Adventures in Moving Cross Country!

We are now officially Coloradans!

We had a nice flight out on Thursday.  Oliver traveled like an old pro though this was his first time in an airport and on an airplane.  He is a great car seat traveler, and I think that helped...first class seats are the perfect size for his car seat!  Levi and Oliver both sat in first class and I sat in coach to save a bit of money, though looking back it would have been worth the extra money to have a bit more room.  Also, poor guy next to me had to get up every dang fifteen minutes for me to use the restroom!  Oh well.

We were able to see Levi's dad, who was flying OUT of Denver the day we flew in, for a little while before he had to go catch his flight.  It was nice for him to be able to see Oliver, as he rarely gets any one on one time with him.  He flies in and out of Denver often for his job, so I am thinking he will be seeing a lot more of the little boy. I'm glad...like I said, he never gets alone time with him!

After picking up our rental car (our vehicles haven't even left GA yet...they should be on their way within the week, I think), we headed over to see the apartment.  We chose the community because of it's proximity to Levi's office (two miles!), and also because they offered a 30 day guarantee...if you aren't fully satisfied with the apartment, you can break your lease in the first thirty days and just pay for the days you stayed (and all the other fees that come with renting an apartment at first).  So we had a bit of a hiccup...we hated the apartment.  A lot.  It was super noisy due to a shared hall that was enclosed...I could hear clacking of shoes and it was super annoying.  There were also some issues with the apartment not being clean, despite the fact that we "took ownership" of the apartment on Feb. 25, but didn't arrive until Mar. 3...it's not like they didn't have time, right?  There were also some other things that Levi felt indicated a lack of attention to detail on management's part, and he felt really uncomfortable with that.  The apartment was also painted this weird pink/beige color throughout (I know, I know, it's just paint, but really?  Pink?) and the weirdest thing of all?  The bedrooms didn't have light fixtures.  Apparently it's a Colorado thing...I guess they like lamps?

Anyway, we are fortunate enough to have family in Colorado, and they were kind enough to offer us beds for however long we needed.  Friday, we spent the day looking at other housing options, and found a really nice complex a bit further away (not much, I think it's about six miles from Levi's office) that we really liked.  It's a different sort of set up...it's like they built a three story apartment building, and then on the ends, they extended the first floor apartments and built three bedroom houses on the end.  None of the bedrooms share a wall with the other apartments and there are no upstairs neighbors AND you're on the ground floor, meaning it's quieter than most of the other apartments.  Plus, our unit will back to open area...even less noise!  Basically it's all the ease of apartment living...no lawn, less to clean, etc. with none of the peskiness...mostly the noise.  Score.

The new apartment is managed by the same company as the sucky one, so we were able to transfer our applications and such and avoid paying that fee again, which was nice.  We aren't able to move in until Wednesday (which, coincidentally, is the day of my first OB appointment in Colorado), but Levi's Aunt and Uncle have sort of adopted the three of us until we are able to move.  It is super sweet of them, and they are treating us just like their own children!  We are super blessed to have them here to help us out during this stressful time.  God is so good to have given us family members like these.  <3

We had to do some juggling with our stuff coming, as we were supposed to have the movers come and move our stuff in to the sucky apartment today.  However, we were able to cancel and have our stuff stored at the Denver terminal for no cost...I just have to call and schedule the unloaders to come on the 9th.  Easy peasy!  The cars will still be delivered to the sucky apartment, which isn't a big deal...we'll just go pick them up when they get here.  Although, now that I think about it I may be able to change the address on that as well since the new apartment is pretty close to the old one.  That's a task for another day.

So!  So far it has been an adventure, but we are doing okay.  I am pleased that we found a place to live with NO meltdowns from me!  It's amazing, but I feel much more relaxed here.  There aren't any pressures...even with the housing situation, because Levi's Aunt and Uncle made it abundantly clear that we were welcome to stay as long as we needed to!  It's so so generous of them, especially since we basically gave them no notice at all that we were coming  because we had planned on staying in the apartment for the two nights before our stuff  got there.  The only hard part has been keeping Oliver entertained.  We had some toys with us, but we have also been in the car a lot the past two days, so he has been kind of whiny and such.  He did get to play on the playground today, and we are definitely taking him to one tomorrow, so he did get to run around, which was nice.  I know he is super OVER sleeping in the pack n play, so I can't wait to get him in his regular crib next week.  We'll all sleep better!  Until then, I am enjoying this time with our family and trying to iron out all the details as we go.  Next on my tackle list is to find out about driver's license changes and car tags and emissions testing and what have you.  Monday will be a busy running around day for me, I think!  I also have to find a family practice and a pediatrician, but I think I will wait until after my OB appointment and get recommendations from the folks there.  I figure the medical community knows the medical community better than anyone.  =)

Okay, it's waaaaay past my bedtime.  Night!