Week #46: Arizona Bound

This Week...

...we are off to Arizona! They have remodeled the Tri-Cities airport and it was so fun to see the changes to the waiting areas. It's such a nicer wait. They also had these really cool wall tiles with pictures representing the local area - farming, salmon, Columbia River, etc.

We landed, met up with Raleigh, and quickly made our first scheduled stop. In-n-out! Boo-yah! It's a must!

Jordan made us fabulous Posole with homemade tortilla strip chips. It was delicious! I had seconds and immediately asked for the recipe.

We went for a walk Saturday morning. The Arizona terrain is still so fascinating to me each time we go. I'm glad the only tarantula we saw was dead on the ground. 

We made a house call in Mesa to see our favorite Judd Sauce people, Ranata and Judd. I contacted them on Facebook to see where their food truck, The Best Dressed Dog, would be located. Turned out, they let us come to their house! (Only because they were LDS and saw from Facebook that I was LDS too.) They invited us in and we sat for a little while chatting about their life and adventures. They got their sauce bottled, but still don't have shipping set up. So when she asked me how many bottles of sauce I wanted...I took a whole dozen. Its was only $60! Jason was shocked, but I didn't know how else I was going to get my hands on more of that delicious Judd Sauce. Well Worth it!

Their house was tucked away in an orange orchard. How cool is that! Their trees are so old that they taste sooooo sweet. I guess other, younger orchards are always wanting starts/grafts of their trees because they taste so sweet.

We went to Chick-fil-a for the first time. It was delicious! We mentioned to the manager that greeted us that it was our first time. She then gave us every sauce they have for us to try. We lined them up for a taste test. The Chick-fil-a sauce was definitely a favorite.

We made our customary stop at IKEA. We always manage to have a good time there. It takes so long to get through the store that we do get a little silly by the end.

Kellin and Erik are great! They don't mind being goofy with us.

Everything has thorns in AZ - Look closely!

Analogy time! This is going to be a good one. A lot of times Opportunity Way and the dead ends of our lives are at a cross roads. We have to go down the dead end path for us to realize that we need to make course corrections, turn around, and get back on the right road. What a great blessing it is that we can repent and make course corrections in our lives. We can apply the saving gift our Jesus Christ's atonement and be made new. A new heart, a new mind, a new will. Sometimes it doesn't have anything to do with needing to repent. Maybe we have ideas or plans that we pursue until we hit a dead end. That's our way of studying and working things out and Heavenly Father's way of letting us know that that isn't the path for us at that time.

Look! A baby palm tree!

Jordan took us to the Downeast Basics furniture store. It was so fun! Jason had fun too...on his phone while he waited for us.

Raleigh met us for lunch. Our two besties! 

We walked to Walmart with Kellin and Erik. We wanted to make some chocolate chip cookies and needed some ingredients. We texted Emma for the recipe and set off. Of course, we had to load the boys up with pop and a snack and some really fun cereal (which we ate a bowl of upon our return to the house).

Another great sign for analogy time. If we can just keep right - stay on the right path, make the right decisions, do what is right, choose the right, think and act and say what is right. We'll be set.

We had fun collecting these pods off the trees. Inside is a red, hard, pit. The boys showed me how to open them and find the pit. I did go a little obsessive on collecting them, but they were so fun!

Here's a closer look at all the pods I collected. I want to put them out at home in glass jars or bowls for decoration. Like I said, I was obsessed fascinated.

A flag for Flag Day.

We drove out to a hiking place in the Sonoran Desert. It was great to be out among the cacti.

We went to dinner in the wild west, or Cave Creek. Whichever name you prefer. It was a barbecue house all the way. With a name like Buffalo Chip Saloon, how can it not be? We had great food, excellent s'mores for dessert - at the table!, and a lot of fun out back watching the bull riders. They have an arena out back for bull riding, amateur and professional practise. We got to meet some professionals as they came in to get drinks and play some pool. 

Out back, they had two fires going. And it was a good thing too! When you think of AZ, you think hot weather all the time, right? Not so! We were freezing!

We played a little bit of tourist with the assorted cowboy hats.

We said our goodbyes.

We stopped off at Smash Burger before heading to the airport. I had the black bean burger. Sooooo good! I already want to go back.

Then it was back on the plane and fly home to the kiddos.

We ran into this guy, David Child, again on our way home. He was headed down to be with his dad. Good friends are friends forever regardless of the passage of time or separation. 

So, funny story...Do you remember how I purchased twelve bottles of Judd Sauce in Arizona? Well, once I purchased them, we had to figure out how to get them home to Washington. It was too much money to ship them home ourselves. We found that it was cheaper to borrow a duffle bag from Raleigh and Jordan, redistribute our clothes and effects and cushion the bottles (in bubble wrap) in our luggage. We packed and weighed, packed and weighed until we had the luggage just right. We didn't want any overage fees. Once we got home, I found this inspection notice in both of our bags. They had opened every bottle from it's bubble wrap. Only one bottle had been opened so they could test the contents, thank heavens. We were laughing at the potential security threat we created. All for Judd Sauce.

...Claire and Benjamin had to make pioneer replicas of an ancestor that was a pioneer. Benjamin chose and Claire chose. They used clothespins and we helped them cut the clothes out of fabric.

...we went bowling with our friends, Heather, Jared, and Lucas Gilbert. She had some coupons which helped tremendously with the cost. This was our first time taking the kids. I don't think I need to explain that we had a blast.

...we went to the temple. I am so grateful that we have a temple so close. Such a great source of peace and comfort.

...we picked out a new washer and drier. This is the first time we've purchased a set brand new. We thought it was high time since our current refurbished set was on it's way out.

...the insulation went in at our new house.

Week #45:Thank You Veterans!

This Week...

...Grandpa Erickson joined Emma for her Veteran's Day celebration at school. This is always such an impressive event. They have all the veteran's sit in front of the group and then introduce themselves with their branch and dates of service. Then they play a video with some patriotic songs and images that the kids sing along to. I love two of the songs- God Bless the USA by Lee Greenwood and Fallen, Not Forgotten by Ray Boltz. Emma served at the breakfast (with Hannah Muhlbier and Joy Thompson) and carried one of the military branch flags during the ceremony.

...I came to the Allegory of the Olive Tree in my Book of Mormon reading. Usually, it's really hard to understand and keep everything straight. So I went looking for study helps. This diagram was really cool.

...we have Lainey's Halloween costume preview for next year. I was on on top of things this year and made sure to check the Halloween mark downs and clearance. I found this Dorothy costume and Lainey LOVED IT! We even have some red shoes (that I hope she doesn't grow out of by next year) and a cute basket for her to use.

...we signed mortgage papers with Gina, our loan officer from Vision Mortgage. She was great to work with. We got everything in order and I got to keep two of their super nice pens. score!

...Dad took the kids on a scooter ride down the new road. They stayed on the new curbing. Ha!

Week #44: The Best Birthday Ever

This Week...

...I turned 36. It was great! Jason had the day off and we spent it together. We straightened up the house and then went to lunch at El Sazon. It was delicious! I had the Flautas.

Then we went shopping and erranding - that's my new word for running errands...erranding. It has a nice ring to it. I got a new birthday shirt, which is way better than a birthday suit. Hehe! We delivered some homemade applesauce to a friend. We looked for fun things like storage boxes and bins, and decorative pillows and lamp shades. We had a little break for dinner and donuts with Grandma and Grandpa Zirker. They were in town for a dentist appointment and took time to come by. We visited for a short time and then they had to go. Then more fun began. We carved pumpkins! And not only did we carve pumpkins, but we had some friends over to join in the fun. The Adamsons and Gilberts came for family night. Jason was genius to put brown paper down on the table. Cleanup was a breeze. The Gilberts brought some great patterns and tools which resulted in our kids carving a lot of their pumpkins on their own. Jason and I just helped with cutting the top and scooping out the guts. It was so nice and the kids did a really good job.

...we went to Grandma Erickson's to celebrate Warren and Quinn's birthdays. It's always great to get together with family. The kids got to break a Pinata and Emma worked on Origami.

...I went to the pumpkin patch with Lainey's class. They had a lot of fun activities for the kids to do aside from picking their pumpkins. Lainey was super excited to try everything out.

...we had a beautiful sunset. So heart warming and inspiring.

...I worked out at my mom's. So much beauty in one picture - from the petals of the rose, to the water drops beaded on each one, to the wrinkles of experience on my mother's hand. 

Just a few of the farm...

...we made friends with our electricians. Bruce and Doug with Sunbird Electric are the best! Quality work and upstanding character. And not only that, they surprised us with an amazing gift. Jason and I had gone back and forth about putting in under mount lights. It wasn't something we had originally planned, but tried several different avenues to cut the cost to try and put them in later. We weren't sure if such a large upgrade was in our budget. Bruce and Doug were great to answer our questions and help us figure out options. We discussed it one night and went back the next morning to let them know our decision. That's when they dropped the bombshell of surprise. They wanted to put the lights in for free. What?!!! I couldn't believe it. I started to cry. I told them that they can't spring that kind of stuff on me. Of course, I hugged them both and then we had to get a picture. It still blows my mind that they would do that for us.

...the wind blew through town. The Mattress Outlet sign boy was getting quite the workout holding his sign up at the corner.

...we learned that our neighbor's dog is a jumper. He would start way back out in the yard to get a running start and then push off the middle fence rail to jump up above the fence. Impressive! 

...we pulled wire at our new house. Our builder let Jason come in and pull all of the low voltage wire. The kids helped quite a bit and our friend, Spencer Dixon, came as well.

These two kiddos worked so hard. We brought all the kids down initially to sweep up and pick up garbage, but they only lasted a couple of hours. Paul and Emma stuck it out, helped pull wire, ran for tools, and whatever else was needed.

...Emma made a presentation at school. They were working on narratives and she chose to write about when we first moved to Pasco when Jason got the job with Benton County.

...the boys achieved some awards at Cub Scout Pack Meeting. They've been working hard. Ben got to share a recycling game that he made with the wolves. Paul's group talked about their composting activity.

...we went Trick-or-Treating. Jason had the day off this year. We didn't care about the rain, we were out to get candy! This is in our new neighborhood. We went across from our house to our new neighbors, Dennis and Francis. We also hit up Krispy Kremes for a free donut.

...I became the new PTO president for the 2015-2016 school year. I'm terrified really. I had a great excuse all ready to go. It didn't matter that I am now in Cub Scouts and don't have a Sunday calling. It didn't matter that Lainey was in Kindergarten which meant that ALL of my kids are in school and I have a lot of time (seemingly) during the day, every day. It didn't matter. I had a good excuse. Only, my friend Nicole King shot my excuse right out of the sky at the PTO meeting, right in front of everyone. It became obviously apparent that I could take the challenge on, and I said yes. I made sure to fill the board before the end of the meeting and away we went. The ladies I work with are great. They are willing to work together and so fun already.