Here's what you missed (via my iPhone)

 You know how TV shows (or at least I'm thinking of Glee) start the show off by saying, "Here's what you missed on...[gLee!]?"  Well, here's what's been going on with us in the past 2.5 weeks.

We packed up the apartment on July14 and poor Ryno didn't know what to think of his precious couch being taken from him.

 

 The three of us rode in the surprisingly spacious Penske truck for 3 days and seven states (North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska).

 

Not pictured: Ryan's clasmate, Melina's, wedding in Charlotte, hanging out with Rob & Melissa and many other friends in Omaha.

We then stayed in Pawnee City for 5 days to watch Marisa and Travis' kids and also got to go to Lincoln to see almost all the cousins (which can all be corralled into one room by turning on the TV!)

We hit the road again this time in the Jeep and to be near us, Ryno would sleep with his head on our console. We drove to Colorado to have dinner with my friend Melissa, then dessert with Ryan's aunt Dee.  After a good night's rest it was off to Utah.

 

We were able to go to Ben and Joy's wedding as well as see my Aunt, Grandma and Grandpa,  Ryan's mission friends, Logan, Shelby, and Ashley.

 

 After a day in the mountains near Cedar City with Ryan's family, St. George gave us a gorgeous sunset.

 

 It was now 2 weeks since we moved out of our apartment in Durham and on July 29 we had our final day of driving (wooo hoooo!).  We passed through the giant mountains in southern Utah, stopped at the Hoover Dam and finally made it to our temporary home in Surprise, AZ.

 

Our first day greeted us with a sandstorm - definitely not something we're used to.

 

Our apartments are gorgeous, but the staff is... not so friendly.  

That's all I'll say about that.  I've been fuming since we moved in.  

 

As I sat on the couch, these were my views - out the window, into the master bedroom, and the puppy with his new home on the couch.  It didn't take him long to find his spot. 

This would be our guest bedroom, open to whoever would like to come visit!

Finally, Ryan had his first day at work in his pretty chocolate scrubs.  He was taken back last week when he found out that he would be working in the ICU and with Neuro patients.  He was hoping this three months would be an easy transition into Physical Therapy with patients recovering from hip/knee replacements who just need to be moved a little bit.  Nope, he gets to deal with people who just had strokes, have Parkinson's, maybe both and a combination of other neurological issues.  And to top it all off, he's really disappointed because his instructor is requiring him to work Sunday through Thursday.  He has never worked on a Sunday in his life and even turned down jobs because of it.  It was a hard pill to swallow, but sadly we just have to suck it up and do it for this short time.  He actually really enjoys his instructor and has had an overwhelming, but great first week at work!

 

Lastly, you know we live in a retirement area when there is golf cart parking at the hospital and they drive on the road with everybody else.  

 

So there you have it.  I'm actually blogging from Alaska while Bri has her last day of her rotations (Go Bri, she graduates as a PA in two weeks!!).  We haven't had internet at our apartment so hopefully all will be up and running and there will be more consistent blogs in the upcoming weeks/months.

Have a good day, y'all!

Where in the US will we be next?

Tomorrow starts the next leg of our journey...

Wednesday 7/25: Denver, CO
Thursday 7/26-Friday 7/27: Salt Lake City, UT
Saturday 7/28: St. George, UT
Sunday 7/29: drive to Phoenix
Monday 7/30: Ryan starts work!

Thursday 8/2: Caitlin flies to ALASKA!

It was a really spontaneous decision to still go up to Alaska to see my best friend, Brianna, while she has a week off before graduation. I knew our schedules wouldn't work out so smoothly for probably many more years so I jumped on the opportunity. I can't wait! I will have a hard working, extremely jealous husband at home the whole time, but it'll totally be worth it.

Home Sweet Home

This move is insane, I don't know how people do it with children. Sometimes I think it may be easier with children.  At least everywhere allows kids, unlike puppies.  But in all reality, the first leg of this trip couldn't have gone any smoother.  Maybe the packing, but at least the drive was wonderful.

Things started off a little rough when the Penske truck we rented broke down 2 blocks from where Ryan picked it up.  After calling around to discover there were no 26' trucks in the area to use, we were running out of time and settled for a 22' and hoped that everything would fit.  We don't have that much stuff, but we do have an 8' motorcycle.  At least we had a truck, and we prayed everything would fit.  Our moving crew (wonderful friends to whom we are so very grateful) packed the majority of our stuff into the truck in an hour - including the motorcycle.  They were champs.  Seriously, SO GRATEFUL.  Ryan and I then had the random things in the house left that are just annoying.  We thought it wouldn't be so bad and then before we knew it, it was dinner time and we hadn't really packed anything else.  Time to panic, but not really.  We were starving.  And you can't pack anything on an empty stomach.  So off we went to have our last chance at NC BBQ for the next 6 months with Mitch and Maile.  Then it was crunch time.  They sat in our living room in our camping chairs, helping with what they could, while we started just throwing everything into boxes which we labeled "Mystery."  Won't those be just so much fun to open when it comes time? NOT.

Once everything was in boxes, they helped us to finally pack the last awkward items into the truck and called it a night at about 1:00 a.m.  But we still weren't done.  We had separated the clothes we were bringing but still hadn't packed them.  So onward we went until 3:30 a.m. when we became delirious and we had to call it quits.  A sheet was thrown down in the middle of the living room and there we slept until 6:00 when our cruel alarms went off for us to finish up the last little bit and hit the road.  I miraculously powered through the day and we arrived first in Charlotte for a classmate's wedding (only after we took Ryno to a kennel and all with our 22' Penske moving truck towing our big ol' Jeep).  We sadly had to leave early to pick Ryno up before they closed and we kept on driving and made it to Knoxville, TN which was our goal for the night.

The next day was Knoxville to Columbia, Mo, and then we made it to Omaha on day 3.  The drive really was great.  Our happy little family all got to be in the truck together, unlike the move to NC where Ryan and I drove separately.  There was minimal construction and nothing but beautiful blue skies along the whole way.  And the best part? No puking puppy.  Ryno normally gets carsick but he held it together all three days.  What a champ!

Speaking of champions, Ryan and our friends Tommy and Kyle unpacked the truck into our storage unit in TWO HOURS. I organized it as they hauled it in and it is good to go for the next year-ish.  Two hours, what a blessing! We expected to be unpacking it for a whole day.

And now we're in Omaha, with a Jeep full of the next 3 months of our lives and we feel good. As we were driving to meet Ryan's sister for lunch today he said, "I'm finally happy again.  This just feels like home."  We were then both taken totally by surprise when we each got tears in our eyes.  What a calming affirmation that this is where we are supposed to end up.

We're off to Buffalo Wild Wings tonight with friends and then the next stop? Pawnee City, NE for 5 days with 5 kids and temperatures above 100.  Life is good. :)

P.S. It says that Ryan wrote this post, but I'm just on his computer, which has 29 minutes of battery left.  Peace out.

We have a Groupon

Those words are very commonly heard coming from our mouths.  

Wanna see a movie? Let's go, we have a Groupon.  

Oh hey, it's Thursday night.  We have a Groupon for a baseball game. 

Uh oh, our Groupon is going to expire.  Let's go ZIPLINING!

We went and it was awesome.  It was a hot and humid day (no surprise) and our adventure began and ended with some thunder.  No rain came until the last 2 ziplines which was perfect because we could all use a little cooling off. The longest zipline was about 800 feet, I believe, and it was a blast!

We sure are going to miss these NC trees.

Lovable Ryan

Ryan is one of those personalities that people just love immediately.  I'm glad one of us is that way, because I'm definitely more on the shy end when it comes to meeting new people.  I know I can always count on him to make a great impression, and it makes me so happy to be his wife!  Sometimes, however, we all can use a  little reminder that people really do love us.  Ryan's reminder was his birthday party.  We had about 20 people crammed into our apartment, all to celebrate Ryan.  This is probably the most extravagant birthday party I will ever host, and it really didn't take that much work.  I'm just not into perfectly coordinated parties.  I know some people love it, but I just don't have the time or motivation for it.  So hats off to you party planners, it's a lot of work and you deserve to be recognized!

Ryan has been begging me to buy the giant can of Nacho Cheese from Sam's Club for probably almost a year now.  Growing up, Ryan's birthday was most often centered around baseball and fireworks (it's July 3).  Nachos = Baseball = Ryan's birthday.  The nachos started the theme of Ryan's "Ballpark Food" Birthday Party.  We also had homemade funnel cakes (super easy if you ever want to try), peanuts, and root beer floats (not quite baseball, but one of Ryan's favorites).  

 

   

Ali and Daniel (Ali just graduated from Duke DPT)

  Maile, Steven and Keeley (from church)

 The cutest family - Kristie, Jared and Alia Ashworth.

As you can see, Alia loved the nachos, too!

 Not only were there 20 people, but 3 dogs!

Typical Pat (classmate)

 The yellow short gang.

 Ryan's birthday "cake."  One of our only family traditions is non-typical candles on birthday cakes.  It all started when we were celebrating my birthday a few years ago at my friend Pearl's apartment.  She was making the cake and goodies and called Ryan to bring candles.  He did not connect birthday and candles so he had no idea what kind to buy.  When he asked her "What kind?" her response was "Colorful ones."  So he showed up with 3 mini jar candles in bright colors.  Then it clicked - BIRTHDAY candles.  But we used them anyway and have been putting them on cakes ever since! However, this pie would not hold their weight so we went with tea lights instead.

 Thank you, Laura, for taking fun pictures! This one was frowning and winking...

 Isn't Ryan just so much fun?

 We decided to try to go see the fireworks show that was playing after the baseball game.

Ross and Megan graciously volunteered to sit in the Jeep's "trunk."

Unfortunately we missed them, but it was a fun adventure anyway!

 The last survivors of the party.

 We finished it off with a little Just Dance 3 on the wii.

 I'd call it a success.

Happy birthday, babe.  People really do love you.

Cabin on the Beach

In the 2 years we've been here, we've been trying to plan a beach trip with Mitch and Maile but our schedules just never work out.  But, the stars aligned and just 1.5 weeks before we leave, it all worked out.  We stayed in an un-air-conditioned cabin on the beach and we were a little worried as to how run down it would be, but it wasn't that bad! Much nicer than expected which was a very pleasant surprise.  I did a terrible job of taking pictures that show our whole trip so you just get a few pieces here and there. 

Ferry ride to the island.  Poor Ryno was car sick and HOT and drooling like crazy.

Mitch, Maile and Lucy

This thing was right outside our cabin.

Somebody is definitely a furniture dog.

Our cabin.

Beach wheel chair.

Ryan is surprisingly really good at this game. 

Fresh local shrimp.

This is how we felt, too.