The Big Move--the Road Trip

We knew when we agreed to the big move from OKC to Durham that it would involve an 18 hour road trip to get there. It was not the part we were most looking forward to with an 8 month old and a 2.5 year old. 

Then when we were booking our dates with the movers we found out that they would be picking our stuff up on Dec. 19th and delivering it in NC between the 1st and the 9th of January. This meant that we would have to have 22 days of stuff for four people and one puggle with us in the car. Then we realized that Christmas would fall in that gap so our already packed car would have to hold all of our Christmas presents also. 

We ended up with a car that was literally packed to the roof and a full luggage rack. I couldn't even see Paxton from the front. 

We broke the trip down into three six-hour days since our boys had never been in the car longer than the three-hour trips to Dallas we had taken. The first day we made it almost 4 hours without stopping which landed us in Clarksville, AR. 

We made it to Memphis, TN that evening where we spent our first night. 

Our first few minutes in the hotel were complete insanity as four people and a dog who had been cooped up all day finally stretched their legs. 

We woke up bright and early New Year's Eve morning for the hotel breakfast but somehow didn't leave the hotel until 11:00. 

We made it to Nashville for the first stop. I was excited that we were halfway through the trip. 

Both days Paxton (who refuses to sleep in the car if he can possibly help it) fell asleep about 30 minutes before we got to the hotel and woke up very grumpy. By the time we got to the hotel room, he was a crazy toddler blur. 

Since it was New Year's Eve, Jared offered to take us somewhere fancy: the Cracker Barrell across the street. 

The hotel room was supposed to have a separate living area for Pax but it was all one big room, so after almost two hours of waiting for Pax to stop standing on his pull-out couch talking about bugs, we gave up and took our champagne and iPads out to the hall. 

The next day I did not take pictures of the four stops we had to make because I was just SO READY to be there. 

When we finally saw signs for Durham, we were very excited. 

We drove straight to our house because I hadn't seen it in real life and Paxton was asking to see his house. We didn't have the keys so we thought we would just be able to see the outside, but the back door was unlocked so we got to go in. 

When we got back to the hotel Scarlett continued her new tradition of sleeping on the pull-out couch with Pax. 

Today Paxton threw a massive fit when we talked about getting in the car so we knew we couldn't drive far. We ended up going to the American Tobacco Campus and eating lunch and walking around. Pax loved it. 

And Porter and I recreated my single maternity picture that was taken there. 

We are so ready to get our keys tomorrow and be out of hotels!!