Arizona Diamond Backs

Aunt Kay got us tickets to the Diamond Backs game so we went on June 20th. The stadium was indoors and so comfortable that I forgot we were inside. I found myself thinking, "what a perfect summer evening." The stadium is super cool though. It has a play place for little kids and a pool that you can pay to watch the game from. I guess when your field is inside you really can do whatever you want as far as entertainment goes.  We aren't the biggest baseball lovers, but it was a fun game regardless. There were several doubles and triples, lots of runs, and a pickle. It was a fun night.

Arizona

We made it! We are in Arizona. Its hot but we are adjusting. Its been a few weeks now and we are almost entirely settled into our new house and we LOVE it. I don't know if its having space, having all of our stuff, having a job, having a yard, or what but we are so happy and we don't even have friends! WE HAVE A YARD!!!  It also helps having Aunt Kay here. We go to her house a lot right now especially for family dinners. We also go swimming/splash pad  at least once a week, go to the library a lot, walk around the gold course in our neighborhood, and I have taken more cold showers this past month than I ever have my entire life!

Kelsey face says it all!! It really is that hot! 

 

I had to bribe Kelsey to run through this tunnel, but she finally did it. This picture is just before she made the decision to go. And water is crazy warm at the splash pads because the sun is so hot, but getting wet is still scary. 

 This is Kelsey's office. She also wears her swimsuit every day. I can't blame her. Our house can only get to 82 in the afternoons which seems hot, but its literally 30 degrees cooler than outside. Whenever I feel bad for living in a hot house, I step outside.

Kelsey got a scooter for her birthday and rides it EVERYWHERE. Literally everywhere. Every morning when she wakes up, she comes to the breakfast table for breakfast via scooter. She will run to get her scooter, just to ride it somewhere else. It is so awesome. 

Avondale is a lot like West Jordan of Utah. Its pretty far from the city but its own city and since Ethan works out here, its perfect. We feel like real Arizonians though. We think 90's are cool, we tinted our windows, get up really early, have a cactus in our front yard, and have scorpions in our sinks. Life is so good!!

Side note: the neighboring city is called Goodyear.  Goodyear is to Avondale as Eagleton is to Pawnee!!! NO JOKE!!! Its hilarious!!!

The girls are adjusting well.. We do what we can to stay entertained since this is the indoor season here. We are getting by, but man I am excited for winter. I can't believe I just said that! We are starting to need friends but are still doing okay. It just takes time.

We go to the library a lot. Its down the street and they keep it at 73!!!

 

We went to our ward the first Sunday here all excited only to find out it was stake conference. We have since been to our ward twice and really like it. The people are so welcoming and friendly. I think literally every person introduced themselves to us. This will be a great place for us.

The morning temp

The evening temp

 Madi is struggling with the heat. We do our best to keep her cool, but because she can't move around, even being in the shade wipes her out. We are doing the best we can but its sad.

"Look mom. It looks like Madi!"

NO JUDGING!!! I FINALLY had all the girls clothes in one place and finally went through them. I kept a tub per size and still got rid of 9 garbage bags worth of clothes. You can laugh. It is a major problem that I didn't know I had!!! 

Moving Day

Where to start. Something that could have been so easy, was so awful.

On Monday May 25th we started packing. Things were going great.
On Tuesday, Diana came down and  packed our entire kitchen in about 2 hours. She was like an amazing furious tornado. Nobody got in her way and she let no survivors. Seriously though, I have never seen any one pack so quickly and efficiently in my life! She was a major life saver!!
Wednesday-Friday we just packed like crazy. By Friday afternoon we were done and ready for the movers to come on Saturday.

Kelsey entertainment while we packed

 This is what our house looked like Friday afternoon when we got "the call"

What is "the call?" It was the call that lead to us being homeless, the call that lead to Ethan renting a UHaul, the call that lead to us having to sell our washer and dryer and throw away a bunch of stuff because it didn't fit in the UHaul, the call that ended our relationship with West Coast Movers. It was the call from the trucker that asked if we would be okay if instead of coming on Friday afternoon, we would be okay with him not coming until Sunday afternoon, but probably Monday afternoon.

Drama, drama, drama. I know I am making it sound dramatic, because IT WAS!!! It was a giant nightmare. Here's what happened:
(This is the actual review that I left on their website that got deleted by them :) I must have done something right. My purpose in life now is to take down this company!)

{West Coast Movers have been the worst company my husband and I have ever dealt with.

We called a month ago and arranged for a truck to come pick us up on a Friday at 10 am. We were told that it would take 3-5 business days for our belongings to arrive to our new location.

On Thursday, 1 day before we were supposed to move, customer service called and asked if they could come at 6 pm instead of 10am. We were fine with that.

Then on Friday at noon, after we had already packed and cleaned our entire house, they called and said that they may not come until Sunday afternoon and that it would be closer to 6 days for our belongings to arrive. The driver was shocked when we said that that was going to be a huge inconvenience. "Why" he asked

1) We had to now get a hotel for 2-3 nights

2) We had to move all of our belongings out of our apartment because new tenants were scheduled to move into our apartment

3) We needed to be in a new state to start a job and by not picking us up when we originally scheduled, we would now be late for our start date

4) We were told 3-5 business days and now they were saying closer to 6 days

These were just the start of our problems.

We called costumer service at noon but were told the manager was out to lunch. After 3 hours of waiting for her to return from her "lunch break," we finally talked to someone at 3:30 pm on Friday afternoon. We were told that the only thing she could do to help us was to take $100 off the final cost of everything for inconvenience. We said that this inconvenience would cost our family more than $100 and she simply said sorry.

After talking with her for 20 minutes, the manager said that she could get a truck there by Monday (after we were already told Sunday) and that once it was there it would take 7-10 days to drive down to our new location. Not only did she ignore how put out our family was, she also changed the date of pick up and arrival. This is when we knew we were dealing with a dishonest company.

We continued to talk with her and tried to get some straight forward answers and she continued to change her story. She said that she, the manager, needed to check with accounting to see how it would hurt the company to help us.

And here is how our story ended.

I asked, "Please give me an honest answer. Are you going to give us any money back for putting us out in every way imaginable ?"

The manager replied with this

"Its 50/50 whether we give you any extra assistance at all. It all depends on how Accounting is feeling Monday morning."

Our family was stranded with our belongings in boxes, new tenants were moving into our apartment, we didn't know if a truck was coming,w didn't know when our stuff was going to arrive, completely stressed, and everyone in company kept passing the buck when it came to helping us. Complete disaster!

Anyone considering West Coast Movers should seriously look into the dozens of other moving companies available.}

I tried very hard to sound professional but mad. It was a very terrible weekend.
Cut the drama and lets get back to the facts. Everything worked out just fine. The tenants were able to rearrange their dates and move in the next Saturday due to a death in the family, Moons was able to be flexible on our checkout times which allowed us to keep our stuff in our apartment while we were hosted by the Wings for the weekend, Ethan was able to hire some excellent help that came Monday morning, and we were able to get a UHaul that fit most of our stuff (we did have to sell our washer and dryer and lost some money but it sold in less than 15 minutes!!) We really were being blessed left and right.

After further investigation of West Coast Movers we found people pretty much hated them. They charged you to get your stuff off the truck, kept it for longer than a week, gave no arrival time, broke stuff, etc. Apparently they are an awful company.  After the dust settled, we know that we really were being watched over by NOT using them. We would have paid more than double and really don't know when we actually would have gotten our stuff. There were silver linings all over the place too.
We got a few more days with the Wings.  got to see the Nellys one last time, got a few more delicious meals, and really got to relax after a busy weekend and before a crazy week of more moving and packing.

On Saturday we took advantage of our new found free time and went swimming because it was a hot day (I would kill for 87 right now ps!!) and on Sunday we spent the evening with Rich and Shara playing games. It was  great weekend.

  Monday brought new challenges because all of a sudden we were loading a truck when we thought we'd be driving. We drove back down to Provo Monday morning, picked up a UHaul and then started loading it with the help of movers.  All in all, the truck was loaded quickly and efficiently and even though it was too small and we had to throw away or sell a bunch of stuff, we were able to get things loaded and Ethan on the road by 1pm.
Once Ethan left, I stayed for about two hours with the girls cleaning and checking out. Not gonna lie, it was brutal. The girls were hot and tired, but they did the best that little people could do. I only had to carry both of them a few times. We were all just getting by. After everything was done with Moons, we drove to Sonic (the girls were asleep by University) and then I enjoyed a peaceful drive to Bountiful only to pack the car for the next day of travel. I can't believe all that happened!!

And because I don't know where less to put this I am adding this here. Hannah graciously offered to drive down with me and the girls on Tuesday June 2nd. I will never be able to repay her enough. That was maybe the biggest service of this move. She was incredibly helpful. She made it possible to run to the bathroom without having to bring everyone, get gas quickly, get food quickly, and everything else quickly. She brought HP 2 on disc and we had a blast listening to that. She also spent most of the trip just sitting in the back keeping Madi entertained. If Madison knew she wasn't alone, she would stop crying allowing us to drive further and fast. I love you Hannah for coming with us. You save our lives!!! Thank you so much!!

Happy Birthday Kelsey!

Kelsey is one loved little girl!! When people found out that we were going to be in Phoenix for her birthday, several people offered to throw together an early birthday party so that Kelsey could have a party with all of her family and friends before she left.

Jamie put together a princess party for Sadie and Kelsey that literally had everything!!! It was incredible. It had a bouncy castle, painting nails, stickers, cupcakes, a pinata, lunch, pin the jewel on the crown, and last but not least an actual princess. Jamie really went above and beyond. It was a beautiful break from packing and such a fun way to say goodbye to dear friends.

Kelsey was also lucky enough to have a birthday party with the Wing family and that party was Jake themed! It was the cutest! I loved every second of it. Diana worked so hard to make it look perfect and perfect it did look. I'm not really a theme party person. Its just not my skill set. To me its a party if you remember a cake! The Wings have really shown me that that is NOT the way to have a real party. They have changed birthday parties in my eyes. Unfortunately I still do not have that skill set, but at least I get it now :)

Anyway, the Jake party was perfect. It was adorable and again it was a great way to say bye to the Wing family. I appreciate Diana so much for going out of her way to make this happen for Kelsey. It meant so much to me.

 

On June 2nd, Kelsey, Hannah, Madison, and I were all getting ready to drive down to Phoenix. Ethan was already there with the U-Haul which made for a sad actual day birthday. Luckily Kelsey is very forgiving and my attempts to buy her forgiveness worked. Nothing says I'm sorry like a doughnut and Tinkerbell juice.

Once we got to Phoenix and got a little settled, we sang Kelsey happy birthday and gave her an all pink cake and a scooter which she rides everywhere.Happy Birthday Kelsey!! We love you so much.

Kelsey at 3

Loves to read, dance, and sing
Loves all things girly and princesses (knows all the princesses and their songs)
Loves to talk and tell stories
An amazing big sister
Super awesome at her scooter
Very coordinated
Hates swimming and going potty (but we are working on both this summer, 2015)

I love Kelsey. She is my best and right now the only friend I have. Even though we butt heads a lot, my days would be so lonely and way less funny without her.