One Family To Go, Please

Yes that’s right, one family to go and make that super sized. I wouldn’t necessarily claim that as our family motto but it was an ongoing theme for our family for the past six months.

We sold our home in May and headed to Florida. However, it wasn’t as simple as that. We stationed ourselves in Arkansas for a couple of months to visit family. This way I would be able to accompany Cameron to Europe on one of his speaking engagements while they graciously watched our four boys. As well, we could then plan the next leg of our trip. Making whirlwind trips to Florida to scout out possible sites of residence and narrow down neighborhoods. When finally we crammed everyone and everything we needed into the suv and jeep we pulled behind us and moved to sunny FL leaving the rest of our belongings in storage in AR.

At last we had arrived. Things slowed down a bit while we were there. We enjoyed the beaches and the weather and the family immensely. However, Cameron’s traveling didn’t slow down. Everyone was extending offers to present at conferences as well as job interviews. Companies that carried clout and that held high prestige all were knocking on our door. We weren’t even seeking to go corporate again. But, we had to at least explore the opportunity to see if it led to anything we might not have figured in. And they all did.

While trying to make sense of it all we continued researching and searching for the perfect home. We knew the city like our own back yard. We had a couple of homes in mind and the market was in our favor and we were prepared to make an offer and play some hard ball. When Cameron flew out to SLC to meet with a client only to be offered an in house position that was just too good to pass up. Everything came to a screeching halt. We stayed up for hours past the boys talking ourselves to sleep for nights. We both knew the answer. Even though that meant leaving behind the powdered sugar beaches and crystal clear blue tropical water. Leaving the warmth and the lush green. Packing away the boogie boards and suntan lotion. It was hard, oh so hard for everyone.

Needless to say we struggled for several days, wrestled with accepting the offer. After all we just got to Florida, we were ready to buy a home, we were loving it and accepting would mean we would have to turn around and go write back where we came from. Cameron was doing great on his own. He’s extraordinary at everything he does, he’s always been a miracle worker. And apparently I’m not the only one who thinks so. ;) At any rate we decided to accept. As strange as it sounds it was a good move for us even though it meant leaving behind people and things that we loved and moving back into the dead of winter, which Cameron and I hate. And so here we are but now the home search starts all over, along with everything else.

So the last six months we have been living out of hotels, relatives’ homes, vacation rentals and more hotels with only what we could cram into our suv and the jeep we pulled behind us lest a remind you. After a while we couldn’t tell a difference between the crackers or the sand on the floor. I resorted to homeschooling until we could settle down to lessen the stress of frequent moves and we were pretty much a one man band so to seek.

So even though it is unbearably frigid and everything is dead here it has been nice to finally get our lives back from storage and it was like Christmas for the boys to open up all of their toys and bikes again. It felt good to hang a picture of our own on the wall and place a memoir on top of our piano. I truly believe that home is where the heart is, but after awhile it’s nice to have roots. I must put a plug in for the boys who were remarkable. They were amazing at how well they held up to the traveling and all of the changes. They are my heroes.

I wish I could say that when all the dust settles I could make sense of it all and explain our reasoning. But I know better, the dust will never settle. We still have to remind ourselves what we’re doing back here, there will always be questions and what ifs. There might not always be a one correct choice or even a wrong choice. I’ve come to accept that we will always be on the rise and that countless opportunities await us. Life will always have opportunities to offer, challenges to give, trials to suffer and experiences and adventure beyond measure. It’s how we handle what we’re given. As Cameron and I have reminded ourselves countless times, as long as we get through this still holding hands with our heads held high, knowing we did our best. I will say, that we’ve been greatly blessed and we have everything we could ever hope for right here under our roof in arms reach, just a hug and a kiss away.

A Day in the Life

Too Much of a Good Thing
The boys are always asking what different foods help your body do. So when Hudson was indulging himself with cranberries Edison piped up ‘you shouldn’t give him anymore cranberries, he could run really fast into the street.’

On the Spot
Passing the time while gassing up. Dad says, “watch this.” Cool and confident as he attempts to throw a bag of garbage from the drivers seat through the window into the bin. He missed. Everest says cool and confident, ‘you didn’t make that? I could’ve made that.”

Sure Thing
Grandma looking for boys who needed snacks asked Edison, “Are you hungry?” Edison replies with an affirmative nod. Grandma probes a little deeper in search of something more concrete, “would you like a sandwich?”. Edison gives a shake of his head to decline. “What would you like?”, asks Grandma. ‘Uh…probably bread’, he answers. “Bread?, with nothing on it?”, she inquires. “Yep” with conviction comes his response. “OK”, grandma concludes as she turns to fulfill his appetite’s desire. As she walks to the kitchen Edison calls out, “and take the skins off”.

Boys’ Play
The boys were excited to end the cross country trek and immediately headed for the back yard of their grandparents home. Within seconds they had located the wagon and a giant cardboard box and were headed for the hill. Now you think rolling down the hill in the wagon at lightning speed would be thrill enough. Not, for these boys. They jumped in the wagon threw the cardboard box that covered them and the wagon on top of themselves and proceeded with a big shove off the top of the hill. Not knowing what to expect or where they were headed the shrill shrieks of pure boy glee sounded through the air as they whizzed down the hill at speeds beyond comprehension. Now that was the ride of a lifetime and with out hesitation a way they went back up the hill for more.

Where next?
You know you’ve been in transition long enough when your three year old now refers to finding a home as this: we sat down with some ‘homes for sale’ magazines and some MLS listings. The boys love looking through them and picking out which one they’d like. Our three year old points to one he is enthralled with and exclaims, ‘I wanna borrow this one!’. And when your children now play hotel and travel all the time, you know you’ve been on the road long enough. It’s time to plant the roots in somewhere.

Pasta Anyone?
We went out to the Olive Garden one night and Isaac ordered spaghetti. He was comically slurping the long sticky strands up one by one as they flung from one side to the other slapping his cheeks. I presented him with the idea of twisting his fork making a spaghetti ball to try and tackle the beastly meal. Seconds later he proudly exclaimed, “Look, I did it!”. With astonishment he had managed to twist the entire bowl of spaghetti onto his fork for one gigantic, make that enormously huge ball of spaghetti. Unfortunately, I don’t think that made it any easier for him to eat. But, it was rather impressive.

Keeping ‘em All Straight
Approaching our home in FL Isaac thinking we had past ours and asks, “how come we’re not going to the ‘three and the four and the one and the three’?” It took me a minute but I quickly realized that was our house number. He had become very aware of numbers and with all the moving had started associating them with our current home or hotel room depending the leg of our adventure.

Come Again
After driving for days on end the endless white lines on asphalt can really get to you. While driving along Route 66 Isaac asked me a very inquisitive “Why mom, why?”. I turned with the answer ready to roll of the tip of my tongue. Only to have been broadsided with the unexpected, I burst into boisterous laughter. There he sat with the most genuinely puzzled face, for he really wanted to know why, with a green crayon hanging out of his nose. Needless to say I don’t remember the question.

Brilliance on His Own
Edison hadn’t been interested in practicing or learning letters and numbers. I decided not to push, we were already under a lot stress with the moving. When out of no where he handed me a piece of paper and proudly exclaimed, “Look it says bugspray!”. I read the word OFF. He was right, he had remembered the can of OFF we took to the park with us the night before. A month or so later in downtown SLC we were walking to a restaurant when he again exclaimed, “that’s the credit card place!” On top of a tall high rise building in bright bold letters it read CHASE. He had remembered it from the commercials.

Tell It Like It Is
In the battle of what to do’s a frustrated cousin remarked, ‘Well I’m not going to play with you ever again then’. The reply, ‘It’s ok, you always change your mind anyways’.