Catching Up

Here’s a quick summary of what the Hales have been doing since we left Seattle.

The big unrecorded event that happened before we left was Susanna’s fourth birthday.  It feels like ages ago.  Susanna chose to have a pink sprinkle doughnut from our favorite doughnut shop instead of a cake (Top Pot Doughnuts).  This has been a difficult move for her—Seattle is the only home she has known—but this little sweetheart has been a real trooper.  From the moment we first mentioned it to her, she courageously embraced the idea of moving and has done a fantastic job of rolling with the punches these past couple of months.

We took our time moving across the country.  Our first stop after leaving home was Boise where some good friends patiently hosted us for a night.  It was fun to see them again, even if we arrived five hours late, covered in vomit, and very hungry.  Our next stop was Salt Lake City.  We did a lot of fun things there—including a spectacular but undocumented trip to Bryce Canyon.  Here’s a photograph of Andrew dancing to campfire songs at Millcreek Canyon in Salt Lake City.

After Salt Lake City, we went on to Denver where we stayed a few days with Scott’s sister and her family.  This photograph was taken on a hike somewhere near Boulder, I think.  If you look closely, you can see Andrew’s head above Scott’s left shoulder.

We basically went from Denver to Atlanta as fast as we could.  For us, that meant three days of driving.  We fell into a schedule of eating breakfast and then swimming at the hotel, driving until 12:30 or so Utah time, eating lunch at a park, driving until around 4:00 or so, and then setting up a laptop for a video presentation, and then stopping around 6:00 for dinner.  This photograph was taken at our lunch in Tennessee.

After arriving in Atlanta, we stayed at a hotel for a week while we looked for a place to live.  That was a challenge, but with a lot of help from Disney’s Jungle Book we survived.  Creative Susanna decided to go swimming several times (both in the real pool and on our bed), here she added an additional swimsuit over the regular one made of a grocery bag. 

Our most recent news is that Susanna now goes to school.  She attends a small community preschool about half a mile away.  Again, my little girl has a big transition to make.  Even though she loves it, the unfamiliarity is very anxiety producing and it is incredible to see her trying so hard to be brave in the face of this wonderful new adventure.