Camping in Payson

Last Friday, a few of the families in our ward invited us to go camping. They were so nice and brought us 2 foam pads to sleep on and 2 tents. We luckily had sleeping bags and blankets. Payson, AZ is so beautiful. It reminds me of Jackson Hole, WY. It was about 20 degrees cooler too! We had a blast and are so glad we went. We roasted hot dogs and ate smores in the rain. The kids were in heaven! About 1 hour into our trip, Colton crashed on a scooter and really scratched up his face and then Connor cut his finger pretty bad on his pocket knife. Not too bad for having 4 boys. Two of the four came home without a scratch!

The best part was that the next day we drove home, cleaned up our stuff, and jumped in the pool!

WE ARE HERE!

We are now down in Mesa Arizona. It has officially been 2 weeks now. It is hot, but it hasn't been that bad. I guess I had built it up in my mind to be so horrible, that it hasn't been as bad as I expected. The boys are all loving it and Alex is trying REALLY hard to love it. She misses her friends and family. We all do. But there are some great things about Arizona. Here are some of our adventures so far.

The drive down took about 10 hours. The kids did really good. When we drove into Mesa, Colton saw the palm trees and said, "Mom and dad, thank you for taking me to San Diego!" It took us about 5 days to get him to say that we live in Arizona instead of San Diego.

Here is the Glen Canyon Dam. We stopped and took pictures and all got a little woozie looking over the edge. It is a long way down! Anyway, we got here Sunday and our moving van didn't bring our stuff until Wednesday. So, we had a camp out on the floor for 3 nights.

Did I mention anything about an adventure?

McKay's 5th Birthday. He got a bike and since we didn't have furniture yet,

he got to ride his new bike all through the house.

Swimming in the pool!

This is at a mall by our house. We went to a dollar movie to get out of the heat!

Our neighbors gave us tickets to the Diamondbacks game. It was a blast! It was inside an air-conditioned building. Pretty cool! Excuse the pun :)

Connor and Alex on the way to the game.

Our little gang of D-back fans!

Inside Chase ball park.

Today we drove to the Mesa Temple after church.

It is a really beautiful temple!

We love the ward we are currently in. The people are all super nice. I went with about 10 of the girls in my ward to get a yogurt on Thursday night, and then Friday morning I went with some of the girls to a dollar movie with all of our kids.

Alex is already being fought over to babysit. She babysat for a really cute family in our ward and she went to the mall with a girl her age. Preston and I went to Pack Mtg. on Tuesday night. We have been pretty busy. House hunting is fun and also a little frustrating. Hopefully we will be in our own little abode soon.

More fun in Utah!

Our last night in Utah. We had a BBQ over at Trav's parents and then did fireworks.

One of the best nights ever! And we have all of you on video tape

dancing if we ever need to blackmail any of you!

Trav, Preston, Connor and I all woke up at 5:00 am to go see the balloon's with my parents. It was too windy and so we only got to see a couple of balloons actually launch. It was still fun. Thanks dad and mom!

Boating with the Beardall Clan at Jordanelle.

Owls game in Orem. Trav caught a foul ball and ended up almost seriously injuring himself and Colton in the process. He said it was all worth it though.

This is Connor's last baseball game. His team came in 4th place! They did awesome! Connor pitched again this year and did a great job! Thanks Uncle Rob for teaching him how to do the famous 'change up'!

Swimming at the Lindon Pool!

Our Last night on our deck! We were all crying right before this picture was taken.

The moving van! Thank you to all of guys who helped us shove every last one of our belonings onto that massive truck.

Uncle Russ tying Alex up to the chair.

The kids slept out of the deck in a tent for the last time. Colton stayed out there until Harry Potter was over and then he came and slept in his own bed.

Since my parents have moved back to Orem from Bear Lake, they have taken me and Melissa to lunch every other Friday. This was our last lunch date. We went to 'Spark' in Provo. It was very good. Alex got to come with us. I am going to miss Friday lunches:(

We went to the Orem Night Parade at Gma and Gpa Bellows house. This is one of our favorite things to do in the summer. We might have to plan our summer vacations so that we don't miss the Orem Night Parade!

Our Summer Adventure

We are now living in Mesa Arizona! I have decided to start blogging to record this crazy time in our lives and to also keep our family and friends up to date with what is happening with our family.

So to start off, we decided in May to move to Arizona to run a small business with our friends, Mike and Shannon Latham. Travis left on my birthday, May 12th, and we got an offer on our home 2 days later. So, for the next 6 weeks, I packed and tried to hold down the fort without him. It is definately all a blur! Travis came back on the 24th of June and we packed, waved goodbye to the moving vans, cried as we drove away from our home of 11 years, and then

stayed at our parents and played for 5 days.

The following are some of the fun things we did before leaving Utah

Our niece Kelsey got married in June and this is our family at her wedding at the Mount Timpanogos Temple. We were all so glad to see Travis. 6 weeks is a LONG time!