a cloud-covered report

Grey skies this morning! The last couple of days have been a nice break from the 110+ temperatures we've been having. Things have been a steady stream of busy. But I'm getting to the end of my list. Soon to be completed: s.l.o.w.d.o.w.n. But I feel on track to have everything done that we need before this little girl comes in a month. This is good, because once we have her with us, the only thing on my list will be nothing. :) I'm looking forward to that .

In the community where we are buying our house, each housing parcel has a tented play ground, or a climbing wall, or a splash park etc. built in. There is a play group in our ward that meets at one of the splash parks every Wednesday and we joined in yesterday. The kids are so excited to get moved in and make these new friends and festivities part of their everyday life.

In the meantime, I try to get the kids out of the apartment in the mornings before the mercury climbs to high. We go to the play place in the mall, or up to the new house to meet with the painter/landscaper/pool designer who is giving us a bid that day. Most days we walk over to the pool here and play. Gracie has started swimming without her floaties. Grant will swim and jump off the side of the pool, but is most happy when he can push his cars around, big surprise. I do my best to keep them entertained without looking too enormous. Seriously. I've got about 5 weeks left and my wardrobe options are dropping like flies. At least my swimsuit still fits. :)

Blessings

Our little cherubs sharing a bed in one of the many temporary stops along our way these last couple of months.

I can see the light. It is growing bigger everyday. We've scheduled our final walk through and our closing appointments for the purchase of our house. Praise the heavens! The to-do list is still lengthy. But the list of unknowns is shrinking. This week, I'm also grateful for:

• Our new ward They have had a lot of new families move in over the last year. And even though about 1/2 of the congregation is all new, they are very friendly and inclusive. And the primary is enormous! (130 kids strong)
• A new doctor The doctor who was recommended to me several times was able to get me into his schedule. We had our first appointment last week and I'm soon to be registered and then scheduled at the hospital where this little girl will be born. Another big "what if...?" off my list.
• Sunshine Might as well be grateful for it, right?
• Resilient kids We've been together almost 24/7 for quite some time now, the kids and I. By the time they were in bed last night, I was a little fried. It occurred to me that they might be a tired of me too. Then Gracie held my hand all through the sacrament today, and Grant sat with me while I worked on the computer this afternoon. They are so forgiving of my shortcomings. It is wonderful to be their mom.

a big, fat, 4th of july post

We were not in AZ for long before we took our first vacation away. My parents had their vacation place at Tahoe for the 4th of July and let us invite Cori's family up to spend the holiday all together. It was no small relief that Cori and I signed a contract on a house the day before we left. We were finally able to leave the house hunting scene alone and allow our brains to dwell on other things. Mine dwelt on pretty much nothing the whole time we were away. It was lovely and welcomed.

All the members of my family made an appearance at one or several points along the way, and of Cori's family we had Sandy and Ray who brought Jacob and Sydni with them, Cory and Brittany with Ashton and hunter, and Ethan and Megan. I did a not-so-great job of documenting our vacation and don't even have good pictures of everyone who was there. I know others got good pictures though, so maybe I'll update this a little when I get copies from their cameras, but for now this will do.

Ashton, Grant, Jacob, Grace, and Sydni

Our first adventure was a hike to the waterfalls at Grover's Hot Springs. The Sierra's are so gorgeous this time of year. I didn't get many pictures of the hikers, but ended up with several of our vistas. There were brave souls who got themselves into the icy water. Dad and my sisters brought up the dogs. The place was pretty crowded by the time we were all back from the hike, so we took a pass on the hot springs and headed straight for our picnic lunch.

On Sunday after church, my mom packed us coolers of food and drinks and we went to a concert in the park. Sara has been in NV for her externships this summer and has been playing cello with a pops orchestra. It was fun to hear her perform and to listen to a couple hours of patriotic music on our nation's birthday.

We watched fireworks at the lake that night. Sandy had brought us all cute 4th of July t-shirts to wear and my mom brought glow sticks for the kids to share. We all felt quite festive. This year, South lake had fire dancers on podiums over the water at sunset. And once it was dark we watched the show reflected in the lake.

I heart my sisters

Another big adventure our group took was hiking out to Angora Lake. Several years ago, my dad and I hiked from Fallen Leaf Lake up to Angora. It was such an enchanting place to me- It is a pristine little Sierra lake that cascades with waterfalls, and has a little snack bar where you can buy homemade lemonade by the pitcher. I was really excited to go back. I had been under the impression that we could drive right up to the lake to park and was mistaken by about a mile. Everyone in our group was a real trooper about it and packed our lunch and even a couple of kayaks out to enjoy the afternoon. One of the attractions at Angora are the granite cliffs. There is a lovely little boulder with a good 5 foot jump. There is another ledge that boasts a 15-20 foot drop. And then there are a couple of jumping spots for the more serious thrill seekers. Cori, Ethan, and Brittany jumped off these ones. We've heard reports that these cliffs are in the 50-70 foot range. It was a fun outing and we were all pretty pooped by the time we got back to the condo.

Taken from Angora Ridge. That is Fallen Leaf Lake with Lake Tahoe in the background.

Ethan jumping from one of the cliffs of insanity. Dad is in the green kayak below taking pictures, and Ray and Sydni are in the yellow kayak beside him. They look so crazy small in perspective.

Megan and Ethan going for another jump off the boulder.

Me and Grant heading out for paddle around the lake.

Sara in the sun. You can see a few of the many waterfalls behind her.

Grace playing Blink! with her Grammie Marla

Back at the condo, we spent our time swimming, eating, and playing games. Ethan and Megan brought their Wii and graciously played with all the little kids for hours. We went out to eat a couple of times- all 14-18 of us- which ended up being really fun. Both restaurants set up a big seating area for us outside and we were able to eat and talk and let the kids run around. Oh, and the guys scheduled all their ladies for massages one day too. So great.

getting our Mongolian grill on at Fire and Ice

A happy Sydni after some Thai food at Thai One On.

We were treated to an Aces game in the Waddell and Reed box. My favorite part of the event was that by the end of the night, my whole immediate family was in the same place at the same time. It has been a while since that happened. We had a fun time cheering for the Aces, eating stadium food, shouting "CHARGE!" and chatting throughout the game.

Cori, Grant, Me, Sara, Jared, Thea, Erin, Mom, Dad, Grace

We took a late afternoon trek to Taylor Creek Park. Below is Jacob in the river observation room.

Not that any of us were feeling depraved of sun/water/swim suit time, but we couldn't have everyone come to Lake Tahoe without going for a swim at the beach.

Papa Ray digging the moat. Tahoe sand isn't the best for castles, unfortunately.

Cori putting the moat to good use

Cori and I hung out at the resort a little longer after we had checked out and waved all our UT family good bye. We took the kids up the Heavenly Gondola to the observation deck. Heavenly has started running their Tamarack chair during the summer which runs straight to the very top of the mountain. The views of the Carson Valley and the Lake are so amazing from up there.

We stayed that night in Gardnerville with my family. It gave us a chance to go visit some more with my Grandma Bettie. She let Gracie go through all her jewelry boxes which was a super big hit. The next day was Saturday and we spent it in true W* family style. We got up early for a big breakfast of apple pecan pancakes and then Cori and Dad left to help a family move and the women and children headed out to the garden to work. I could count on one hand the number of Saturdays I slept in as a teenager. At the time, of course, I wasn't super thrilled about our Saturday schedule. But I was all kinds of nostalgic working in the garden that morning. Once Cori and Dad were back and we were all showered from our work, we loaded up the 4Runner and hit the road for AZ.

our trip west

I don't recall who took which pictures, but several of the pictures in this post are attributable to Cori. For the record. :)

Did I mention that we sold the Accord? When we swapped our lawn mower for the trailer, we were so excited but then faced the problem of how to pull it. Lola (the Ford Edge I drive) is not equipped with a towing package, and we didn't have time to fit her with one. Cori had been threatening to sell the accord to buy a truck ever since we got rid of the 4Runner last Fall, and this became the perfect opportunity. After searching high and low for a truck that fit our budget and expectations we ended up finding a 4Runner at the perfect price. Anyway, Lola got shipped out ahead of us (though we still had to wait nearly a week for her to arrive once we were in AZ) and thus explains the white getup we drove across the country.


Leaving Illinois only took a few hours. Cori planned out our course and hotel arrangements ahead of time. We paced ourselves to take it easy, not be in a rush, and take plenty of (potty) breaks. Cori was so cute with the kids. Every time we stopped, he made sure to help everyone stretch, march, and jog around.

Grace and Grant were great the whole trip. They watched movies, took naps, and were very happy enjoying their snacks, books and toys in their car seats for hours on end.

Iowa was pretty much a giant cornfield. Not unexpected, but beautiful none the less. We drove through an amazing rain/hail storm. It was the kind where one can only drive about 25 miles an hour because of poor visibility.

I slept most of the way through Missouri. But it was a lush shade of cornstalk green as well.

So. Much. Corn.

Crossing into Kansas brought only a change of crop. The flat green fields turned my favorite shade of gold. Our course took us through Atchison which is where Emilia Earhart was born. We also crossed the yellow brick road. We stayed in Witchita the first night of our journey.

The next day we passed into Oklahoma. I may or may not have broken into singing the famous broadway song. As flat as we thought Iowa and Missouri were, the pan handles of Oklahoma and Texas helped us appreciate how flat a place can be.

For most of our trip, we drove along a railroad track. We started noticing that every little town we came to had a large grain mill on the east side of town and on the north side of the road. Every-single-town. After noticing this about 50 times, we finally put it together that these are mostly agricultural towns that undoubtedly use the large mills to load freight trains for transporting their grain.

Semi to the left, grain mill straight ahead, train coming on the right. This was the scene throughout the plain states.

Our stint in OK was short, and we crossed into Texas. I called my mom- the proudest Texan I know. And we stopped at a Dairy Queen in Stanford (a.k.a. the middle of nowhere) to have lunch. We dined with lots of old people there, and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to them all. You have not heard the word July pronounced properly until you have heard it from the mouth of a life-long Texan. It made me miss my Mama Jo.

Unobscured horizon as far as the eye can see.

Just before we crossed the border out of Texas into New Mexico, we came upon the largest cattle ranch I could ever imagine. We smelled it coming from miles away. And then it took us at least 10 minutes to drive through. I couldn't get a picture to do justice to the volume of livestock we witnessed. Only in Texas.

New Mexico was surprisingly beautiful. The red rock reminded me of Southern Utah. We stayed our second night in Alberquerque.

This left us with only a half day of driving to take us into Phoenix on day three. We mistakenly had our GPS set to 'shortest route' as opposed to 'fastest time' and were a bit confused when we didn't drive into Flagstaff, but turned Southwest headed for Payson and Heber. By the time we got it figured out we decided to push on through and we were glad we did. It was a beautiful, mountainous, and very un-Arizona feeling drive.

Upon reaching Phoenix, Cori made a very animated announcement to the Gracie and Grant that we were in our new hometown. Grace wanted to feel how hot it was. We let her roll down her window and she stuck her arm out. It was 110 outside. She brought her arm in quickly and rolled her window back up. "Wow. Heat." was all she said. The trip wasn't as tedious as we feared it might become. We had a great time and were grateful that the new-to-us 4Runner ran and air conditioned like a champ the whole way.