Arizona

We didn't get a very early start on our trek to Arizona and got off track a little bit on the way (Ha ha...I was counting on having Seri help us get there but she totally told us the wrong way so we had to back track a little bit.  I got on the phone with Camille and she helped get us back on track.) 

It was so good to see them! 

Camille had everything all boxed up and ready to go so we didn't have a lot to do until we got the word on their loan.  They had to do some last minute finagling, but finally, they were told to come in and sign the papers.  Camille and I went down to their pool and swam for a while friday morning while they went to pick up the uhaul.  Camille and Emily went back and I stayed and swam with Sam for a while.  We had a good time.  He is getting much braver in the water.

It was so hot!  Everyone was drenched with sweat. It took two trips with the Uhaul and Camilles' car loaded up too, to get everything over there

Jeremy was helping move, so Brittney came over to see the house with all her kids. It was pretty much madness.  Couldn't get the video to upload but just imagine 10 kids under 10 screaming through the house, cartwheels, wrestling, jumping over the low wall, and all of them in the shower.  

1. 

Their new home is so nice.  It's really big and open.

The back yard is pretty big too.  It will be so nice to have a place for the kids to play.

Chris and Jeremy helped us move everything in. Camille had it pretty organized with the name of the room where it was supposed to go on the box. That made it pretty slick.

Beautiful sunset on our drive back to pick up load number 2.

Sunset Saturday evening as we were taking the last load.  Camille and Kellen went to the temple Saturday morning with one of Kellen's young men who was going through for the first time.  So we got to spend some fun time with Emily.  Liv and Sam were at Suzannes. 

So this is what goes on when grandma and grampa are in charge...

She is such a joy to be with.  

She doesn't even mind when I do her hair

Love these kids so much.  I'm so happy for Camille to get their new house, but it's really bitter sweet because  that means more years in Arizona.  I try to put on a happy face even though my heart is aching.

These are the awesome bar stools Kelley and Katie made for Camille.  Lynn helped them with the metal legs.  They look great with her kitchen.

After we got everything in the house and the guys were busy putting in some light fixtures, we realized we hadn't eaten all day so we went to Filibertos and got some food for everyone.  This trip was so short, we didn't have time to sit and visit, so we took a minute here to just relax and talk.

We were still setting up beds and getting kids situated for the night...this little one ended up in bed with Kelley and I.  Ha!  She looks so sweet and innocent...not fun to sleep with!

We got up early Sunday morning to get on our way home.  I wish we could have stayed longer, but we have so much to do to get ready for the luau this weekend, we just couldn't.  Saying goodbye is so hard.

We've been planning on going to Arizona to help Camille move into their new house for the past few months.  Their home was supposed to be finished mid July so that's when we thought we would be going.

When we were in California for our family vacation, Kellen got a call from the loan officer saying that there were some issues with Kellens student loans. They had had their loan all pre approved before they even started building the house so this was pretty unexpected. Well this loan they were going to get was an agricultural loan cause they are moving out in the boonies and farmland of Queencreek and they have some rules that wouldn't allow them to get the loan. So they had to start with a different kind of loan from scratch.  This was pretty disturbing because by this time, the house was finished and they should have been moving in.  So they started doing a different kind of loan but had to have a pretty big down payment to do that loan. Then their loan officer told them about this loan that they just do in Arizona where they pay their closing costs for them. The interest rate was a little higher but  by this time they were starting to wonder if they would even get the house. 

Camille was freaking out and at her wits end. They were supposed to be out of their old house in plenty of time for the new renters to move in on the 1st of August. But they could not move into their new home till they closed in the loan so they had to move all their stuff into their neighbors garage, and live in another neighbors house!  They were really lucky that their neighbors were snow birders and were out of their houses for the summer!

So they moved everything out and into the neighbors house and waited. The loan guy kept them posted but seemed to be doing nothing as the days drug by. We had thought they for sure would be closing  by the middle of August so planned out trip for the 12th and kept waiting to hear the word. I knew Camille was just dying cause we were supposed to be coming to help them move and they still hadn't gotten a closing date. We were going to leave after church but decided to wait a day or two and see what happened with the loan. On Wednesday we still hadn't heard anything but Katie and Kelley had built this tv console for a guy in California and we didn't want him to have to pay for shipping so we decided to take it to him and go to California first, then head to Arizona. Also, Kate's friend Colleen had asked her if she would dog sit while they were in Mexico so that worked out good for us to take Kate there for the week. Colleen said it was fine if we stayed at her place too so that was really fun. She has an adorable beach house just a block from the beach so that was pretty sweet. Here's a few pictures from our time there...

This is the table they built for Katie's friend. I still can't believe we fit it in the car!   Along with Camilles bar stools and several dog bowls that they made!

This is her cute house.  I should have got pictures of the inside.  She has every inch decorated so cute. 

My cute honey trying to figure out his phone on the front porch. 

Here's colleens dogs. Myrtle and Walter. Myrtle is so ugly, she's cute. She's very sweet and loving though. Walter on the other hand  just barks a lot and pees all over the place. Kate had to clean up some pretty gross messes. 

This was right before we got on our way to Arizona. Had to have one last cronut. 

We left Katie there dog sitting for the rest of the week, then she is going to fly to Arizona to help Camille on Monday. 

This is really blowing my mind how easy it is to write and post pictures from here!  It really seems to good to be true. I'm going to stop and post this now cause I just can't believe it could work this easy

I love technology

Ok are you ready for this?  I am blogging from my phone!  I can't even blog from the computer without jumping through at least 10 hoops and having 3 tantrums  and asking  KC or Candice for help because my pictures won't come up or got lost somewhere between my phone and the computer.   Ha ha. Now all my pictures are right there ready for me to reach out and pick them!  

The kids have been trying to get me to get an iPhone for years...telling me how great their phones are and how it can do so much more than my android. I noticed that when we were doing a group text, a lot of times I would only get random parts of the message...and would not get Camilles videos. But the thing that I really wished I had was FaceTime. I would see Katie blowing kisses to Emily and would be dying to be able to do that too. 

I have really liked my androids though so it was hard to give it up, plus I didn't want to be all wasteful and get a new phone when my old one was working just fine   So I wasn't planning on getting a new phone at all.  I was just going with Kelley to get him a new phone. He has needed a new one for so long it was just a joke. Every day he would get up and say "I'm going to get a new phone today...I've had it with this one!"  But then he would get busy and another day would go by without getting a new phone.  This has seriously been going on for  at least 6 months  so now when he would say it, we would just laugh. 

So while we were in California, we decided this was the time to go get a phone for Kelley.  Kate was with us too and had already talked Kelley into getting the iPhone. I just went to support him and to have them look at my Xperia phone cause I wasnt getting all my messages from people. When the guy looked at it, he said it had an old SIM card in it so he put a new one in and said it would work better now. Then I heard him talking to Kelley, telling him what a great deal he could get by trading his old phone. He would actually be paying less every month than what he had been paying. So after Kelley was all set up with a new phone. I asked them what kind of a deal I could get.  He said if I traded my phone in, I could get a killer deal too. So I decided to go for it!  We both got the iPhone6 plus (it's pretty big but I like it) 

While we were waiting for them to finish up the paper work, I opened up my new phone  and was texting the kids telling then I had a new phone. Katie had already told Camille because all the sudden, I hear a different ring,and the screen opens up and there is Camille and Emily smiling at me!  I was so overwhelmed and happy, I just cried!    As we were leaving, the guy at the T-Mobile store said I should do a commercial for them.  Ha!  

So Ive been learning all the things this phone can do since then and really loving it. Kate was a big help in getting it set up And learning how to use it. We actually got them on our anniversary day and I think it was the best gift we could have given each other!

Yesterday was one of those bittersweet days.  They released our presidency from our callings in the young women.  
I knew it was coming...Kelley and I have talked about it and I think it was time.  We have been in for three years and are about out of ideas.  Stephanie is busy enjoying her new little boy and Stacey and I are on our last nerve.  My only regret is that we didn't have more time with Tina.  She has just been in since January (after I waited patiently for her to have a rest after being released from being Relief Society President)and it has sure been a treat to get to work with her.  She is so great with the young women and has become close with them in the short time she's been in.  
It has been a wonderful experience for me and I have enjoyed it thoroughly.  All the activities, lessons, girls camps, youth conference, good talks, New Beginnings, memorizing Living Christ, Personal Progress, Volleyball, trips to Temple square, Moab, Basketball, parties, Baptisms for the dead, and service we have done together have brought us close and developed relationships over the years that are priceless to me.
There have been some hard times too.  Some of these girls can really be stinkers.  There's a couple of girls that dominate the conversations in class, and about every other situation, making the other girls feel intimidated to even speak and it's really been a problem. We tried talking to them about it...even coming right out and telling them that it was keeping girls from wanting to come to young women...didn't phase them one bit. We even had our very blunt Darilyn have a very serious talk with them...they improved slightly, but soon went back to their old ways.   So that will be something that the new presidency will get to deal with.  
We had a few incidents with girls taking off after guys during young women, leaving us wondering and worrying where they even were...then the parents would call us looking for them!  Wow.  I wanted to wring their little necks.  We really lowered the boom when we found them that night.  Ha!  I had to remind myself that I was a boy crazy stinker like that too when I was 15. But I would have never thought of doing some of the things these kids do.   It seems like some of the youth don't have a lot of respect or even care about what adults think of them these days.  
There are some girls that come from a pretty tough home life and my heart just breaks for them as we watch them reaching out to find someone to love and appreciate them. I think that is one of the hardest things about this calling...just watching the girls struggle...it's tough to be a teenager now.  They all want so much to fit in and be accepted and there are lots of scary places out there where they will be accepted.  We can talk till we're blue in the face and even physically remove them from these places, but in the end, they have to make the choice.   I only hope that some of the things we talked about sunk in and they will remember it when they get in a bad situation. 
 Stacey has been a lifesaver in this calling. She always has great ideas and puts 150 percent into whatever she does. (Between the two of us who will wander around Joanns for hours, or go to 10 different stores, looking for something to do for the girls for an activity or a lesson handout, (It's kind of a mental problem) we could really get out of control...good thing we had Bonnie to reign us back in....(just love them...Bonnie was so good at that!  I miss her!) But she would always come up with the cutest things and funnest ideas and wasn't afraid to put some work into it to make it nice. The girls were comfortable calling on Stacey too when they needed anything and that says a lot about their relationship.
She has had some tough beehives and has really gone above and beyond to help them feel loved and accepted in young women.  They all just adore her.  
Stephanie is also very loved  and will be dearly missed by these young women.  She has been their confidant, their friend, their second mom.
So last Sunday after church, the bishop had us all come in and he said we would be released this next week.  I think that's when  it really sunk in.  We talked after and all of us were feeling kind of sad...change is hard.
We had the bishops summer party Wednesday night so it was nice that we could just go and have a fun evening with them at the Bishops house.

Thursday afternoon, we went over to the church and cleaned out our closet.  It was quite a mess.  We had just been tossing everything left over from lessons and activities, camp and sports in there so it had gotten kind of deep.  We threw away a lot of stuff that's become obsolete like old lesson manuals, personal progress books from before they added "Virtue" and old camp books.  We found a bunch of old photo albums from yw groups clear back from early 1990s.   and sat there  and laughed and laughed looking through them.  It was funny to see all the young women who grew up with our girls who now are leaders their selves and all the old ward members that were so young back then.  
We took down all the old pictures off the bulletin board from last years camp and put up this years pictures.  That sure brought back some fun memories looking through them.
So yesterday when Jerry released us, it was kind of hard.
  It was sweet though when all the girls came up and thanked us and gave us love and a big hug.  
They called Carol Berlin as the new president, Jenni Arnold and Mindy Smith as her counselors and a new lady in the ward named Jessica as the secretary.  I thought that seemed just right.  Carol is an amazing lady who I have always admired. This new gal really impressed me too.  She has such a happy positive personality, I know the girls will love her.  
I had a hard time getting through the theme as we stood with our arms around each other.  Looking into each of the girls eyes as we repeated those profound statements was pretty emotional. There is a connection we have while doing that that doesn't happen anywhere else.  I will really miss that part of young womens.  After we had a real nice testimony meeting with all the girls and the new leaders.  After hearing the new  presidency talk, I felt real peaceful, and I knew the girls were in good hands.
Feeling kind of empty now.  It's like going ninety miles an hour, then coming to an abrupt halt.  There was always something going on or we were planning something, or preparing something or going somewhere, but suddenly, I don't need to worry about any of that anymore.  I was called to this position at a time when I needed something to fill up the hole in my heart left  when I was missing Camille and the grand kids so very much.  I know it sounds lame, but it's hard for me to have them so far away. I'm glad Heavenly Father knows what's in my heart and sent me on this journey for the past three years.  It's kept me so busy, I didn't have time to dwell on my own issues.  I'm a little apprehensive thinking about what's coming next.  It's hard to beat a calling in the young women.

Yesterday we went on the beautiful hike.  I've been wanting to go hiking with Katie ever since she got here, but her behind has been so sore since her fall in Mexico, she couldn't really do it.

Sierra was telling us the other day about a great hike to Stewart Falls that was pretty easy and not too long, so we thought we would give it a try.

Candice was going to go with us too, but she hadn't been feeling very good, and Curtis was sick too, so she decided to stay home and help out with his kids.  Kelley said he'd like to go though so the three of us got up early and headed up Provo Canyon.

We didn't really know where it was, only that it was by Bridal Veil Falls, so I googled it.  It wasn't by Bridal Veil falls, but up in Sundance by Timpanogas.  We followed Sirie's directions on how to get there, and went on a big wild goose chase.  

Her directions took us clear up the mountain till the road ended, then there was a big meadow and a dirt road.  Ha!  So we turned around and went back down till we got to the main road again.  Seri got a little flustered, but just sent us on a different road to get to Stewart falls.  

We tried that road and it was not the right way either.  So we were just wandering aimlessly and saw this guy in the parking lot.  We stopped and asked him how to get there and he gave us some pretty good instructions.  We turned into the Sundance parking lot and the guy at the gate there said we could take the tram up to the top and hike across to the falls from there or go up the road a ways farther and go into the BYU parking area, then the trail head was right there,  We headed up to the BYU area and soon saw what the guy was talking about when he said it was a really popular area.  There were a million cars and the parking lot was full.  So we parked along the side of the road and went looking for the beginning of the trail. It wasn't marked at all so we just followed the herds of people.  Once we got up the trail a little way, there was a little sign that said Stewart falls....it also said Timp falls on the same sign.  Oh well, we asked some people and they said they were going to Stewart falls so we followed them.  It was a pretty easy hike and it was so pretty up there.

I love hiking.  We are so lucky to live in this beautiful valley surrounded with these incredible mountains.  The views really are breathtaking.  I'm also really grateful that my body still goes pretty good and I'm able to do these things.  I've been reminded how quickly that can change in the past few months so I'm going to try to keep moving and never take a healthy body for granted.