This is it, folks. Moving week. It’s been a weekend of hotel living, farewells and, of course, Father’s Day – one for the books. I’ve honestly mostly lost track of the days of the week at this point, except for the fact that I know we clear housing on Tuesday, and our flight is on Wednesday. Our days are no longer about the days of the week, themselves, but rather what needs to be accomplished on those days.
We moved into our hotel on Friday evening after the cleaners came through the house. The kids usually do pretty well in a hotel, and this has honestly been a welcome change of pace having furniture again (yes, even in cramped quarters). It’s been nice to have a proper bed, enjoy a couch, sit on a chair, and just relax in comfort. While we loved our little home, it became less of a home and more of a house when all our stuff went away.
The first of our farewells happened on Friday with our good friends, the Mealys, heading off towards their new adventure in Chicago. I like to joke that it’s easier to be the one leaving than being left, and I told them I was low-key upset that I had to bid them adieu rather than the other way around. Then, we broke our hearts all over again when we had to say “see you later” to the Hinojosa family, our forever hiking buddies, last night as they head off on a summer holiday to see their families. It hurt a lot, in all honesty, but how lucky are we to have friends who make saying goodbye so very hard?
Father’s Day wasn’t really a true celebration of Ryan, per se. Lucky him, this PCS fell right in the middle of a PCS and, like all things military, the obligations of this lifestyle kind of supersede all the normal daily life kind of stuff. We still managed to give him a gift, enjoy a great meal with the Hinojosas before they left, and savor our last days here together.
The combination of hotel living, farewells, and Father’s Day make for days to remember. I always seem to forget how all-consuming PCSing is but I know that, once on the other side of this, the chaos will dull, the ache will be a little less, and the adventures will begin anew. The wild ride is just beginning.
