Trip to AZ--part 2: Reacquainting

With so many people gathering, it was wonderful to reconnect with cousins, siblings, aunts, uncles, and Grandpa Ray. It was 2 days of happy reunions, and we know that Grandma was right there in the midst of her family loving every minute of our happiness together.

One big perk was getting these 3 boys together. A posse of four year old cousins is as fun as life gets.

 And getting reacquainted with beloved Grandma Joyce.

As well as wonderful Grandpa Chuck.

This is Grandpa Ray, the same night he buried his beloved wife of 69 years. This picture was taken at 10:30 pm, when we thought Grandpa should be collapsing into bed after such an exhausting day. (He stood next to Grandma's casket and took pictures with his posterity as long as we wanted him to--which was a good 45 minutes in the hot Arizona sun. We were all surprised at his stamina for his 93 years, but we saw his willingness as a token of his love.) As long as people were in his home, he wanted to be with them. Grandpa was more tender than I had ever seen him. I always remember him expressing his love--but in the days surrounding the funeral, I saw him reach for hugs, not just accept them.

On his back patio were tables with Grandma's things that we grandchildren were welcome to take. Home decor, holiday decor, sewing supplies galore--anything we found that was meaningful to us, we were allowed to take home. David found an old flag. Grandpa Ray spent about 20 minutes with my boy, explaining the flag, what it meant, asking David to find which star would be for Alaska, and telling him how special that flag is, and what it represents.

Somehow that moment really struck me. To say Grandpa was exhausted and worn out would be an understatement. But ever the teacher, he took a moment for the smallest among us. And I love him even more for it.

Trip to AZ--part 1: Coming together (in the heat!)

 When Grandma Ray passed away, David and I changed a plane ticket to go visit family a month earlier than planned. The two week trip for a reunion in July extended to 6 weeks when we left in May. Sam was an absolute saint in encouraging us to go--in the 6 weeks of our absence, Sam moved us out of our basement apartment into another place (a house to house sit, where we'll be until the first week of August), he celebrated his birthday and Father's Day by himself, and I left him with power of attorney in hopes of closing on our new home. Whew! It made me tired just thinking about it.

David was excited to get on the plane. When we got to Arizona, my cell phone didn't have coverage. It was late, we were tired, and I didn't know how to reach my sister who was supposed to pick us up curbside. The pay phone wouldn't let any of my calls go through, so we stood out on the curb, trying to spot someone we recognized. When David said, "Mom, we've been traveling so long today, and now no one came to get us from the airport!" I knew we had to act quickly. So I had him bow his head while we stood on the curb, and we asked Heavenly Father to help us find our family who came to pick us up. As soon as we opened our eyes, we spotted Aunt Monica and Uncle Matt in their mini-van. They recognized David as soon as they saw him, so we were finally with our family! I felt so grateful that that scenario worked out just perfectly like that--and reminded us of the power of prayer in the process.

 The first order of business was to have a pool party with the cousins. The older kids went out to start the fun at 8 am, then the 5 and under crowd went out at 9 am, after Blake and Cami drove through the night with their kids so they could go swimming with the cousins.

 This is Uncle Matt S. He was amazing. He started giving rides to the nieces and nephews who couldn't make it across the pool on their own. First he started with a lone rider.

 Then it turned in to a ride for 2.

 Before long, Uncle Matt was giving rides to a crowd. He went back and forth and back and forth, I couldn't believe how many times he kept offering more rides!! It made lots of little kids happy, that's for sure!

David was getting accustomed to the water, but didn't feel really comfortable in it on this first day in Arizona. Of course he loved to "swim" but it took a lot of from his Mama to keep him afloat, and the masses in the pool made it more challenging on top of that. So by the time David was ready to get out of the water, I was more than happy to move on to finding another activity.

Thankfully, there were some dear uncles who helped him find a place in the masses.

Uncle Logan and cousin Cayson introduced him to playing baseball.

 Uncle Matt S. let David help on the barbecue, and boy, was he happy about that! Matt is Daddy to soon to be 6 boys, and if anyone knows how to keep a little boy safely engaged in an activity, it is this man.

My goal was to keep David from burning, and I was successful at that.

Quite a bit less successful at keeping my own skin from getting burned--I was crisp for a few days after this pool party, but it was fun! I think I got more Vitamin D in one day of Arizona sunshine than I've had in the last few years in Alaska.

USS Anchorage

At the beginning of May, the USS Anchorage came into town to be commissioned as the Navy's newest "amphibious transport dock." Being a Navy family (Go Navy, Beat Army!) with 2 of our grandparents, both of Sam's parents and one of Sam's brothers all serving or having served in the Navy, I thought I would brave the crowd to go tour it. We invited along Tyler and Brynlee to join us.

Unfortunately, we were only a few of the several thousand that attempted to get into the tour. And they were running 15 tours, with only 75 slots in each tour bus on 2 consecutive days. So we didn't get on the boat like we had hoped. After waiting in line for 20 minutes, and realizing the sheer numbers were going to prevent us from stepping onto the ship, I suggested to the kids that we go check out the ship from a distance, and just take pictures of it in the water. I knew of a spot to go, and while they kids weren't excited about missing a chance to go onto the ship, they at least were good sports about our change in plans.

We enjoyed instead a little time outside climbing in trees, and a view of the ship in port. (You'll have to look very very closely--but it's there!)

 And a few token pictures of the boy in a tree. When you're 4, I don't think there are many things better than climbing a tree.

We feel so grateful to be part of this great nation, and to have the liberties we enjoy because service men and women are trained and ready to defend the liberties that we hold dear.

Our 1-bedroom Basement Apartment

Given the nature of our transitional summer, we felt so grateful to be in a 1-bedroom apartment, in the basement of a ward member for 6 weeks. David made friends with Petersen and her dog in a hurry. Actually, Petersen has been one of David's favorite people for a few years now, so living in her basement was so fun for our little guy.

To really appreciate the bond between David and "Petersen," I have to tell you about when David was about 9 months old. I was at the church, cleaning up from a youth activity. Shasta offered to hold David while I cleaned up the gym. In that 20 minute time together, Shasta tried to get David to say Mama. Here's how it went:
Shasta: "Say Mama."
Baby David: "Dada."
Shasta: "Say Ma-ma."
Baby David: "Dada."
 This kept on until at the end of the 20 minutes, Shasta was saying, "Say Maaaa-Maaa."
And David was red in the face, clenching his fistas and shouting at the top of his little lungs, "Daaaaaaaa-Daaaaaaa!!!!!"

It had a lot of us rolling in laughter. And it bonded Shasta and David forever.

When David was big enough to speak, we introduced Shasta to David as "Sister Petersen."
The next time David saw Shasta, he greeted her with a sweet little voice and said, "Hi, Petersen!"

So to this day, Shasta is still "Petersen" to our little boy. And she is one of his favorite people in the world.

Truth be told, living in Petersen's basement was a highlight of David's short life. Add in frequent trips to her back door, being invited in to make anything from chocolate covered strawberries to caramel popcorn or preschool science projects or watch a movie--and David has had the best 6 weeks he could possibly imagine.

David loved being in their backyard, and playing with their dog Gage (who is old enough and didn't always want to be played with, ironically), and knocking on the door upstairs every chance he got.

We had a keyed entry to our door, and it took only a matter of minutes before David figured out our number. I emphasized the importance of keeping the code a secret--and that we shouldn't every tell anyone the number, including our friends. In fact, if our friends find out, we'll have to change our code. We really emphasized the don't tell friend thing, just to make sure that David understood the idea.
Here's a conversation he had with the guy who was setting up our internet connection,
"And we have a code for our door. No matter how much you ask, I'm not going to tell you that it's XXXX!"
Then he turned to me and said, "Mom! I just told this man that I'm not going to tell him that our code is XXXX."

Other than this innocent slip, we found out that the boy can keep a secret.

And he wants to find out someone else's secret as well.
A conversation David had with Petersen about the code to open her door upstairs,"Petersen, can I have your code?"
Shasta: No.
"But I need to have your code!"
Shasta: Nope.
"I promise I won't tell anyone!"
Shasta: Not goin' to happen, buddy.
"But Petersen, I am not your friend. So it's really OK if you give me the code."


Just in case it wasn't enough to be Petersen's neighbor and have a dog in the backyard, and have a door code to enter every time he walked through our door, David also had a really cool place to sleep in a room under the stairs.

He really thought he was the cat's meow in that room.

This window above the tiny kitchen was key to David. He'd come over and check in with me on occasion. 

I can't tell you how many little boy treasures were presented to me through that window in full throttle excitement of watching snow melt and leaves, dirt, branches and bugs appeared in the new season.

 Oh, how our David loves life. I can tell you that it was much more exciting to live in a 1-bedroom basement apartment with his excitement augmenting every detail of our temporary stay. We love you, little man!