Our Big News

A couple of weeks ago I was getting ready for work. I was preparing breakfast for the boys and making my usual morning cup of tea. I was feeling a bit anxious, because I was about to tell my boss I would be leaving the ER. My tea bag had a little message on it. It said: one of the best actions we can take, with courage, is to relax. I am always hoping for my tea bag messages to have a current applicable meaning. And it sure did that day. I repeated that little saying all morning and tried to go into work as relaxed as possible. I teared up while telling my boss that my family and I were moving to Flagstaff.

So that's the big news!!!! We are moving to Flagstaff--in a month. Gary had already told his boss, so as soon as my boss knew our plan to move became common knowledge. Gary will be a full time student at NAU studying Forestry and I will be working at Flagstaff Medical Center. We have rented an adorable little house off a rural road with forest right across the street from us.

We are excited. We are sad. We are optimistic. We are leaving wonderful jobs that have treated us like family. We are leaving family that is a part of our everyday lives. We are leaving friends that we have known for years. We are leaving a lovely life for a journey that we are certain provides the path we need to take.

The Garden's 1st Bounty: Sweet Peas

We all thought they were so delicious they didn't even make it to a zip loc in the fridge.

Pictures from our walk last night

NORTH

SOUTH
EAST
WEST

Lees Ferry

Our family stopped at Marble Canyon to eat lunch when we were traveling home from UTAH and decided to play in the water at Lees Ferry. It was beautiful. They weather was HOT, but the sparkling water was not. It was freezing. We cooled our feet & splashed around for a while. Canyon preferred to play in the mud on the side of the river, but little TREK was throwing himself in the water. He was shocked by the temperature only for a minute. It was a perfect break to a long drive.

Jumping Jacks

While visiting our good friends, the Moore's, in Utah this past weekend we took the kids to Jumping Jacks, an indoor jump park. It was total craziness. My kids were in heaven. They ran and jumped and danced and tired themselves out for 2 1/2 hours strait.

Trek. Gavin. Canyon.

Trek running. He also spent a lot of time dancing.

Canyon had absolutely no fear, climbing up to the top of massive slides over and over again.

Swimming Lessons

Swimming lessons have finished. They boys have went for the last two weeks for 1/2 hour a day (minus the few days they missed for out of town travel & the stomach flu).

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Trek loves the water & will dive in with out warning. Since lessons he has become more comfortable floating on his back & stretching out long & strait. Grandma & Trek. She took the boys while I was working.

Canyon was thrilled out of his mind to be doing "swimming school." He thought it was "way super cool." He loved socializing with his swim-mates and jumping to his teacher after class was over.

Trophy

Gary played in a softball tournament this 4th of July weekend like he has every year since I've know him. The kids & I missed all the Saturday games, but were able to make it to the last two on Monday. It was a beautiful July day with the sun shining bright. We watched from the grassy sidelines as Gary & his team the Bandits won the tournament. Canyon spends as much time as he can in the dugout proud to be Gary's boy; socializing with teammates and dreaming of the day he will be out there playing too. After the win the usual T-shirts were handed out (I literally have bags of championship/tournament shirts under our bed). AND much to Canyon's delight Gary brought home the trophy & gave it to him. For a moment Canyon was speechless (just a moment) and then the excitement just began to run off his tongue. "Whaaaat, Dad gave me this prize... it's way super cool... I got it for chasing Trek... is it mine... I love it... it makes me so happy..." As soon as we got home he promptly went into his room, climbed the changing table, skidded down scrapping the entire front of his shin, but successfully put it in a place where "Trek can't get it." He has asked to sleep with it and wants it relocated so he can see it at all times.