June got REAL busy, REAL fast! It suddenly became incredibly stressful and bittersweet. We were finally closing in on our final days in Texas. It's honestly still crazy how it all happened. David and I always knew that Texas wasn't going to be our forever home, and we'd talked several times about when we'd make the change, but had figured it'd be another 3-4 years before it could ever possibly become a reality. The flood kind of put it in fast forward for us, and then his boss saying he could work from home full-time was just the icing on the cake. The sad part is all of our beautiful and amazing friends that we'd made along our journey that we now would have to leave behind. These people will never really know the impact that they had on us. We are so incredibly grateful. I know that I personally wouldn't have managed with my depression, being so far away from our families were it not for the incredible little family we created in Austin. Our monthly "family" dinners will forever be a treasure in my mind, and we miss them so darn much! I love you guys! Daisy & the girls, Micah & family, Sonnie & Justin, the Kims, Laurie, Lariza, Lori...there's so many more I'm missing, and I'm sorry, it's been a really long week already.
Anyway, the month started off with Sophia and Rosalie's Farewell Party that we had in the neighborhood park. We are so grateful to how many people came out! Several even surprised them with gifts. Thank you so much again! We miss you and your kiddos so much! They are the best friends for my kids I ever could have dreamt of! You helped give Sophia the best first school year ever!
The next day, Goose had her final Daisy meeting. It was a bridging ceremony for the Daisy's that would be becoming Brownies in the fall.
The following day was my final gym session with my trainer Carl. We'd become friends over the past 6 months and he pushed me to become a better person, physically and mentally. I am so lucky to have had the chance to work with such an amazing person and grateful for that time as well. He put up with my shit, and understood what I needed and how to push me. I definitely cried as I walked out the door. It was hard to acknowledge how real it was all becoming.
Finally, the day had arrived. The packing process was grueling and took longer than we'd planned, as did our final walk through with our lovely landlord and his beautiful wife. I picked up Goose from her final day at school, grabbed McDonald's, and not long after, we were off. This was a hard trip. We had two big 26' moving trucks (one driven by David, one by his dad) and I had both girls alone in the van for the long trek to Georgia. It got very lonely.
We stopped for a quick night, then got up bright and early the next morning to finish the trip. We finally made it to my in laws house around 10pm after driving through a nasty storm in downtown Atlanta. We were done.
Then began our pain in the butt journey of house hunting, and deciding where we even wanted to live. We'd been so set on Cumming because of the schools, but when we drove out to look at houses, we quickly realized it was just too spread out for us, and while the houses were nice, the town just wasn't for us. So back to the drawing board with time coming down on us. Meanwhile, David was still having to work.
To give us a small break, we took the girls to Legoland in Atlanta. Unfortunately, Sophia was being really nasty and didn't end up getting to participate until the very end, when David had to join a meeting. Rosalie and I had a blast! We spent several hours there!
We spent the evenings enjoying time with my inlaws and nature.
I kind of last minute decided to go audition for The Voice, but didn't tell anyone because I didn't want to deal with questions and things in case it all went horribly wrong. It was actually a much better experience than I'd had at American Idol years ago. It was so much more organized, went pretty quick, and everyone was very friendly and encouraging. I met some really cool people while hanging out in line. I didn't end up making the cut, but I'm not surprised, I was in a group with some incredible people and not one of us went through. The talent in this audition was crazy, they just can't take that many people. Anyway, here's a little clip if you're interested of me practicing the morning before.
We had a quick playdate with the cousins! The girls were ecstatic!
Next up, Jamaica!!! It'd been a long time coming, but we couldn't have been happier to take a MUCH needed vacation to have a small family reunion in the beautiful Jamaica! There is WAY too much content from that to post all right now, but I've made some videos of our trip that are definitely worth checking out! I'll try to do a more detailed post just about that trip at a later time.
We got stuck in storms coming back into Georgia, and got delayed in the air for a bit. Customs took forever because there were so many people. It was much later than we'd anticipated.
After we returned it was back to the housing grind. Thankfully it didn't take long and as of the 4th of July, we were in our new house! Normally on the 4th of July, we'd go find some fun festival and watch the fireworks, but given how off kilter everything had been, the girls wanted something a little more low key, so instead we headed to the inlaws for some grilling and smores. :) We did some sparklers and saw fireflies, and all in all, it was a good night.
The girls had their dental appointments and did great! Bug even got xrays!
On the weekend, since it'd been so stressful, we took the girls finally for a trip to our new Six Flags in Atlanta. It is set up much different that San Antonio. I liked San Antonio, but this one definitely has a more country, homey kind of feel. Kind of like it wants to be a little Dollywood, but not quite a hard enough push. At any rate, I really like it, and there's a ton of great kid rides which works out nicely. :)
We got Goose registered for school, got our licenses, and had a playdate with some neighborhood kids that would be going to Patrick also. It was nice to let the girls have some playtime with other kids again. I know they missed it, and I got to meet a good bit of our neighbors too which was really nice.
Goose lost her second tooth!
Our downstairs AC died for like a week. :(
Goose got to have a video chat with the girls!
I took the girls to the Atlanta Zoo! It's a bit of a hike to get there, but it's actually a very nice zoo, and we got to see pandas!!! Omg! I die! So cute! They had two playgrounds, a petting zoo, a splashpad, several restaurants, and a cute ride area too!
David and I took the girls to Tallulah Gorge State Park. This is beautiful, however, it is insane. There are sooooooo many stairs. OMG. It was exhausting, but I'm still glad we did it. Just probably not something I'd do again anytime in the near future.
I decided to take the girls to Six Flags alone for a final chance at the water park before school started. It actually went pretty well. The waterpark area is pretty small, but they've got a really nice wave pool that the girls absolutely adored!
After realizing that Ellijay is so close now (where I used to spend every summer of my childhood until family bullshit got in the way), David and I took the girls up to visit Uncle Chris at the Fort Mountain State Park. It was pretty neat. We didn't stay too long because the girls were hungry and angsty.
Sophia started her first day of first grade! She's so big!
David and Rosalie and I got to meet up with an old Florida friend for lunch while she was up here for work. It was really nice to catchup and felt like we just picked up where we left off.
I found out that someone was selling the seat next to me at Hanson's String Theory concert in October and was able to snag it for Goose! We got her signed up in the fan club and put in a request for us to get meet & greets! *Fingers Crossed!* It'll be Goose's first concert, and it's HANSON! I can't wait to share this with her!
We went camping at Don Carter State Park in Gainesville!
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