Welcome to Virginia! (lots of pictures...)

Monday (the 4th) was a pretty long day for us. It went as well as could be expected.  Here are the highlights:
*Everyone up at 6 am
*Drove 2.5 hours to the airport (and got to see Sophie and Kinz for about 3 minutes!)
*Got there just in time to rush through security
*Managed to forget one of my bags in the security line
*Made it to our gate in time for a bathroom break before boarding (very exciting)
*3.5-hour flight (from Phoenix to Atlanta) was tiring, but without incident
*Rode the train in Atlanta between terminals
*1.5 hour flight from Atlanta to Norfolk (with cranky, whiny kids and mommy)
*Sat on the tarmac for 1.3 hours while they tried to decide which gate to give us
*Saw about 3 fireworks out the plane windows
*Got to see Grandpa Kerrigan in the airport since his flight was extremely delayed
*Kids fell asleep on the way to Suffolk (where we were staying) and we got to bed about 1:30 am (EST)

I didn't take any pictures because I was too busy, and when I DID get the camera out I took video to stick into our family videos.

Tuesday evening we finally got into our apartment in Chesapeake. We tried earlier in the day, but apparently they decided to install new carpet. No complaints there, but it did push things back a bit. That night at 6 we were super grateful that over 10 people from our new ward showed up to help move everything in. It was overcast, but super warm and very humid. I didn't even carry very many things up the stairs; I was kept busy just trying to keep the kids out of the way (Katy wanted to be held, of course, with all the strangers and the strange place) and trying to direct boxes into the appropriate parts of the house.  A few guys even stayed to help put together the beds so we could at least have that done, since it was already 7 pm.  Of course being on west coast time, our kids didn't go to bed until 11 the first two days...
For moms and sisters, here are a bunch of pictures we took Tuesday evening (right after we moved in).

The den. Read: computer room, storage room, playroom. Eventually.

The living room end

The dining room end/coat closet. (with silly kiddos in front)

The tiny kitchen. We're about done fitting everything in...

The laundry closet

The bathroom. Without drawers, but a little larger space-wise than the last few.

Looking into the kids' room



Our new-to-us bunkbeds. So much fun!



The kids have been enjoying re-discovering lots and lots of toys!

Our apartment is a little bigger than we expected from the floorplan (except the kitchen; it's about the size I expected - tiny!) and the paint and carpet is fresh, so we were pleasantly surprised. We're close to pretty much everything, including an elementary school/playground across the street, and the library about a block away. Jeremy's work is just down the road.

I'll post more pictures in a week or two when things are looking more like a house and less like a version of the t.v. show "Hoarders..." Things are already much better 2 days later, but we still have some work to do...

After working on the house all day Wednesday we needed to get out for a bit, so we checked out the mall. (Less than a mile away)  The playplace there isn't terribly great, but Katy thought it was awesome. She thought she was so big, and kept climbing all over the butterfly.

I didn't try to get her to pose. That's all her...

As we headed out of the mall it started raining. It was raining pretty good, but it didn't seem to be letting up, so we headed for the car anyway. As SOON as we stepped off the sidewalk it started pouring. POURING.  We were actually super close to the door, but we were still completely soaked by the time we got into the car. Like everyone had to change when we finally got home. Really really wet. It's been a while since we've dealt with rain like that! The older kids weren't sure they were going to survive, and Katy couldn't figure out what in the world was happening. She's only seen rain maybe once, I think. If that.

We attempted our first beach trip today, but we neglected to check the weather, and went down (about a 25 minute drive) during a huge rainstorm. It wasn't -actually- raining when we parked on Atlantic Avenue, but there was still thunder and lightning in the not-too-distant distance, and lifeguards were preventing anyone from actually going out onto the beach. We got to walk up and down a bit of the boardwalk, and it would have still been really enjoyable had our kids (mostly Reilly) not been grumpy and whiny. So it was only semi-enjoyable. We're hoping to try again soon.

We got wet on the way back to our car, but not nearly as wet as Wednesday. We did deal with torrential downpour about 30 of the 40 minutes it took us to get home. (between the weather and rush hour traffic) Pretty crazy, after having only seen rain like twice in the last 8 months.We need to buy more umbrellas...