You can see the mountains from our window!

Well, we made it, Anika and I by plane and Armando via a ridiculously long and masochistic drive through middle America, with his brother as co-pilot and the flotsam and jetsam from our apartment banging around in the back of the SUV.  They made one pit stop somewhere outside of Columbus, Ohio, but otherwise drove as if on a mission to cross a finish line somewhere.  Anika handled her travels well, with a bit of fussing before getting on the plane (and me warding off some dirty looks in the process) but otherwise lulled to sleep by the engine's white noise and oblivious to the fact that she was someplace new until we disembarked in Denver and she was suddenly all saucer-eyed at the lights on the way to baggage claim.  And I'll tell you what else: nothing says 'help me' like hauling what you thought was a light load of carry-on baggage with baby in a sling across your aching body.

In retrospect, we were probably a bit crazy to attempt a cross-country move with a two month-old, but then again we usually don't dilly-dather between decision-making time and the actual event.  To our DC friends who helped us move and brought boxes and held the baby so I could shovel Chinese take-out into my mouth, we owe you big time.  And we are missing you already.

We are also missing a few things that didn't make it in the move, including Armando's wedding band.  We assume that we'll find it approximately three seconds after we spring for a new one, and we are attempting to see humor in this irony and remind ourselves that whatever got left behind is just stuff.  We had too much of it anyway.  Lord knows what we'll do with the rest of it when it arrives on March 11.

So here we are, suitcases strewn about, with mountain views through our bedroom window, and Anika with two new people to dote on her.  Aunt Laura and Uncle Eli are fun new faces to coo at and are the two newest additions to the "ooh, can I hold her?" roster.  Their resident cats Husker and Buster, however, are not so sure.  They creep up to Anika's general vicinity and then dart off as if they've seen a ghost.  Poor little Anika doesn't even notice they are there at this point, but I have a feeling the cats will like her even less when she figures out how to pet them and pull their tails.

We went out exploring yesterday and will do more of the same this afternoon, to check out neighborhoods and see what kinds of places make us feel most at home as we get our bearings in this new open landscape.  In the meantime, we are happy refugees who will be house-sitters for Eli and Laura while they vacation in China.