So much has happened these past few months. We have been busy with family events, visitors, trips to Pennsylvania, Nebraska, and Utah, house hunting, house selling, house fixing, staging, cleaning, designing, and planning.
The day our guests were to leave we got some surprise snow on the mountain. Sean and I hiked up to the past National park fence to reach the snow line. We brought a container to take snow home to Gavin and Brooklyn.
As we were collecting snow, we lost the trail and it started to snow harder.
After about twenty minutes of turn-arounds and finding this possible cougar den, we found the trail again.
By the time we got down the mountain, our plastic container of collected snow was obsolete.
A couple of weeks later, Sean celebrated his 11th birthday. It turned out to be kind of a bummer because Andrew broke his finger and I was stuck at the orthopedic clinic from 5-9 pm.
After waiting all day to open his presents, they turned out to be sort of disappointing. The gift he had been waiting for—a skateboard—had a manufacturing flaw.
The next day, I hopped an airplane to Salt Lake City to surprise Makayla for her 19th birthday. The cold weather and mass transit navigation challenges from Salt Lake to Provo left me with numb toes, but I was still happy to see my girl.
The next weekend, Rick and I flew to State College to search for a house for our family. With more cold weather, travel delays, and the stress of deciding on a house, I ended up with a migraine and a fever. The entire flight home, my biggest hope was that I would not throw up on the plane. I made it all the way to our driveway before giving in to the nausea. After a couple of days, and with a negative Covid test in hand, I was back to moving preparations and family responsibilities.
3 days later:
The next weekend, Rick, Ricky, and Andrew travelled to Nebraska for a dear friend’s funeral.
The next week I drove Makayla to Provo. We stopped in St. George for our friend’s burial. It was both heartbreaking and testimony building.
A couple of days after Danny left, Karitza and her crew came for one last Tucson adventure.
(Braden, Ricky, Aiden, Sidney, Lucy, Mia)
We had a lot of help from sweet friends who invited the kids to play with their puppy, ride their horse and drive their go kart.
We had many sweet goodbyes. Friends made our kids travel kits with snacks and activities. People brought us treats. We felt very cared for.
We had a surprise snow storm on the first day of loading the truck which kept the kids busy making snowmen in the backyard.
And before we knew it, we were on our trek across the country.
Back in January, we listed our house. Within a week, we had five offers (four from the same party). We accepted the offer from the “other” people who offered full price with no weird contingencies or requests, unlike the four-offer people who treated us like our house had been on the market for months and we were desperate to accept any offer.
With a signed contract in hand, we welcomed Rick’s parents and my mom for the weekend of Brooklyn’s baptism.
Brooklyn’s baptism was beautiful and simple. We tried to Skype the girls in from a Provo, but they didn’t wake up. Ricky couldn’t get his shift covered at work, so he Skyped in, but missed the actual baptism because he had to use the bathroom. Still, a special spirit is felt any time a sacred ordinance is performed. Brooklyn is a special little girl with great potential.
The day our guests were to leave we got some surprise snow on the mountain. Sean and I hiked up to the past National park fence to reach the snow line. We brought a container to take snow home to Gavin and Brooklyn.
As we were collecting snow, we lost the trail and it started to snow harder.
My smile in the following picture is an I’m-scared-lost-and-cold-and-didn’t-want-to-climb-this-dumb-mountain-in-the-first-place smile.
After about twenty minutes of turn-arounds and finding this possible cougar den, we found the trail again.
By the time we got down the mountain, our plastic container of collected snow was obsolete.
A couple of weeks later, Sean celebrated his 11th birthday. It turned out to be kind of a bummer because Andrew broke his finger and I was stuck at the orthopedic clinic from 5-9 pm.
After waiting all day to open his presents, they turned out to be sort of disappointing. The gift he had been waiting for—a skateboard—had a manufacturing flaw.
But the fudge and Oreo cream birthday cake turned out perfect.
The next day, I hopped an airplane to Salt Lake City to surprise Makayla for her 19th birthday. The cold weather and mass transit navigation challenges from Salt Lake to Provo left me with numb toes, but I was still happy to see my girl.
The next weekend, Rick and I flew to State College to search for a house for our family. With more cold weather, travel delays, and the stress of deciding on a house, I ended up with a migraine and a fever. The entire flight home, my biggest hope was that I would not throw up on the plane. I made it all the way to our driveway before giving in to the nausea. After a couple of days, and with a negative Covid test in hand, I was back to moving preparations and family responsibilities.
Gavin crashed into a wall while we were gone. His nose wasn’t broken, but he did suffer a concussion. He missed some school and took things easy while the swelling went down.
The day after:
3 days later:
The next weekend, Rick, Ricky, and Andrew travelled to Nebraska for a dear friend’s funeral.
The rest of us tried to get in a few more rays of sunshine before leaving the land of perfect winter weather.
The next week I drove Makayla to Provo. We stopped in St. George for our friend’s burial. It was both heartbreaking and testimony building.
The next weekend, we had a visit from Danny and Kelly. We played games, explored, and swam (even though it was way too cold for me to even think about getting in the water).
A couple of days after Danny left, Karitza and her crew came for one last Tucson adventure.
I stunk at taking pictures except for this snapshot of the group date Ricky planned.
(Braden, Ricky, Aiden, Sidney, Lucy, Mia)
Five days after Karitza’s group left, movers came to pack up our house. The kids were good at staying busy. This is Sean practicing a skate trick in the garage.
We had a lot of help from sweet friends who invited the kids to play with their puppy, ride their horse and drive their go kart.
We had many sweet goodbyes. Friends made our kids travel kits with snacks and activities. People brought us treats. We felt very cared for.
We had a surprise snow storm on the first day of loading the truck which kept the kids busy making snowmen in the backyard.
And before we knew it, we were on our trek across the country.
Moving is hard, but we’re looking forward to getting settled in this new place.
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