Flagstaff

We amazingly fit everything into the truck and left our home of almost 10 years.
Moving went a lot faster than we thought it would. Obachan and Ojichan met us on the way down (here we are stopped at Marble Canyon) and Carol, Mike and Ellie came up from Phoenix to help us unload the truck. THANK YOU!!!! It only took us about 3 hours to unload the last 10 years of our lives!
We already miss a lot of things about Escalante, but for a city, Flagstaff has a lot of things we love. Four grocery stores, for example. Bike paths. City parks (with playgrounds!). Swimming pools. A Home Depot. It has been a definite adjustment having to lock our doors, pay attention to traffic and follow schedules again, but we're sure it will be worth it. We live in an apartment complex, but this is the view out our bedroom window:
It's so nice to smell the Ponderosas every time we walk outside!
And Ada is really excited about all the extra space she has to run around in. Lots of new things to explore like a dishwasher (which she LOVES turning on), new garbage cans, toilets, cabinets. And she loves her new bathtub!Bryan has had a few days of classes, and while he might not admit it yet, I think he's having fun being a student again. He's always loved learning, and now he can do it full time. Ada and I have spent a lot of time in the apartment unpacking and organizing, but all of us manage to get out pretty regularly.

How can you not, when it's so easy to do this???

When we got tired of unpacking, we drove down to Phoenix to see the Trowbridges. All the sudden, we were seeing these:
It's been so long. We were pretty excited to be in the Sonoran desert.
Carol, Mike and Ellie were kind enough to let us crash at their new place downtown. As soon as we got there, the ball pit was unpacked from the vaults, and we just let the kids go crazy for a while. It's so fun watching Ada and Ellie get excited to be together.
Their apartment was minutes away from delicious Thai food and the children's museum! Ada and Ellie had fun playing and watching the millions of other kids that decided to go to the museum that day.And I think Bryan had as much fun as they did
After a great time successfully avoiding the 114 degree temperatures in Phoenix, we headed home. But not without a stop at one of the many National Monuments we have to explore while we live here. This was Montezuma's Castle:

We have a lot more to see and do here. More updates soon!