Life in Las Cruces

One of my favorite things in the world is laying in my hammock and enjoying the warm weather. Our rental house has a HUGE covered patio, so I set my hammock up back there and I lay in it every day.

Everything here is still shut down - you can't eat inside restaurants and the pools, libraries, etc. are all closed. However, the library did an online summer reading program and then you could go to a drive-up table every Monday to pick up books and prizes. One of the challenges was for the kids to cook or bake something, so one day Kylee helped the kids make cookies.

I bought this plant (above) when we lived in Carlsbad. When we moved I gave it to my friend Ashlee because it wouldn't survive the weather in Idaho and she really liked it. Now that we've both moved to Las Cruces she gave it back. I told her she could keep it, but she said "I'm just so happy you're back! I kept her alive for you!" I really love Ashlee and am so glad we live close again. Plus her kids are all the same ages (even with matching genders) as my kids, so they all love to play together.

One day this really bright double rainbow was right outside our front door. We could see all the way to both ends.

After 10 years with the same toy buckets we bought a couple of new ones and organized the boys' room. It looked super nice for like 5 minutes until all the toys exploded. It'll likely never look this nice again.

Our house got plumbing and a foundation!

Skyler's Baptism in Colorado

Before we even moved to New Mexico we had already planned on heading up to the Sugiyama's house for the 4th of July because Andy was off work that entire week. Pax and Skyler had both recently turned 8 and were waiting to get baptized (Covid restrictions), and Connie was hoping maybe Pax could get baptized while we were there in July. With the way Idaho's restrictions were, it ended up not working out to baptize Skyler in Idaho, but right before we moved Connie's bishop in Colorado gave permission to baptize Pax and Skyler together on July 3rd as long as our New Mexico bishop would give permission as well, which he did. So...we invited all the grandparents and headed up to Colorado!

The Sugiyamas had recently found this little hike that is really close to their house, so one day we headed out to get some excercise.

The kids thought this old upside down truck (that apparently fell off the cliff from above?) was the coolest thing ever.

Walking through this really narrow rock hallway was also cool.

When we originally said we were going on a hike Connie assured Bruce it was a very easy "walk" and there would "definitely not be any chains". Basically she was making fun of me because the last hike I took them on in Idaho ended up being super steep and had chains you had to hold onto. Then we got to this part of the trail where you had to climb up rocks and...there were CHAINS! She claims to have "forgotten" those were there. We got quite the good laugh out of it.

On July 3rd Pax and Skyler got baptized. It turned out to be really nice. We had our two families plus mom and Bruce, Sugi's parents (they drove from Texas), and Andy's mom, who only lives about an hour away from Connie. We had a couple of short talks, the kids sang a song, and it was just a really great thing that these two got to do it together. They really get along so well.

While we were at Connie's house most of the kids slept in a room together. One night Lucy went to bed in her actual bed, but then when we went to check on them later she was snuggled up with Skyler on the floor. I love that she has her little eye mask on. So cute!

On the 4th of July we went on another little hike.

Several people commented about how festive we were with our whole group in patriotic shirts.

 

It was a little bit crazy to have so many people staying in Connie's house at the same time, but it's always so fun for the kids to play and the adults to visit. We'll have to go to Colorado again soon!

Moving from Ammon, ID to Las Cruces, NM

The day after we went to Yellowstone our realtor let us know that they wanted to hold a couple of Open Houses at our house on Friday and Saturday, so we decided to head down to Utah so that we didn't have to try to keep it all clean. We went to the Provo Rec (where Social Distancing was pretty much non-existent but it was sooo fun to feel like things were normal for a day!)

We also visited the grandparents (forgot to take a photo at Grandpa Doug's house), and put a new flower pinwheel on Tiff's grave.

Our house ended up going under contract, so that was nice.

One night before we moved, while Andy was at work I took a bubble bath and then came out to find these two asleep right outside the bathroom door. They're so strange!

Kylee was scheduled to get her braces off in August, but we had asked them if there was any way she could get them off a little early since we were moving on June 19th. They had told her that if she did a really good job wearing her rubberbands and stuff it would probably be fine. She ended up getting them off on June 10th.

Our moving trailer arrived the week before we were leaving and we loaded it up and it headed out on Wednesday. Andy worked his last day in Idaho on Thursday and we headed out on Friday. Andy drove his truck and the kids and I followed him in my car.

Some of the little neighborhood friends came out to say goodbye.

I really loved our little townhome in Ammon. It was cozy and cute and we finished the basement really nicely! Also our street was so safe and quiet, and the kids loved the neighbors so much. But...I was excited to get back to the warmth of New Mexico and the friends we have here as well.

After 16 hours of driving over two days we made it to our new home in Las Cruces. We're just renting while we wait for our house to get built, but our rental house is also brand new, so it's been fun.

The kids love that there are playgrounds EVERYWHERE. This one is right across the street from our house, and there are 3-4 more within a 5 or less minute walk.

We found this little zipline park hidden away on a dirt road behind our house. There is no way to even get to it without walking past the "road closed" barriers and walking down the dirt road. They must have just REALLY been planning for the future, because I'm sure someday there will be houses over them. I'm pretty sure nobody knows it's there, because we've been there a lot and only seen other kids one time.

Colby fell off the zipline on our 2nd or 3rd trip to that park, and he stood up just as it came swinging back, so it popped him right in the head. We visited the Urgent Care for 3 stitches.

The next day he had a bit of a black eye, and he felt like wrapping stinky blankie around his head made it feel better.

It must have worked because later he was feeling better and super happy!

I LOVE that there is a big mountain range right out the front of our house. Having grown up with mountains in Utah, it just makes it feel more like home. I've missed mountains the last few years!

The following Friday our moving trailer arrived. Ironically, that same day Facebook reminded me that "2 years ago today" our moving truck arrived in Carlsbad. Who knew what those two years would bring? Crazy!

Speaking of new houses, it's amazing to me that this pencil drawing...

...could turn into an actual house. Having lived in lots of houses now, the things that were most important to us this time around were: 5 bedrooms, 2nd living space, study/office, dining room off to the side, plenty of closet space, 3rd car garage, and big covered patio. The builder we chose told me that I could customize any floor plan they offer, but the stipulation was that our lot would fit a 3rd car garage and the house couldn't be any wider than that or it wouldn't fit in the setbacks, and our neighborhood doesn't allow 2-stories. 

So I picked the floor plan that seemed the most workable for what I wanted, and then re-drew the whole right side to make it have all the things I wanted in the space behind the 3rd car garage. I also pushed out the dining room, extended the island, added some closets, moved the sliding doors, added some extra windows...basically created an entirely custom home. They even let me name my floor plan because it's so different. They probably think I'm super high maintenance...but I just know what I want!!

About a week after we arrived in Las Cruces they staked out the foundation. It took about 4 months to get through the whole process from design to choosing options to starting building, so I was excited to see this! It's supposed to take another 6-8 months to build, so it'll be fun to watch all the progress.

Here's to our new adventure. Two years from now I really hope to still be here. I'm ready to settle and not move again for a LONG time.