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.
