Monday was a run around errand day where we made some purchases for Gabe’s new life. Some people thought we needed a massage chair with foot spa to bring home:

It’s amazing how much stuff you need to get set up from scratch in residence!

We had our good friends Roland and Chandra and their two cute kids come over for dinner. They have moved to Texas, so we were so happy to have a day overlap to catch up with them (they were back visiting family for  the holidays.) Roland saved Gabe’s behind too due to some complications with the phone plan Gabe wanted. Thank you Roland! Wish I got a pic of everyone, but we had a nice quick visit and can’t wait to visit them in Houston some time!

The next morning we headed out for the 4 hour drive to Rexburg, Idaho. Everyone warned us about the possibility of poor road conditions, lots of snow, and freezing cold temps.

They weren’t exaggerating.

Took us about 6 hours. There was tons of snow, poor visibility and it was freezing! (And I’m a Montreal girl so know the cold and snow and this was pretty much the same)!

But it was pretty:

And we did make it:

We managed to find Gabe’s gorgeous residence (after a little peeping Tom incident) , and started to unpack him before the orientation started.

We thought it was pretty cool that his wing is called the “Vietnam” wing considering that is where the rest of us are heading in March. So technically, he’ll be in Vietnam too:)

He had a nice little welcome home gift

…then met a couple of his roommates (there are 3 bedroom/bathroom combos, so 6 boys all together). The ones we met were from Las Vegas, California and Utah.

It’s a pretty sweet place:

We had a quick lunch at the food court:

Took the kids back to the hotel while Gabe met up with his orientation team.

We then went to the parent orientation where we were reassured he was in very good hands.

We had a ton of shopping left to do, and did that along with the thousand other parent/students moving in (thank goodness we had shopped the day before back in Utah too!) We got a little stuck in the snow:

Gabe raced back to connect with his new friends, we finished unpacking and headed back to our hotel.

Long day, but good transition.