One Cluster of a Moving Day

We're here! We are now living in the land of orange and blue (oh, are we not talking about that anymore? Ha, yeah.. painful, painful game)!

Brandon and Bitsy made it to our new home in Denver on Tuesday evening and Jax and I joined them early Wednesday afternoon--why didn't Jackson and I get there on Tuesday, you ask? Let's start from the very beginning..

(This is going to be a long story so if you're just interested in the dramatic climax, scroll down to the giant bold "STOP!"--that will let you know when the drama is beginning)

Monday

Our story starts one day before the big move--Brandon and I woke up well rested, refreshed, and ready to tackle more packing.. Ha, jk guys (we have a 6 week old, remember?)! We were exhausted, dragging, and craving caffeine; the only thing that got us moving was the coffee awaiting us after errands. So off we went: we stopped by the community assistance center to drop off food and clothes, the bank, post office, and finally McDonalds for that sweetly bitter nectar of the gods (more commonly known as coffee). 

My sweet little cheeky boy.. bright eyed and bushy tailed at 4am.

It was 12 degrees out when we left for errands.. not a problem for our little wizard baby (not pictured: his afghan and fleece blanket, which he was tucked into shortly after this picture was taken)!

After getting our caffeine fix, it was time to head home and pack. 

Folks, this is no easy task with a newborn.

Brandon and I took turns wearing Mr. Jackson in the Ergo until my parents arrived--Jax's Mimi took over from there and cuddled with the babe while Brandon and I frantically ran around packing. After a super productive 2 hours (it's amazing how much you can do when you don't have to worry about your little one), we headed to supper with my parents and then to their hotel to check out the pool and to take a little break from packing.

The pool at my parents hotel was heated so I figured I'd dip Jax's feet in--this is the before picture..

..he liked it (I know this because he didn't cry)!

Just chilling with Papa.

We didn't stay too long at the hotel (because I was stupidly tired) and headed home shortly before 10--I was so excited to get home and get a good nights rest! 

My son had other plans..

Tuesday  

(Moving Day)

Jackson had a rough night.. all he wanted to do was eat, spit my nipple out whenever I attempted to feed him, and then freak out and cry--this went on all. night. long. My mom wanted to watch him while we packed/got everything ready that morning so I took him over to their hotel at around 9, made a Mickey D's run for more coffee, and then headed back to the house to help Brandon. We had most everything packed at this point but decided to let the movers do the rest--we were exhausted and just plain over it! My dad came over around 10 to load some things into his van (since we moved into a smaller place, we don't have room for some furniture/appliances--my parents are letting us store these items at their office until we buy a house next year) and the movers arrived shortly after.

It was time to get this show on the road!

Once I knew everything was under control and being taken care of, I headed out to run errands, visit a friend, and pick up my mom and Jax from the hotel. 

I highly, highly recommend All My Sons for any of your moving needs--they are so helpful and friendly and are priced extremely well! They definitely made the whole moving process a lot less stressful (This is not a paid endorsement by any means--All My Sons has no idea that I have a blog or that I'm talking about them)!

Brandon and Dad heading back into the house.

After the movers arrived, I headed to the hospital to visit my dear friend Becca and her sweet baby Samuel (who was born that morning)! I'm so glad I got to see these two before we left!

Before we knew it, the morning had ended and it was about time to launch our big game plan. 

What game plan, you ask?

1. Brandon was going to head to Denver (with Bitsy) at around 1:30 to take care of all the apartment stuff (sign the lease, get the keys, etc.) before their offices closed at 6.
2. I was going to stay back at the old place with my parents and Jax to finish cleaning.

Good plan, right?

Anyway, Brandon leaves with our confused and panicked cat (I had ordered her calming spray off Amazon but it still hadn't arrived) while my parents and I continue to vacuum, sweep, scrub, and thoroughly erase any evidence of having said cat (that we were never supposed to have)--it was absolutely exhausting and took about 3 hours but we finally finished! By this time, the movers had already packed everything and left and it was time for us to do the same.

We were getting ready to head out the door when we realized that Jax's pants were all wet..

..had his bottle leaked?

After further inspection, we discovered that Jackson had the diaper blowout to end all diaper blowouts. I had never seen anything like it.. my husband has been to war and I'm willing to bet he's never even seen anything that horrific. It was a three person job but we managed to get him changed and somewhat cleaned up before heading out the door and saying our final goodbyes to the place.

It was finally time to get on the road and head to our new home!

My mom, dad, and I all took turns holding Jackson while we cleaned.. Jax actually held his nose when my dad held him! What a rude (but hilarious) little baby!!

Brandon sent me this shortly after leaving Hays.

Since my parents house is on the way to Denver, my mom rode with Jax and me to help with bottle duty.. I'm soooo glad she did.

Stop! Stop!! Stop!!!

We were about an hour into the trip when I got a call from Brandon that went something like this:

B: So, we have a little bit of a problem..

A: Oh no, what? (I fully expected him to say that his car had broken down somewhere)

B: How far from Denver are you?

A: Umm, about 4 hours.. why?

It was then that Brandon told me he'd talked to the leasing office at the apartment and that they wouldn't release our keys or let us move in until I had also signed the lease. 

WHAT?! 

I know, I know, that should be a common sense thing, but keep in mind that we were moving from a smaller town where things like this wouldn't be an issue. So here I was 4 hours from Denver with only an hour and a half before the leasing office closed--we had movers on their way to the new apartment who needed to be back in Kansas early the next morning and we weren't going to have keys to open the apartment with (Heck, we hadn't even signed the lease or paid all of the deposits/rent yet so we technically didn't even have an apartment to move into!).

I called down to the leasing office at the apartment and pleaded with the agent to make an exception but she wouldn't budge (something about their policy.. psh, whatever). I asked her if there was anyway she could fax me the contract (if I could find a fax machine somewhere) and she said it was a possibility but that I needed a notary. By this point, it was 5pm and we were in the middle of nowhere.. where was I going to find a notary? Or a fax machine? Long story short (if that's possible at this point), my mom and I called every bank, attorney, and sheriffs office within a 50 mile radius to see if they were still open and if they could help. 

No. Such. Luck. 

I was about to give up, cry, and drive to Dairy Queen for ice cream (to fill the void left by not having an apartment) when it dawned on me to call my good friend, Heidi--she is from the town that we were coming up on and I figured it wouldn't hurt to see if she knew of a notary in town. Come to find out, her mom is a notary. 

I think I cried a little when she told me this. 

We were able to track down a fax machine at the local library so we sped over there to pick up the fax, sped over to Heidi's moms house to have it notorized, and then sped back to the library to fax it back to Denver. By the grace of God, we somehow managed to do all of this before the leasing offices closed at 6pm.

Mission accomplished--all on two hours of sleep. 

We went to Dairy Queen to celebrate (I was looking for any excuse to eat ice cream) and then got back on the road. To say that I was mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted would be the understatement of the year. We rolled into my hometown at around 8:30 and I decided to just call it a day--Jax and I would stay the night at my parents house and then finish the trek to Denver the next day. 

Breakfast at my parents--English muffin and cheese.

We absolutely love our apartment and are so excited to be living in Denver--we have spent the last week exploring the city, shopping around, and unpacking. I can't wait to share more of our adventures (and apartment pictures!) with you all--stay tuned!

P.S. I'm going to get back to my regular blog schedule this week--can you believe it?! Come back tomorrow for a surprise post (it's a surprise in that I don't even know what it'll be about yet)!