It's Been A Busy Month

 Dear Kids, 

wow - the last couple of weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind! We got back from Mexico - spent about 5 days in St. George staying with Shirlyn. We were able to hang out with friends in Diamond Valley. Gabe was able to go to baptisms for the dead at Cedar City with a group from Diamond (I LOVE DIAMOND VALLEY! I want to live there). Talia was able to help with Ella's birthday party while we were there (Ella waited until Talia got back from Mexico so she would be there, isn't that sweet?). We were able to see Mesha and Jeff and their boys. 

Then Mesha and Jeff helped us out a ton by letting us use the Durango until we are able to find a van. We are still figuring out the pieces to put together with that. We drove up to Idaho and had a pit stop in SLC. We stayed with Krista and helped Nana move out of her place to go to a facility in Tooele where Dani is living. We picked up Ginger-dog. Everyone has missed her like crazy! 

Then we headed up to Idaho for the family reunion up here. We got here Thursday night. Friday morning Mesha, Kalea and I went through all of mom's stuff from her bedroom (clothing, bathroom stuff, decorations, drawers, shoes, closet, etc.). It was DRAINING to say the least. Man - it was hard - especially since it is something that we just barely did with Shayla's stuff not even a year ago. It took us all day to go through it. We were talking about how it is going to take us a week to go through everything in the house with the herb room, her heirloom things, Christmas decorations, etc. Papa wants to keep some things, but he wants to pass on a lot of her things to us right now. I'll write more about my feelings about the process in another post since this is a just a travel log ;-). 

Then Friday night we went to the Chukars baseball game. The kids LOVE that tradition - but it might be our last year doing it! That is so sad to me :-(. I told Papa that he is going to have to just get a booth every year because it is just so fun and everyone loves it so much. Everyone was able to come - even Casey and his new wife Alisha came to the game with the kids. I was really happy about that. 

Then Saturday we had breakfast at the airbnb with Jonathan and Denise, and then we went up to Heise for the day and the kids HAD A BLAST. I love Heise so much - it brought back so many memories of growing up and how much we went up there. It is a haven. I definitely want the kids to keep going back there in order to make more memories there together. They just swam and played all day. We also sang papa Happy Birthday because it was his birthday that day! We got him cake and gave him some book collections that he lost in the flood they had at the house a couple years ago. 

Then Papa had me and your dad give talks in church, so we shared several things from the trip and our testimonies about it all. It was short notice, but we spoke about what the Lord would have us share. 

It was hard to gather all together with the reality of new dynamics since Shayla and Mom passed away. It was wonderful and really hard all at the same time. 

We've had a BUSY month. In one month we traveled to Merida, Bacalar, Chichen-Itza, more ruins in Mexico, finished up packing to leave Mexico - got everything wrapped up there, we flew back to the states, stayed in Vegas, went to St. George, went to SLC and came to Idaho. 

It's been a whirlwind. We still are figuring out getting another van, the next job for your dad and settling into another house and what that needs to look like. I can't believe how much has happened. And how much has yet to happen. We've been publishing the podcasts for people and we've had lots of friends already say how grateful they are for the podcasts. We'll see what the Lord does with that project and how He will use it for His work. 

I know it's been a whirlwind for all of you was well. Yesterday was the first "quiet" day that we've had and all of you were decompressing like crazy. Playing lego's, going back and forth from outside, you were just enjoying hanging out without anything to do or places to go or screens to be on. 

I love you so much kids. I know part of the reason we've been on this journey is because of the things you are learning from it as well and only time will tell how you choose to use it for your benefit. 

I LOVE YOU, 

Your Mom