Trent got a job in Yuma, AZ so we moved here the first week of November. It was kind of stressful for me because I had to pack up the whole house and make sure it all was loaded in the trailer, and then I had to drive here with the children. Thankfully Trent's mom came to Boise and helped us with the moving and cleaning the house. She also drove down to Yuma with us. We were really glad that she was there to help. I am not sure that I would have been able to survive the move without her since Trent wasn't able to be there to help me.
The drive down wasn't too bad. Our car isn't really big so we were kind of cramped with all of our bags and stuff that we didn't put on the trailer. On Thursday, the 6th, we drove down to the Pleasant Grove, UT area and were able to see Brittany (Trent's sister), Daniel and Eve. That was nice; we hadn't seen them since July and I am not sure when we will see them next. I was really impressed with how well Eve talks. She's not even two and can speak in complete sentences, very clearly also. On Friday, we drove the rest of the way to Yuma which took about twelve hours. We did stop several times, though, for food and breaks. The kids did really great. When Jade would start to get whiny from sitting in her car seat so long, we would stop for about ten minutes and let her get out and walk around. Then she would be fine to sit in the car for another couple of hours. It was such a relief to finally get to Yuma.
When we arrived, our possessions were not there yet so we had to sleep on air mattresses and go without furniture until Monday. It wasn't too bad, and the house stayed pretty clean since the kids didn't have many things with which they could make a mess:)
The house that we are renting is fairly nice; it's bigger than our house in Nampa but about twenty years older. It actually has a living room and family room, but since we only have one set of couches, the family room has a TV but no couch for now. The backyard is pretty small, but there is a lemon tree, an orange tree and another citrus tree that is either lemon or lime, we aren't sure yet.
I can't say that I love Yuma, but I am giving it a chance. I personally think that it isn't quite as nice as the Boise area. It's in the desert, but I don't think that it looks too different from the desert areas east of Boise. The town, however, has lots of trailer and RV parks so it can look pretty junky in some places. Apparently, though, it has been improving and growing in the last several years. Of course it's hot here. It was in the 80's when I first arrived, but this week we actually had rain (a lot!) and it is now in the 70's. Even though it's quite warm, I do see people here that are dressed like it's cold out while we are wearing shorts. There
are numerous retirees here (for the winter anyway) and Marines. Since we have all of these "snowbirds", I actually see quite a few Idaho license plates. So far I don't think that the people here are as friendly as the ones back home, but I hear that it depends where you go. I have just gone to Walmart a lot so that may be why. The people in our ward, though, are super friendly so I am really happy about that. One good thing about Yuma is that it is close to a lot of cool places. Last weekend, we were able to go to San Diego. I will write more about that in my next post since this one already seems really long. This is a picture from our trip, though.
e in Arizona so it wasn't cold and we are away from all of our family on both sides. Then there is the not so obvious way -- the car that crashed into our backyard. On Christmas, at 11:30 pm, a car crashed through the cinder block wall that serves as our back fence. Trent was at work at the time, and the kids were in bed, of course. I was on the computer when I heard a crash and then something flew through window just to the side of computer. Not knowing what it was and being thoroughly frightened, I grabbed the phone and ran in Brooke's room. I called 911 and told them what happened. They said they were getting reports that a car had crashed
into the wall. So the police came and discovered that a car had indeed crashed into the wall, and it was a piece of the wall that flew through our window. (In the picture, you can faintly see glass right below the window although it was spread out more than that. The pieces of the wall that broke the window are in the lower right by the couch pillows.) The front of the car was completely smashed in and the driver's side of it was lodged against a street light, causing the light to lean at an angle. Because of the light, the car wasn't removed for several hours as the power company had to come remove the light first. The driver of the car (I am assuming he was intoxicated) actually fled but was found shortly after. I am just really grateful that the car didn't go into our yard any further; that part of the wall is only about ten feet from the window that was broken and I was sitting only a few feet beyond that (in the first photo, the wall of the house is just beyond the right edge of the picture so you can see how close the cinder block wall is to the house). So until the damage is repaired, we now have a hole in our window and a hole in the back wall of
our yard. The hole in the wall is particularly vexing because we can't let the kids go out back without us, and now anyone has easy access to our backyard (which is up against a fairly busy road). So, needless to say, this wasn't the best Christmas surprise.
Like I mentioned earlier, we took a little trip to San Diego on November 21st and 22nd, and since it is pretty close to Yuma, it only took about two and a half hours to drive there. On that Friday, one of Trent's coworkers had his adopted son sealed to him and his wife so Trent attended the sealing at the San Diego temple. I didn't go in because one us of needed to stay outside and watch Brooke and Jade. We had fun waiting out there, though, because the kids just played in the grass and looked at all the flowers (and sometimes tried to pick them). The missionary couple out there was also from Boise.
