Leaving California and Going Back to Utah

Fans of Maroon 5 and The Osmonds: Enjoy the song title name drop! Anyway, this week we spent mired in final preparations for the move. There was a different mix of emotions this time out, and we each have responded in unique ways. Moving can be hard. Notwithstanding the difficulties, we soldiered on, packed our bags, hit the road, bid farewell, and turned our faces north and east to our new home near Powerhouse Mountain. We’re a week behind with this post, so details may be fuzzy or left out. Bear with us.

On Monday, Hallie had a spa appointment at Rustic Retreat followed by some therapy. Mike met with one of his doctoral students. In the afternoon, he got to packing in earnest some areas we had left unpacked while Hallie took the kids to the gym. Eliza got her hair done in a neat never-ending braid that lasted all of 12 hours, because for her that’s an eternity.

Tuesday found the grown-ups alone at home thanks to our friend Marilyn’s the generous offer to have the kids over to her house to play and have some pool time with her kids. Alone time meant Mike and Hallie had the enticing opportunity to . . . pack some more! Well, Hallie did get her nails done, and Mike caught up on some work. Then we packed. All too soon, it was time yet again to get Landon, who wanted to keep playing, to go back to gymnastics. Eliza got some more play time in before we finally had to pick her up too.  

A couple of Mike’s recently-graduated doctoral students and their SO’s took us two grown-ups out to dinner at Café Firenze in Moorpark. We farmed off Landon to his TO relatives and Eliza to Granny and Grandpa O., and enjoyed an evening of adult conversation and reminiscing. Mike has really enjoyed working with his students from this cohort in particular. They came in to Cal Lutheran together and have now left together as coincidence would have it.

Mike went up to Cal Lutheran on Wednesday morning to have an exit interview with his dean and take care of other work-related items. He has enjoyed his time there and has learned so much about himself, about working with students and colleagues, and about his field. This has been a valuable experience that he hopes he can use moving forward.

The kids had a pizza party after gymnastics with their Victory friends. We sure will miss all these amazing and fun people we have come to regard as our extended family.

On Thursday, Hallie went out to her last Lunch Bunch with ladies from church and then got her hair done. The latter came from a friend from church in exchange for us bringing a crib up to Utah with us. Great exchange!

Friday the sister missionaries came by to do service hours by moving boxes into the garage and wrapping pictures. So many details remained to be done. Yikes!

By the afternoon, the garage and downstairs were looking pretty full. We had some much needed help to remove our washer and dryer and get the house cleaned up.

Our friend Rhoda came by to bid farewell and brought some amazing Filipino food and treats from the Bread Basket for dinner. 

Grandma and Grandma O. and Alie came over in the afternoon to help with some more packing. We had shelving units and even more pictures to wrap, so we appreciated everyone’s efforts.

Grandma and Grandpa took Fergus with them to stay until we come back in September. Poor kitty! He had no idea what was going on and did not seem too happy. He’ll be missed, but we’ll make sure he gets a great welcome once we get settled in.   

All too soon came Saturday: Moving Day! Hallie took the kids up to Victory for one last gymnastics practice in the morning, which was good for them and for us, because the Allied truck also came in the morning.

Mike greeted the movers, and then the movers set to work cataloging and stacking containers into the van while Mike took care of last minute odds and ends.

At Victory, Hallie and the kids bid more farewells to friends. See you in September!

Hallie came back a little later and set to work on other last minute items. Before we knew it, the movers finished loading the van and were gone, leaving us to figure out what to do with what remained.

Hello . . . ello . . . (lo) . . . . 

The movers ended up packing the rooftop storage bin for the Kia (and the queen air mattress, and a couple of other things that should have stayed. Oops.), so Hallie got us a new one. They also ended up not taking some items they should have, such as our vacuum cleaner. Anyway, with Grandma and Papa M.’s help, we loaded the car with what we could.

We did a final walk through with the landlords’ son (had to make sure every last little LEGO brick was safely accounted for. Those things get everywhere!), said good byes to neighbors, and then hit the road.  

We didn’t get too far though. We had dinner at the outlet mall with Carly and the Hopkins cousins before finally moving out of Camarillo for well and good.

Long day equals tired boy. 

After a couple of hours on the road, we stopped off in Barstow to bed down for the night. Good to get out of the cramped vehicle for a bit before taking to the road again on Sunday.

Sunday morning dawned bright and warm, and we hit the road pretty early (for us). We made good time getting to Springville, and we all felt relieved to finally get out of the car and decompress both physically and emotionally from the time on the road. With only the sleeping bags, blankets, and ground pads to our name for sleeping, we made our beds, such as they were, to await the arrival of our moving truck. 

Freedom!