Texas, here we come

I had to make the title of this post "Texas, here we come" because a few days before we moved, Mom, Ella and I were in the car driving back to Mom's house and out of the blue, Ella said from the backseat "Texas, here I come!" - it was so funny, I have no idea where she heard it, or what made her think of it, but I don't think I'll ever forget it.

We had an 11am flight on Thursday the 15th. We had a few hours in the morning before we needed to leave for the airport, and of course Mom and Glenn were extremely helpful in getting us packed and out the door. Even though I had given as much as I could to Steve when he drove out a few weeks before, I still had way more to bring than what was going to fit in two under-50 pound suitcases, and so Mom ended up having to ship several boxes for me and my suitcases were well under the limit at 40 pounds each :).

Ella with Grammy and Grampy the morning of our flight


Mom and Glenn took us to the airport, and it was hard and sad to say good-bye. But they have already booked their first trip out here so it's very nice to already have a date that we know we'll see them in just a few weeks.





Mom texted this one to Steve of Ella and I in the security line


On the first flight, the only two seats together were the two in the way back, beyond the windows, so Ella couldn't look at the window, but well worth it in order to be sitting together



Ella did great on the plane and was really funny talking to the flight attendant. She was young and pretty and Ella instantly liked her. She gave Ella a pin of flight wings, and Ella wanted to see hers so I could pin hers on the same way. I pinned it on her and the flight attendant asked about her necklace.

Ella said "I made it, it's from my friend Tess's birthday."
Flight attendant: "Oh that is neat, how old was she?"
Ella: "She turned 4, just like me, I am 4."
Flight attendant: "When was your birthday?"
Ella: "January 5th, when is yours?"
Flight attendant: "Oh wow, mine is January too, it's January 31st"
Ella: "I had my party at BounceU, where was your party?"
Flight attendant: "I went to New Orleans for my birthday."
Ella, "Oh, you couldn't have a jumping party because you're too big and would pop the jump houses?"
Flight attendant: (Suddenly remembered something she had to do somewhere else on the plane...)

The downside of sitting in the very last row is that we were the last off the plane. Ella was very ready to get off once we had landed...


When we got to the airport in Atlanta, I had to wait at the gate counter to try to get our tickets changed so we could sit next to each other and I let Ella sit in the row of seats right by the counter. There was a girl on the phone for several minutes sitting a few seats over. When she got off, Ella walked right up to her and said "who were you talking to on the phone?" The girl, surprised but amused, said "my mom". Ella said "Oh, what's her name" The girl said, "her name is Shria." Ella said "oh, what's your name?" The girl said "My name is Shria." Ella said "NO - I said what's YOUR name?" The girl said, "Yes, my name is Shria." Ella (annoyed) said "but that's the same name!" The girl said "Yes, me and my mom have the same name." Ella: "oh"...and moved on to her next victim.

The lucky person was a girl in her late teens or early twenties who wasn't wearing any shoes. Ella wanted to know why she had taken her shoes off and had she asked her mom (who she was not traveling with) if it was OK before she took them off. Then she wanted the names of the girl's Mom and Dad. She used to ask everyone what they were having for dinner, but lately she is much more curious about the names of everyone and the names of their family members.

Our second flight Ella got to sit by the window


Very excited about the trip


We landed around 3:30 pm and Steve was waiting for us at the airport. Ella was so excited to see him and really eager to check everything out. She kept saying "Is this Texas?" We drove to the apartment and she wanted to see Cory, but was mostly interested in where all her toys were.

In her new bedroom


We took Cory for a walk and walked all around the apartment complex. It was in the low 80s and there were already people swimming in the pool, and then we stopped at the playground for a few minutes





We were all exhausted that night and went to bed early, here she is sleeping on her first night in the apartment


So - we made it safe and sound and all is going well. I have lots of pictures from our first week that I'll be posting soon!