Packing Up & Shipping Out

Although we've known about our move to Korea for a few months, it seemed to sneak up on us a bit...we were prepared and ready to go, but it took a little while to settle in that we were actually moving half way across the world - it was full of tons of excitement, but also a little bit of sadness with all the people that we were going to miss! Our last few days in the States were a whirlwind of finalizing everything to get ready to go!

It was such a weird feeling to be selling a lot of things after we hadn't had them for very long - our grill, chest freezer, and our CARS! I had bought a Jetta Wolfsburg (with the Turbo engine - so much fun to drive!) when I graduated from college to explore Texas with and now I had to sell her. It turned out that my brother really wanted to buy it, so he flew down and drove her back up to Colorado which worked out really well. It was a fun bonding moment for Pedro and I when I handed him the keys to my (wait, now, HIS) sweet ride!

Ryan also sold his Honda Civic - it turned out to be quite the popular car...Ryan put it on Craigslist on Saturday morning and had a guy drive from 2 hours away to buy it before lunch the same day! It was crazy! He also sold his Texas sized truck...something tells me the cars won't be that big in Korea. ;)

We had already bought all of the supplies we wanted to take with us based on recommendations from other expats (deodorant, cold medicine, etc.) and organized everything into what was going and what was staying - we had a room full of what we were taking with us in our air shipment to Korea and then everything else was going to storage. The movers came on Monday to wrap and pack up our house! They did everything for us so we just hung out - it was a weird feeling to watch them boxing up everything we own while we just tried to stay out of their way...hopefully everything that we intended to come with us will get here and everything that wasn't goes to storage.

We had beautiful weather that day and our friend Kim brought us fish tacos and local ice cream so we could enjoy some Houston favorites before we left! We had a great afternoon hanging out and then got together that evening with many of favorite people in Houston for burgers and beers...it was great to see everyone (I wish I had taken a picture - I was just too excited to see everyone, I guess) and we will miss all of our friends in Houston! We also made some time for some other American favorites - Hooters wings and our favorite BJ's pizza (inclusive of my FAVORITE fried artichokes as shown below! :) )

Now our first house is empty, clean and ready for another family to enjoy for a couple of years while we're off exploring! :)

New England Trip!

One of the most important things that we had on our list to do before we left for Korea was to visit our friends and family in New England one more time. We flew out there for Easter Weekend and had such a wonderful visit - it was so nice to see everyone! We will miss everyone so much, but can't wait to swap stories on what's been happening when we come back to visit!

On Friday, the Prokops (well, soon to be Prokops...) graciously picked us up from the airport and let us stay with them! We headed out to dinner with some of our dearest friends in Boston. I can't even explain to you how great it was see all of them! We are lucky to have such wonderful people in our life! I wish I had taken more pictures but here are a couple from the dinner - thanks for meeting up with us! :)

 

On Saturday, we headed from Boston down to Ryan's family's house in Connecticut. Mama Kendrick had planned a big get together for us to see everyone before we leave. It was tons of fun - lots of food, hugs, margaritas, and plenty of laughs! Thank you to everyone for coming out to see us - we will miss you lots! 

We also spent a day with the Kendricks and took a hike up by their house...it was a beautiful day and we really enjoyed spending time with them! It was also complete with Ryan and Ben racing (Casey joined in, too) - I'm pretty sure Casey won! ;)

Last but certainly not least for our New England weekend, we headed to Nonni's house to spend some time with the Vozzolas! We had the famous Ad's pizza (Nonni's speciality) with a lovely salad made by Aunt Elly and some delicious cupcakes from Aunt Cilest! We were also pleasantly surprised to be joined by my cousin, Crystal, and her two super cute kiddos! You can see us all in the picture below :)

(Aunt Cathy and my cousin Peter joined us as well, but they sneakily left before the picture - we'll make sure to take another one with them in it next time!) 

My friend Vicki came to visit, too and it was great to see her! She's such a world traveler, I'm sure we'll see her in Asia some time! :) 

All in all, we had a fantastic weekend getting to see some of our favorite people! We caught the 6:15 AM flight out of Hartford back to Houston the next day - talk about an early morning and a long day, but it was well worth it to spend the spring weekend out in beautiful New England! Now to continue packing and getting ready...only a little more than week left!