At Last

Let's see, where to begin?  It's been a long time since the last posting and I truly apologize.  Without further ado, let's begin from the start, or the last posting, to get you up to speed.

On our boat, at last!

To our devoted followers, our occasional followers, our random followers and everyone in between.  Our adventure has begun!  WooHoo.  It’s hard to believe that nearly 12 months ago we decided to take the leap.  We could not have done it without the support and encouragement of our family and friends, even though some of you thought we were a little nuts at first.  Cheers to you for helping us get here because without you, we’d still be stuck in Dallas!

We feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends that are our family away from home.  Maggie and Kate both had going away parties hosted by their friends.  Kate's was a surprise to boot!  Craig and I also had our own amazing Bon Voyage party hosted by our wonderful friends.  It was a glorious Caribbean affair, pool side that lasted (for some of us) until 3 am!  Thank you!!

 I won’t dwell on the negative, horrible, grinding facets of getting here.  Except I will say that despite having 3 garage sales, giving stuff away and putting items out by the street with signs that say “free”, we have a LOT of stuff.  Where did it all come from?  I do hope we come home and realize we don’t need it and can get rid of more!!!   We did fit a lot in the attic and had room to spare in the storage unit.  Phew!  This, of course, would not be complete without some sort of mishap, or two.  The electricity went out on the third floor 2 days before Craig was leaving and Maggie's ankle swelled up and started hurting again (hence the boot in the pictures) at the same time.  We scrambled to get an electrician to fix things and raced up to the storage unit to find the box that had Maggie's boot. 

Road Trip!

At the airport, ready to take off

Craig and Maggie's road trip to Florida was delayed by a day because we just unequivocally ran out of time.  That and we realized we were not spring chickens and didn’t want (or need) to pull an all nighter to get things done.  The movers were delayed, which conflicted with the carpet cleaners and the car still needed to be packed.  It was downright chaos down to the wire.  In the end, everything got done and the car was locked and loaded.  To say that the car was packed, would be a gross understatement!  Is it illegal to drive that way? 

Don't let me forget the army of people that took over the care of our children while we were in a packing frenzy.  To all those who took the girls unselfishly, a HUGE thank you.  At one point, I was telling someone that I felt bad for my kids that I hadn't spent any time with them and had to stop mid-sentence and say, who am I kidding, they are having a blast.  It's like summer camp, only better! 

Olivia, Lydia & Kate 

So here we are, in Florida, on the boat, in the water, at the dock, waiting for the many boat projects to be completed and the "weather window" of opportunity to come-a-knockin'.

P.S.  I am having serious wi-fi issues and can't seem to get my pictures to load up in a timely fashion.  It's on the 'list' to get it up and going, but it is not a priority at the moment.  Sorry.  I will add the pictures a little later.