Boxes on the way

Today the three europallets got picked up. They are on their way to Seattle - and we? We have just 1 day and 3 weeks left until we fly out of Europe. We arrive (probably) on the 11th, the boxes will arrive around August, 18th, with harbor handling, customs and so on, we will be probably get them on August 21st. Exciting! We hope to have a place to rent by then, but we are very confident.
Time is flying by, so little time left and still so much going to happen, to organize and do - freightening, but also very productive.

Two days ago on the weekend, the kids gave their farewell party. Even the weather turned to good for that afternoon. We had some fun games and a small BBQ - I personally really enjoyed the red wine at late afternoon, relaxing with friends, while the group of kids took over the garden - impossible to stop and great to watch. In the beginning everything was a little bit more organized. Katrin did prepare a match-box-cord-turning game, egg-on-spoon-run and the personal decoration of the crowns with the kids. They loved it. The group got along perfectly and they enjoyed all the gear they found in the garden.
Everyone brought a little to eat and thus we had a great BBQ at the end, though most of us were still full from all the cake, cherries and strawberries. That was the reason a couple of us mainly stuck to the red wine.
A sudden, but predicted, strong shower ended the event just at the right time to send the kids to bed. Otherwise we would have probably stayed even longer outside than we already did.

The only thing we are still waiting for are our flight tickets - since I insisted on direct flights, due to traveling with 3 minor children and the prices went up since the original travel authorization got approved - the travel authorization has to be checked again ... and it takes ages - at least it feels like ages if your luggage is on the way, a holiday home booked, money invested and you still got no ticket for that day!!!
We keep our fingers crossed, we might get the positive mail to night ... we hope!

Major Packing

Less than 1 month to go, until we fly out of Germany.

The last two days have been very busy - most items, household goods and other stuff that goes via container had to be packed. The 2 large cartboard containers did arrive in time last thursday and we packed 4 cubic meter (140 cubic feet) onto 2 europallets and got much more into the boxes than we expected. Since we plan to send 6 cubic meter (3 europallets - 210 cubic feet) this gives us the opportunity to send more than planned. We will see how fast these last approximate 10 boxes fill. So far we did fill 2 huge and 6 small boxes (equivalent to 22 small boxes). Most awkward to pack were the bikes: 2 bikes, 1 racing bike, 1 bike trailer, 2 children bikes, 3 helmets and bike tools in a box 120 cm x 80 cm x 90 cm .... we managed, though it took us several attempts to get them all in. We needed to remove all wheels, saddles, carriers and handle bars to get them in - these went into the same box, but all detached from the bikes. I only hope I padded my racing bike sufficiently ;-).

We used up already 30 m of duct-tape and more to come. Just by chance we got the opportunity to borrow heavy duty strap to fix the cartboard boxes on the europalettes, saves me from solely trusting into this hand strech foil.

After all we are less exausted and further in time than we expected to be tonight. Giving us atleast a little bit of time to relax. The twins did stay overnight at a friends place and Narne was not a big handicap during packing - as long as you make funny faces at him from time to time he is giggeling a lot. Luckily no box fell onto him.


After we picked Theda and Jonte back up again, they needed a lot of exra attention, since they were really tired and found the nearly empty flat and haven't seen us for some time ... . After we managed that they really had fun seeing the huge boxes and all the other stuff that lies around during relocations as you can see :-)!

Now I will have some wine, and prepare for another day of packing, tomorrow all my scientific books and office folders in university will be packed - I wonder how many boxes I will come up with in the end. As well my department has getaway day, hiking and then a nice BBQ on the beach, due to all this packing I will skip the hiking and join them later. Looking foreward to that retreat!