A whole week

It's hard to believe we have been here for a week already. It was incredibly difficult to get here but we did it. Before we left Prescott Valley I let the kids have a sleep over with their best friends Jake and Abby. Jake and Abby are Brother and Sister. it worked out so well having them as friends. I only had to drop them off at one place and they were picked up at the same time and they were ALWAYS together. We are going to miss them so much. We ate pizza, then I took the kids swimming. We got home about 9:00 and I let them do whatever they wanted the rest of the night. However, I did make them turn off lights at 1:00am. I heard them giggling and talking until about 2. I'm glad they had fun!

Well moving into these apartments has been a HUGE pain. We left Prescott Valley around 3 on Saturday, Thank you so much James and David for your help, and on our way here we called the office to let them know that we were on our way. They were closed!! Come to find out they left early and didn't bother letting us know. We couldn't get the gate code or the key to our apartment so we were out of luck. Thank goodness I have family here or we would have been screwed. We stayed at my cousins house and the whole time we were there we tried to put in an emergency call  so someone could get us our keys. We didn't have clothes to change into or make up or shampoo or hair brushes.....nothing. Everything was packed away in the moving truck. We were so sweaty from loading the truck in arizona and we had to sleep in those clothes......YUCK!

The next day was Sunday and wouldn't you know it. The office was closed. We all put in calls (including my cousin) and it got ugly. We had a freezer full of food that was thawing out and we still had not had showers. We were all pissed off, tired and dirty. Thank goodness for Family coming to the rescue. Desperate times call for desperate measures. We borrowed clothes from my cousins....all the way down to the underwear!! It was FABULOUS to be clean! After our showers we got an extension cord and ran it from Todds garage out to the moving truck so we could plug in our freezer. We had a few hundred dollars worth of food out there that we didn't want to lose.

After realizing that there was just no way we were going to be moving into our apartment we decided to go out to eat for a late breakfast. On our way we got a phone call...from the apartment complex...The lady was all like I don't know whats wrong I have been here all day and I will be here until four this afternoon come by and get your gate remote and key. AAAHHHHHH!!! So annoying, but we were excited that we could move in and not bug my Cousins for another night. So after we ate we headed back to Todd's to get our moving truck and moved in. Yay! Thank you so much Todd, Deanna and Jace for your help. You guys are the best! I don't know what we would do without you!!

So far I really like Henderson. I HATE apartment living and have to keep reminding myself that it is only for six months. We are living in an awesome location though. Everything is within walking distance. It takes us about 3 minutes to walk to Walgreens which the kids and I do almost on a daily basis. They have a redbox there to which is very nice. Right next to walgreens there is a car wash and Wendy's. Across the street is Walmart and every restaurant and fast food joint you could think of. I love that everything is so close.

While being out and about I have learned a lot about living here. Almost everyone that you see walking has an umbrella with them. It is totally cool for both men and women alike to use an umbrella as shade. I have not tried it yet but if it really is cooler it is worth it. Sirens here are constant. You hear them all day and all night. Clothing is optional. I totally get it now. I can understand why people of all shapes and sizes wear hot pants and tube tops. It's too dang hot for anything else. Speaking of it being hot all we do is hang by the pool.

When I am here I pretend I am on a tropical vacation and we get to go back to our awesome hotel suite when we are done. LOL! It's the only thing that is getting me through.

Trying to catch up....AGAIN!

I have definitely been neglecting this poor blog. I have been so busy and stressed and frustrated. But before we get to all of that, LOOK WHAT WE DID........
While we were in Henderson unsuccessfully looking for a home, Tyler took us on a flight to the Grand Canyon.  

 It was so amazing. This is over Lake Mead.

 Flying over the Hoover Dam.

 More of Lake Mead.

For a little while you fly over nothing. Just flat land, all of sudden you come upon the Grand Canyon. Its absolutely breath taking.

 When we landed at the bottom of the Grand Canyon we all got out of the Helicopter and I looked back and saw this helicopter flying in to land. I thought it was a pretty cool picture.

Tyler served us lunch. He did a great job and lunch was DELICIOUS!

 The kids and I sat up front with Tyler and we had four passengers behind us. They are from Germany, they were a lot of fun to be with. The girl was very scared and Ty had to work a little harder at keeping her calm but she did really well. A couple of the guys played in the world series poker tournament and walked away with a large sum of money. They were a pretty cool group of people!

 Thank you friend from Germany for taking this picture of us!

Another pic of the Grand Canyon.

  I tried to get some good pics of Tyler flying but it was very difficult to get all 3 of them. So here is the best one I got!

 Down where all the other red helicopters are is where we had to land to end our trip....back at the airport. I was sad to see it end but on the other hand.........

 

I'm very glad Tyler got us back SAFELY!

 

 We had so much fun. I highly recommend taking this tour. It is sooooo worth the money. Thank you Tyler for taking us on this amazing trip. We LOVED it. It helped to go with the best Helicopter Pilot EVER!!!

So, the reason I am feeling stressed and frustrated is because we have not found a house yet. I honestly didn't think it would be this difficult. First of all we are trying to find a place that is close to Tylers work. Then we have to find a safe neighborhood. And then of course we want to be in a great school district. And then, as annoying as it is we have to stay within budget. AND there are major bidding wars going on. It seems like everything is working against us. So, we have decided to rent an apartment. I know, I know. We just keep going backwards but I really feel like this is the best thing for us. We found a really nice apartment in a good neighborhood. It's not in the school district that we wanted so we are hoping we can get a variance since we will be buying a home in that district....HOPEFULLY!  We have signed a six month lease so that will give us time to really look around to make sure we buy in the area we definitely want to be in. And we will be saving money so that helps. I just have to get through six months. I can do this. I can do this. 

We drove home from Vegas on the fourth of July. We were all pretty exhausted so we decided to stay home instead of going to the firework show at Mountain Valley Park. Yavapai County had a no firework policy in effect so there wasn't any firework stands open to buy our own. So we had to think up something to make it special for the kids. So......

We headed up to the roof and watched the fireworks around the valley. We got the perfect view of the fireworks from Mountain Valley Park. It turned out to be a great night!

We just got back from taking Tyler to the airport so he can head back to work. The kids and I have this week to pack up the house then Tyler will be back and we will load up the moving truck and head out. I am so sad. I have really loved it here! I'm going to have a very hard time leaving all of our friends. I have become quit attached to these people.

I will probably slack on blogging again. At least until we get settled. So the next time you hear from me it will be from the HOT as HELL Henderson.....Looking forward to it!