Life in the Slow Lane

Is really a nice change of pace. 
Sure, there are negatives to living in a little tiny town (even one you love and grew up in) in Arizona. Like the only "big" store (where you can shop for mixed goods) is Wal-mart, and it's 15 minutes away. No beach. And the fact that my husband isn't here. Little things like that. But here are some positives that we're really enjoying though:
-My kids play outside every day. Pretty much whenever they want. And I don't have to go out with them, no matter if it's in the fenced backyard or the front yard. (My parents live on a dead end street and our two neighbors seem happy to watch for small cyclers. I like the freedom and "free range" they have here. They're getting more exercise, fresh air and sunshine here, and after living in a 2nd story apartment for a year, I love it.

-Everyone is so laid back. And things aren't busy. After 15 minutes at the DMV I had a license, and all they wanted from me was my VA license and one other form of ID. They gave me the paperwork for Jeremy to sign to get our registration and title. And they smiled at me. More than once. So refreshing. Signing him up for kindergarten was completely painless even though I didn't have his original birth certificate with me yet. (A copy was fine). Dropping him off and picking him up from school is painless. No one gave me a list of rules or asked for my ID or cared where I parked (within reason). Traffic is like a 0-3 at any given time in the whole valley. Especially after living in Chesapeake/Virginia Beach.

Not much grass. But you can't have everything. 

-I get to see the temple several times a week instead of every few months. And go there, too! Win.

-It -is- really hot here. But not so humid (at least comparatively). But it IS monsoon seasons, and we've had some amazing rain storms too, which made me feel a little better after hearing about all the rain Jeremy's been getting in Chesapeake!

-So many relatives here. My kids are loving spending time with everyone and getting so much attention.

-Space. It's so nice to have so much room for them to play in and area to spread out a little. Much appreciated, especially without lots of other places to go and without Jeremy here.

I'm not saying I don't miss Virginia, because I do. But we are really enjoying our time here in Arizona, and look forward to Daddy joining us. :)

My beloved Mt. Graham with some pretty clouds. (Taken with my cell
out the window while driving...)

For more pictures of our trip, including one trip up to the cabin, see this Facebook album.

The Great Road Trip of 2012

(Not to be confused with The Great Road Trip of 2009...)

Saturday morning (the 28th) we left D.C. and soon left Virginia for the last time. (Well, most of us. Jeremy actually returned a few days after we got to AZ to work for two months. More on that later) That day started off with a bang as we were reminded that Reilly gets carsick somewhat easily. After a day of not letting the poor kid eat or drink too much and constantly watch the road (Maryland and Pennsylvania have a lot of somewhat-windy roads, I guess) we broke down and bought some Dramamine that night. Best decision ever, in my eyes and in Reilly's. It didn't seem to make him sleepy (he never napped in the car in those 5 days) but he never got sick again either! Saturday night we stopped by the temple in Columbus before pulling into Fairborn, OH to stay the night with some friends from Palmer. It was so good to see them, and our kids played hard for about 2 hours before we finally made them go to bed.

Katy was having a rough time with all the changes and became firmly
attached to having her pacifier in almost 24/7 for the duration of the trip.
She wouldn't let us take it out and still be part of the pictures...

Sunday (my 30th birthday!) we dragged ourselves out of bed and went to church with our friends. Reilly and Jaina thoroughly enjoyed each having a friend to sit with during sacrament. After taking a few quick minutes for some pictures, we piled back in the car and drove on through Indiana, Illinois, and into Missouri. We passed right by the St. Louis Arch. It was so amazing! I'd seen it in pictures, but it's much more impressive in person. I'd like to go back and check out St. Louis again some day. (Without tired, grumpy kids and a schedule to keep) We also stopped at the St. Louis temple before heading to our hotel for the night. It was pretty amazing, too!

The St. Louis temple - Jeremy took and edited this shot
on his phone!

We grabbed a quick birthday dinner at Chevy's. The kids were
pretty impressed that we got to keep the hat.

Did I mention that they insisted on all wearing it after me while
we sang "Happy Birthday" to each of them?

We stayed in a nice suite that night (for my birthday) and would have slept really well if it wasn't for Katy waking at about 4:30 and needing some distraction from teething. Oh, and if the fire alarm in the hall hadn't gone off at about 6 am. That was a little more excitement than we hoped for as well. Amazingly enough, the kids slept through that one, and I was even able to get back to sleep after I finally reached the front desk to confirm that it was a mistake.
Monday we drove from St. Louis to Wichita, KS and stayed with a great friend from Chesapeake (the one that let us sleep in her house the night after loaded our truck) at her mom's house. They had a big full basement, and since that drive didn't take nearly as long as we though, we had several hours of down time that evening, which the kids loved. Sadly, the only picture I have was taken with my dinky little phone.

Katy and Evie fight over...er, playing the piano.

The next morning (Tuesday the 31st) we got up and trekked onward to Oklahoma, through the Texas panhandle, and all the way to Albuquerque, NM. We decided to really get a good marathon day in so we would be able to make it home before evening on Wednesday and not have to stay "on the road" another night. We were in the car about 12 hours that day. It was long, but the kids were troopers.
There were almost no meltdowns the entire trip, really. We had prepared a box for each day and even a tentative schedule of events to keep everyone busy. (And Mommy from going crazy) We had lots of sticker books, some travel games, magnets, stories, and movies, with everything being almost completely new to them. We saved the movies for late afternoon and evenings, when everyone was tired of being in the car and needed some distraction. It was a little chaotic with all the stuff we had with us (necessities plus entertainment for a family of 5 for over a week is not small thing) but it made the trip pretty bearable.
Wednesday morning we pulled out of Albuquerque (and saw a car absolutely engulfed in flames on the side of the road that my kids are still talking about) and headed for home. We stopped just short of the Arizona border, in Virden, NM to visit my sister and her family for a few hours. That was so enjoyable and restful! When we finally headed for Pima we only had an hour left to drive, and after about 40 hours of actual driving time behind us that week, that seemed to fly by.

It was hard to leave our little life in Virginia, but we feel so blessed to be "home" by both of our families, where we have a chance to spend time with them and with friends we've had for years but haven't seen much of lately. The kids and I are staying at my Mom's house until Jeremy gets back into the state and we start figuring all the business stuff out, probably down in the Mesa/Gilbert area. We're so happy to have survived our huge road trip, and I'm so thankful we never have to do it again!

One Last Hurrah

    Tuesday night (July 24th) we had everything pretty much packed up and ready to go. We were supposed to have help to load the truck at about 7. Of course, at about 6, we had a thunderstorm warning and rain was pouring down as hard as I've ever seen it there. Jeremy was getting a little nervous, but it mostly stopped before the guys from our ward showed up, so we were only dealing with a heat advisory instead of that PLUS a thunderstorm... It was so hot and humid, even that late in the evening! After about 8:30 I finally packed the kids up and took them over to our friends' house (they were out of town, and said we could stay there!). It was so heavenly to leave the chaos of our mostly empty (but still needing to be cleaned, and cluttered with odds and ends) house and go stay in theirs'... Everyone slept really well, and we were all ready to complete our move the next morning.

    Wednesday morning we dropped the kids off at another friend's house to play while Jeremy and I scrubbed and dusted and cleaned for about 3 hours. One small plus to having such a small place is that it took less time to do a move-out cleaning. :) We got on the road finally at about 12:30 PM, it seems like, but ended up beating my parents to D.C. because we had the best traffic we've ever seen on the way up there! It helped that it was a mid-week afternoon, I guess. :) We got checked into our hotel, and didn't have to wait too long for them to arrive. We were all so excited to see Grandpa, Grandma, and Spencer!

Looking down from the 10th floor (I think) in our room.

So happy to see them!!

Sadly, our hotel didn't have a pool, so instead we decided to take the metro to the Mall and walk around a little. We thought the Library of Congress might be open, so we walked all the way from the metro station by the Smithsonian castle down past the Capitol building, to the library (which was not open to the public anymore at that point), and over to Union Station. It was after 7:30, but it was still quite warm, and we were grateful for shade anywhere we could find it!

Our first metro right! I'd never been on a subway before!

Little sweetheart

Pics from the "back" side of the Capitol.

Spencer outside Union Station

Inside. It was kind of like a cross between an airport and a mini-mall...

The next day we spent seeing the Museum of Natural History, one of the art museums, the Museum of American History, and the Museum of Air & Space. The kids were slightly unimpressed with all the walking, and we were all a little wilted from the heat and humidity whenever we had to change buildings.

The "Smithsonian Castle"

THIS one was pretty hard to keep track of. She just
wanted to run away from the rest of us...

Checking out some animals at the Museum of Natural History

We were a little worn out after a busy day Thursday, but Friday morning we (just our little family) headed back to the Mall area and checked out the Library of Congress. Thankfully by this point we had figured out where all the elevators were and didn't have to take strollers down the 2-3 story escalator that made me a little dizzy more often than not... The Library of Congress was amazing! Since we used the LoC cataloging system at BYU's library, I've always been curious about it in general, but the inside was so amazing! On one of the lower floors they even have some children's reading rooms, and we happened to get there just in time for story time. Jeremy was sweet and took them to that so I could explore a little, since he had seen the Library on a previous trip. 

Down taking one of our last metro rides. Their faces mirror how they
felt about D.C. at this point.

The really long escalator I didn't love.

Looking down into the main reading room at the Library.

In the lower levels, just after story time.

After that we went through the tunnels that led over to the Capitol's visitor center, and ate lunch there before we checked that out. At this point we were pretty tired, and didn't know how much more walking in the heat our kids could handle, so we decided to head to our next hotel. It was out in the suburbs more, (National Harbor, MD) near the resort my dad's classes were at, where they would be staying for the next week. Traffic was -ridiculous-. It took us over an hour to get there. It was a very interesting Comfort Inn. A strange mix of old and new, with a very helpful owner. It, thankfully, had a pool, and we took the kids swimming. Probably their favorite part of the trip, I would guess... ;-)  After an hour or so of that, we got cleaned up and went over to my parents hotel to eat and celebrate my birthday, which would be Sunday.  The whole National Harbor area was pretty impressive quite resort-y with lots of shopping and touristy sights and sounds. The restaurant we ended up eating in had good food, but was probably one of the louder dining experiences I've ever had!  After we ate, we walked down to the harbor and had some ice cream. We wanted to see my parents' hotel, so we walked up there, too. It was pretty huge, and pretty amazing. At this point it was after 8:30, and I don't think Katy had had a nap. She actually fell asleep in the stroller, and transferred to her car seat, and transferred to bed, without really waking up. None of those things ever happen...

This is what the traffic looked like... for a long time!

At my loud birthday dinner, with my mom trying to entertain Katy behind.

That boy...

Thankfully, the harbor had a kid-friendly fence!

My mom and dad

With me

This pic is a little blurry, but you can see part of the cool playground
equipment on the beach. His leg is there, too, out of sight of the pic.

Our poor, exhausted 2-year-old

My parents' hotel. That shorter glass part is probably 15-ish stories high,
I think. I won't bore you with a picture of -our- hotel. :)

Leaving Virginia

So to backtrack, we moved about 2 1/2 weeks ago. We were very sad to leave our ward, our friends, the ocean, the multitudes of things to do (if we had had money to do so), the millions of trees, and Chesapeake itself. We probably will not miss the traffic, the humidity, our tiny apartment with its occasional giant cockroaches, or the mosquitoes. Did I mention the traffic? Also pretty sure Jeremy won't miss his job. When he's finally done with it in September. There were a lot of things we had to say good-bye to, and it was definitely bittersweet to be moving home, at least after only a year. We tried to fit a lot into those last few weeks, even though Jeremy was pretty busy at work and we were trying to get everything sorted and packed. Our kids had somewhat mixed feelings, too. Jaina was mostly just excited to be with her Grandmas again, though she got sad when we talked about not seeing certain friends anymore. Reilly gets really attached to people, and though he was happy to see family again, was NOT excited to leave all our friends behind. Katy seemed mostly unnerved by all the packing, and started wanting to spend a lot of time sitting in her bed, looking at books with her stuffed animals, her babies and her pacifiers...

Swimming with some friends that we're definitely going to miss!

The more we packed, the more attached they seemed to get to what was
left. They wanted pictures with all their "friends" one afternoon.

They were so happy that Daddy took them to their
beloved Children's Museum one last time!
(Remember, this was while I was getting a massage
and a haircut... :-)

Which one looks more mischievous to you?

Playing "vet" at the museum.

We had a coupon from Katy's birthday that let us do one more ride on
the awesome 2-story carousel at the Lynnhaven mall. They loved it!

With their dear friends, Brooke & McKenzie. Poor Reilly was at his
Pre-K program, and didn't get to play one last time with them.

We've had a lot of missionaries come through, and the kids have absolutely
loved having them in our home often! This was an especially great set. :)

Part of the Greenstreet clan. These fellow-Mario lovers (well, their Mom,)
saved our kids from having to be around for the final packing and for
the cleaning the morning before we left. We're all forever grateful!
(Katy was feeling fairly displaced, and was not happy about being in
this picture...)

Tomorrow (hopefully) I'll post narrative and photographs (sounds exciting, huh?) from our trip to D.C. to meet up with my parents and my brother. We spent a couple days there and saw quite a few things!