Here We Go - Day 1 - 4am to 9pm Travel Day

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Saturday, June 15, 2013 - Geoff and I were up and showered before 4am to get everyone out the door to the airport. All 4 of our kids woke up HAPPY - UNBELIEVEABLE!! Our dear friend Kelley squeezed in driving us to the airoport at 4:30 before she ran her 15 miles that morning - THANK YOU!!!! We even flew to Salt Lake City with Mary's teacher who happened to be on our first flight with us - very fun! Our family's seats were not together but with some prayers and some kind people we at least got to sit in groups of two. Great flight!

An almost 3 hour layover in SLC turned into McDonald's breakfast and riding the flat escalator thingymajig back and forth, racing. Of course that was way too fun and Pearl did not want to stop when it was time to go to our gate - Royal Fit #1. 😊 Our flight to Phoenix was smooth and we arrived right on time to a balmly 108 degree day - yikes! Beautiful desert flowers and Palm trees were fun to look at as we rode a shuttle to the car rental place. Geoff got in line to get our MiniVan rental and I should have guessed things weren't going well as several families came after us and left before us. Geoff finally got back to where we were all camped out waiting and...Royal Fit #2 - NO MINIVAN! Seriously people, what are reservations for anyway? They wanted to give us a nice Sedan - 2 Adults, 4 kids, a butt-load of luggage and supplies - I don't think so. The kids and I prayed and God gave us a man named Thor (how cool is that?) he loves Jesus AND he had a MiniVan we could rent - Praise the Lord! Dollar-Rent-A-Car is the one to rent from!

Our time schedule was kind of tight before the rental issue because we had to get our condo key in Puerto Penasco before the office closed at 7. Now we were never going to get there in time. Geoff called Mark and Karen and worked out the key issue. But now it's hot - did I mention 105+ degrees??, we have no idea what time we'll be crossing the border and getting to our destination, we're all hungry, and Geoff and I are being short-tempered with each other, AND we still have to shop Wal-Mart for supplies. This is sounding more like a really bad day at home rather than a vacation. And right about now I had a really bad headache. As we're crossing the parking lot to get inside before we melt, Kai steps on my flip flop and it breaks right there in the middle of the road. I'm trying to pick up my shoe without dropping Pearl or getting run over, and without losing my cool. Royal Fit #3. That's all I'm going to say about that. 😊 Now, we're all loaded up to the brim and ready to drive 4 hours in the heat of the day. It really was a pretty drive. I haven't been to Arizona since I was a kid. The landscape is so different from the Pacific Northwest. The cactus were super huge and some even had flowers on their limbs or tips or whatever they're called. Lots of dry land as far as the eye can see. The AC worked and the kids were great and Geoff and I had lots of road-trip time to make up.

We crossed the border without a hitch (no federales wanting money!), got to Mark and Karen's to pick up our key and away we went to spend our first night at our condo. We opened the back patio cover and there it was - the Sea of Cortez - right outside our windows - WOW! So great to hear the ocean and to be right on the beach. By now it's after 9pm but of course we have to go touch the water! We ran out there with flashlights and it's crazy warm - an ocean that's warm, who knew? We enjoyed the stars in the sky and thanked Jesus for all of it and came in for some much needed rest. We read a new Children's bilingual book that night to the kids titled, "I'm Thankful Each Day!"" Doy Gracias Cada Dia!" The first two pages read, "I'm thankful each day for the blessings I see, And for all of the gifts God's given me. And counting the stars at the edge of sea I can't help but feel they were put there for me." How wild is that? The words we read were exacly what we had just done! God is so detailed and precious and amazing! We went to bed knowing that we're in the palm of His hand, right where we belong.

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does anyone leave comments?
or no one is reading this???

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Yes, Geoff, I'm reading it. :) Love, tu esposa