The countdown to moving day has officially begun: 10 days until we say farewell to Ireland.  That’s it. Ten more days to sort and organize and pack and plan and play. We’ve been living in the middle of a whirlwind here, but I thought I’d take a moment to come up for air and fill you in on our latest updates.

Last night we (finally) booked our flight back to the States. We’ll be flying into Seattle before heading down to California so we can spend a few weeks visiting friends and family. We’ll also spend some time in Washington meeting with the movers who will handle our U.S. shipment and organizing our belongings there (the majority of our household goods and furniture are still packed into our garage in Everett).

Since we want to maximize our time in Seattle before Jon starts his new job, we decided to book a flight for the evening of Jon’s last day of work here in Ireland (June 25th). We’ll actually have to spend the night in London that night so we can catch a morning flight to Seattle the next day (which also happens to be Jacob’s 2nd birthday, lucky little duck!). I can already tell that our travel home will be an adventure in and of itself–but who would we be if we didn’t keep things a bit interesting?

Today was another momentous date in our moving timeline. Our dog, Bota, blazed the trail home for us and left for her flight to Seattle. The boys were great helpers getting Bota’s travel kennel clean and testing it out for comfort and durability.

We are so thankful to Apple who is not only moving us and our stuff all over the world, but also moving our precious dog. A handler came to our house this morning to pick up Bota and drive her to Dublin for her first flight. We said our goodbyes (tearful as they were) and off they went.

Bota will spend the night in Frankfurt tonight, and then catch another flight to Seattle tomorrow morning. If everything goes according to plan, she’ll be running around in my parents’ backyard by dinner time tomorrow.

After the boys go to bed each night Jon and I have been spending time returning phone calls to our moving coordinators in the U.S., filling out customs paperwork, reviewing rental agreements for our short-term corporate housing, completing tax documents, scheduling flights and submitting expense reports. It’s a lot to sort through, but Apple has been amazing and we are so grateful to have their help every step along the way!

In the midst of all of our crazy, we’ve also squeezed in some last-minute fun this week.

After countless visits this year, we went for our final trip to Fota Wildlife Park:

And, even though we’ve been to Fota dozens of times, the animals just seem to get cuter and cuter every time we go:

I attended a baby shower for my dear friend, Rachel:

We went for a family walk on a sunny Sunday afternoon:

I am happy to report that I have now completed my Ireland” Bucket List”. I crossed the last must-do-in-Ireland item this week when we visited our friend’s Irish dairy farm and got to drink fresh milk straight from the cows:

We even took the little cross-river ferry to Cobh where we helped send off an Australian cruise ship from the same port where Titanic last docked:

 

I still can’t believe that we only have 10 days left in Ireland, but we’re going to make the most of the time we still have. Here’s to the best (last) 10 days ever!