it's a long road to Seattle

I know we are flying when we move to Seattle but it's still a long road.  We are down to less than 2 weeks and the to do list is still long.  Thankfully a big one is now crossed off the list as the kids and I have our visas to live in the US, hooray!  It started out with an early morning drive to Buffalo, included a long wait in the customs office and dealing with a customs agent who told me I had the wrong birth certificate forms for the kids (aarrgh).  After asking Jillian a few questions and talking to the agent who had processed Jeff's visa last week, the agent processed our visas and we were finally done.  Although I did crack up laughing when he had me raise my hand and start reciting the pledge of allegiance, it turns out he was just having a bit of fun with me (nice to know even serious customs agents have a sense of humour!).  A trip to two banks in the US to get some forms notarized, a grocery store stop to grab some snacks for the road, looping around the peace bridge entrance on the highway before finding the right turn and then we were back in Canada and headed home.

Some things we learned on our little road trip are:

* I'm far too dependent on electronics for keeping my kids entertained...no recording devices (i.e. phones/ipads) allowed in the customs waiting room.  Thankfully I found a pen and paper in my purse to play tic tac toe and hangman because that along with I spy, 20 questions and drawing on backs kept the kids entertained...it was kind of fun going old school for a few hours
* when forms list "birth certificate" as a document you will need for your children, they probably mean the long form which I did NOT bring with me
* in the grocery store we saw some cool new snack choices the kids will soon have for lunches (scooby snacks were a hit on the drive home)
* rush hour starts earlier than I thought (by 4 pm the roads were jammed...so glad I don't have to commute every day)

The next big item to cross off my list is selling the house (hopefully soon), and then more paperwork to move the van and our belongings since they will all be shipped separately from us.  But many other things are now done...packers and movers are booked, plane tickets are booked, a friend farewell party for the girls is booked at gymnastics, schools have been informed of last day and first day of school for my kids, house in Seattle will be closing next week which means we will officially own two houses (yikes), Jeff is working away and has a sweet view of the Seattle Space Needle from his office at work:



We are in the home stretch and things are moving along as well as can be...life is good!