Our Grands' First Night Here

Friday, March 29th

This door leads from our bedroom directly out to the pool so this is what I see when I awaken each morning because the weather is so perfect now that we can leave the inside door open all night. At the top of the mountain in the background, the rocks form the face of a man (my opinion) or a one-eared mountain lion (Rich's opinion) which is so very cool.

Can you see the face now in this cropped version of the photo above? It is directly above the head of the Indian's horse.

Here is an even clearer picture...how cool is this?

After running a few errands, we picked up the kids around noon, took them to lunch, and shopped at WalMart before bringing them here for the night. The girls were so happy to see them!

We just had to try the pool, even though the water is so very cold...brrrr!

Shelby eased her way in...

Dylan had just jumped right in...

Jackson never did get in...

Shelby took a running jump in too after a while...

Shelby loves all the nooks and crannies of the many built-ins, closets, and cabinets in this house. They all found some great hiding places for playing hide & seek. There was much wrestling and pillow fighting too, after Grandpa got the air mattresses inflated.

We went outside so that the kids could check out the planets and constellations using our Night Sky apps on my phone and Rich's tablet.

This old wagon resides in our front yard; I took this standing just outside our front door. It won't be here much longer though we hope because it's just not 'us'. The guy who had said he would pick it up on Saturday didn't show, so if you know anyone...

The kids had a blast their first night here; we had a blast with them too! More later, because they ended up staying until this evening.

Lovin' Life ~~ Having All This Space to Share With Our Grands

The Girls

Yesterday morning we enjoyed watching the girls play in the living room. They haven't romped and played together like this since we left home at the end of October. Anytime we take them someplace where they can run, they do so for a minute or two and then sit by us.

We made a mid-day run to buy a couple of office chairs and other odds 'n ends before I needed the car to go to PT. My PT treated me to a brand new torture device using suction to separate the skin from the tissue on my ankle in an attempt to break up the edema. She also put me back on the H-Wave because the fluid is still built up in that ankle tissue. While I was gone for those four hours, Rich assembled the IKEA dressers and the office chairs. Busy day for both of us.

Tonight's full moon from our front yard again.

Lovin' Life ~~ Still Struggling to Recuperate

Moving Day!

Wednesday, March 27th

The first thing we displayed in our new house from the motorhome was this plaque. Sandee, Shawn, and the kids gave us this for our anniversary this year and it immediately became my favorite saying. I frequently mention that I'm the luckiest woman alive and it is because love came along and brought me this fairy tale of a life!

We spent most of the morning getting everything organized in the motorhome to move it, taking down the pet fence, storing the patio rug, visiting with the neighbors who will all be heading home over the next week, disconnecting from KOA services, and then moving to our new home. The girls rode in the car with me since Rich's bike took up much of the space in the motorhome.

Saying farewell to our neighborhood at the Apache Junction KOA.

Rich is totally thrilled to be parking the motorhome at our own place.

Throughout the process of buying the house, we had never brought the girls out here so this was their first exploration.

Bella

Dora

After unloading and putting away things we brought in from the motorhome and making sure that the girls were settled, we went to Target shopping. It's hard to imagine all the things you need when essentially starting from scratch.

From Target we drove to IKEA and bought two dressers to place inside our closet. I don't think we could have found a place to put so much as a box of toothpicks anyplace in that car with all we bought at Target and IKEA, it was packed. By the time we got home and had everything unloaded we were totally exhausted. There were still things to put away and new sheets to launder though. Later, we stepped into our front yard to marvel at the full moon over the Superstitions again tonight.

Lovin' Life ~~ Even When Exhausted

Our First Company!

All these cars are carrying our friends...our first company. Our realtor also stopped by as our KOA friends were arriving at our new house yesterday afternoon.

  
As soon as they could see the pool through the kitchen windows they all headed outside to check it out. There's one in every crowd...and ours is Ron!

Donnie & Pam

Just minutes after they arrived, our good friends JoAnn and Larry from back home got here too! This is Bob, Rich, JoAnn, and Ron.

Edna, Kathy, and Larry

Edna, Kathy, Ron, Bob

Kathy, Edna, Pam...the KOA girls!

JoAnn and Larry our friends from Carillon.

It's a darned good thing Rich drove down to the kids', picked up our picnic table, and got it assembled yesterday morning! All three couples from the KOA are snowbirds and will be returning to their homes later this week so it was great to close in time to show them our new place. We had such a fun, perfect day with our new home filled with friends for the afternoon!

Lovin' Life ~~ And All Our Friends

It's Finally Ours!

On Monday, March 25th, we took possession of our new AZ home! The escrow and closing process is quite different here from our experiences in CA and IL so, even though we closed on Friday, we didn't get possession until Monday evening.

I love the slanting, long, evening shadows this time of year. We were standing in our driveway looking toward the Superstitions.

This is a penstemon and we have lots of them blooming along with the brittlebush in front of our house.

We have so many different types of cactus at our place. This is a fishhook cactus.

As we left the house Monday evening the full moon was rising over the Superstitions to the east.

We turned west into this sunset.

Coming out of Target, we were greeted by this lovely scene.

Lovin' Life ~~ This Magical Life

Sunday's Hike

Oh yes, we were back out there again today! I cooked a big breakfast and we lounged around until about 11:30 then drove to Lost Dutchman State Park for today's hike. We all took the Treasure Loop Trail with Rich and the boys completing the Loop while Shelby and I hiked nearly to Green Boulder before turning around to come back down.

This is the last we saw of Rich and the boys for a while.

Taking a fruit bar and water break!

That is the Praying Hands rock formation directly above Shelby's praying hands.

Shelby was excited to see this horse and rider on a trail to the west of us.

We didn't go too much farther than this, not quite all the way to Green Boulder.

Coming down we saw the guys near the bottom of the trail.

This is zoomed. We still had quite a ways to go.

Next, I want to share a few shots that Rich took with his camera...

At the bottom of this next photo you can see Goldfield Ghost Town which is a fun place to spend a day!

Most of the Arizona Poppies are gone but he did see this bunch.

These two are just about the best best-friend brothers I have ever seen.

After we got back, we had an early dinner before taking the kids home. They were tired. We are tired. Good Night!

Lovin' Life ~~ Getting More and More of My Life Back!