The Fiasco that was Moving (its gonna be a long one)

Okay it was just a little bit of a fiasco, but anyway on with the story.  We had planned to leave Tulsa on the morning of Saturday, July 20th and were all set to do so until my dad discovered that the drivers side, rear inside tire on the moving truck was flat.  So dad aired it up and then we heard the air escaping so we decided to drive the truck back to the rental place to get the tire changed.  No big deal right?  WRONG.  The lady at the rental place said the only thing that she could do about it was to trade trucks.  That meant completely unloading the truck we had out onto their parking lot and then into another truck.  Yeah we weren't going to do that.  So the other thing she suggested was for us to call roadside assistance and they would come change the tire.  We called them and they said they would come and put a temporary spare on it but we could only drive 55mph.  Now, I don't know about you but driving 55mph from Tulsa, OK to Idaho Falls, ID (approx. 1350 miles) with two kids is not my idea of a good time so we asked if we could go to a truck stop and get the tire changed.  The rental lady gave us permission so we proceeded that route.  We ended up forking out $500 for two new tires for the rental truck (which luckily the truck company eventually reimbursed us for) and didn't leave Tulsa till 2:00pm.  The rest of the trip to our first stop went pretty smooth until we got into some nasty rain and wind in Kansas and had to pull off the road for a little bit and we ended up getting to our hotel at about 11:00.  It was a long day.  The rest of the trip went off without a hitch and we got to Idaho on Monday, July 22. 

We were so excited to be back in the west and in the mountains.  We got to spend a lot of time with Nate's family and I had the great opportunity to see two very good friends from college. 

The first friend I got to see was from my BYU-Idaho days.  I am very lucky to still be good friends with and keep in relatively good contact with my former roommates even though I haven't seen most of them for about 10 yrs.  I always say that Becky and I lead parallel lives to one another.  We have so much in common with situations in our lives and with our families that it is uncanny.  But we got to meet up at Blast Off!  in Idaho Falls and talk while our kids played swimmingly together and I even got to hold her newest bundle of cuteness Reed.  He's such a good baby. 

My point/shoot camera was packed and I didn't want to take our big camera so I didn't get any pictures.  So I pirated this one from Becky.  Thanks Becky!

The next friend I got to meet up with was from my Ricks College days and I hadn't seen Katie for about 13 years.  Katie and I were roommates for about a month and a half my last summer at Ricks and we had so much fun together.  I love when you can get together with friends that you haven't seen in years and there be no awkwardness and its like no time has gone by.  Katie is still the funny and crazy girl I remember and I love her to death.  And she may very well be the best primary president in all of the church. 

I've never been great at making new friends (especially as an adult) but I realize now how truly blessed I am to have so many wonderful people in my life even if they are scattered all over the US and Canada.

We also got to go camping when we were in Idaho which was fantastic.  I so missed camping in the mountains where there is no humidity and its not very hot.  Lilly and Carter had a blast playing in the dirt with their cousins.  They were so dirty when we got back to civilization it took at least 3 washings to get all the dirt out of Lilly's hair. 

All the Brown Cousins in all their dirty glory.

He loved that Idaho dirt

  

Lilly was exhausted by the end of the week after playing with her cousins so much.

 

Oh and she also lost another tooth (that's #5) 

Unfortunately just a few days later we had to say goodbye to our Idaho family and make our way to NM.  We were a little worried about driving a big moving truck through the Salt Lake Valley but it turned out well.  The trip down went really good and we were happy to get into our new (to us) home and out of the car.  We have vowed not to take any really long trips for awhile.    Lilly is now in school and Nate starts work next Monday.  We are well on our way to being settled and back into a routine.  I am so thankful.

  My view most of the trip.

This was taken right outside our hotel room in Cortez, CO.  It was a nice welcome.  That is the Zia symbol from NM state flag on the balloon.

Our first meal in our new home.

Carter looks a bit like a stroke victim in this picture but he's just got a mouth full of pizza.  That boy loves to eat.