Saying Goodbye is Bittersweet

Time for Chloee to live where she is supposed to live.  With her Daddy, and her new Mommy.  Plain fact and truth.  Did it make it any easier for me to say goodbye?  Actually........... yes.  Still hard, don't get me wrong - I already miss that little turd, but watching her be where she should and wants to be is a HUGE blessing!

After our sleep night out on the tramp, we loaded up early, Chloee said goodbye to her uncle's and future aunts and we hit the road.

bye tuffy and 'antana

bye wookie

GAH!!!

biggest squeeze ever!

 Splenda made the wise choice of actually sleeping at home in bed so he was alert and ready for the long drive. 

We made a potty break in Scipio and what did we find?  A petting zoo!  Talk about a nice way to break up the trip a little bit

this little guy had such a thing for her!  He wanted to be petted and loved on!

We made it to St George and stopped for a nice lunch with our besties the Bland's.  They were there heading out for a cruise the next day, so it was fun to catch them down there and break bread.

We then loaded a movie in the laptop and headed out across the hot, loooooong desert.  I will state for the record right now.  I HATE THAT DRIVE!  Okay, the Virgin River gorge is pretty, but once you get past that, I pretty much wanted to spork my eyes out.  Chloee?  A champ!  Seriously the best traveler kid I have ever seen.  And I drove my kids across that desert lots of times.  She is the bomb.com!

Vegas got us some gas, some drinks, some stretching of the legs and a potty break, then it was back in the car and more boooorrrrrring desert.  Not until you come around to San Bernadino does it get visually appealing again.

We cruised into Camp Pendleton and only after a little hassle from a Marine that was ticked he was working the weekend, we finally pulled into Corb and Kar's place.  Tired, hungry and wanting to be out of the car like you wouldn't even imagine!

But OH......to see Chloee's face light up when she saw her parents!!!!  So priceless.  So wonderful!

We ordered a pizza - unloaded her entire life and basically relaxed.  They have a great air mattress and it never felt better to stretch out and make my body long again!

Sunday morning (my actual birthday) - they made it so special for me!  A special breakfast and more presents!

We spent the next several hours just chillin and relaxing.  Watching and playing with Chloee and enjoying her settle right in.

Later in the afternoon, we headed to Oceanside and the pier for lunch.  How GORGEOUS!

The restaurant is an old style burger joint called Ruby's

After the nice meal on the pier and watching the waves and fisherman, it was time to head back and for Splenda and I to head home.

I promised not to cry and I didn't.  How could I when she looked so dang happy?

At least I waited until we pulled away to cry.  How can you be so happy for her and feel so sad for yourself?  I'll work through it.

Splenda and I decided to bust straight through.  I introduced him to the wonder, of Satan's sauce; Crack in a can ; the wonderful Low-Carb Monster.  Yeah, they carried us through until we pulled in to SLC at 4:15am

We've had a skype session that was fun and I am frantically trying to work it out so that we can go back labor day weekend.  We miss her terribly, but know that she is exactly where she should be.  Now, we go back to finding some sort of new normal and plot how we can spoil her rotten!!

**thankfully Kar has started a blog so we can keep up on all the Chloee adventures http://karscorner.blogspot.com