Ar-i-zona is the Place to Be!

Well, we made it to Arizona in one piece. Thanks to Ryan's mom who drove our 2nd car across the country, we were able to save ample amounts of money. Sheryl, you are truly the best! It took her and Ryan 3 1/2 days of 12-14 hours per day of driving. Joshy and I were blessed to fly out to Utah with Ryan's dad (with our buddy passes---thanks so much, Kim!) and stay with my parents for a few days. It was nice and relaxing after so much stress of packing and moving.

Then, my incredible parents drove us down to Tucson. The first day was an 8 hour drive (with all the stops) and the second day was about 4 hours. Joshy only slept for about an hour and a half total. I sat in the back seat with him and we watched quite a few DVD's. Thank goodness for portable DVD players. It made the ride fairly easy. Thank you to my parents for the sacrifice they made to drive us to our new home. I just don't know what we would've done without both of our families and their willingness and selflessness to help us out. You are such a blessing!

We are settling in quite well. We have 90% of the house unpacked and put away. The office is taking quite a bit longer. But we will get there. I feel so lucky to have Ryan and all the hard work that he has done since the beginning of our move. He is such a hard worker, is thorough, and always does things the way that pleases me best. What a great blessing it has been to have him home these last few weeks to help unpack and get settled. He still has 2 weeks off before he starts, too. We have had a lot of "down time" to relax and enjoy time as a family.

Our ward is great. The very first night we were here, a sweet family brought us dinner. The next day, another family invited us over for dinner, and that evening another family brought us cookies. It is such a friendly ward and Ryan and I feel very welcomed. Ryan already got called to be an Elder's Quorum teacher, which will work well and be flexible with his upcoming crazy schedule.

Below are a few pictures of things that we've been up to since we've been here (which hasn't been much other than unpacking and relaxing). The Madsen's invited us over for dinner and volleyball. We had a such a great time. We enjoy their company and sweet girls a lot.

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This is a picture of Joshy and Gracie playing in the sand/rocks. They are approximately the same age. Gracie is quite scared of little boys (since she is in a family of 3 older sisters), but we'll get her there. She's slowly warming up to our little monster.
We've been swimming in our beautiful pool twice. Josh adores his "boat" and is always asking to go swimming in the pool. We will do lots of this, I assure you.
We are loving the climate. Although temperatures high around 105 degrees mid-day right now, it is nothing compared to the humidity in Virgina. Dry heat is awesome! It is beautiful here. A completely different beautiful than Virginia, but I am loving it. Looking out the windows and seeing the mountains reminds me of home. Then I see the cactus and palm trees and it flips me back to the reality of being in Arizona---not Utah. But it is so much like Utah and I just love it. I haven't seen a cloud in the sky since moving here. Monsoon season starts soon, they are supposed to be spectacular. We're excited to experience something new. Although, we don't miss the Virginia rain in the least. We are definitely blue skies people.

We will post some pictures of our apartment soon. We love it.