Happy to be Homeless

We closed on our house on March 16th or something like that and we moved out. Most of our stuff (what's left of it... we sold most everything with the house) will sit in our trailer and up at Jonah's dad's cabin until we can ship it to New Zealand when we obtain a more permanent visa/permit. The stuff we need right away is stuffed into 10 bags weighing exactly 500 lbs to come on the flight with us over to NZ. We leave April 1st. We've been so relieved about the house... I think. Mostly we've been exhausted and trying hard to get everything done before we leave, but I think underneath that is relief and gratitude.

Ana had her last horse show at Red Ridge Ranch, and her BFF Megan got to come and watch. She rocked the barrel competition and even beat all the intermediate riders! She has improved so much this year and I'm so pleased with all the work she's put into earning money to attend lessons and to do well with them. Good work, Ana!

She is so happy about her four first place ribbons in all the events and the Champion Beginner Horse Rider Trophy she's got there. This girl LOVES trophies (I didn't tell her it is actually a plaque).

The week after Ana's horse competition we contiued packing up our junk. We also took a couple days and drove up to Salt Lake City to see Jonah's family. His sister Shawni and her family were luckily up there for Dave's (Shwni's husband) family's reunion, so we got to have a day with them and the cousins. Here's Cam with his twin cousin Claire. They become goof-masters 2000 when they are together and can't stop laughing. It's pretty cute.

The favorite toys of the visit were this old nasty ace bandage....

...and these animal masks that turned Cam and Claire into Super Raccoon and Princess Bunny.

Here's the crew... and that's Cam in the chicken outfit there in front in case you missed him.

Elsie is really going to miss her BCF Lucy!
She's finally catching up to Lucy in height... but it might just be those boots.

Ana is REALLY REALLY going to miss her BCF Gracie. Luckily they share matching buckers!



After Shawni's family left for their reunion, we spent some time at our favorite Hogle Zoo. The animals were especially active on the second day that we visited the zoo (yes, we went twice) and it was a nice goodbye from all of our animal friendies.

Here is Cam the SLOTH with Uncle Eli, who luckily came back from Miami in time to give us one last visit.

Ana is also a sloth I guess.

After Spring Break, we spent one last week in St. George at Jonah's sister's. She lives next door to the house we just sold, so we didn't have to change our routine much. The cousins had some good play time in, too... especially all the princesses above.

Elsie and her great protector Isaac (or IIIIIzzzzzie!)

The most emotional part of our move was leaving all our great friends (and family) in Saint George. Like Cam's BFF Heath; these guys are like peas and carrots and have played together almost every day for the last year. Their favorite things to do are play legos, make ships (out of anything they can find), watch movies about the Titanic, talk about cruise ships, play in water, eat PBJs, play Roblox, and chat about the universe and its happenings. We are going to miss Heath and his family so much.



Ana had her last piano lesson (she was excited, but not me) and last horse riding lesson with her great coach Rosemary.


This is her current favorite horse at the ranch, Smoothie. She switched to riding English saddle these last few lessons to prepare herself for NZ.

Cam really enjoyed his last two days of preschool, too. Here's the moon sand above...

And the endlessly fun tire swing at the preschool playground. I couldn't get his other BFF Hadley in a picture, but Hadley went to preschool with Cam and they've been playing together since they were two and now they finished a year of preschool together. Man! Cam was so lucky to have great friends in St. George. I can't believe we're leaving!

Here's one of Ana's school teachers, Ms. Hammond.

We had a little party on Thursday night with some of our friends, and Cam, Heath and Hadley snuck out and played in the hot tub for two hours (we knew they were in there, don't worry). Cam came out looking like the dying Elliot on the movie E.T. You know, when Elliot's lying on the bathroom floor... this photo is after Cam recovered a little bit.

Ana spent the night before her last day of school writing a personal note and a few compliments to every kid in her class. My favorite was, "Juan: I like how you write. I will miss you. Bye, Ana."

Here are all the girls in Ana's class on her last day of school in Saint George.

Here's the kids in our car pool (minus Ashton and Ana).

After Ana got out of school on Friday, we drove down here to Las Vegas to spend a few days with my dad and to see some friends. The kids were delighted to spend some REAL quality time at the parks.




My dad also took us to the Boulder City airport where he keeps his planes and we LUCKED out and got to see a load of skydivers land, six helicopoters take off, and watch a 1940s Marine fighter plane and a few others take off and land. It was pretty cool, I must say.

And, the kids got to make this killer fort. Fun times. Man, its good to be homeless.