Surviving THIS Summer

Pics first ...because they are more fun... (the novel is later)

Grace and Luke in an attempt at an escape from our week to Oro Valley.

Grace and her 'cuz Thud playing in Bella's stuff....boy, are we going to miss him!

A very tired Gracie on our way to a cousin's baby blessing.

Thud and Gracie playing on Bella's piano.

Sometimes life throws you a curveball and sometimes it chucks 200 at you at the same time. We knew our summer would be mildly relaxing, right up until it was time to move, although we had no idea how crazy it would get all at once. I will not bore you with all of the gory details but this is how the story begins…

…moving is never fun but it is time to leave the gorgeous house we have been living in for the past year. I (Emali) thought it would be nice to do everything gradually, room by room until it was all finished over the course of about a week and a half. All was going according to plan on Wednesday (July 4^th), which was our first moving day. We were so proud we got all out of the living room and Gracie’s room, moved her bed into our bedroom and had taken 3 big loads over to Jared and Kathy’s. Then the tornado hit…

Let’s just say Banner Baywood=bad, Banner Mesa=good. It’s now seven days later and I hardly know what day it is. Gracie and I had to spend our first nights apart from each other, ever, which turned out to be very hard! We recognized, but did not celebrate, our third anniversary on Saturday, 07/07/07, because we just didn’t have time for it (and still haven’t). We were able to get everything moved out without too much hassle, and would like to thank those who helped. Thank goodness for the Relief Society and Elder’s quorums! They really relieved us by sweeping into our home and packing our kitchen for us and helping us move in the afternoon of the fetchingist hottest day of the year - twice. And get this, after we finally got most of everything over to the Crouse’s, we then got word from Jared that Carter (their youngest boy) was sick with something that caused projectile vomiting. Needless to say, we’ve been a little homeless for the past few nights. Many thanks to our parents for stepping in and taking care of Gracie, us, feeding us, and giving us a place to stay—we love you and appreciate you. We would also like to thank all of the friends and family who called and checked on us and made sure we were doing okay during this crazy time. Life is slowly getting back on track, and we are are posting some fun pictures of some of our vacation activities.