Day 1 - Travel to Columbia

Hi everyone,

We moved to Columbia, Maryland! Well, for a few months that is. Sorry to those of you we weren't able to inform personally. It was only a short while ago that we found out about the opportunity through Toby's work at Pure Technologies and we haven't been great at getting the news out.

I hope to post every day since I try to take pictures every day anyway and I think it will be fun.

So, here goes Day 1 of our adventure! ...

Overall our day went very smoothly, despite all my worrying. My mom and dad arrived to pick us up at 5:30 AM (they are saints!). Of course I was still running around finding last minute items to throw into suitcases at the last minute. Some things will never change! But luckily the preparation we have done in the last few weeks really paid off and we were able to get a good night's sleep to be ready for the day. Thanks to everyone for the help, especially Sue, Chris, Mike and Val and to Andy and Michelle for the little going away soiree. We are very grateful for all the help and well-wishes.

The flight attendants allowed Julian to go into the cockpit and sit in the captains chair! I was back trying to schlep all our stupid bags, etc onto the plane so he was basically in there by himself. I got in there to take a few pictures. Unfortunately Toby got the row number and the gate number mixed up so we were all settled in row 32 with the car seat installed when we realized we needed to move up two rows! Oops! Toby is really good at installing that car seat now!

Except for kicking the seat in front of him basically the entire flight, Julian was awesome. With lots of snacks, milk and juice he was happy to basically hang out. We were soooo lucky.

The break in Denver was much needed. Julian enjoyed the moving sidewalks and the birds IN the terminals. We fueled up on more snacks and ran off some energy.

The second flight was a bit longer and a bit harder for Julian. He fell asleep just as we were descending and woke up 5 minutes later because his ears hurt from the pressure change. But he hung in there! Here he is on arrival. Yay! We are here!

Toby's boss Adam picked us up with the Pure technologies truck (luckily, since we had so much stuff) and drove us to the rental place and then to our apartment. He was very kind to give up his evening to help us and gave us a lot of great info about the area.

Our apartment is great! Adam didn't believe that we liked it as much as we did! It is bigger than I thought it would be with two bedrooms a living/dining room with room for Juilan to move around and play and a decent kitchen with a small area we might put a little table and chairs for Julian. There are two bathrooms so Julian even gets his own! The best part is that Julian's room has two single beds - perfect for guests! (Julian would probably share his bathroom too). There are two balconies, one looks into a small wooded area. Looking forward to sitting out there once we get some cheap patio chairs. The downside - carpet. Carpet + Julian = lots of carpet cleaner. See him walking around with his juice box in the pictures below?

Anyway, the suitcases exploded in the living room as I tried to find Julian's PJ's, toothbrush etc. He was exhausted but such a trooper as we did bedtime routine and he was asleep in less than ten minutes. What a guy. I need to get unpacking and organizing.

Looking forward to exploring the area and picking up some staples tomorrow.