The Move Part 3: New York

We left for New York on April 16. Driving for hours with two kids is difficult and slow! Caden got car sick and threw up. Luckily the hotel we stayed at that night had laundry facilities. Gabe cried when he wasn't asleep because he wanted out of the car seat. We made it to Toledo the first day and stayed at The Holiday Inn.

Caden enjoyed jumping on th beds. He got a queen all to himself!

We had dinner at the restaurant in the lobby so we wouldn't have to get the kids back into the car. The food was very good.

Eating peas.

The next night we made it to Syracuse and stayed at the Hampton Inn. We had dinner at a delicious hibachi place called Ichiban. We didn't do the table show, though, because it was late and the family we would have sat with had unruly children. We plan on going back again sometime.

In the morning we made the short trip to Oneida. Justin met with HR and we got our temporary apartment, a furnished 2-bedroom, 1-bathroom. We shared a washer and dryer in the basement with the other tenants. The complex was located near train tracks, and Caden loved watching the trains go by all day.

We ended up staying there for nearly a month. It was really hard on me because I didn't care for our neighbors, I just wanted to know where we were going to be permanently, and I wanted to have my stuff! We didn't get much out of storage because we didn't have the room, we didn't want to repack, and we didn't expect to be there so long. We were supposed to have rented a house from Justin's tribe, but--unsurprisingly to me--drama closed that door. We looked around for other places, which proved somewhat difficult those first weeks because most rental places don't have front offices or signs, or even look like apartments. Also, we needed 2 bathrooms and washer/dryer hookups. After all was said and done, we ended up with a place we found while driving by that first week or two and which was luckily still available (next post will be about it).

The boys also had a hard time. Caden was cooped up in a tiny place with no friends and Gabe had no crib or high chair. They had plenty of toys, though, and a run to the dollar store got Caden lots of educational activities. Caden learned how to write his name all by himself.

There was also a park around the corner. We didn't get to go as often as we would have liked because it kept raining. The days we did go, there were other children for Caden to play with, thankfully.

Gabe's first time in the swing.

First time playing instead of watching from the K'tan.

We also found the library, and I devoured several books to ease the boredom. We discovered a shopping mall 25 min. away, a tiny health food store near that mall (oh, how I miss health-conscious Arizona!), and a delicious Chinese restaurant at the resort Justin works for.

May 7 the boys and I went to the first annual Taste of Oneida, where businesses set up booths and offered food and product samples. (This is how I discovered the Italian place we ate at for my birthday.) Caden got his face and hand painted.

For Mother's Day, Justin bought me these gorgeous flowers, a mouth-watering red velvet cupcake, and pecan bars.

Caden made me this at church:

Two days later we finally moved into our new place! What an enormous relief!