I finally have a spare moment to sit down & update you all on my hubby's posting & our families big move to the U.S of A!!
It's been a very hectic past few months...or possibly a very hectic past 12mths really. Since having our baby girl last November, we have done just over 25 flights now!! It feels like we've just been 'stopping over' in Darwin. We have a tally of one return flight to Bali, one to Singapore, one to Newcastle, one to Sydney, & the rest to Brisbane!!! Oh...and of course the BIG flight recently to Los Angeles, USA!!!! Lucky Kayla...I didn't even experience my first flight overseas until I was in my early 20s. Spoilt much? :)
In mid-December we completed the first part of our move which entailed packing up in Darwin & saying farewell to our great friends (aka defence family). With this being our 6th move, we have learnt that with our Defence friends (& most of my GHD friends) it's no longer a sobbing sad goodbye... We now shed a few small tears & say 'See you soon' until our posting paths cross again. We had some fantastic times in Darwin & have so many memorable moments to take with us...a big one being the birth of our own little Darwinite & all of the great Mums I have met since then. Kayla has some instant best-friends to come back to... & potential boyfriends down the track too!! If hubby's reading this...yes yes, we all know that they'll have to get through you first ;)
Kayla's last play-date with her friends
MJ & Timothy down at the Darwin Waterfront.
My close friends (& fellow fb follwers) will know the pain I went through with completing the inventory for our international move. This entailed detailing every item we wanted to take with us on our 3yr journey, down to the brand/style/description/cost etc. Meanwhile I had a 10.5mth old daughter who needed constant entertaining & also had begun to crawl, open drawers/cupboards & pretty much get into everything! It was a challenge...which I completed thankfully! However all could not have been accomplished without a few phone calls to my girlfriends asking them to come keep me sane after a week or so of hibernation. They helped me out with the worst of it! The worst of it being the kitchen & my wardrobe!!! Tough job culling clothing & tupperware :) A great time for Hubby to be away for a 2mth stint with work... Who says being a stay-at-home-mum & housewife isn't a full-time job?! I don't even want to imagine how hard it would have been with me having to go to work on-top of all of this!
While I'm on the work topic, a BIG thank-you to my employer GHD in Darwin who has enabled me to extend my maternity leave for an extra 12mths, as well as offer for me to keep my job while in America. I couldn't have ask for a better suited company for a travelling Army Wife like me! Now I just have to get approval to work there....
Kayla with one of my friends & work colleague Jana-Banana :)
This was on our 'goodbye' drop in...
Please disregard the fact that Jana is wearing no shoes! It's Darwin! Haha!
All tuckered out after my work goodbyes :)
Back to the move... Once the inventory was complete, we had medicals & dental checks to do. Kayla experienced her first dental appointment at the teeny tiny age of 11mths :) Then came the time to sell up our possessions. First being the old Subaru followed shortly after by our trailer....we threw ourselves a Lawn Sale to clear out the odd bits & bieces we didn't want to unpack in 3yrs time (fellow QLD'ers call them a Garage Sale), & now we are still needing to sell our Kia Cerato Coupe!! If anyone is interested you can get yourself a great BARGAIN!!!!!!! Check out our ad here!! Or contact our dear friends back in Darwin for a viewing! Thanks Matty & Sam!! Apologies...just making the most of a bit of free advertising.
So the sale of our possessions were done (minus the Kia), now it was time for packing... Like we hadn't done enough of that throughout the past year with all of our trips :) We had 3days of packing with Day 1 being the packing & uplift of everything I had inventoried for our move to the States. Day 2 entailed the rest of our belongings being packed up into boxes ready for Day 3 which was the uplift. It all didn't go as smoothly as we had hoped. That being that the packing that was meant to be complete on Day 2 rolled over into Day 3 & we didn't get out of the house until around 7.30pm. It was a bit of a nightmare seeing the packers rushing in the last hour & having our things not packed so gently...but we won't have to worry about it for another 3yrs...already dreading the unpack :)
Kayla was great during all of this. As good as a 12mth old can be when her house is in upheaval anyhow. There were quite a few moments of her not wanting to let us out of her sight, & a lot of leg hugging & pants pulling, but all in all, she did great.
Learning to climb the ladder with Daddy & changing light globes.
Following in Daddies footsteps maybe?? A Sparky in the making??
Enjoying a snack amongst all of the boxes :)
Our other little baby.
Midori snoozing away while all of the chaos takes place.
One of Kayla & Midori's last plays in our Darwin home.
Anyhow...the household packing wasn't really the hardest part... The hardest part of the move was trying to pack for our 2.5weeks of summer Christmas Holidays in Bris Vegas/Gold Coast, aswell as a month of winter once we arrived in the USA. Our belongings were going by air but still had to go through the customs process before they met up with us again. Oh & packing for a growing girl is SUPER hard too. She grew two sizes since leaving Darwin!! But, we did it! And oh my goodness there were a million bags!!! But once it was all complete, we were free to relax with friends. I was able to get some pamper time with a manicure for all of my hard work & Jase's reward was a designated driver for our last dinner in Darwin :)
My manicure :)
Ready for the Christmas & New Year Festivities!!
Here's Hubby with our total of 11 bags...There were meant to be 12...
But in the rush from the hotel we left one behind...Whoops! Thank goodness for taxis!
It arrived with seconds to spare before boarding time :)
Thanks to the gentleman for helping us push our 3rd trolley too!
Love the kindness of strangers!
It was off to Brisbane we flew! Time to unwind & enjoy our time with family & friends before the next flight to America. One of our first perks was the business class seats from Darwin to Brisbane. I don't think I want to go back to economy now :)
Taking off!
Thank goodness for snacks & dummies.
Saying goodbye to Darwin :'( sniff sniff.
...oh I mean saying "See you Soon"!!!
Landing in Brisbane!
I love this part of flying even though Kayla hates it.
The loud noises means Mummy gets lots of cuddles.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of The BIG Move!
xoxo T
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