Thanks a lot Canada...

It figures we have the most mild winter EVER in the history of winters... I think in Toronto we had 2 snowfalls that actually stuck to the ground.  Of course, the night we leave, there's snow and freezing rain, complete with salt trucks on the QEW.

  We think it was Canada's way of saying "Screw you for leaving!"

We found this gem of an iceberg when we stopped for gas in Erie...

The best part about making it over the border and coming to Cleveland was seeing our boys, Wrigley and Fenway.  My mom had taken them so we wouldn't have to worry about them while we were packing and living like Hoarders, and finishing up stuff in Toronto.  We missed them like crazy, but a huge thanks to Patty because we never would have been able to do it without her having them at "Spring Training."

We were worried they wouldn't remember us, or give us the cold shoulder when we got here...  Wrigley had a little attitude at first, but clearly, they got over it!

Now that the house is packed and we are on a 6 week "vacay," we can relax a little bit and enjoy our travels.  

So here we are, starting out our wicked trip in the great city of Cleveland, and I, of course, could not be happier!  We have a lot of fun things planned for our couple weeks here with two weeks in between traveling to a bunch of other fantastic cities, so stay tuned!

What do you get when you save all your loonies and toonies for 4 years?

A moving van of course!

I've always been a change saver.  Ever since my first job at Bob Evans, I have always saved change.  It's like free money that you didn't know you had.  When I moved to Canada, it was even better because of loonies and toonies.  Jackpot!  Then when we realized we were going to start filing paperwork and moving to California we knew we were going to need a moving van and it wasn't going to be cheap.  We began really buckling down and saving change.  A $2 coffee?  Paid with a $5 bill... A pack of gum?  Paid with a $5 bill... etc...

So Lucas and I had a change rolling party with a bottle of wine and these:

We dumped it all out and began sorting...

At the end of the day, we had rolled $2300 in change!  It.was.awesome!  The bank kinda hated us when we took in three money boxes full of coin, but at least we rolled it for them.

So we began with all of this after we were finished packing up the house.

We sold most of our furniture and still had this much "stuff."  It's crazy how much you accumulate when you're in the same place for 4 years!  

Will from ABF dropped off the 28' trailer, however we only were able to use 10' of the space, as every foot you went over was extra money.  The rest they may or may not load with freight and they drive it down and store it for us until we get there.

Lucas' parents and brother came down to help load everything up.  We definitely couldn't have done it without them!

Lucas was amazing at strategically packing everything so we maximized every inch of the ten feet, so it ended up looking like this: 

Will came back to pick up the trailer later that afternoon.

And we watched as all our belongings drove away.

It was kinda weird to watch everything you own being taken away in a giant truck to not be seen for 6 weeks... we'll see what happens when we get it back... keep your fingers crossed!

Welcome to America, F***er!

After a whopping 8 months, Lucas became a permanent resident of the United States of America!  How did we celebrate?  At an airport bar with some Bloody Marys of course!

We were headed to San Diego to find our apartment for when we get there in May, which we did... 200 feet from the beach!! :D

See you soon SD!