Our Arrival, and a Little Bit of Home Here in the Desert.

Our arrival to Mesa, Arizona was not met with a fan fare and welcoming committee (much to my mom’s relief). Instead we slipped into town a day earlier than we thought and found our house wasn’t quite ready yet (We did some renovation in the kitchen and painted every surface (except the ceiling). I’ll post some before and after pics at some point.)

So.

Here we were.

In Arizona.

A day early.

No home in which to stay.

What is a family to do???

Go stay at a really cool resort, of course! It was so much fun. The hotel included a water park so we invited Travis and Nora (Jansen) Shank to join us for an afternoon of swimming, diving, slipping and sliding and resting on the lazy river. It was hot. The water was cool. And we relaxed our bodies from 3 days of car travel. Aaaagh. Nice choice.

The next 5 days were full of driving, buying, loading, unloading, putting together and putting away an entire house worth of stuff. It was very time consuming and if I don’t step foot into an Ikea for a few months, I will be a very happy woman. (I know, Florida friends, that is a serious statement—goes to show how often we went to Ikea in 5 days!).

We found some great furniture at good prices (who knew Sam’s Club sold leather that wasn’t red???). It was fun, exhausting and memorable. And I am so glad we are almost done. Almost.

Check out the first of many cardboard mountains--and yes, we are recycling all of that cardboard through the county , or as my makshift counter (more on that later:))

Here are some pictures of the water park/hotel. It was practically empty --off season over here so we benefited from a good rate and an empty park! It was a great way to start our life here in mesa!

Oh, and then we hung out with Travis and Nora for the evening.
Travis and Nora, Travis and Nora...expect to hear their name alot on this blog. I can't even describe how helpful they have been in our move here--everything from doing some pre-arrival shopping for me, to helping me choose granite, to unpacking, taking the girls shopping, saving us seats for our first Sunday at church, introducing us to LOTS of people, setting up furniture (Ikea furniture--dressers no less, that have like 5 billion pieces and NO written directions--just little pictures..."so Kids, do you think the screw in that picture refers to this one with the squiggly sides or this one with the straight sides...???"). And the converstaions, the food and the fellowship we've enjoyed has been so rich....they take a genuine interest in each of the kids and Nora is always thinking of fun things she can do and make with the girls. At last count it was a pillow, a quilt, some sort of food lesson and clothes shopping. I love her energy and enthusiasm to DO THINGS! (the picture above is our first hospitality--Nora brought all the food and we all ate it--it was great:))



Travis and Nora.

Yes they were irreplaceable for many practical reasons but the most important reason they were irreplaceable our first week here and remain that way is because ...well, because they are from home. Our family has known Nora's family for many years (since Emily began babysitting the kids over 10 years ago). And we have such affection for the entire Jansen family . So having Nora here is like having a little bit of home here too. And that is really sweet.


~The Mom