I Hate Good-Byes...

***Greg is reading over my shoulder as I type this and just said, "I would have titled it 'Good Riddance." It's a good thing I do most (or all) of the blogging for our family.

The day we've been dreading all summer long came and my baby brother and his wife are gone. Sad, sad, sad. :( They moved to Connecticut where Brett will be attending school to become a Physical Therapist and Chelsea will work as a Marriage and Family Therapist.

Garrett and Abby adore Brett and Chelsea and are going to miss them so much. Abby points to their picture every day and says, "Bet...Sels." It's going to be a long 3 years.

My parents had a going-away BBQ for them. I always love the days when Greg gets the kids dressed...

Greg's baby sister, Mal Pal, also happened to be visiting from Virginia so she stopped by the party to give Brett and Chelsea a few tips about surviving life on the East Coast.

The entire Petersen crew...

A portion of the Falslev family...

Check out the static hair! Abby thinks she needs to either be in my dad's truck or on the tramp at all times when we are at my parents' house.

Greg's parents came up to visit and Brett gave Willy a nice going-away present--a lovely t-shirt commemorating Utah State's victory over BYU sometime in the 90s. It is even autographed by USU's quarterback. Willy was pretty excited. :)

The day before the big move, the kids and I went to SLC to have a farewell lunch with Mal and take her to the airport. I was so sad when we dropped her off. I got a huge pit in my stomach as we started pulling into the airport and I was afraid I was going to lose it and make her sad. Thankfully, Garrett was pretty excited to see the airplanes, so it was a nice distraction and we held it together, but I was just so sad to see her go. We miss her and Mike so much and now Brett and Chelsea have also left us. I can't take anymore of these departures!!!

We happened to be passing through Ogden right as Brett and Chelsea were loading their pod, so we stopped in to check things out. I won't even pretend like we were any sort of help, but we did enjoy being there. I still can't believe my dad and Chad fit all of their stuff into that one tiny pod. Somebody should make a reality TV show in which the contestants are given a big load of stuff to pack into a small space. I guarantee Sparky and Papa Chad would be millionaires.

They were determined to get this table in there, and sure enough, they did it! Chelsea kept telling them not to worry about it, but it was a lost cause. There was no way they were shutting that last door without the blasted table in there.

Greg was working out of town, so the kids and I stayed the night with Brett and Chelsea at my parents' house. We woke up early to bid them farewell and Susie cooked Brett his farewell breakfast request: french toast. Abby woke up and must have sensed they were leaving, because she wanted to be right in the middle of them. Thankfully, Garrett slept through it all, so he didn't have to watch them drive away.

And they're off!!!

Best of luck! We will miss you like crazy, but we really are excited for you and the adventures that lie ahead! You will do great.

Next blog post: Our spur-of-the-moment trip to YELLOWSTONE! My mom stayed in the house and couldn't bear to watch them drive away. I came back in and she was holding it together pretty well, but I could tell she was struggling. Greg was going to be gone for a few days and we were just going to be hanging out there, so I said to my mom, "Let's go to Yellowstone." She looked at me like I was crazy and then said, "Do you think we could get a room somewhere?" I got on the computer and made a few phone calls and had us a cabin booked about 15 minutes later. We called my sister and told her to pack her bags, and we were on our way that afternoon. Crazy, but seriously fun! I'll post the pictures soon.