Our first snow living in Colorado

 After getting the 24' trailer emptied on Saturday evening, we woke up Sunday to snow.

Some little black, hairy, sweetheart Pumi named Baxter, absolutely LOVED it!

California cars in Colorado

This was in the morning...but then it snowed all day.

 My mom said he needed a jacket...

I don't think so!

 Running through the snow, eating the snow...

and was he ever frisky when he came in from the snow!

Oh, Baxter, you're going to love this weather!

No pictures for our issues!

We hit Salt Lake City about 6:30 p.m.  I had thought the bulk of the afternoon traffic would be over...wrong!
It was tough since there were three of us trying to follow each other.  Traffic was crazy.  But we made it through.

We had planned to stop and eat in SLC, but with that traffic, we didn't dare stop.  Ron needed to stop and use the restroom.  Apparently, he was calling Joshua to let him know...Joshua thought it was urgent, so after getting through the bulk of SLC, he took an exit.  Not a good choice.

The exit put us on a one lane street...that basically dead-ended at a gate.  Fortunately, the gate was open.  It was some utility company.  Remember:  Joshua was pulling a 24' and Ron was pulling a 12' trailer.  We were on a one lane mountain road with a mountain on one side and a drop off on the other.  Not Good!
Joshua told me to head down through the gate to see if there was room for him and Ron to go down and turn around.  I did.  What I didn't know, was that after I went through the gate, it closed behind me.  Ooops!
Joshua found a call type box, and got on it and let the people at the plant know what was going on.  Long story, but we all went down, turned around and got back on I-80.

I had an app that said there were a lot of food places at exit 145, about 9 miles ahead.  We exited at 145 and when we stopped, we saw that Joshua had a flat tire in the middle of the 24' trailer.  Oh no!  He called his insurance company who said they'd send someone within 45 minutes.  After awhile, Josh and Ron told me to go on ahead to Evanston, Wyoming where I had reserved a hotel room.  So off Baxter and I went.

For Joshua and Ron, after an hour, no one had come.  Joshua called and they said they didn't do trailer tires...  I'm not sure what Joshua said when he called back, but someone came within a few minutes. Once the guy got there, he couldn't get his jack under the trailer to lift it up.  (I'm so glad I didn't know all this!)  Joshua had the idea to back the trailer up on some wood or something to give more room...which he did...and the tire got changed...and on they came to Evanston.  They got there about 11 p.m.

The next morning, our decision was whether to take off at 6-6:30 without a spare for the trailer, or stay till 8 when a tire company opened.  We took off.  We stopped about 1.5 hours later, pulling into a tire company at 8:09 a.m. It wasn't the tire itself, but the wheel inside.  They sent us to another tire company who fixed it, .... supposedly.  We took off.  We hit Laramie Wyoming and stopped for gas and to use the restroom.  Somehow, someway...I lost my keys.  I wasn't there 10 minutes...never found them.  Luckily, I had a spare key.  We drove from there and got to John Davids in the late afternoon.

The next morning, November 10th, we woke up to another flat tire on the trailer.  When Joshua finally got the trailer up on wood so he could change the tire...well, that spare that had been fixed...nope!  They had put a wheel with 5 lug nuts on the tire instead of the 6 lug nuts the trailer used.  Grrrrrrrrrrr!  When they went to get it fixed, they were told there was a 4-5 hour wait.  I'm not sure what kind of talking Joshua did, but he came back with a fixed tire.  He got it changed and we headed for the storage shed.  It was after 2 p.m. and we had till 9 p.m. to get the 24' trailer unloaded.  The temperature started dropping big-time and the wind started blowing about 30 minutes before we got it emptied.  We finished in less than 3 hours.

The next day...6.5"of snow!

I took a picture of the unpacking crew!

Off to Colorado

Baxter was ready!

He was a bit more relaxed knowing he hadn't been left behind.

He loves to GO...anywhere...in the car...in the truck.

He rode in the front seat of my car the entire way..there was no room anywhere else!

 I think it's a beautiful drive.

Even Nevada, in it's barren state, is beautiful to me.  Not a place I'd want to live, but beautiful.

I took a lot of videos with my phone, but I can't get them on this blog!  Grrrrrrrrrr!

 In Utah, we stopped at the Salt Flats.

Baxter was loving it when we took him off leash and he ran...and ran...and ran...

 This picture doesn't do justice to the beautiful colors that were in the sky.

So far so good...

Our last morning...

 You might notice this little black hairy buddy in the front seat of the car.

 Someone was making sure he didn't get left behind.

 The car was packed to the brim...not in this picture, but in the end.

 Not only did we have the 24' trailer that Joshua brought, but we also rented a 12' trailer from UHaul.

They were both....absolutely packed!

 Joshua had a system...

and this was the TV, propped up in my backseat, along with a lot of my paintings.

 Surreal...

Our empty family room...

 our empty bedroom....

 the kids' bathroom...

'Lindsey's room' and my paint room in the back...

 the boys' room...

 the entryway...

 Not only were the trailers packed...

but the 2 pickups were, too.

 Well, we were packed, the house was empty...

 and just like we had done with Gabe and Emily, 

we took pictures with Joshua in front of the house.

He was in the 6th grade when we moved into the house.

 Again, this was really hard, very emotional for me.

I have loved living here...loved this home...so many great memories...

 It was time to say good-bye..

and move on to more, new memories.

 Like I've said, and could say a million more times,

Joshua...

we couldn't have done it..

couldn't have even begun to do it..

without him.

He's nothing short of amazing.

 I was pretty torn up during this time,

but now, as I write this 8 days later,

it's all good.  This was a house...a house that we made our home...

a home we made for our precious family.

 The idea is we find another 'house'...

a house we will make a home.

 I could not imagine what it would be like to live around family,

family that comes to visit on a regular and often basis.

 We don't have our own home yet...

we're at John David and Becky's while we look for our own.

I don't feel like I live here...yet.

It feels like we're still visiting.  I think it'll take finding our own home before it sinks in, before it feels like I actually live here.

We took off with our two trailers...

and off we went...to Colorado.

1770 Catherine Court...

you've been wonderful for nearly 31 years!

Joshua is here and we start to pack the trailer...with a little help from our friends!

 November 3rd was a big packing day.

Joshua had gotten here the night before with this 24' trailer.

 Baxter wasn't too sure what was going on.

 I had been packing for months...a little at a time.

 The week before Joshua got here, I was madly packing...

I had a code.

Yellow tape = don't put in storage.

Blue tape = fragile

 It was crazy seeing our home like this.

 It was time to start loading.

 Brandon...one of Gabe's long-time great buddies...said he'd come help.

 He recruited another buddy - Nathaniel - to also come.

Bringing the large pieces of furniture from upstairs started.

 Joshua must be a masterful Jenga player...

because he packed that trailer to the hilt!

This was the one we were most concerned with...the piano!

 They did it...and it didn't appear to be that difficult!

 The Crew!

Ron, Joshua, Brandon, Nathaniel, and Carly.

 Ron had to have this board, as he had been accused of ...

well, not being as involved with the hard labor as others.

 Oh Brandon!

This is one special guy...

like I said, he and Gabe have been buddies for a long time.

 He was like another son...he was reminiscing about old times...

eating a bit & resting before basketball games...

playing football in the front yard...

lots of good times!

 He's definitely a special...a very special friend of ours!

Thank you, Brandon!

 The trailer was filling up...

 Baxter...he was a bit unsure of what was happening.

He kept taking Ron's sandal so we wouldn't leave without him.

 This guy...Joshua...

there is NO way we could have even come close to doing this without him.

 Joshua is amazing...

Amazing with a capital A...

 Yep, he's strong...

physically, mentally, emotionally!

Ummm?

What to do next?

Let's wait till tomorrow.