Our "Pit Stop" in Utah and Move to Idaho

As is the case in our lives, we stopped in Utah for what - we HOPED - would be a quick visit, maybe one or two weeks tops, as we looked for a rental house.

One week turned into two, two into three and before we knew it, we were there for almost a month!  At one point we put the older two girls in school at the school my mom teaches at, just because we didn't know how things were going to go.  Of course, as soon as we did that we finally got a rental and left the next weekend.  But I'm convinced if we hadn't put them in school, we would have been there 3 more weeks and we would have wished we HAD put them in school.

On Mother's Day I wanted a picture of me with all my cute kids...although this photo would make you think otherwise, the photo shoot was kind of ridiculous and took approximately 500 pictures (give or take...I may be exaggerating) 

 One evening at my parent's house, I went to check on the girls before going to bed.  I found Claire and Addison like this.....there are no words. 

We made sure to take the opportunity to go visit Ben's grave, and get a picture of Brody by the headstone. 

 Brody woke up one morning with blood crusted on his nose...I didn't even know babies could get bloody noses!  But my own Dr. Sara Ridges (how handy to have a doctor in the family!) assured me it was fine as long as he wasn't continually bleeding.

While in Utah we had to get new swimming suits...because we didn't pack ours, because we thought we would be there for such a short amount of time.  The girls were OK with it though.

We also got in a LOT of cousin time, which was so great!

 A few more random pictures from our stay: 

 

Brody holding a sibling meeting:

Doing some crafts to pass the time.

 While the kids and I were in Utah, Marty was already in Idaho, staying in a hotel and looking at rentals every night after work.  We filled out applications for multiple places, and called probably 30 or more...but who knew there was such a hopping rental market in this area?

One evening, Marty was randomly driving around and saw a group of people outside an LDS church building, and decided to pull in and ask them if they knew of any rentals.  Someone said they were pretty sure there was a rental in their ward, and gave him the address.

Sure enough...there was one!  Marty called and got in touch with the owner, and we filled out an application and felt really good about it all.

Unfortunately the previous tenant was less than stellar, and they had to go through a whole eviction through the court to get him out.  It was such a headache for the landlord, we felt so bad for them!

Thankfully, everything worked out and we were finally ready to move in the middle of May!

My family came with us to help get us settled.  We stopped at Subway in Twin Falls for a quick little bite to eat.

Then we got to our new house, and my family helped get us all settled in!  

The kids immediately found the park (Brielle had been looking on Google Maps and knew there were parks and a community pool close by.)

One of their favorite things was the archway between the living room and family room.  They were certain it was there just for them to sit in.

 Unpacking took a little time, and it also looked a bit chaotic...but we were SO glad to finally be in our new place and all together again!

Even if our kitchen garbage can was one of the casualties of our move and we had to use this box for a couple days until we got a new can...

One of the first days there, we decided to walk down this path by our house and find the way to the girls school.  We were pleasantly surprised at how beautiful it was!  It follows a little creek and some farms, goes through a park with a duck/fishing pond and then into the school.  

Did I mention that we love it here?!

 The kids school here is on what they call a "modified schedule".  It's similar to year-round, but there isn't another track at the school.  So we decided to put the girls in for the last month of school here.  Which turned out to be GREAT.  We have been very impressed with the school and community!

I have had a lot of guilt over the fact that this school year, the girls went to four different schools.  We started in St. George because we didn't know WHEN we'd finally move to California, then we moved and they went to school there, then they went for a week in Centerville because we didn't know WHEN we'd finally move (seeing a patter here?) and then for a few weeks in Idaho.  I think if there's one good thing to come from all the moves and craziness, it's the fact that our kids have learned to adapt.  They are quick to make friends and just roll with things.

I'm hoping that will serve them well in life!

Hello . . . . is this thing on?

Man...where does the time go?!  Is anyone still here?  Hello?

I know, I have completely neglected the little old blog lately, but life is crazy like that.  And thanks to the ease and convenience of social media (I'm a new Instagram believer...how did I live without it?!) I just don't get around to blogging...ever.

So here's the haps:  As mentioned, we moved to Idaho.  It is AWESOME.  We seriously love it here! On our way to Idaho, we stopped in Utah for a few weeks where Claire was baptized (as posted about previously) and then we made our way on. 

Anyway, prepare yourself for a bunch of posts as I try to catch up a little.  There will be a massive picture overload and LOTS of words.  I am going to just get it all out. The girls have been reading my old blog books from years past (which I haven't printed since probably 2009....again...where does time go?!) and it has given me a new desire to keep up the blog as they read and laugh about things they did when they were younger.

So without further ado....I will begin with our move.

This move was kind of hectic and crazy!  We had a pretty short time frame, and no family or military to move us like in moves past.  Pretty much, these pictures will do the talking...

Our house looked like this throughout the whole move...it was SO hard for me.

Desperate times call for desperate measures...

We finally got the moving truck early one morning in April and then we got to work!  

Marty had help from some men in the ward, and the missionaries to get the big stuff loaded.  One of the missionaries "rode" our washing machine down the stairs.  It was quite epic.  He was at the front of the washing machine, guiding while someone was above with it on a dolly.  He lifted it up instead of guiding and pulled it off the dolly and it slid off and he ran backwards, holding the washing machine.  We thought he was doomed.  But luckily nobody sustained any injuries.

Our plan was to get the truck all loaded that evening, sleep, and then Marty and I would just quickly load the last few things the next morning and head out by 9 a.m.  Ha ha....we were very wrong about how long it would take.  We did get all the big stuff done that night, but our friends stayed with us until almost midnight and we still had a lot of work left to do.  We are SO grateful for those friends...even if they did endure a police manhunt with full on helicopter and spotlights on us.  

We felt like it was a fitting farewell from Victorville.

A super sweet lady in our ward (who Molly INSISTED on calling 'Sister Grandma') brought us over a sweet little farewell gift with fun things for the girls to play with in the car, and some yummy snacks.  We love and miss Sister Grandma!

The morning of the move...our helpers were not exactly raring to go.

Thankfully this morning the sister missionaries and a few friends came over to help us finish up.  Without them, we would have been sunk!

We had (somewhat foolishly) scheduled the carpet cleaners to come the same day as we were finishing up the loading.  Of course nothing ever goes according to plan, and we got to a point where we got everything shoved down into the kitchen and off the carpet because the carpet cleaners were there, but we needed to finish packing.  It was CHAOS!  Thankfully some amazingly wonderful friends came and took the girls to the park so they were off the carpet while we worked.

Brody was not happy, as he was getting tired and ready for a nap, but we had nowhere to put him down since we couldn't be on the carpet, and Marty had the Yukon and was gone picking up another trailer. (we may have also underestimated how much stuff we had and how much space it would take up)  So I spent a nice long hour and a half with him like this, bouncing and pacing to keep him asleep.  

We were all SO exhausted!

FINALLY we got out the door around dinner time.....approximately 8 hours later than we had been hoping.  We got to a point where we just started leaving stuff behind and some friends came over to do the final mopping of the kitchen.  We were desperate to leave!

Marty had sold his car before we left, and so I had the Yukon with a trailer and he drove the big truck.  It was my first time pulling a trailer, and I had all the kids with me.  But everything went well.  I may have cried a little (OK, a lot) as we pulled away from the house.  Not because I was sad to leave, but because all the emotions and exhaustion hit me at the same time, as well as "Holy cow, I'm pulling a trailer with 5 little kids in the car with me!"  I called my dad and got a quick rundown on trailer towing....but I held it together...although maybe I didn't, I may have cried to him.

Thankfully my wonderful sister Emily has an equally wonderful neighbor who wasn't home and let us stop in St. George at their house for the night.  We got there at about 2 a.m. and just crashed.  The girls were so excited in the morning to play and swing and to relax before we went the rest of the way to my parent's house.

We basically got to my parent's house, slept one night and then dropped the girls off with Marty's mom and took the truck all the way up to Idaho and unloaded it into a storage unit with the help of some wonderful family members, and then went back to Utah all in one day.  It was a LONG day as well...lots of driving and working.  But we had this beautiful scenery to look at, so that helped.

And then...our time looking for a rental began...

Claire's Baptism Pictures

I am WAY behind on blogging, and there's probably more to blog than I really care to attempt.  So I am just going to jump back in with Claire's baptism.

While we were staying with my parent's in Utah between moving to Idaho from California, we were able to have her baptised in their stake.  It was a beautiful day with lots of great family support.  It made it so much more special to be able to have everyone there.  Claire was radiant....unfortunately I hadn't checked my camera battery before going to the church, so I only got two pictures of her and then it died.  We got back to my parent's and I charged it to get a couple more pictures, and then we did a little photo shoot the next day in her baptism dress.

At the church...before the baptism.

 Claire with her awesome Aunt Sara - who gave an AMAZING talk at the baptism.

With Grandpa and Grandma Great Campbell - we were so grateful they made the drive up from Arizona to be with us for Claire's special day.

How the majority of the picture taking with Claire ended up:

 But then we did manage to get some good ones as well.

Claire is such a sweet girl.  We couldn't love her any more!