Remembering the Summer

Our summer of 2007 started out with packing up and moving from Taipei, Taiwan. It was a hard good bye.

We first flew to Maryland, where we closed on our new home. The first home we have ever purchased. Anna Lane is our new baby and she has taken alot of our time- high maintanence; or maybe its really us- inexperienced new home owners. Okay, maybe a little of both.

Anyway, after a week in MD. closing on the house and starting yard work, the boys and I left Greg and his parents and escaped to blistery, hot Arizona. We spent three weeks in AZ. We had a good time and did our best keeping cool. (see other postings above)

The big reason to leave early from Maryland was because my sister, Sara, and her family had a couple of important events happening that we couldn't miss out on. Porter was baptized and Joseph's adoption was finalized with a sealing in the Mesa Temple. Neil was in town, on vacation from his army duties, and it was good to see him again.

To pass the time we broke up our three weeks into special events. After the first weekend with Sara, we later went to a waterpark which was part of a hotel. We spent the night at the hotel for one night to get a huge discount on their waterpark for two days. The Point at South Mountain was a lot of fun with my sister, Susan and her family.

Below is a picture of me and my sister Susan with Grandma Soli.

It was good to be in Arizona when Grandma Soli was there. She is the only great-grandmother from both sides of our family. She is in her 85th year! Today is her birthday in fact- Oct. 2. Happy Birthday! My son, Gray, shares it with her. He is about the same height as her now! See below!

Our second weekend was up in Show Low/ Snowflake / Taylor area of northeast Arizona. It was a lot cooler! We caravaned, driving up with Sara and her family, Susan and her family, Meloney and Kambria, Grandpa Fuller and Uncle Al. We spent a fabulous afternoon in Payson at a resort- thanks Susan and Rhett! We spent two nights at the Fuller cottage in Show Low. Boys enjoyed shooting arrows and hiking. We went to our first rodeo in Taylor. It was amazing! The bull riders were their favorite. Luckily, we didn't see anyone get seriously injured; but we did see a clown get bucked up into the air about 10 feet from a bull chasing him. Scarey! The rodeo evening ended with awesome fireworks with music. We really felt the true American spirit being in this small town of Arizona- Taylor... what a place!

(sorry no pics)

Back in the valley we went to Brimhall pool, our favorite. We also cooled off at Grandpa's pool in East Mesa, Uncle Neal - Greg's brother- and at Aunt Susi's neighbors pool. Below, in seperate posting, I recorded pictures. Payton was a fish in water this summer!

Our final week in Arizona was taking a one night, two day excersion up to Sedona and Flagstaff, AZ. My sister and brother joined us- Cristy and Al. We first drove up to Slide Rock. It was very slipper and cold. We were apprehensive to get wet and have fun, (Im talking about us adults- me, Greg, Cristy, Al. We had our boys and my sister, Sara's, two boys. Porter and Isaac. Porter never got wet and Cristy stayed out with him. Al, didn't get more than his feet wet! Anyway, Greg and I finally did get wet. We jumed off a edge and joined the other boys on the slide rocks. It was a bumpy, wedgey ride! The evening was spent at a poor Motel 8. (see posting "Arizona 1 or 2" above for pictures) A visit to Sunset Crater ended that trip.

A few days later we had to say good bye again. Sad to leave our family but happy to leave the heat!!! We figure we will only go for Christmas break now. (Next summer we will visit Utah or maybe even Hawaii, plans are in the works. I don't know about going to Navoo next summer. If I plan too much, we may not have the time nor money!! you know. But all these are ideas worth mentioning. My goal is to make them all happen if not this summer 2008, then by summer 2009.) Now with the kids back in school... well, thats for another day. We have homework to do right now and it is Gray's birthday. I have a dinner to make- lasagna is on order.

If you read this, remember we are thinking about you. God bless you until we meet again!

The next two weeks back at our home was busy with more chores around the house- and projects. My brother came for this to do the electrical. See a pic here of an example of what he did in one room. The added fan and recessed lights! Great job Al. (I'm glad you were able to help us before you broke your ankle Al. Hope your feeling better.)

Lights and fan in our office.
Kitchen light and fan. (Al, also did lights and fans for two bedrooms and left the third room wired ready for a future instalation.)

Back in MD. gave us an opportunity to visit with friends before they moved. Newmans and Andertons. (see issue below) We appreciated Reed Jones coming up to visit too eventhough his family was out of state. We will finally get to see all the Jones again this month of October === yea, its taken me this long to finally get this particular posting finished and published. I've drafted it and edited twice!

After, two weeks with Al helping us work on "the House"- feeling exhausted and a bit frustrated- we dropped him at the airport with "Fuller" pockets and followed Bob and Anita up to their place in New York! Thanks again big Al.

While in New York, we enjoyed our favorite past times of fishing and swimming in Grandma's pool. We also did our first ever shopping for "back to school" supplies. Our boys have been lucky to start their education in private schools that the government payed for while we lived overseas. Now its back to real life, and public schools.