The past week or so (with pictures)

We were homeless starting Wednesday, the 13th. Packers came early in the morning and packed everything up. The girls spent the day with Aunt Robyn (and eventually the rest of the family). And I spend the day running errands, checking into hotels, and occasionally kicking my feet up at my mom's house, trying to enjoy every last moment. We enjoyed a dinner at La Mina, since it's my all time favorite Bakersfield restaurant.

Megan ignored the chips and salsa and tried to eat me instead

He doesn't know I took this picture, lol:

Cadence enjoyed dipping the chips in the salsa, but not eating them. She also begged for Megan's high chair:

Thursday, we drove out to Taft to see James's grandparents one last time (as well as meet up with Jared and his girlfriend who were in town), then all of us trekked out to Porterville to see Talon, Jacob, Charish and Sydnee. After a few pictures and dinner at Taco Bell, we all went to the park. The girls, who'd begun showing signs of having a very stressful week, perked up once we were at the park and I got some super cute shots:
We spent most of Friday with my family, except for dinner with James's boss. It was a very strange day, and we all started crying when it came time to leave. Heck, I was blinking back tears when I was trying to track down the kids' shoes to put them on. I cried for awhile after that. Every time I had myself under control, James would pat my knee or squeeze my hand or give me a hug and I'd start crying all over again.

Saturday morning, we said good-bye to Bakersfield and drove through Barstow and on to Flagstaff. It was fairly uneventful. It was our hardest day with the girls as they got used to this idea of a road trip. By the last hour we were counting down miles and trying to keep Cadence happy long enough to reach the hotel. The second day she did better. James woke up at 2:30am and we just went. We were out of the hotel by 3:30 and on our way. It was great, because we had an amazing sunrise over the Arizona desert on the way to New Mexico. Gorgeous:

The best part of the early start was the girls sleeping for the first few hours and then being perfectly content to watch their DVDs between stops:

The third day, we were ready to reach Houston. The girls, now used to road trips, did all right all said and done. We stopped off in Fort Worth to visit an old cemetery where one of my ancestors was buried. Unfortunately, they didn't have a gravestone for her, but there were a few others with the same last name:

We reached Houston, finally, and were happy to be here. We went shopping shortly after arriving to stock up our kitchenette for the three days in our first hotel. The girls loved the car attached to the front of the cart.
And, of course, we had to stop by the big Bass Pro Shop just down the street. Cadence and Megan LOVED the aquarium full of catfish and the like.
Megan cracked me up because she was mimicking this O-mouthed fish. She and the fish just stared at each other with their round mouths for a full minute until Megan started giggling.
Anyway, obviously there's more. We've been keeping busy trying to get the car registered, signing our lease, filling out paperwork, and all the other important stuff you're supposed to do when you move to a new state. Our stuff is finally en route from Bakersfield to Houston, so we're hoping to set up house within the next week or so and plan to post pictures as soon as it's done! We've also been enjoying some summer rain. I just had to bust up laughing when I walked out of the hotel and curse myself for not grabbing my sunglasses, then 2 minutes down the road I have to turn my wipers on full force. I don't think I've turned the wipers on that high since we bought the car!