Home in Connecticut

It's been a long couple days, but we made it! We left Germantown at about 7:00 a.m. on Saturday. Joe drove the rental truck with Jackson by his side, and I drove the car with Ava.

We had a bit of a mishap after one of the toll booths. Joe pulled over to the side of the road and when I passed, I looked at him and he waved me on. I thought he was saying, "go, go!" but I guess he was actually saying, "pull over!" He didn't have enough cash for the toll booth! Because I don't have a cell phone right now, he couldn't call me, so I just flew by him and he was left staring after me. He had to find an ATM to get money to pay the increased tolls, which made him late getting into Cheshire, and therefore late picking up the keys to our condo. BUT after all that stress, we still got the keys and everything worked out fine.

My copilot was very stressed out. lol

Joe and his adorable copilot.

One of the many toll booths.

So, we ended up getting to our condo around 3:30 p.m. We were both exhausted, but still had to unpack the truck. It was a HOT day, so it was a long, hot project. But we worked at it, and got it done. The dogs helped by supervising our work.

Such cute supervisors!

It's amazing how much stuff we have. That entire 16' truck was packed to the brim. We brought it all inside and all the boxes filled the living room and kitchen. That is as far as we got them, and then just relaxed the rest of the night.

Our next project - unpacking!

We still really love our new place and think it's going to be a great place for us. The dogs are getting settled in and everyone slept reeaaaallly good last night.

We already met some of our neighbors and everyone seems really great. Most of our neighbors have dogs, so that makes it nice.

We are slowly starting to unpack today and think about where we want things. This is the fun part - making this place our home!

Saying Goodbye to Friends

The hardest part about leaving Germantown was saying goodbye to our friends. It was an emotional few days! But I know we will all keep in touch, so this is definitely not the end!

Claudia, me, & Laura

Claudia, me, & Joe

Stuart & Laura

Packing Up

It's getting empty!!

Kayaking in the Potomac

Stuart took Joe and I on quite an adventure on Saturday! We went kayaking in the Potomac River! We had such a great time. It was a nice warm day.

Lincoln Memorial in the background.

Washington Monument in the background!

Okay, so then Joe had a little mishap. Of course, he blames it on me, because apparently he was trying to push my kayak away from his kayak, and when he did that, a wave hit him and he tipped over!

It was so scary because he couldn't get a hold of the kayak, it kept barrel rolling on him. But he handled it like a pro. Stuart tried to help him turn the kayak back over, but it was filled with water, so Stuart ended up toeing Joe to shallow water where they both could get out of their kayaks and turn it over.

Of course, instead of helping, I took pictures:

Stuart toeing Joe to shore.

The boys standing in the shallow water.

It's definitely something we will be talking about for a long time! The only real bad thing was that Joe had my purse in the kayak with him, so I may have lost use of my cell phone and iPod. Everything else in my purse will just have to dry out.

Fun times! Definitely one of the coolest things we have done in the city. :-)

Ray's Hell Burger

On Friday we went to Ray's Hell Burger for dinner (thank you Cindy for directions!). This place is famous and it was one of the places we had to go before we moved. You might have heard of it, because Obama and Biden went here for lunch a while back.

It's this hole-in-the-wall place in Arlington where they sell big-ass burgers and that's about it. They don't sell fries, which I thought was weird at first, but when you get there you see why. It's less of a burger-and-fry joint and more of a backyard-BBQ joint.

You can order sides of corn, coleslaw, or macaroni and cheese, and you can get root beer straight from the tap!

I had a side of mac n' cheese (they do NOT believe in veggie burgers, I am sure) and Joe got a burger.

Look at that monster!

That is one happy man.

No Longer Homeless!

We drove up to Connecticut on Thursday to interview with the woman who owns the condo we wanted to rent. We left at 6:00 a.m. and I thought I would sleep all the way up, but I was so excited and nervous, that I stayed awake the entire trip.

The dogs didn't know what the heck was going on!

Jack sleeping in Ava's bed - so cute!

When we got to the real estate agent's office, we both changed our clothes, I put on makeup, and we made ourselves look as responsible as possible. The woman must have liked what she saw, because we immediately started going over the lease when we got there.

We signed all the paperwork and felt SO good! It was finally behind us - we had the place!

After we signed everything, we drove out to the condo to look around. I hadn't actually seen it before... Joe had been inside and just knew it was the place for us. I trusted his choice, but was very happy to see it finally for myself - and was he right! It's an awesome place! We are going to be so happy there!

The outside.

Hardwood floors, and three stories!!

The living room. (We don't get to keep the stereo, haha)

The kitchen.

Outside of the kitchen is a nice deck that leads to a small but nice back yard. It isn't fenced, so we can let Jack run loose, but we figure we can put a baby gate out on the deck so at least they can go outside.

It's such a great place and we are so excited! Since we have the place secured, we are both a lot less stressed and are just getting excited to get up there, move in, and start our new chapter!

Just the Fab 4 Again

Even though Ava and Jackson were so great when Honey was with us, I think they both are happy to have their mom and dad all to themselves again!


P.S. - We found out today that the owner of the place we REALLY want to rent in Connecticut is now calling our references. We are hoping that is a good sign and we will hear soon that we got the place! All fingers crossed, please!