My top 10 reasons for enjoying living in Arizona.

March 12, 2014

I am an East coast girl through and through, however,  I have come to enjoy living in Arizona and here is a list of my top ten reasons why:

1.  We live 10 minutes from our oldest twin daughter and her husband.

2.  They have given us our first grandson and he is a true joy.

3.  Granddaughter #2 is on her way.

4.  We can now easily drive to see our next 3 oldest daughters rather than fly.

5.  Our youngest has made so many wonderful new friends here.

6.  We were able to attend the groundbreaking of the Gilbert Temple and now have the blessings of being able to attend this Temple.

7. Stephen has been able to buy a dental practice here.

8.  I can do my morning run or bicycling outdoors in the sunshine from March through October.

9.  I have recently been able to almost complete an 18 month program and become a docent at the Phoenix Art Musuem.

10. I can truly say that I have come to enjoy living in the West and experiencing a totally different lifestyle which has taught me new and interesting things.
   

Great memories of the summer of 2013.

We had an amazing summer in 2013.  No question for the four of us here, the highlight was having the opportunity to participate in the Hill Cumorah Pageant.  It is hard to describe the experience in words.  It was truly amazing to be part of a missionary effort so well organized. To be with a group of 700+ fellow members of the Church and really away from worldly concerns made our family desire to return and be part of it again!

To backup briefly our summer began with a trip to Dublin, Ireland at the end of June.  We had such a nice time seeing this country.  We stayed in Dublin most of the time.  We decided we had to see the countryside ( after all  " P.S. I Love You" was the inspiration in choosing Ireland for it beauty) so we took an all day bus ride to the Cliffs of Moher.  This allowed us to cross the country in 1 day.

It was super foggy and rainy so this photo does no justice to the amazing Cliffs.  To get an idea of their majesty there is a 200 vertical drop from the top down to the water.  It was truly worth the 3 1/2 hour trip there to see.  The countryside was everything we imagined.

Some other highlights were Trinity college with it's famous library.  Of course while in Ireland you have to take in a performance of Riverdance.... so worth it! And the original St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Moving on we flew directly to New York and on July 5th we registered for Pageant.

We loved being with so much family.  We were in pageant with my 3 sisters and their families.

We had lots of opportunities for fun service.......setting up 6000 chairs and washing them!  Lots of hands make work go fast : )

We got our parts on the first night and started staging the next day.  It is so cool how it all came together in 7 days.  We started performances one week after we arrived.

It could be exhausting.  We  often were at the Hill from 8:30a.m. until 11:30 p.m. There was a little down time at lunch between devotionals, practicing and cast team time....to catch a snooze!

We had a P-day and we got to do some boating and that evening was a cast talent show. Cindy was Primary President and Suzy one of her counselors.  The primary performed a really cute song and dance number.

We were so sad to have it come to an end.  On closing weekend  the rest of the family was able to join us and see a the closing performance.

From there we went right into our yearly family reunion.  Lots of boating and playing and eating and visiting for a great week of fun in the sun.

Feeding the masses is always a big job.  We have each  family take a day and that helps us not all be in the kitchen soooo  much.

One of the highlights of the week is always the annual Olympics.  All the grandkids are divided in 2 teams.  They compete in a team cheer and dance to music. There are many single events and the final crazy relay.  all to be judged and scored!

            It always ends too soon and we all part ways and truly look forward to the next summer!

October 2012.....one we will always remember.

October 2012 has been a month that we will always remember. It started with a trip to Virginia. It had been somewhat anticipated but still took us offguard.  Our Grandma Christensen passed away on October 15, 2012.  With the help of 3 friends we got buddy passes for our whole family to fly back and be part of the services.  It was a memorable and wonderful trip. A gorgeous time of year and we had time to go downtown and see many friends.

We went with extended family to a pumpkin patch and enjoyed a corn maze and hayride together.

The house looked great and we miss our street. Autumn is the best.  We just kept taking photos.

The funeral services were really wonderful.  Karen, Linda, Jana and Stephen gave such nice tributes to their Mom and the music was beautiful.  It created such good memories for the family.

After a quick celebration of Amber's 16th birthday....Jenn, Jess, Aiden and I had 1 day to unpack and repack and then drive to Utah for Megan and Adam's wedding.

The Mazda didn't fare too well after we hit a large buck.  In fact it was declared totalled and we bid farewell in Utah. A scary and challenging trip.

We did get to visit Jill's classroom, which we loved.  Jill is a great teacher and very organized.

Megan took out her endowments at the Draper Temple.  They had a wedding breakfast at the Lion House.  Followed by their sealing in the Bountiful Temple. And then ended the evening at a reception in Provo at Sleepy Ridge. It was all very lovely.

Then we packed up and headed back to Arizona for Halloween. Lots of fun pumpkins.

And finally the cute big news to end off October....Aiden is walking and we can't stop watching him!

Mary and I have such a cute Primary class.  I really love being with them every Sunday!

We were able to attend 5 wedding receptions in May.  Lots of celebrating!  I helped serve food at 2 of them and really enjoyed it.  so many great ideas for upcoming weddings?!

Talking to Amy on Mother's Day was great but also hard because it made me miss her more! We had a great time visiting.