Snow to Sun

How long does it take to get from snowy Alaska


to sunny Arizona?

About 12 hours. It was a L O N G day of traveling, but we made it and were happy to get to Mesa. My sister was nice enough to let us stay the night at her apartment so we wouldn't have to drive the extra 4 hours home. I even got to sleep in the next morning. It was SO nice to have help with the kids. My mom kept the kids so I could go to the temple too, which was a bonus since I hadn't been since before Liberty was born. A new temple is being built in the Gila Valley,

but the Mesa Temple will always be special to me because almost all of my siblings were married there, along with Ryan and I.



We started our trip off with tractor rides and cousin time. Grandpa was really great about letting Glade ride the tractor with him when he was running. Glade loved this and talked about it on and on.



My sister Tara came and spent a long weekend with us our first weekend there along with her little cutie Karleigh.

Liberty found joy in the jumper. (Although she has since decided she hates it. My other two loved it. Oh well, what do you do?)

Armand and Cheryl are always really good about coming to visit when we are there. They came up for Sunday afternoon and the girls enjoyed being together. Emilee, Maren, and Camryn are great fun!


The kids discovered some old-school skates that I used to love. They are pretty safe, fortunately, and I don't think anyone got hurt while using them.


Here's a six-month old picture of Liberty. She is really fun and loves to smile.




I think that's it for this post. To be continued. Hopefully tomorrow.

Kartchner Caverns

One of the things I planned to do while in AZ was visit Kartchner Caverns. My Mom and sister Tara and her daughter, Karleigh, came with us, as well as my Aunt LeeAnn.

The caverns were pretty interesting. According to the guide, Kartchner Caverns are in the top 10 in the world for color. I also thought it was interesting how warm it was in there. There goes the accepted idea that caves are cool and damp. Both of the kids were unhappy about the warmth and humidity until I let them take off their shirts. They did a lot better after that.

Two amatuer cavers found Kartchner Caverns on some property owned by the Kartchners. They didn't think it was much at first, but as the explored it, they decided it was really important to save this cave. They kept it a secret for a long time, like 10 years I think before they told the owners about it. They decided the best thing to do would be to get it turned into a State Park. They tried hard to keep it a secret so the caverns wouldn't get messed up. I would pretty well. The caverns were gorgeous and it was a really fun outing.


Kim with the "Mickey Mouse" cactus she found.


No photos allowed inside, so this is as close as you get.


The group of us after lunch and before our tour.


Kim checking out a cactus.


Glade just plain being cute!

Cabin Fever!

In a good way. We have always loved the cabin. Ryan and I spent our honeymoon there in late December with 4 feet of snow around us. We did get a few sprinkles of snow while we were there. Here are Kim and Glade enjoying the snow on the front porch.

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas. . .

But not in mid-June. This is the scene that greeted us as we drove into Yellowstone on our way to the cabin. I couldn't believe how snowy it was. And it was still snowing on us. The ranger at the gate said that the road had been closed the night before so we were lucky to get through.





It was starting to clear up so we got out at one of the geyser basins. It was very cold though. We braved it one or two more times. The cold air made the normal steam VERY heavy.



On the way out, it got a lot more sunny so we got this good picture of Ryan. Then it was out through West Yellowstone with a quick stop at the grocery store and home to the cabin in Island Park for a week.

A Real Payne

My mom's maiden name is Payne. I have always really enjoyed my Grandma and Grandpa Payne and was blessed to grow up near them. When I traveled to Cleveland for the WREB, I noticed that Payne was quite a prominent name where I was. I intended to research this, but haven't done it yet.

Mt. Rushmore

As I said in the last post, Ryan's parents traveled back out West with us. They
drove the Smurf most of the way. One of the most fun things we did is go to Mt. Rushmore. I have never been there before and it seems like the kind of thing you should see at least once in your life. I didn't know that the artist had much more planned, but died before it was completed. They sketches they had showed some of the Presidents to the waist.

Travelling

Well, we have spent the last few days watching our house get packed up, and driving across the country. we have been in 6 states since Tuesday. Kim is now a world traveller since her trip to Florida with Dad. She will have 14 states in under three weeks under her belt by the time we get to Washington. We are currently in a little town called Worland, WY. Pretty nice little town. Yesterday when we finally got back to the mountains I realized how much the West feels like home. Even though I have never been through the part that we drove last night, just driving down a beautiful canyon felt like coming home. I'll have to post more later since we are trying to get out of here.

Miss you all in Ohio!

The Travelers Return

My family is complete again. Ryan and Kim got home safely Tuesday afternoon and we have been working on cleaning, sorting, and getting Ryan checked out from school. He finished up today, which is great! We are excited about him graduating this Sunday. Here are some pictures from the trip.



Ryan got this great picture of a wave curling over Kim's leg.



Ryan and Kim with Ryan's Grandparents William and Elaine Loucks.



Beautiful Sunrise from the hotel.



Kim came home with a great collection of shells.



These nice people let Ryan and Kim camp on their land in SC on the way down to Florida, because of the holiday weekend the campground was full. They even gave them a ride on their boat.

Ryan is going to post more details on his blog later today.

WREB Part II

Here's the second part of the WREB post, for those of you who are interested. By the way, Ryan and his friends enjoyed an Indians/Yankees game on Friday night. I've heard he has pictures, but haven't seen any yet.

The test seemed to go pretty well, but I, for one, will probably not be totally comfortable until the results come back. Cross your fingers for us!

I picked up the perio patient and a translator at 9:00 from Pataskala and we took off up to Cleveland. We arrived right on time to get lunch and have the treatment. I crocheted and read while I waited. They finished up the treatment and we took off for home. Not terribly interesting, I guess. The patient has been in the US for a year. She is from China. She is living with her nephew who has lived here for about 15 years, since his late teens. It was very interesting to talk with him about China. I don't know much about that country and it was interesting to learn some things. By the time I got home, I was ready to be done being in the car for sure! Poor patients, the van still wasn't done in the shop and so we had to take the smurf. They were good sports about it. I did feel a little bad that someone had to be left out of the conversation. Either Li, if we spoke English, or me, if they spoke Chinese. Oh well, we survived it.

Ryan and Mike took their time getting home, stopping to get a fun airplanes for the kids and eat out. Ryan said it was great to just take him time after being hurried for 3 days. Kim was really excited about the plane and put it together with Ryan this morning. They flew it off of the balcony and it seemed to work pretty well.



It has been fun to have Mindy here. Unfortunately I haven't had a whole lot of time to visit with her. I wish she could stay a whole week more so we could have sister-bonding time. Oh well (sigh), I suppose her husband misses her too.

I have neglected to take any pictures of Mindy on this trip. You'll have to forgive me. I had great intentions of getting pictures of Mindy with the kids, but it didn't happen. I am still pretty wiped out from the weekend, and it is already late from staying up talking to Mindy, so I better head to bed.

Once again, thank you, thank you to our dear Aunt Mindy for being willing to come and stay with our kids so we could get this done. It was great to know they were in good hands.

WREB Part I

Well, I just got home from Cleveland, where Ryan is taking the WREB. What a stressful few days! It all started early Thursday morning. He and a friend left at 4:30 so they could be sure to get there by 7:30 for orientation. They also had a little written test on treatment plans (I think).

I followed around noon (in the smurf, since the van is being repaired . . . still). It was great fun to spend the afternoon and evening together. We have never left our kids overnight before. We appreciate my sister Mindy coming to help out so we could have a little getaway. Neither one of us slept too well, though. Maybe I need the kids making little noises to help me sleep! I actually think both of us were pretty nervous about the test coming the next day.

Thanks to his friend, Mike again, I didn't have to take Ryan to the school early in the morning again. Instead I had a leisurely morning doing things I never have time for, like plucking my eyebrows. I also listened to an hour of the Worldwide Leadership Training from the church this year. I really enjoyed it and look forward to hearing the rest of it.

What I thought would be a 20 minute drive turned out to take about an hour. The directions I had to the school weren't great and the traffic was pretty bad too. I did make it before Ryan was ready for me though. He took the Endo portion of the test in the morning and was ready to do an amalgam filling on me in the afternoon. We walked over to the hospital cafeteria to get some lunch and then started on the filling. Things seemed to go pretty well, so hopefully all will turn out well.

I dropped Ryan at the hotel and then took off for home and our sweet kids. They were excited to see me and now I get to relax for a few hours, sleep, and get up in the morning and do it all again! I am taking a patient and an interpreter over for a perio treatment in the afternoon. We were hoping the van would be done today, but no luck, so, sorry to the patients who will have to squeeze into our little smurf (which if you don't know, is a little blue, two-door Geo Metro). I am planning to wait for the patient while she is treated and then turn around a bring them home. Hopefully since we don't have the van Ryan will ride with Mike (again) so we won't be totally squished in the smurf.

Thanks Mike!