A week with the family all in different states

Nathaniel after a week of camping in Colorado. also another year older. He hit the big 15

Tim and Melissa in front of their new house

We are all back home for a crunch down before our big family vacation. The next week and a half will be busy recouping, working and packing for our trip to california and washington.

Last week, both nathan and I left steve for different destination. Nathan went to colorado for high adventure camp and I went to arizona to help melissa and tim westlake move into their new house. Nathan is full of stories to tell so if you should cross paths you might ask him. I was real nervous sending him this year as he made it known that he was not real thrilled. i though our huge money output would for sure be a waste with that kind of thinking. but the great thing about teenagers is that sometimes they need to be pushed and then they come home suprised themselves. the quick synapses of his week....fishing monday and eating the trout they caught. boring trip on the gondola to the top of mountain and back down to fish somemore. great mountain climbing on wed and suprising everyone that he did the best and on the expert mountain. thurs and friday were awesome with the rafting and taking level 5 rapids. chris colby has some great pictures and i will post some as soon as i can get some copies. Nathan turned 15 on tuesday june 24 while at camp. i was sad to not be with him on that day. we did a belated cake yesterday after church.

I arrived in hot, dry arizona on saturday also. we had a little drive through pheonix onto melissas home just outside of tuscon. tim cracked the whip pretty quick and had us moving which worked into sunday as well. it was hot and we would have rather played. my days feel like a blur at the moment as i arrived in AZ with a sorethroat and it progressed into a full blown summer cold. but our week went something like this. moving, painting her breakfast nook, living room and office ( with the main color still being iffy when i left). many trips to target, home depot, lowes and attempts at restaurants with this being an actual destination as nothing is really that close. ask melissa and she will confirm the time it takes. they live near a snowbird community and what is close typically closes early. they have adjusted well from what i can tell. our girl trip that we had hoped for was put on the back burner this year as plans changed. melissa and i have learned that this is just part of our lives. i had received a standby air ticket from her brother in law ( i am grateful for the ticket and our attempts to use it to the fullest). i got to AZ with no problem other than i had to have closed toe shoes to get on the plane and only had flip flops with me. luckily, i had caved into steves urging to get to the airport early. after getting my ticket we headed to the closest target for a cheap pair of shoes. back to the airport and no real wait. however, getting back turned into a bigger ordeal. the flights to come home were all booked, double booked with a list of stanbyers pretty long. we gave up our girl trip to attempt to make the one friday morning 6:20 am flight that was a possibility. unfortunately for me the flight that started off in tuscon the pilot did not show and the flight was to be missed. i could have tried for the same flight saturday but gave up the thought as i was ancy to get home. i was missing steve and nate and new that i had to return to work soon. i would have likely got on one of the planes over the weekend but chose not to wait and steve got me another air ticket home late friday night. the only catch was he had to retrieve me from austin.

all in all i would not change my week as adventure is the spice of life. it keeps me from becoming too boring. also, i loved seeing both melissa and tim and being able to help them move and start to paint. i am glad that nathan survived as some of his stories tell me he could have been seriously hurt. i am glad to be back home with both of my guys. sunday was a lazy day with a need to do a different posting. we generically celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary on sunday the 29th and look forward to the many more that will come!