Fun in Utah, Part I

When we got to John and Allison's house in Provo, we were greeted by this enormous Great Dane named Watson.  Now I knew John and Allison were taking care of a dog, but I didn't know they had decided to adopt that dog.  This dog was such a good dog, so gentle and obedient.  And he was huge!

We went up to the Salt Lake Cemetery to visit Uncle Jordan's grave and also the graves of my grandparents and Uncle Tom.  And it was COLD in Utah the first couple of days we were there!  At least compared to Texas and Arizona.  Apparently a few days before we arrived, it was snowing on Timp!

While we were in the Salt Lake area, we stopped at Village Baker to pick up lunch and then went to the park near our old house in Riverton to eat the lunch.  It was fun to take a picture of the kids all older at the park they used to play at when they were younger.  We also stopped by to see our friends, the Howells.  With all the covid19 stuff going on, we were pleased that they weren't quarantining or afraid to let us visit with them for a little bit.  It was nice to see them and spend some time up in our old neighborhood. 

Fun in California

On June 25th, we drove out to California from Arizona.  The seven hours from Mesa to Tehachapi seemed so short compared to the sixteen hour drive we made on June 15th.  We got in and ate dinner and the next morning, on Friday, we went down to see Papa King's grave and had a picnic lunch there at the cemetery. 

We went to the lake near Zach and Leslie's house with them while we were there as well.  We got to see them a few times and spend some time with them.  Also, Nana bought some white T-shirts and the kids decorated their "vacation shirts".  That was a fun activity that they all seemed to like.  We enjoyed our little jaunt out to California to see Nana, Aunt Jamie, and Zach and Leslie's family.  Then we drove to Utah on Monday, June 29th. 

Fun in Arizona, Part III

One of the fun things we did in Arizona was visit the Sunset Crater National Monument up in Northern Arizona (north of Flagstaff).  It was a few hours to get there and back and Grandpa didn't come because he had a doctor's appointment.  While we were there, Annmarie became a junior ranger.  She walked right up to the ranger to ask a question about the volcano and learned about the junior ranger program, so he gave her the paper to fill out while we were at the volcano and she did it and then she was sworn in as a junior ranger when she turned it all in at the end.  She is not shy, that girl.

The kids and I all thought it was cool to walk through the lava fields of the crater and hike around on the volcano.  Now they can tell their friends and teachers that they have actually been on a volcano.

Travis, Eliza, and Jonah also learned how to do back dives into Grandpa and Grandma's pool.  Unfortunately, I did not seem to get a picture of Travis doing it.  But it was impressive how quickly they all figured it out.

Fun in Arizona, Part II

While in Arizona, we drove out to our old house in Queen Creek (now San Tan Valley).  The tree out front was put in when our house was built and one very bad wind storm blew it over so Corey had pulled it up as best as he could and staked it back down and it ended up growing at a fairly sharp angle.  However, it has held up since then, now 14 years, and looks to be a pretty sturdy tree now.  It was fun to drive out to the neighborhood we lived in and see how much has grown up in between.  It used to feel very far from Mesa because there wasn't anything in between, but now it's all filled in with neighborhoods and shopping and offices and such.

We enjoyed some popsicles after playing hopscotch.  It was about 105 to 108 degrees the whole time we were there, but we tried to get outside anyway.  I even went for walks most mornings.  It wasn't hard to get up early because the sun comes up so early there.  The dry heat doesn't bother me as much as the humid heat we have in Texas, so it didn't feel terribly uncomfortable to me.

I was able to get together with my former college roommate, Lindsey Bowen.  She shared the unfortunate news with me that she and her husband were getting a divorce.  That made me really sad for her and her kids.  Life can really just be so hard and unfair.

And of course, we enjoyed a lot more swimming.  We weren't able to convince Nathan to go off the diving board.  Maybe next summer he will.

Fun in Arizona, Part I

Of course while we were in Arizona, we went swimming every day.  We stayed from June 15th through June 25th.  Grandpa and Grandma got out their croquet set and I set it up for the kids and taught them to play croquet.  We played it a lot and now the kids want to get a croquet set!

The Drive to Arizona

We packed up everything Sunday night and went to bed early, around 7 and 8 pm.  When Corey got home from closing around 2:30 am, we got up and loaded the car and then left.  I drove for about three hours and when we go to Abilene, we stopped at a Denny's for breakfast.  While we were waiting for our order, the kids looked at videos on the various phone and ipods there and I took a little nap right there in the booth.  It was just enough to get me through most of the rest of the day. 

Once we hit New Mexico, we lost cell service and the cell service was down the rest of the day mostly.  Apparently, the cell service was out for everyone in that section of the United States.  It was a bad time for cell service to go down for us because I couldn't get in touch with my parents to let them know we were getting closer and I couldn't call Corey to let him know we were okay.  But, we made it to Mesa by 7 pm and were able to eat dinner with Grandpa and Grandma and go for a swim.

Swimming and a Haircut

We went swimming one last time at Austin and Paige and Aaron and Kaori's house before going on our trip.  It's fun when the older boys join us and Caleb did for this one.

Also, I cut Eliza's hair.  She wanted a trim and I didn't want to pay for one, so I did it myself.  It turned out cute.  She had a lot of dead ends that needed to be cut off.