Before the Goodbyes....

Too much has happened in our little family's lives--since Halloween that is!  I can't believe it's been that long since I last posted.  It's just an illustration of how the holidays take over your reality for days & months, and THEN gone in a blink of an eye!  I am now sitting in the month of February planning our next move across the country & wondering where I should start on this quest of purposeful documentation......hmmmm.

 We officially said "goodbye" to AZ on November 13th.

But before doing that we were keeping busy with last visits, crossing off our bucket-list, playing with cousins, Madi's last visit, etc.....

Before leaving town, I felt like I should take the girls to their first dental appointment, which was a success on so many levels!  The girls LOVED it.  Not one tear from either of them and I wasn't even in the room with them for the cleaning and x-rays.  The girls didn't want to leave.

Jessica, Chelsea, and I...we are cousins.

Chelsea was in town visiting Jessica so we made the trip over to visit.  It has been close to 10 years since I last saw her.  We had fun chatting and getting to know eachothers' kids.

We went to a drive-in for Family Night! For this trip we watched 'Despicable Me 2' and then 'Gravity.'

So many cool, fun, sweet, beautiful friends I will miss!

Next was our trip to see the butterflies at the Botantical Gardens, which was on our bucketlist-- and was very anticipated. We planned this with the Higbees a couple times and finally decided the this particular date and time was fantastic.
 Funny story though:  we made the trip to downtown for this event and guess what......

we get there literally 15 minutes after they closed the butterfly house.....

And that point, the sun was set and there was little to no light to even utilize to observe the gardens itself.

We all laughed about it, and at ourselves.

So, plan B was to hang out with the Romneys who lived just miles from the gardens where we helped make a late night dinner and laughed way too much!

We had to go out with the Jackmans before leaving town!  The Jackmans and us go way back.  All the way back to the days at Rexburg attending BYU-I together and becoming friends in our first married couples' ward.  Then, a couple years later we met again where both Chase and Kyle attended grad school together.  

Small world, and I'm very grateful for it.

Especially grateful for the fact that our kids also clicked and got a long so well from day one.

It must run in the genes.

Before Chase and I were even married, Chase and Kyle had a science class together at BYU-I---I guess you could say it was love at first sight.

And then Alyssa and I met later on.  She is such a great example to me and I love her dearly!

Between all the outings, we had to take advantage of our empty apartment.  We lived in this empty (no beds, no couches, no tv, no toys, no NOTHING) state for 10 days before leaving town.  This was actually a whole lot of fun for the kids.  When friends came over it was a free for all.  A few balls, a bat, and miscellaneous toys in a big empty space was heaven for them.

Thanks to our wonderful friends and neighbors for letting us borrow sleeping pads, camping chairs, and the like--with those things, it definitely made it bareable!!!

The girls got creative like "roasting marshmallows on a fire"-- their pretend play consisted of a lot of 'camping trips' probably because of the vibe our apartment and living arrangements were giving off.

I don't think I've mentioned enough how lucky we were to be surrounded by so many great people in northwest PHX (oh wait, I think I've said that in just about every post).  April is one of my very best friends. Period.  This woman is amazing and I learned so much from her over the course of our early morning hiking outings together.  Here we went out to lunch and had fun doing a little bit of shopping just us girls!

April is amazing...to say the least!  I look up to her in so many ways. PERIOD.  This woman is exactly the kind of person I want to become.  She is so kind, non-judgmental, loving, selfless, so forgiving, her beauty within radiates even greater than her outside beauty (which is saying a lot because this woman is obviously gorgeous).We got along so well and were surprisingly a lot a like in ways even though there are some years between us.  Personally, I couldn't help but feel like I was meant to meet her and have the special friendship that we have.  Words couldn't begin to illustrate or express  how much gratitude I have for her.  I love you, April! ;)

Sailor took an "Angelina Ballerina Ballet" class with her good, new friend Gwen.  She had some anxiety issues but by the last class she was warmed up to the newness...which was a shame because we were saying 'adios' at that point.

Chase went to Seattle for an eventful but mostly informational optometry convention where he and a few other students in his class presented some research.  He really enjoyed this trip!  He went with his buddy Lance and because they stayed down the street from 'Pike's'  I told them they had to go see all the touristy stuff on their off time.  Here he is contributing to the 'infamous gum wall.'

Besides eating complimentary Belgian waffles at his hotel (and sending me this picture to make me jealous) , he and Lance had a fancy dinner at the top of the Space Needle!  They both said it was really neat but did cost a pretty penny.  

Madi came to keep us company while the man of the house was gone. And, like always, we had a blast!  Here we are at a 2-hr painting class getting our 'creative' on!  This was the best idea I had in a long time.  Neither of us are painters but we both left having a greater appreciation for it and actually found it quite earthy & therapeutic.  It was even more fun making fun of our own and eachothers' lack of skills.  

Not horrible for a first time, right?

I especially liked my wave and it's white foam but Madi could brag all day and all night about her sunset-- It was pretty flawless.

We spent the rest of the week going out to the movies, a little shopping, enjoying all the Halloween festivities, & other stuff that I can't remember because that was almost half a year ago by now. I mean seriously, I'm that far behind with this blogging stuff.


Karen is another neighbor and friend I got to know and LOVE.  This woman is so precious to me.  After having gone through difficult and a near death experience she was able to come out of it with a great love and appreciation for her Savior, Jesus Christ.  This woman wears her heart on her sleeve and was so willing to open her heart and share such close and personal things with me.  She is not LDS like myself, but that was partially why we loved to chat.  There was something so pure about her that drew me to her.  Age difference was never an issue.  At heart, this woman was just as young, she expressed the same doubts, insecurities, and hardships just as anyone my own age would have. Our 3-hr long conversations were nothing to take for granted.  She taught me so much.  This picture was taken the afternoon that we left town for good.  Karen gave me the picture that I am holding which is a beautiful rendition of Christ and his never-wavering support  and love for each one of us--He's always there for us when we need his help.

AND......then we were off!

Adios AZ!

We left right after Chase's day at his rotation site at 5:30 pm with the intent to stop whenever and where ever we needed to that night.

BUT

with some Dr. Pepper, Pandora's "Broadway Musical" channel blaring through the speakers, 2 sound sleeping little girls, & a little bit of road food, I was able to get us to Idaho in 14 hours, getting us there the next morning at 7:30 am....

...oh yeah, I can't discredit Chase's for his driving relief the last few hours of the trip. ;)

It's Feb. 2014 and we are now officially Idahoans since Nov. 13....

....at least for one more month then it's onward, again! 

Our crazy, transient life begins.