Horseshoe Bend, AZ
WE MADE IT!
We are officially Texans! Does that mean I get to start saying y’all now?!
PCS’ing can be extremely stressful, as I sit here writing this I am grateful that my husband + I decided to make the most of our move + hit some bucket list spots we’ve had our eye on for a couple of years.
Before leaving Tacoma, we made sure to do a couple of things:
1. Completed the car weighing task. We went to the local Love’s to weigh the car completely empty. After weighing it empty we weighed it packed full of all of the items we were moving ourselves. Before the military I had no clue weighing anything other than a semi was a thing, but it is + that goes back to that DITY talk – when we told the Air Force we were going to move some of our stuff on our own, they told us they’d pay for up to 95% of that stuff. In order to get that money for our move we had to weigh the car empty + full. My husband will turn those weight tickets in once he starts in-processing at our final destination, so they can start the refund process.
2. Had a boozy brunch with our McChord besties. It sounds silly, but it’s easy in the middle of moving to get caught up in all of the details of what has to be done for the military that we sometimes lose sight of the fact we’re leaving people behind. People that were by our side when our spouse returned from deployment, people who we’ve spent holidays with, people we’ve celebrated milestones with. Cherish those last few days with them, after all they truly have become family.
Boozy Brunch: Tacoma, WA
Once we hit the road we had plenty of planned stops to keep us entertained. I would absolutely recommend scheduling a fun road trip + blocking off the time to do it (if you can). When I first moved to Tacoma from Iowa, time was not on my side due to my job, so we had to make a 31 hour trip in 3 days. My parents were the real MVPs of that road trip, goodness. This time around we stretched a 32 hour drive out over 7 days. We started in beautiful Walla Walla, WA for wine tasting, visited WAF Ambassador Anna and her fiance in Salt Lake City, headed straight for Vegas + spent 2 days there, stopped by the Hoover Dam, hit Grand Canyon National Park, stopped by Page, AZ to see Antelope Canyon + Horseshoe Bend, then cruised right through to San Antonio.
Antelope Canyon, AZ
Our goal for this trip was to take a bunch of fun pics so we could create a Shutterfly book for our first PCS move together. We plan to make this a tradition for all of our PCS moves + one day we can look back on what we could have let be a sad, inconvenient time with joy + gratitude.
Although the military is full of the unexpected, I wanted to share this little journey with you all as a reminder that these opportunities are what we make of them. I would have never moved to the Pacific Northwest if it weren’t for the military, I would’ve never met this incredible group of WAF women + I wouldn’t have been able to travel with my best friend + soak up this country’s hidden treasures. Seize the day girls, we’re growing leaps + bounds each time the military throws a kink in the plans.
Xo, Kirst
