1,214 Miles

After 1,214 miles and 36 hours later, we arrived at our new home in Clearwater, Florida!

Tuesday night, we headed to College Station. We stayed the night with Kristina and then left at about 5:30 Wednesday morning. This saved us two hours and we got to let the boys play together one last time.



So far the drive was fine, except for the speeding ticket on got in Conroe, Texas! Since we left so early, Cannon slept for about an hour. The next stop was Crowley, LA. We let Cannon and Blue play at a park and then we got Subway for lunch. At the park, Cannon got his first bee sting!










Louisiana was SO humid! Even Blue got tired after just a few minutes of chasing the frisbee.

Cannon slept again for about another hour. We then made our way to Slidell, LA where we stopped at a mall. Since Ryan was driving that huge truck, we ended up getting ahead of him. We played in the mall in a kids area for about 40 minutes until Ryan arrived.

Then we made our way to Foley, AL. This was a little detour, but we had to go to Ryan's favorite restaurant, Lambert's, home of the flying rolls! We had to wait a super long time to get in and Cannon was so over tired. He loved playing on the wooden train outside and eating the rolls, but he ended up having a meltdown in the restaurant and wouldn't eat his dinner. We ate quickly and then left. I felt bad for Ryan that we didn't get to have the experience he was hoping for, but maybe we'll get to return another time.





We left Lambert's at about 9:30. Cannon fell right to sleep in the car and slept all the way until we got to our hotel in Pensacola, FL, which was around 11pm. We were all exhausted and went right to bed.

The next morning, Ryan and I got up early to get a head start. We let Cannon sleep as long as he wanted, which was until about 7am. That was pretty good for him since he was sleeping in the same room while we were showering and making a lot of noise.

This next leg of the trip he was a little fussier, but not as bad as I had expected. We stopped in Lake City, FL at a McDonalds for lunch. The workers there were so nice to Cannon, like Chick-fil-a nice! He had brought in his Woody doll (his new favorite toy) and they were playing with him and saying how cute Cannon was. Cannon barely ate any of his lunch, but he did offer some to Woody. They had a great playscape inside, including basketball. I just let him play and not worry about his eating. I figured he could eat in the car if he wanted to. The lady sitting next to us had accidentally bought two too many hot fudge sundaes and she gave them both to me! I thought that was so nice of her and it made me think how nice the people in Florida are.

We met up with Ryan at a rest stop and brought him some lunch. Cannon fell right to sleep and slept for over two hours! This is by far the longest he has ever slept in his car seat! I was elated as this took up most of the drive!

We made it to our apartment at 5:30pm Thursday evening, which we learned is the worst time to do any sort of heavy outdoor activity. We were very happy to get here. About 10 people from church met us at our home to help unload our truck. I am extremely grateful for them! Cannon was so excited to see his stuff again. When he saw Ryan's car he started giggling and laughing. It was so cute!

The whole drive went better than I thought. Cannon did awesome as did Blue. Blue's vet has prescribed an anti-anxiety pill for her and it worked like a charm. She really just slept on her pillow in the back seat. We had brought a portable DVD player for Cannon, but I never used it. I probably should have pulled it out on that second day, but I forgot about it. I also thought he would never want to go in the car again, but he has never complained about being in the car or his car seat. The drive here was absolutely gorgeous! Louisiana was mostly bridges, swamps, and forests. Mississippi and Alabama were also really green. Everything was pretty exciting for me to see.

Now that we have been here for a few days, we are starting to settle in. Cannon is adjusting beautifully. We have been trying to prepare him for over a month. He seems to understand what is going on. There was a fish fry church activity on Friday and we went to that to meet people. We had a great time, ate delicious fish, and Cannon met a boy his age. Today we went to church and I met two other girls who just moved here too. Cannon was excited to go to nursery and didn't even care when I left him. I am just really pleased with the way everything is going! The house is still a mess, but most things are in their right places. Here's a sample of what things look like.

Front room, from the view of the door.


We will put the computer behind the couch when we get our computer armoire.


The dining room. The laundry room wasn't large enough to put the freezer and the washer/dryer, so it has to be here. The filing cabinet is just there for right now.


And the kitchen.


We are in a two bedroom townhouse, but it's two-stories. It feels a lot bigger than I thought it would. There is also a screened in balcony just outside of the front room area. Cannon likes to play with his basketball hoop and since it's all screened in, the balls never fall! There are also stairs that go down to a grassy area so he can run around and play with his baseball. This complex has three pools and a playground. We are also about 10-15 minutes away from some beautiful beaches, so we have lots of exploring to do this week!