Our going away party in the desert

On April 11th we headed back to the desert for a 'little' going away party. Or so we thought... (the 'little' part)




The thought of going back to the desert was my saving grace through the move. I kept thinking, I don't have to say goodbye because we are coming back to see all our friends. Becky Jones, Lori Jackman and Christine Jones were the orchestrators of the shin dig and I should have known they wouldn't have settled for a simple get together. It was a big bash. We were so spoiled and frankley I feel like I don't need a funeral after that amazing party. We walked up to Becky and Rhiem's home and there was this great sign hanging on their garage. Becky designed this great graphic of our family, it's so adorable. She depicted everyone perfectly. Especially me in my bikini. :)



The party was so fun, it had great food that everyone was so great to help bring. And it was yummy food... bruchetta, procutto wrapped asperagus, gourmet brownies, cookies, dips, drinks. There was so much great food, we didn't even cut into the beautiful cake, that of course had the 'theme' of the party on it.
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All I can say is Martha Stewart can't even hold a candle to Becky Jones. That girl knows how to throw a party. Every thing she does is 200%, and the party wasn't any different. Becky gave us stationary with the theme on it. Lori made us a tray table with pictures of my young women, and some of the activities I was in charge of. And Christine made an amazing shutterfly book where each page has a picture of our friends with a letter to us from that family. I just cried when I opened it up and read them. I stayed up till 1 in the morning crying as I read the book. I can only imagine how many hours Christine spent on the book. I know that working on computers doesn't come easy for her. ( I usually make their ebay purchases for her) So this was truly a labor of love.







We played a mad libs game and another game that Roxanne Risenmay so creatively tweaked so it was personalized for us. We had such a great time visiting with everyone and hanging out. We love our friends in the desert and hold them near and dear to our hearts. We are grateful we are only a couple of hours away so we can visit often. And we hope that everyone takes us up on our offer to come and visit us. I have to include the adorable personalized napkins that Becky had done, and the AMAZING take home. It's a gigantic Hersey's candy bar that she designed a new wrapper for with a picture frame of us and a surf board key chain. I am still amazed and taken back by everything. Thank you Becky, Lori and Christine. And everyone else who helped prepare and bring goodies. We are so blessed to have such great friends.

Dinosaur Park

I joined a group of moms and we took our kids to the Dinosaur Park. It's a community park in Laguna Hills that has a great Dinosuar theme. One of the moms buried 'dinosaur eggs' aka easter eggs and the kids brought their sand buckets and shovels and dug them up for fun dinosaur prizes. We had a picnic lunch and I tried my hardest learning names of other moms. Brent is so used to me introducing myself and the kids that we were in the bathroom at the park and a random lady walked in. And Brent looked at her, and said, "name?" "Me, Bent... I two.... he points to Taylor, and says " Tay... five...." It was halarious!

The Big Move

I know it's pathetic that I don't have pictures of the move, kind of sad, I know. The movers came in like gang-busters on Tuesday and packed our entire house in a day. They were amazing. The house was stacked with boxes. The kitchen wall going into the family room looked like it had a new built in made of cardboard boxes. It's amazing that it would have taken me weeks to do what 8 people did in a days work. I guess that's why they are professionals. The next day, Wedesday another crew came to load everything. It took two 25 foot trucks to haul our stuff away. (Where did we accumulate all of this??) And how will we move in a year by ourselves?? Even more motivation to buy the house we are now renting. One, because we love it and two because we wouldn't have to move. :) So then on Thursday, they unloaded at our house here in Dove Canyon. We really love it here. They day after we moved in the neighbors down the street came to meet us, they have a sweet little gir Taylor's age and they have been playing ever since. In the first week, we had the beehive class bring us cookies and introduce themselves as potential babysitters. Then the Relief Society presidency, the Elder's Quorum Pres. came to visit and then the Bishopric. Wow, we were impressed. They know how to roll out the welcome wagon.
We have been cold... our thin desert blood is getting used to the colder nights and mornings. We live near Rancho Santa Margarita Lake, and after we take Taylor to kindergarten in the morning Brent and I go walking around the lake. It's so pretty, they have ducks that Brent likes to feed and it's amoungst the prettiest backdrop of mountains. The hard part is convincing Brent to wait until I've had some sort of a workout before we stop to feed the ducks. We took Taylor after school last week so she could see what Brent and I do in the mornings.
Taylor has adjusted well to her new school. She came home from the first day and said, "Mom, my whole class are my friends! " I love the sweet accepting nature of kindergarteners. I am so grateful she loves it.
We do miss our friends in the desert and miss our house. ... it's still for sale by the way if anyone wants a great house. We are grateful Marriott bought it from us when they did, because the price is still dropping.