Lotion and Hot Tea

Hello again. What a long and productive week we have had as Idahoans. I am sitting in my cozy new living room, fire blazing, and some snow flurries just started outside the window. What I'm not doing, thank goodness, is unpacking boxes! That's pretty much what our week has been like. But, first things first. What has the new place been like for our first week? In a word, amazing!

As I mentioned in my last post, the truck from Texas arrived on Tuesday. The entire day was pretty much dedicated to unloading, and thanks to the complicated inventory involved in a cross-country move, there wasn't much work we could do to unpack while the unloading took place. By 9:30pm, our bellies were full of Dominoes Pizza, our floor space was covered in boxes, but every last thing was unloaded and accounted for. We basically dug up our bedroom linens and crashed. Seriously, would it ever end? Wednesday morning we were also pleased to learn our Jeep had also arrived to its new home. All Fox possessions and family members were now present and accounted for.

Well, four days and countless hours later (while working in the midst of everything too), every last box has been unpacked (well, except those in the garage we hope to ignore for the next year), and we are officially settled in. Everything arrived unscathed, but one kitchen item (R.I.P. Southern Living tray), and after about 4 trips to Bed, Bath and Beyond, 1 to Home Depot and 2 different grocery stores, and what feels like 14 loads of laundry, we are returning to a somewhat normal routine. (Seriously, has anyone out there had to start completely over with everything in the fridge and pantry -- beating).

Here's what everything looked like on Tuesday night when the movers left.

Here's what it looked like by the end of the work week.

We are both settled into our new home offices too, and I even treated myself to a new desk. I think this is going to be a super cozy place to work.

We ended the week by celebrating a little and enjoying a nighttime view of Boise's Christmas Lights by helicopter. What an amazing experience. It felt like a perfect end to a long week.

Next step: closing on the Allen house next week (please cross fingers). Oh, and of course, preparing for a lifetime supply of lotion and hot tea. My new town is accelerating my appreciation for hydrated skin and hot beverages. :)

Merry Christmas!

So the adventure begins ...

It seems like there is no time like the present to dust off my love of writing and chronicle our new adventures. I'm a blog newbie, but I thought it was worth a shot. There's lots ahead that we'd like to share with family and friends, and I know as we get settled, these early days will fade in our memory, so a lovely "journal" to look back on sounds like a good plan. I hope to post fairly often and include pics.

Frantic Friday was upon us more quickly than we expected, which was both good and bad. Our house had gone on the market on November 1, and a mere two weeks later, we had an offer and had to put a plan in place for our move, our new digs and everything in between. It was a blessing and a curse. The good news is that we pulled it off. After double-digit trash trips, over-flowing giveaway boxes, a garage sale, 2 trips to Idaho, loads and loads of packing, about a million phones calls (not to mention a pretty nice, multi-faceted project plan.. if I do say so myself), and our final friends and family goodbye dinners, we were ready for our final days as Texans. Those days moved FAST, and before we knew it, we were waking up on Friday morning in a local hotel, bags packed, with our compass headed Northwest. After seven years, here is a little of our final views of 1813 Flint Ridge as we said our goodbyes.

Next stop: DFW airport. Yeah... not our favorite part of the whole adventure, and this was something we'd been dreading for a while. We made it through security and safely to our gate, with a little time to spare. So far, so good.

Two flights and 6 hours later, we landed in BOISE! The kiddos were a dream, and all our travel was smooth and easy. We rented our car and headed out into the cool air; we'd finally made it. As we fell into bed that night, I think we were both operating on adrenaline and not much else, but we did fall asleep with a relieved smile.

The agenda for our first full day in Boise was to get the keys to our rental house and explore our new neighborhood. As we excitedly got ready and headed out, what we didn't expect was the sheer beauty of the view waiting outside the hotel doors. The snow-capped mountains were breathtaking. The air was crisp, and it felt and looked like winter. That moment was amazing and has been a theme for our entire first weekend. As we drove to our new house, the views continued. I don't think we blinked much on the first day.

The rest of the weekend has been a blur of exciting new discoveries. We learned we have some of those same mountain views from our house. We have a quaint neighborhood backdrop, and all our expectations have been surpassed. We immediately launched into the Christmas spirit, and as we plan today for our belongings to arrive, we feel so grateful that this project came to fruition.

Now, there's unpacking.... ugh. You can see that Sydney is ready to go and has her priorities in order.

Until next time!