Twin Falls, a wedding, and Pioneer Day

TWIN FALLS

That's right. Only 3 days after moving home (and one night in our house), I made a trip with the kids to Twin Falls to visit my brother, sister in law and nephews. They moved there a year ago because my parents company expanded, and they needed my brother to run things there. They have a big job going on right now, so my parents are both there helping out for the week. We have a big family reunion coming up on my mom's side and its our turn to be in charge this year. My mom needed help getting things done, and we decided the best way to help out was to join them there.

Being strong independent women that we are, we set out the next day to home depot to get a few things we needed for games at the reunion. We thought for sure it would all fit in the trunk as long as we had them cut everything for us (which they kindly did for free even though they apparently charge after the  first 2 cuts). When we got to the car we realized that we had bit off more than we could chew... or at least fit in the trunk. We had a peg board cut in half into two 4x4 sheets. Its a big trunk so we were sure it would fit but we broke it (just a little) trying to get it through the opening. We called my brother and my dad but they were both 30 minutes outside of town on other jobs. My SIL finally called a really good friend of theirs, and he was there with his truck in 5 minutes to take our peg board. He had even unloaded it at her house before we made it home! So much for strong independent women, but at least we managed to get everything we needed! :D

The kids had SO much fun playing together. They decided one night they were going to sleep outside on the trampoline. Unfortunately it was their night to water the lawn and if they didn't do it, it would go a week without watering, so they decided they'd sleep on the deck where the water couldn't get them. lol. The made themselves a 'fire' (really it was a moon like night light with sticks over it. haha) and my oldest nephew told them ghost stories. After an hour or so, I went out and asked if they'd mind having a camp out in the basement instead. (My SIL was sure they'd end up inside and I didn't want to have to deal with it at 4 am. Haha.) They decided the basement would work just fine. They actually fell asleep no long after they came inside. I thought they'd be up all night. Haha.

Double Trouble!

Jay loved the dog! 

Their "inside campfire"

My nephew LOVES is cars. I had to document his creative organizing technique.

A WEDDING IN MANTI

One of my very best friends was getting married this weekend in UTAH. Yep I was heading back to Utah already! Haha. We moved at the worst time ever - just a week before her wedding. Jay had come down with a bad cold, and Ty had to work since he had just started 4 days ago. My mom kindly agreed to taking a road trip with me, so I wouldn't have to drive the 6 hours alone! On Thursday afternoon we left Twin Falls and headed to Manti. Since Jay wasn't feeling well I had decided to just go to the wedding and miss the reception that was being held the next day. I felt awful, but Jay's breathing wasn't good and if we ended up in a hospital I wanted to be at home. Friday morning he was actually doing much better and I thought he'd be fine, but it had been a long week for all of us and I think we just needed to get home. 

The wedding was fabulous! I was in tears during the sealing. My friend has made it through a lot of stuff the past few years and I was beyond happy for her! The girls were so excited to see her in her wedding dress and get pictures with them. I'm glad they humored them by letting us get a picture with them even though we aren't really family. The girls were thrilled! While we were there we tried getting some pictures with the kids as well but it didn't go that well. Jay didn't want to cooperate with us at all. 

PIONEER DAY CELEBRATION

We got back home late Friday night and were up and going again Saturday morning. In case you haven't figured it out I still haven't had a minute to unpack ANYTHING! 

Since Pioneer Day isn't a state holiday like it is in Utah (which totally makes sense since it's Utah's birthday not Idaho's. Haha.), we usually celebrate it, as a church community, on the nearest weekend to the 24th. In this case our stake had their celebration on the 26th. So after a day of 'house project shopping,' we went to the church for a nice dinner where the girls even found some new friends to play with! On our way home we stopped to redeem some free Frosty coupons we had sitting in our car. We sat out on the back deck and had a nice evening as a family. Its so nice to have our own backyard again. And a nice place to sit outside and visit in the evening. 

(And just a side note, Crystal used to be allergic to Wendy's. She would break out into hives whenever we came near anything Wendy's related, but we tested it again a few months ago and she was fine! We still have no idea what it was, and the doctor was baffled himself. But I'm glad whatever was causing it is gone because Ty and I have missed our Frosty nights a lot the past 5 years! lol!)

Needless to say I got ZERO unpacking done. It's been an entire week and still over a hundred boxes sit in my house waiting for someone to unpack them... I wonder if there's an 'unpacking fairy' out there somewhere? I could really use a visit from her...

Our last week in Provo and The Move

This week was absolutely insane. Packing an entire house in one week might not seem like a big task, especially if one hasn't had to move a lot. This is our 4th move in the past 5 years, and I absolutely HATE moving. Having only 1 week to have EVERYTHING ready to go out the door was no easy task. This is the first move we've had where absolutely everything had to go and the place completely cleaned and then everything unloaded again all in one day. I kid you not we had at least 100 boxes big and small. At least 30 came just from our food storage which Ty kindly helped me pack up (Aside from the electronics and disassembling a few pieces of furniture its about all the help I got from him. haha. At least he was there to help watch the kids!).  This one year food storage idea is awesome in theory but totally sucks when it comes time to pack it up and move it. We've moved it 4 times now, and people give us a hard time about it every time we move. I really really really hope we don't have to move it again for a long long while. I also had at least that many more boxes while packing the kitchen. We own too many appliances! LOL!

Even though it was extremely stressful for me, the kids were having the time of their lives! There were empty boxes for them to play in at every corner! Even Jay took part in the box playing fun. Jay was a little out of sorts with this whole moving thing. He knew something was up but he wasn't sure what it was or if he was going to like it or not.

In the mist of packing, we still found time to stop and enjoy some of the perks of Provo one last time. We went to the archery range; the girls finished up their last week of swimming lessons; I took the kids to the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point; and we enjoyed spending time with some of our really good friends who we are going to miss dearly. 

Saturday morning came quickly and I was a nervous wreck. I was so anxious I felt like I was having a panic attack several times as the day went on. My parents and brother came from Idaho Falls to help us move. I'm SO thankful for their help. We would have been in sad shape had they not driven so far to come help us. Only one person from our ward in Provo showed up to help (HUGE thank you to him and his wife who watched Jay while we loaded the truck and cleaned the apartment). Some friends also came to help. We filled a 20 ft trailer, my dad's truck, both our cars, and most of Ty's grandpa's truck (also a huge thank you to him for driving our stuff clear to Idaho Falls for us. They live in Spanish Fork). Two wonderful ladies from our ward came to help with last minute cleaning. They saved me hours of work. We were able to start our long trek to Idaho Falls so much earlier because of them! 

After check out my dad took the VERY FULL Uhaul, Ty's grandpa was long gone with the not quite full truck and I, my little brother, and Ty were getting in our vehicles (my brother was taking my dad's truck) to leave. My brother decided to take one more look around the apartment before we left (totally strange because we had just checked out and done a walk thru with the manager) and he found about 15 kitchen boxes in the coat closet that we had missed!!!!!! I had a mini panic attack. The truck that wasn't full was a good hour into its trip to IF and the Uhaul and truck were completely full! We had some space in our cars but I just didn't think it was enough for all those boxes! It was half my kitchen! My dishes... everything! Tyler (my brother) and Ty set to work finding places for boxes. There were boxes in my front seat and boxes at the kids feet but we managed to fit it all in! It was a miracle! 

After a short stop at Applebee's for lunch we were on our way home!!! Finally after 4, almost 5 years, and 2 children later, we were heading back to our house in Idaho Falls. Something I had decided was never going to happen! (As I write this, it's been 3 weeks and I still can't believe it!)

When we got to Idaho Falls, we were all completely exhausted. Ty has a ton of family here but they were ALL gone to a reunion in Priest Lake and no one from our ward here came to help (granted they had very short notice. lol. That was poor planning on our part). One of Ty's really good friends showed up to help. And a while later Ty's dad came (with a dolly thank goodness). He had an uncle and cousin come to help for a bit too. Ty and my poor dad unloaded and loaded most of that truck in one day. I was so exhausted I didn't think I could lift another box, so I can only imagine how tired they must have been!  All in all it was a very long day, but with a ton of support from family and friends we were able to get it done! 

We spent some time at Ty's parent's house that night and the kids enjoyed petting the cows. We stayed the next 2 or 3 nights at my parents house because we just didn't have the energy or space to put up beds. lol. Sunday we had dinner at the Cook's with friends and Ty's grandparents. We are going to miss a lot of family, friends, and activities that Provo had to offer us, but it is so good to be home. I can't seem to put to words how good it feels!

I know my finger totally ruined the picture but if you can ignore it, its a good pic. lol.

It just happened to be the museum's birthday so they had fun activities for the kids. We made dinosaur hats and fossils!

Our friend, Julia, stopped by to say hi! :D

Grandpa told Lily she had to ride in the back and put her up there. She didn't like the idea after that and wanted down. lol.

My niece loves her Grandpa!

The cow was nuzzling into Jay letting him pet her. It was cute.

The kids sitting with our friends from Japan.