maracas

She sure loved it when Joe gave these to her to play with!!

Nora all over the place!!

Ginger is pretty indifferent to her at the moment but she usually gets up and walks away and then Nora goes after her again!

Late Thanksgiving

I felt bad that Joe had to spend Thanksgiving by himself with Ginger, and that all he got to eat was mac and cheese. So I decided to make him a Thanksgiving dinner the Sunday after I got here. It took a ton of work, but was fun! I spent almost all day Saturday and Sunday making stuff. I made homemade stuffing from this recipe and this yummy chicken. I even made apple pie- what a lucky guy Joe is :-) 

This is the best chicken/turkey ever!

Nora slept through the whole thing which was something to be Thankful for !

Joe's Recap: Moving to NM & Settling in

I'm not a blogger so forgive me is this turns out terrible.  I just thought I'd share what's been going on in our lives from a little different perspective.

Professional Movers:
So we've never hired movers before and had no idea what to expect.  Savanna's new job paid moving expenses so we figured it'd be stupid not to.  The first problem was that our initial delivery window was 4 to 14 days from loading.  We'd been planning to drive together in the Subaru just after Thanksgiving.  Savanna's employer had moved her start date back a little so she could spend the holiday with family since we were moving so far away.  But starting a new job and moving into a new place with a baby and none of our stuff but what fit in the car with Savanna and I, Nora, and the dog sounded like a nightmare.  The solution was to move our loading date up to November 16th and I would drive with the dog to meet the movers while Savanna and Nora stayed with Mom & Dad Bryant. Then they would fly to Silver City after Thanksgiving.

The movers told us they'd pack us on the 15th and load the truck on the 16th.  Imagine our surprise when the guys show up early on the 15th with a truck.  We scurried like crazy to get all the things we needed to survive the next week or two with no stuff as the movers packed and loaded our stuff.  We cleaned the house with the help of some very nice ladies from church and camped out on the living room floor.

The Drive:

I had hoped to be able to leave for NM after Thanksgiving, but the movers told us that the expected unload date was the 20th, so on the morning of the 16th Savanna, Nora, Ginger and I loaded all our luggage, sleeping bags, etc. into the car.  Poor Ginger had to ride to Idaho Falls in the back between two sleeping bags and Nora was boxed in by suitcases.  I dropped Savanna and Nora off in Idaho Falls and drove on to Payson, UT where I stayed with my uncle Bob and aunt Louise.  5pm traffic in SLC drove home that I'd been living in a very small town for too long.  

The next day I drove to Kanab, UT where my cousins work for a huge animal rescue facility.  Maybe you've seen Dogtown on TV.  That's the place.  I caught the corners of Bryce and Zion National parks along the way.  Beautiful drive.  I wish I'd stopped to take pictures.  At the Best Friends Animal Society, I met with Keeley and decided to stay the night with her and Alex instead of driving another hour to where I planned to stay the night.  Took Ginger for a hike and took lots of pictures while I waited for Keeley and Alex to get off work.

The next morning I left around 9:30am and got to Silver City around 8pm.  I drove across the Glenn Canyon Dam which is the beginning of the Grand Canyon and through lots of reservations in AZ and up through a pass into NM that must have been around 9,000 feet.  Beautiful pine forests.

The movers showed up on the 20th as expected.  I spent the next 6 days unpacking stuff and taking Ginger for a hike.  There is a sweet trail system about 5 minutes from our house in the Gila National Forest.

Savanna's Return:

Savanna was supposed to get here on the 26th, but her flight was delayed in SLC and so she missed her flight from Albuquerque to Silver City and had to stay in a hotel that night.  Delta was kind enough to pay for her room, but we were both really bummed out.  I was especially missing her and Nora after spending Thanksgiving alone.  Well, I had the dog, but she's not much for conversation.

The next morning, I drove 30 minutes to the smallest airport I've ever seen to pick Savanna and Nora up.  It turns out that they were the only passengers on the plane.  It was a joyous reunion.  Nora had grown and changed quite a bit in the week and a half since I'd seen her last.

Home in Silver City:

Nora learned to crawl and sit up by herself while they were in Idaho Falls.  It blows my mind how many places she gets to and things she gets into now.  Ginger will never get any peace, Nora chases her around the living room (at a slow crawl) and tries to put her ears or tail in her mouth.  Ginger just patiently bears it and looks up at me like, "save me, please"?

(videos when I can figure out why there's and upload error)

The weather here has been beautiful.  Mid to low 60's every day and high 30's at night.  Savanna got here on Tuesday and still didn't have her NM hygiene license and was really stressed about it.  It came in the mail Wednesday afternoon and she started work on Friday.  She spend most of the day yesterday preparing me a belated Thanksgiving feast for today.  I'm so excited for the food, but more than anything, I'm thankful to have my family together again.  If you got through all this, give yourself a gold star for patience with my epic rambling tale.  Greeting from New Mexico.  -Joe