We're Off!!!

We’ve spent the last three weeks having wonderful visits with friends and family. From Utah, we spent a nice week with Keith’s parents and caught lots of crab from a canoe no less! I meant to get pictures posted of the little guys, but ran out of time. After some tearful goodbyes, we headed to K Falls to see Willy and Corrine and family, then to a splendid BBQ with Merv (Keith’s brother) and Carolyn’s extended family, then a quick visit with Tami and Chris and their two beautiful girls.

Then it was on to Washington where we were able to establish a “home base” at my parents’ house. The folks were not back from Utah yet, so we had some time to ourselves to get mentally and physically reorganized. Then we were off to Kent, WA to stay with Amy and Zack for a while and house/dog sit for them. Which was a great opportunity because Amy and Zack are the lucky winners of the opportunity to take care of Gracie – our 100 lb golden ball of love. It gave Gracie a chance to get to know her soon-to-be new surroundings. It was a nice relaxing weekend interspersed with visits to more friends in Seattle – John and Linda and new baby Riley, and “the girls” – Sarah, Andrea, and Stacey for a rousing night in Pioneer Square. Finally, one more hike up Mt Si with Amy and Cari (our long lost traveling friend) and then we were back in Gig Harbor to start the arduous task of packing and organizing life before departing. I tell you what, I’ve had about enough of calling to check up on things that should be arriving that haven’t, setting up accounts, and having conversations that go something like this:

E: “Do you think we should leave this here on this table, or put it under the rug?”

K: “Why do you want to mess with it at all?”

E: “Because it’s here and we have to deal with it”

K: “Well I wouldn’t do either, I’d put it up on the roof.”

E: “Fine, I’ll just handle it, why do I ask you in the first place”.

So that was kind of a vague analogy to the conversations we’ve been having, but that’s about as deep as my mind can go right now. It’s definitely been more stressful for me than for Keith to get all the details taken care of before leaving, and we’ve had our crabby moments, but we’re finally at a place where all we can do is zip up the backpacks and catch a ride to the airport.

So, tonight I said my tearful good bye to my mom as she is off to the coast for a girls weekend. We did get her booked on a flight to Singapore, so it wasn’t too bad, knowing I’ll see her on Jan 4. Good for you mom! And tomorrow Keith’s parents (who came up for one last goodbye) will drive us to Amy and Zack’s and they will take us the final leg to Sea-Tac. It’s been a fun and crazy couple of months, but we can definitely say we are ready and excited to get this show on the road. No more talking about it, let’s go do it!! See you out there and stay tuned for updates. Next entry will be from way down under.....Auckland, New Zealand.