after taking a beautiful road trip across the country, living in the hotel john is working at for two luxurious weeks, and apartment hunting like crazy, we are officially moved into our two bedroom apartment in alexandria, virginia. woot-woot!
on september 30th, a professional moving company came and packed us, loaded us into their huge trucks, and drove away with our belongings where they would be waiting for us on the east coast. if you've never had a professional move done before, DO IT. you will never go back to doing it yourself. after cleaning our apartment, checking out with our awesome landlord, and picking up liam from our friend's house, we stayed in a hotel with our car jam-packed full with our belongings that we would need for the next couple of weeks of living in a hotel. john is quite the organizer.
on october 1st, we set out on our journey to start our new life on the east coast. but first, we drove down to meet my best friend, shamis tate to say good-bye over a delicious thai food lunch. let me tell you guys, this girl is one of the most incredible human beings there is on this planet. i'm so so SO sad that we are so far away from each other, but i know that our friendship is a life long one. driving away from that lunch was so hard, and many, many tears were shed. i miss shamis, her hubby nick, and their beautiful little daughter maya so much (love you guys!).
the first leg of our trip was a four-hour drive from chicago to toledo, ohio where we booked a hotel room, and stayed the night to prepare for the next long day of driving. after waking up and eating breakfast, we started on our way to the beautiful and historical town of kirtland, ohio. this was my first time to kirtland, and i loved it. it was a perfect fall day to explore this little town.
such a beautiful, quaint, and memorable place. there is so much church history here in kirtland, and it was amazing to experience for myself. if you are ever close to this place, i highly recommend taking a stop.
after visiting the different historical sites in kirtland, we got chipotle, and went on our way to finish the last leg of our trip. from kirtland, ohio to national harbor, maryland where we would check into the the Gaylord National Resort and live for two weeks.
but first, a little liam entertainment before we got back into the car:
i drove eight out of the twelve hours on our drive. one of the best highlights of our drive was driving on the pennsylvania turnpike. my mouth was open the entire drive. i had never seen such beautiful colors on trees in my life! the trees were rich colors of orange, yellow, red, green, etc, and it was like that the entire drive! i have never been to pennsylvania in my life, but just driving through it made me want to stay and visit. while we were driving through pennsylvania, we took a quick potty/food break at a gas station just off of the turnpike. we switched drivers at that point. john took over through the rest of pennsylvania into maryland, and it was great being able to sit and relax.
you guys, i was really nervous to see how liam would do on this road trip. but seriously? he was a CHAMP. he mostly slept the whole time, and still managed to sleep through the night so mommy and daddy could get some sleep. we are so thankful that he was such a trooper.
while we were driving, john was calling apartment complexes, listings on zillow, and posts on craigslist to set up appointments for us to try and find an apartment. we were determined to find an apartment in three days because when we checked into the hotel on thursday the 2nd, john had the entire weekend off of work to be able to find someplace to live. and guess what? WE DID IT. we found the best place out of the countless apartments we looked at, and we are so grateful that everything worked out for us so quickly. while apartment hunting, we didn't realize how expensive it is to live here. we thought chicago was expensive...it doesn't even compare to here. you can imagine our sticker shock! but, we were diligent in our prayers in asking to be able to find the place that we were needed the most, with all of the things we needed, for a decent price, and we were blessed with our great apartment that we're in. so thankful!
after we found an apartment after those jam-packed three days of searching, we got to enjoy living in a hotel for two weeks. not gonna lie, although it had its perks (food budget, room service, having someone else make your bed for you, etc), it got old pretty fast. i missed cooking my own food, having more than one room to sleep/eat/chillax in, and living out of a suitcase is not my favorite. but i've gotta tell you, living in THAT hotel was a treat in itself. if you haven't taken a look at it for yourself, you seriously need to. it's absolutely beautiful! it has multiple restaurants, shops, and even fountains with nightly fountain shows in the beautiful, open atrium. we were treated like royalty, and it was a great (and free!) experience for us.
here are some highlights while living in the hotel, and some adventures while exploring our new home:
this is INSIDE the hotel...amazing right?
needless to say, we love it here! please come and visit us while we are here, seriously. the monuments and most museums are completely free, and we would love to show you around!
oh right, and those halloween pictures of our little baby dino i promised...
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you're welcome.
f.y.i, peeps:
in a few short weeks, the three of us (john too, yay!) will be flying to washington state to see family and celebrate liam's first birthday! we are so excited to come home again and see family and friends. we cannot wait!
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