An update!

Finally! Its been a long time coming- but without any further ado...

First of all, I just wanted to thank everyone who helped us with the move. My mom and sisters came on Monday and Tuesday (of the week we moved) and packed up my kitchen and books and lots of stuff, then my friend Angie came Thursday and Friday and was our main organizer! I couldnt have gotten through those 2 days without her- I was about to go nuts! Then Marcus Seiter came to haul stuff away with his truck Thursday night, then my brother in law Ken came late on Friday night was our push to just get it all done! His truck was a life saver taking away our last remnants of garbage and stuff we couldnt fit into the trailer. It seemed like whenever we needed help it came- so thank you everyone!

And I also wanted to say how much we are going to miss AZ. We have such good friends there- Madison ward friends, Keating ward friends, my MHS friends, my family- we are really going to miss seeing you on a frequent basis- thanks for taking care of us and including us in your circles! Maybe we'll end up in good ol Mesa again one day- we shall see. I'm glad that I've discovered blogs so that we can all keep in touch easier!

Let me tell you, as you all probably know- Moving is no fun! At risk of sounding like a complainer, I will tell you that I have never been so stressed out in my entire life. At first we thought we could only carry a 4'x8' trailer behind our car, therefore lots of our stuff wouldn't be able to go with us. I was sure we would have to ship a lot of our stuff, and I was having a heck of a time trying to figure out how to fit stuff together and decide which stuff to keep with us, what to get rid of and what to ship. But when Tyson got to the U-haul store- there was a 5' by 8' trailer available and he got it! We thought it might be too big for our little car, but in the end it was fine. We got all packed up and headed out at 11:30pm Friday night. Whew!
We drove all Friday night and got into Las Vegas at about 10am. We had to drive really slow as to not overheat the car- and it was doubly miserable because we were blasting the heat with the windows down in over 100 degree weather- even more precautionary steps to not over heat the car. Let me tell you- the drive from Phoenix to Las Vegas is one of the most dreary drives! There are some spots where the scenery is nice- but for the most part it is just yucky desert.

La Vegas was fun- we splurged a little for my birthday and stayed in Paris Las Vegas! That was a really nice hotel! And the lobby/ casino area wasn't very smoky- so I was very grateful for that. We slept for most of the day and then went out that night to find somewhere to eat and walk around the strip. After about 1/2 an hour of searching amidst rumbling tummies, we finally decided on the Mirage buffet. It was super yummy, but not quite worth the 25 dollars a person to eat there. I guess they just assume everyone visiting the strip is loaded...yeah right! Las Vegas was fun to see and I'm glad I can say that I've really been there now, but I dont think we'll be going back there any time soon. It is so fun to see all the different themed hotels, I just wish they didn't have to include all the garbage that goes along with it.

We took off from Las Vegas early on Sunday morning, but only made it to Mesquite, NV because we were still worried about our car overheating and it was super hot outside- so we ended up staying at another hotel on Sunday and left there early Monday morning. We drove all day Monday and finally made it here to IF at about 10:30 that night. Whew!

It was quite the adventure, and Jeffrey and Emily were awesome. I was amazed at how well they did on that long car trip! I'm so happy that we made it here sane, safe and sound :)