shed out back for all our still packed boxes.  When the time came to move again, we didn't want the Army to move us because due to regulation, they would have to re-pack all our boxes.  So, short story long, we decided to move ourselves.

It was a lot of work and most likely the last time we will move ourselves, but that's what we said last time we moved as well.  Here Melody is keeping Mommy company while she packs the kitchen and watches ER. 

Tyler hired two movers to help load the moving truck.  They worked very hard and were able to do most of the heavy lifting.  Andrew loved helping, he wanted to movers to know he was there to work too.

Here is Tyler in front of the big Budget moving truck!  Can you believe we had enough stuff to fill the whole thing up?!  The movers did a great job packing the first half but the second half space wasn't used as efficiently so we could have had more room if the big furniture had been arranged differently.  We even sold our washer and dryer before we left last minute to allot us a bit more space for everything.

Bye to 65 Thorne Street!

It is a twenty hour drive to El Paso, Texas.  We broke the trip up into four travel days and stayed in Houston (the halfway point) for three days.  So it took a week for us to make our way out West.  Here Christian is cozy in the first of many hotel stays.

Daddy took Andrew and Sylvia swimming in one of the hotels we stayed in.  The big kids are really great travelers (maybe thanks to the van DVD player and eating at McDonald's) and they were excited to see our new house in Texas.

We saw a lot of the Southern States on our drive.

One of the stops we made along the way was the USS Alabama, which was located in the bay at Mobile, Alabama.

You could explore some areas of the ship, but other areas were blocked off. Andrew was slightly nervous about most places, but Tyler and Sylvia loved exploring the ship. 

Tyler thought it was SO COOL and could have spent an entire day there, if not more. We only stayed a couple of hours because we had a timeline to keep, and some of the kids were having a bit of a hard time. 

Captain Chrsitian

Next to the battleship was a museum with more modern aircraft in it. Here is a picture of Tyler and Sylvia in front of the Navy's version of the Black Hawk, properly named the Sea Hawk (no relation to the NFL team from Seattle) and a SR-71 Blackbird super sonic spy plane in the background.

We rented a Budget truck instead of a Uhaul or Penske truck because it was cheaper.  We soon found out why it was cheaper! We had many issues and break downs with this truck.  LUCKILY all of these mechanical problems happened near civilization where we could quickly pull off the freeway into a shop or stay in a hotel. It would have been very troublesome to break down in the middle of the vast Texas desert with no cell service and no mechanics or parts nearby. We felt heavens help many times and are so grateful for answered prayers.

Girls snuggled together in another hotel.

Almost there!  This picture is one of our last stops for gas before arriving.  Rachel drove the van while Tyler drove the moving truck.  All the kids did really, really well the whole trip. We had to stop every few hours so Mommy could nurse the babies and sometimes the babies (Melody mostly) had to cry themselves to sleep but considering how many hours we spent in the van, they did great.

Rachel and Tyler used walkie-talkies to stay in touch because we used our phones for GPS and when we drove through the middle of nowhere Texas we didn't have cell reception. 


Welcome to West Texas!  It is beautiful with blue expansive skies, plateaus, and desert land as far as the eye can see.

When we finally made it to El Paso, our house had no heat or electricity and was dirty so we stayed ANOTHER night in a hotel nearby.  At least the twins don't seem to fazed by our temporary nomad-like lifestyle.  Even if we weren't in the house yet we were happy because we made it safely!!!!

I took this picture the morning after we slept in our new home for the first time-with mattresses on the floor and boxes everywhere, still packed.  It was a precious moment when the big kids came in to snuggle the babies.  It's the start of our new chapter here in El Paso.