Colorado Coltons

So the good news is, Dan has a job.  The other/bad/exciting/sad/scary news is that it's in Denver.  Over the past few months, we've run through all the possible job scenarios and all of them included staying here in Dallas until at least June.  I know I need to just be grateful that we still have a job (and I am!) but Dan's company wasn't really concerned with our theoretical timeline scenarios and informed us that Dan will be needed in Denver at the start of the year.

We had a really smooth drive to Chicago last week for Thanksgiving.  Seriously, these children of mine have their faults and quirks, but man, have they turned out to be awesome road trippers.  They inherited my bladder of steel and I inherited my dad's motto of not stopping.  And since I'm the driver, we just cruise until the all the tummies and the gas tank are empty.  We fill up and drive on.  The only casualty of that first leg was one stupid speeding ticket (I also inherited my dad's heavy foot).

I love being cooped up in the van with all of these people.  When nobody is crying or whining, of course.

We arrived at my brother, Ian's, house on Tuesday evening and Ava and Sofia immediately disappeared.

 The boys did the opposite; they remained a blur of constant motion. So much motion that Luke burned right through his socks.

And there we were, minding our own business, when a phone call from Canada delivered the job news.  And from that point on, my mind thought less about turkey and Christmas trees and more about moving boxes, and cleaning, and house hunting.

As I let the news digest, my heart settled down.


Mom and Dad were already there and Leah and Chris and kids arrived on Thursday.

Thanksgiving was the usual feast. So, so yummy.

  I got to meet my sweet new baby niece, Thea.

 And the rest of our days were spent in delicious contentment.

Our drive home was equally pleasant.  Not unlikely due to the fact the kids were absolutely exhausted and fell asleep within 20 minutes of departing.

I didn't get any more tickets, but Finn probably would have issued me one if he could write.  He was so pleasant that I totally overlooked the need to change his diaper.  At all.  So for ten hours he sat in his car seat, soaking his clothes and socks until they were dripping and he finally started to cry.

At least he didn't hold it against me.

And now that we're home, the Denver move is official. I have more to do than I can imagine accomplishing and all of my Christmas plans are sitting in the dust somewhere between here and Chicago.