Quick Trip to Utah

Andy left Carlsbad on Saturday, September 28, and the plan was for him to arrive around 6pm on Sunday. My friend Kristen was blessing her baby in Orem on the 29th morning, so I decided that the kids and I could make a super quick trip to Utah that weekend and be home before Andy arrived. I picked up Kylee from school on Friday afternoon and we headed down to my mom's house in Spanish Fork. When we were nearly to Pocatello I realized that I forgot to bring contacts for Kylee (she wears daily disposables), but it was too late to turn around. When we got to Spanish Fork we stopped off at Walmart just before their Vision Center closed, and asked if there was a possibility of buying just one box of contacts. Unfortunately, they need a physical copy of your prescription, which I did not have. Luckily the guy there took pity on us and gave us a free sample box that included a case and some solution and said it is not ideal, but would not be the end of the world if she wore the same pair three times. We arrived at grandma's later than planned because of having to stop, but the kids were excited to get to sleep on real beds!

On Saturday the weather claimed it was supposed to be really rainy, but in the morning it looked okay, so we decided to go to Jaker's pumpkin patch for a bit since it was their opening day. Evalina had stayed over on Friday night also, so she came with us. On the drive over there the clouds looked black and menacing really closely in the distance, but luckily they moved a different way and we actually had warm, sunny weather the whole time we were there.

The kiddos LOVED the slides...

...and the tractor ride. I was surprised at how non-crowed it was there. Probably because everybody thought it would rain so they didn't go!

The only bad things about this place were 1) now (three weeks later!) I'm STILL finding corn kernels every time I do laundry. Like maybe there were a bunch in someone's pockets or socks or something, and now they're stuck in every crack and crevice known to man in the washer and/or dryer?!? I don't know. Someday hopefully the corn will all be gone! and 2) I already had pretty bad allergies before we went, and being there made them SOOO bad. I ended up not going to see any other family members I had planned to see that afternoon because my eyes and nose were like faucets. It was insane! I had to stay indoors and hope to recover enough to safely drive to the baby shower and home the next morning.

It was super fun to see Kristen and her cutie baby. He's adorable! I'm so happy for her and Troy.

After the baby blessing we went to Kristen's house for brunch, and then headed directly home so that we could make it before Andy arrived. I was a little worried because there was snow in the forecast, so I hoped that we (and Andy!) would not run into bad roads. Luckily, we were fine. We hit quite a bit of rain on our way home, and we could see snow up a bit higher on some of the mountains, but it didn't snow on us. Andy hit some really nasty winds in Wyoming (he saw a semi that had blown over), but that was the worst of it for him. He actually even arrived a bit earlier than planned, so I was glad we made it home in time!

We unloaded the U-Haul on Monday (during which time it DID snow a little bit), and then spent the next couple of days trying to unpack and organize stuff before we left on our vacation. It was a little crazy since our basement isn't finished yet and we have way too much stuff for the 1400 sq. ft. we have upstairs, but our house has surprisingly decent closet space, so it wasn't as bad as I feared. We moved some of the furniture down to the unfinished basement to await a place down there. We didn't even come close to finishing the unpacking before it was time to leave on our trip, but we made good progress!

Moving to Idaho

We closed on our house in Idaho in the end of August, so Andy and I decided it would be best for the kids and I to go ahead and move up there so they could get started in school. The schools in Ammon started on Aug. 24 but then had a 4-day weekend for Labor Day, so we figured if we headed up that weekend they could start on Tuesday and would only have missed the first four days. When Connie found out we were headed up that weekend, she suggested we come a couple of days early and stop at her house so I could attend a Josh Groban concert with her that she had won tickets to on the radio. Going the Colorado way is only about 45 minutes longer total, and it's actually easier because Connie's house is approximately in the middle, so we decided to go for it. The concert was on Wednesday night, so we packed up and left that morning.

Josh Groban was great! It was a nice night at an outdoor amphitheater and despite a parking snafu that caused us to walk almost a mile to and from our car and climb up a ton of stairs...we had a lovely time! Sugi was nice enough to watch all the kiddos so that Connie and I could go, so that was awesome.

The next day we took the kiddos to Connie's library, and it was so cool! They had lots of things for kids to play with. There was this thing (below) on the wall where you could push a button to turn it on, and it would carry a ball up to the top and then send it down all the obstacles to the bottom. Skyler watched it For.E.Ver. He probably would have stayed there all day.

After a long day of playing, Colby was worn out, and fell asleep on Connie's living room floor!

On Friday Sugi was off work and we went to hike the Castle Rock. We've done this hike before, but it's been awhile. I made Colby walk the whole thing by himself and he did great until the very end. Coming back down he got slower and slower until finally when we were about 2 minutes away from the parking lot he gave up and asked me to carry him.

On Saturday we left to complete our drive to Idaho. Skyler and Colby slept for a good portion of the drive. I'm not sure how it worked out that my girls are always the ones who stay awake and the boys take naps at the drop of a hat!!

The kids started school on the Tuesday after Labor Day. I drove them the first day, but then they rode the bus starting on Day 2. Ally and Skyler go to the same school, and their bus stop is on the corner of our street. We're the second house in, so it's not far at all. However, on the second or third day of bus riding the other family who usually gets off our stop wasn't there, so in the afternoon Skyler missed his stop. When I realized it I called the school and they verified that YES, he was still on the bus. They said after they finished the route they'd swing back around and drop him off. When he arrived, he wasn't even worried! He said he hadn't even known he had missed the stop until the bus driver told him I called. Ah, well. Ally's Kindergarten is only 1/2 day, and the after-school bus drops her off right at our house, so luckily there is no way for her to get lost!

Kylee's bus stop is on the next corner down so it's a little bit more of a walk, but still not far. On her first day riding the bus home she got off at the wrong stop. Luckily I'd had her take her little cell phone that we have for emergencies/babysitting contact, so she called me. She was scared, but I got her to look at some street signs to figure out where she was and then I looked at Google Maps to find out how she could get home. It turned out she had just gotten off a few stops too early so she was about 1/2 mile away. I kept her on the phone and told her where to walk while I walked down to meet her, and it turned out fine.

With all the bigger kids in school Colby and I get to be best pals again this year. Without our stuff, though, it was tough to come up with things to do!

We played UNO about 500 million times in our first couple of weeks until Andy arrived with all the stuff.

Skyler came home from school on his 2nd or 3rd day with this note a girl in his class made. "Welcome to School. We are glad to have you." That's so sweet! Apparently she made it at home and brought it for him.

This is what camping out for a month looks like. Sleeping on the floor and watching t.v. on the computer!!

This one is just a random photo of two cute kiddos ready to leave for church.

Colby made up a new game to play with the UNO cards!

Our basement had some carpet squares leftover from when they re-carpeted the upstairs before we moved in, so the kids rolled them out to play on. They kept asking and asking if they could sleep in the basement, so I said they could do it on Friday night. It's COLD down there since there's no heat, but they really want to give it a try. When Friday night rolled around everyone chickened out except Skyler. I asked him, "Are you SURE you want to sleep down here alone?" (It seems a little creepy to me.) He really did. I think he slept down there Friday and Saturday nights, and then again the following weekend. Crazy kid!

One Saturday we went to the mall because I had some JCPenney and Children's Place rewards I needed to use. It turned out that it was KidZone day at JCPenney, which I had forgotten they even did. The kids got to make silly sunglasses. And yes, they all wore red shirts to match with each other that day on purpose.

School (for a minute!) and Farewell to Carlsbad

School started just a couple of days after we got back from our trip. We decided to have the kids start because we weren't 100% sure when we'd be leaving New Mexico, and I didn't want them to be out. In Carlsbad there is a whole school dedicated to kindergarten. All kindergartners from the whole city go there. Savannah and Ally got the same class, and they were so excited! Kinda sad that it was for such a short time, though.

We were still showing our house (it had been up for about two weeks), so every morning I told the kids they had to have their beds made in case someone wanted to come look at our house. Skyler's idea of making his bed included lining all the stuffed animals up in a row along the edges!

Kylee and Ally started school on Wednesday because it was the first day for all kids who were the first grade in their school (so grades K, 1, 6, 7, 9). Skyler didn't have to start until Thursday. Kylee and Ally purposely wore matching shirts for their first day, which I thought was so cute!

Ally and Savannah are pros at riding the bus since they already did it last year for pre-K. They are just the best little friends. We're going to miss Savannah a LOT!

Skyler started on Thursday, and after he got home in the afternoon Anabelle (our friend next door) had made this cute chalk board sign so that I could take his picture with it.

One day while the kids were at school I was working on something in the office and I heard the microwave beep. I ran out and found Colby like this. "I cook chicken nuggets. I have ranch." Crazy kid! I've helped him do it before so he knows what button to push, but I never thought he would take it upon himself to make himself some lunch!

After he finished his nuggets he came back to the office where he'd been looking at books. He brought his blankie and just laid down on the floor and fell asleep. He's so sweet!

During the second week of school something happened and the power was out at Ally's school. Apparently it wasn't supposed to come back on all day, so around 9:30 they called us to come pick up the kids. I took Ally and Colby to Wendy's since she was missing out on school.

We and a bunch of our friends joined the Elks this summer so that we could swim in the pool there. After school started they were only open on Saturdays until Labor Day, so we made sure to go and make the most of our last days of swimming.

We were only in Carlsbad for 15 months, but we had such a great time. We made so many amazing friends and it really felt like home. I was also surprisingly impressed with the school system. You always hear that New Mexico doesn't have good schools, but I feel like Carlsbad, at least, is an exception. My kids had amazing teachers and the schools were really good. We loved our ward, we loved our neighbors, we loved our neighborhood. Deciding to leave was sooooo hard, but ultimately it came down to family. Especially with losing Tiff so suddenly, it really sunk in that life is short and you never know what will happen, so when we got the opportunity to be closer to home and family, despite how much we love and will miss our friends in Carlsbad, we had to take it.

Our house went under contract after about 3 weeks of being on the market and we were scheduled to close on our house in Idaho before Labor Day. School in Idaho was starting on Aug. 24, so we decided it made the most sense for the kids and I to leave once our house in Idaho was ready to that they could get into school at the start instead of 5-6 weeks in. Andy would stay in New Mexico to work until the end of September and then join us. The night before the kids and I left we went down to play at the park by the river one last time, and walk along the path there. This river really is a gem in the middle of the desert. It's so pretty! I'll really miss my sunshiny weather of the last four years living in FL and NM, but we're on to new adventures, and I trust that they'll also be amazing.