"thank you for my new home"

So there's this song on Josie's favorite show Word World that always gets stuck in our heads.  Duck helps Caterpillar find a new place to live. And whenever he tries a new house he sings this really sweet "thank you for my new home" song. And the three of us have been singing our own versions of the song all weekend. Anyway, that's the long way of saying that we are in our new house. And we're madly in love with it.  Josie has been wonderful. I'd say she's about 90% happy with the move.  (Last night as I was putting her to bed she said "this place doesn't have a long hallway so we have to move back to the condo."  She got close to tears, but quickly recovered as I switched her focus to the birds outside the window "saying good-night.")
I promise we'll post pictures soon. As you can imagine, it's a little insane trying to dig ourselves out from under all the boxes! 
**Special thanks to everyone who helped us out with the move - especially my mom & dad who did everything from keeping Josie in Xenia to helping us pack & unpack and lots of sweaty odd-jobs here at the new house. We are so grateful. **

Update

In the interest of full disclosure...we are moving tomorrow and we still have not packed a single box. That's right folks. Not.a.single.solitary.box.
In other news, Josie spent Memorial Day weekend in Chicago with Tia, Tio, Lyla, Grandma & DD while Lou & I went to Molly & Dave's wedding, where we also got to hang out with Cat & Brandon. (I know. How lucky are we?!)  There will be lots of pics soon at www.threeaustins.blogspot.com and I promise there are some really good ones. So, head on over there!
We close on our house tomorrow morning and will likely be sans-technology until at least Monday.  If you get a minute over the weekend, send us some extra patience, strength, super-human powers or whatever you got.  I think we're gonna need it! 
(The next post will be from our new house! And we'll be sending out notecards soon with our new address, so keep your eye out for those.)

It's the final countdown!

(um, we're actually down to 9 days...and.still.not.a.single.box.packed.)

(at the moment, the only point the supplies are serving is to entertain miss josie. and this is the only point they will continue to serve until we are back from our trip to madison, wisc on tuesday. one of our favorite people in the world is getting married & nothing will prevent us from missing that...especially not a measly stack of empty boxes.)

One more (I think!?)

I think this will be the last St. Thomas post.  These are the photos from my "little camera" and I just realized they contain some gems. So, here ya go. Enjoy!

Oh holy iguanas! These guys were everywhere! In the grass, in the trees, at the pool, in the pool. (And to think we thought it was something special when we saw two dogs barking at a iguana on our drive in from the airport. We had no idea we'd see about 10,00 more in the next five days.)  And, did I mention they're huge!  Those are ducks people - and this thing dwarfs them!

Here are some photos from the iguana-feeding at our hotel. Josie got a huge kick out of this and then uttered the words every parent (and nanny) fears: "I want an iguana for my birthday!"

A few more from the beach -

Another of my favorite vacation memories - Josie took a nap on the beach. We laid down together and she totally passed out. (This is so out-of-character for her!!!) She slept under that palm tree for over two hours - and no one dared to bother her.

Look closely - they even had a WEDDING right there under that tree while she slept away. Hilarious!

Here are Louie & I on our "night out" trying to do that thing where we take a picture of ourselves (after a few too many rum-runners).

And finally - Josie "driving" the car on the ferry back to St. Thomas from St. John - which was funny until she actually turned the ignition. (oops.)

So, as this is likely the last St. Thomas-related post. BIG, BIG, BIG, BIG thanks are in order for Carissa & Lisa for sharing their vacation with us! Josie had the time of her life & it was so wonderful for Lou & I to get some time to spend together.  We love you so much. You are our family. Forever.

Final Hours on the Island

We didn't leave St. Thomas until 5 pm on Tuesday, which gave us one whole day on the beach and at the pool before we had to leave. (Bonus!) Here are the photos from our last hours on the island.

Final shots from the plane ride home

NOTE: CLICK ON "OLDER POSTS" BELOW FOR THE REST OF THE PICTURES. IT BUMPED THEM FOR SOME (incredibly frustrating) REASON.