The Move

Well, we made it!  I never want to move again, that was NOT my idea of fun.  Erik’s wild idea worked out and we are enjoying exploring our new home.

We made the long drive from Phoenix to Douglas County over two days.  I think it took about 15 hours including many stops made.  Traveling with kids (especially a baby) and a huge uhaul is not fast.  The drive was uneventful and the kids were amazingly good.  Soren rode with Erik in the massive truck and the girls rode with me in the Mazda5.  Erik and I were able to keep in touch with our prepaid cell phones which worked out perfectly.  I don’t know how we would have done it without them!

So… we left Phoenix on Wednesday, stayed in Hesperia, CA Wednesday night and continued on to Minden, NV on Thursday.  Friday’s task was finding a house.  No big deal, right?  HA!  I still can’t believe our crazy plan worked out.  We looked at several rentals that were move in ready and in our price range.  Nothing was really exciting me although there were several options that were “ok”.  Most of the options were run down or smelled funny (pet pee, cigarettes, etc).  We decided to go look at a property in Genoa even though the rental specified NO PETS.  Erik had driven over to Genoa when he interviewed up here in April and thought it was beautiful, but we didn’t think there was any way that we would be able to live here.  We knew it was going to be good when we saw this a few houses down from the available rental:

After gawking at the deer who was totally unafraid of us, we pulled up to the house:

I Fell In Love.  But I tried to hold down my excitement.  After all, “NO PETS” and I didn’t want to be let down.  The inside was beautiful and the perfect size for us for now.  We headed back towards Minden, me sighing with disappointment.  If only another house was available in that area that allowed pets!  Well, Erik gave the property manager a call to see if the owner would allow us our kitty cat and we were warned that this owner did not give such waivers.  We decided to eat lunch and then head out to another part of Carson Valley to check out a few more properties.  While we were eating I got a call from the property manager.  The owner had said YES to our pet request.  The house was ours if we wanted it!  After some discussion we checked out a couple more homes but we were hooked and we signed on our new place Friday afternoon.  I felt (and still feel) so lucky that we were able to make an obvious right choice on where to live.  We didn’t have much time and once again things worked out for us (hmmm… seems to be the theme of this move).

Saturday night saw us with an empty uhaul and a house full of boxes.  We headed to church Sunday to meet our new ward.  For a large and growing ward we were surprisingly warmly welcomed.  I got the scoop on the new ward playgroup and tried to remember many new names.  Soren was excited to join his class in Primary.  Svea was a little more apprehensive about her nursery class but she didn’t cry or need us to stay with her.  Sunday afternoon we took a drive over the mountains to check out (finally) The Lake.

Tahoe is so beautiful.  As we crested the pine top mountains I began to see glimpses of a startlingly blue jewel through the trees.  It is so much bigger and even more stunning than I imagined.  We were able to stop and dip our toes in the very cold water.

Even Liv wanted to touch the cold water and sand.

Later on in our first week in the new place, Erik took the kids fishing in one of the lakes in our golf course.  Soren caught two fish the first night, although his luck hasn’t been as good since.

Playgroup here meets at a local park on Mondays, then Wednesdays are playgroup at Sand Harbor in Lake Tahoe.  A-MAZE-ING!  The kids and I weren’t able to find our new friends but we had a fun time at the beach anyway.  The water was amazingly clear and cold.  Soren dipped his toes, Svea went in up to her neck.  Liv enjoyed the shade and ate lots of sand.  Some of these pics aren’t great but they show the beautiful setting and clear water.

Liv is getting SO big!  She grew up while I was busy packing and unpacking and she is really becoming a little person now.

Soren’s toys floated away.  He sent his little sis in to get them because he was too cold.

Such a peaceful place.

We enjoyed the lake so much we went back again on Friday.  Got to get our Lake time in before summer is over!

Liv LOVES the sand.  She’s constantly rolling herself to the edge of the towel to grab handfulls and eat it.  Yuck.

Svea is a beach bum

Spitting with joy

It was a little cold for swimming on Saturday so we decided to take a hike on one of our local trails instead.  We found a used pack on Craigslist right down the road which was perfect for the baby.  The kids are little hikers, especially Soren who is a budding trail runner.  The trail was pretty and started in dusty pine covered hills and then paralleled a beautiful stream surrounded by greenery.

The kids favorite was the bridge that crossed the little stream.  The water was icy!

Sunday after church we were able to drive to Spooner Lake and we took a hike around the lake.  I feel like I am overdosing on pretty places!

Svea was tired of walking so she got to try out the pack for part of the hike. 

I’ve been so busy getting our new house set up I can’t believe I had enough time to see any of our new area yet!  We are almost all settled in with only a few boxes left to open.  Here’s a pic of our backyard view – can you spot the deer? 

Here it is again…

Svea and Chibi enjoying the yard:

Erik seems to be excited about his new job (so weird to be married to The County Engineer).  He is working on developing the new hobbies that have become possible here.  Although we have transplanted ourselves into alien terrain, I’m happy and excited that we’ve made this change and that feeling grows the more time passes.

Moving...

Only one week to go until our big move to Douglas County, Nevada. Erik has been hired as the County Engineer and we are very excited for the opportunity.

We are excited for the outdoor activities the area will bring and the cooler summers. Being in a small town should be interesting for me! Between Phoenix and Yokohama most of my life has been lived in urban areas with lots of people.

The move brings sadness as well. This change will not be easy for me. I leave behind so much. From the moment I saw my first saguaro on the grade down from flagstaff I fell in love with this valley. My first home is here, my alma mater, my kids were born here, my friends, volleyball, playgroup, and a ward that is like family, not to mention my Best friend are all here. You will be greatly missed!

Minden (Douglas County seat) is the little town on the left with Lake Tahoe in the background.

Father and Sons Campout 2012

It was that time of year again.  Amazing for me to think that this was the fourth time Soren and I have gone to a father and sons campout.  Being that he just turned five, we started early.  This years campout was at Canyon Creek east of Payson AZ.  My boss tells me that Canyon Creek is the best place(and really only) to fly fish in Arizona.  I guess the Rodeo-Chidiski fire in 2002 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodeo%E2%80%93Chediski_Fire) filled the stream with ash and the trout population has had a very difficult time recovering.  They stock it like heck, but to me did not look very tantalizing to throw a line in.  Evidence of the fire was everywhere.

I am a little surprised that we wound up going.  Soren was adamant that he was not going this year.  He kept telling me it was going to be cold, he would miss his sister and mom.  It boiled over on Wed when in a yelling voice he told me “Dad I Just want to sleep in my bed!”  The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, and I can’t blame him.  I want to sleep in my bed.  On Friday he was ready to go and even excited about the opportunity.  I loaded up the car and we left Phoenix later than I would have liked to,about 4:00.
I will say there was a big difference in Soren this year.  In previous years the second we would get in the car to leave Phoenix he would pretty much fall asleep and wake up 1/2 way toward camp.  We would talk about things, but nothing really regarding a back and forth conversation.  This year Soren stayed awake for the whole drive and we had good conversations about many different topics.  It really struck me that he is becoming more and more “grown up.”  For the fist year every Soren did not “wig-out.”  He did not demand to go home at night, he did not once say he missed his bed or his mom.  It was smooth sailing.
As we got close to camp, I could see smoke rising from the forest.  My first thought was “Oh no what did our stake do?”  (A 400-acre wildfire that began late this week in the Tonto National Forest is now 5 percent contained.On Saturday, several area fire agencies, four air tankers, and two helicopters were fighting the blaze, dubbed the Bull Flat Fire, which began at about 10:15 a.m. Thursday after lightning sparked it south of the Canyon Creek Fish Hatchery on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation, according to U.S. Forest Service officials.Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2012/05/12/20120512PNI0512-met-arizona-wildfire-tonto-national-forest.html#ixzz1uiEet000)  Luckily it was not by our campsite, but you could see the planes and helicopters flying back and forth to fight the blaze.


The campout was the whole stake combined.  We must have had 400 people or so at the campground.  Soren had fun at night running around with other kids from the ward exploring and playing games.  They found flexible road markers and were launching pine cones off them.  We had jambalaya for dinner.  I learned at a scout training as a leader you always want to elevate your cooking so that the scouts will see what can be done on a campout and will want to try harder things to make.  It turned out good and we ate in Torrell Nichols trailer (easier to eat for kids with a table and seat).  Soren was going strong until he flipped himself in the face with the road marker.  It gave him a fat lip and cut on the face and he was done for the night.


The next morning Soren and I spent some time exploring the creek.  It was pretty.  The running water, butterflies, insects, and wild flowers.  I can’t tell you how many times Soren said “This is so beautiful” “I love this place” “Thanks for bringing me here.”  He was having a great time exploring.  In the first picture you can see evidence of the fire 10 years ago.  Soren was busy showing me what pools would yield the most trout.  I am sure Soren is going to make a great guide in the Sierra Nevadas.

After a morning of exploration the Stake had some games set up for the members to play.  They were pretty simple games, but Soren had fun.
We broke down camp and headed out.  Soren wanted to explore up the creek some more.  I decided to head up the road to the fish hatchery.  It was open to the public with a self walking tour.  Soren was super interested (except now he is really concerned about whirling disease).  We got to see all the fish from different stages of life.  We even found a huge snake, Soren would not handle it.  He was sure it was a rattle snake even though it had no rattles and everyone else was holding it.
   
We did stop by the creek, but instead of exploring, I was in shorts and flip flops and we stripped Soren down to his under wear and we played in the creek.  Water was about 50 degrees and felt cold to me but Soren spent about an hour in it, not even phased by the cold.  Again he said about 100 times “I love this place” “thanks for bringing me here.”  It was a good trip.  We could have stayed longer, but it was about 1:00 and I could tell the sun was starting to burn.  I packed it up and went home.  Another year another success.  I never pictured Soren as the outdoors type at all.  He reminds me of “eskeleton” from Nacho Libre: “I only believe in Science!.”  Soren loves his snap circuits and experiments.  He has a very scientific mind and I did not think he would ever really feel at home in the outdoors.  This campout shows that he does have an interest in nature and fish.  I am glad to see that this appeals to him.