Life at the speed of light.....

This whole summer has been a blur....

literally. I don't even know how we have managed to keep up. It started in March when I discovered that I was dredging through some major burnout, got life in order at home to drive down to Arizona for the month of May. Helped my mom recover from back surgery, which she has done extremely well, thank you Lord. Helped my parents get through my Dad's Honey Do List to get the house ready to sell.

They sold their home in THREE days!

My mom came up to Logan to look for a rental until they buy a home....which I had already been looking for three weeks and hadn't found anything. Kirk worked for WOW in Tennessee for a week painting murals for a huge church there in their children's area. At the end of July, the boys left for Wyoming for Scout Camp, while Kirk left for somewhere, which I can't remember where for workshops for work. It could have been either Seattle or Sacramento. Remember...I said this summer is a blur!

 The plan was for the boys to go to scout camp, while Kirk left on the plane the next day for somewhere....and the girls and I would keep up with everything. I had to write it on the calendar which day to put out the trash. Last time Kirk and the boys weren't home, the girls and I forgot about the trash. It is not good to forget trash and have to live with a full garbage can for two weeks. Not good.
We had to remember to water the garden...which meant that I had to run the sump pump out of the irrigation system. Uugh!

I was really happy for them but a little stressed with everyone leaving us. This was only the beginning.
On Friday we were expecting Kirk to return on the plane in the evening....the girls and I headed out at 8 am to Wyoming to pick the boys up from Scout camp a day early. It was only the beginning.
After an 8 hour round trip to pick up the boys, and driving straight to the garden to water, we headed home to meet Kirk, pack bags, and load the van for our 14 hour trip down to Arizona. It was time to help my parents move to Logan. WOW, at this point it was only the beginning!

 We managed to finish packing their kitchen, load two 26 ft trucks, swim, visit with our dear friends in only two days! It was a whirl wind expedition. Everything was going as planned. A little emotional for the kids knowing that it might be some time before we saw our friends again but worth the short time that we had together. I had to really try hard to keep my chin up and just not fall apart.

These three have been together since they were just babies. I was at Hannah's birth. She was just as beautiful then as she is now.

 The Dart girls stayed very late. It was so good to hear the laughter.

We started out early with my Mom's truck pulling a trailer, our van loaded with fragile things, my Dad driving a Penske truck pulling his car and Kirk driving the other truck. We each had a kid riding with us so that they could work a phone if needed. I was to lead which I was really worried about but it boiled down to the fact that I was the only one who had driven the route the most AND I wasn't pulling anything. I was a little stressed out knowing that wherever we stopped, it had to be a place that everyone could fit and not get themselves trapped, not able to turn around.

 Well, just 2 hours into our journey the truck my Dad was driving started having problems. SO.....here we are stuck in Kingman, Arizona in 100+ degree heat for about 4 hours.

 Until this tow truck showed up to tow the truck to a repair shop in Las Vegas, Nevada.

 We had to disconnect the car and play chase to the tow truck until we realized that we weren't going to keep up.....AT ALL! It was horrifying to think that the load inside the truck was going to shift with the rate that the tow truck was hauling. We made it into the repair place in Las Vegas only to find out that there were some pretty huge things wrong with the motor. Oh...did I mention that we had 3 dogs with us on this trip? Our two and my parents little dog? Yeah, we did. The guys at the repair shop let us hang out in the drivers room with the dogs where we ate pretzels, apples and soda for dinner. Not much but we weren't really hungry anyway. Some of us tried sleeping out in the parking lot in very hot weather even for midnight. It was horrible. They managed to get the truck repaired by 3 am where we started once again hoping to get near St. George where it would be a little cooler. We did manage to make it quite a ways and slept in a parking lot of a casino. I felt like we were dangerously tired. I am so thankful that God was watching over us. Did I mention it was horribly hot?

We spent 38 hours driving a 14 hour drive. I am amazed that we managed to get up to Logan safely. With 4 drivers, we weren't tired at the same time but would stop anyway to rest all along the way. At one point we pulled into a rest area with wonderful green, cool, lush grass. I pulled a sheet out of the van and spread it on the grass. We all lined up on the sheet and literally fell asleep. I slept so good. I think I even heard some snoring going on. We were so desperate for sleep after the heat the day before and lack of sleep.

It was quite an adventure....one that now feels like a blur. It was a true testimony of how families stick together through thick and thin. At one point my parents were thinking of having us go ahead of them and they would come later when the truck was fixed but we all decided that we wanted to stay together. 

Oh, we never found a place for my parents to rent so they are staying with us until they find a house to buy. 8 people in one house with two bathrooms hasn't been too bad. We have enjoyed them being with us so far. I think it will be a happy but sad moment when they find a house to buy and move out. It is hard to believe that they really are staying. We are excited to be able to have family so close by.

How beautiful is THAT?