I Knew This Would Happen

I knew that once we got into the nitty-gritty part of the move, I would get behind on my blog. I was right. I really don't know where to start catching up, so I guess I'll just jump in. Jeff's parents flew to Texas to help us pack up and make the drive to Utah. Every major move we've made since we left Provo in 1999, either Jeff's parents or my parents have helped us out, and what a blessing it's been. This time I told Jeff's parents that we could probably handle it on our own, that they didn't need to come to hot west Texas in July to help us make this move. Luckily, they insisted and we didn't turn them down, because once again it was a huge blessing. Moving is just hard and stressful, no matter how prepared you think you are, or how early you have started the whole packing and cleaning process (May, in my case). They, along with several wonderful elders and Relief Society sisters from our San Angelo ward, helped us get everything done so we could drive out on Wednesday the 11th.

We used U-Pack (ABF) again, which worked pretty well. They drop off a semi trailer, we pack and load it, they pick it up and drive it to our destination, then we unload it. More than once in the last couple of weeks I've said to Jeff, "There has to be an easier way to do this whole moving thing." There is, if you have tons of money or a company who will pay to move you professionally. We've never had that luxury, but we think U-Pack is a relatively nice way to do it yourself. It's a bit more expensive than renting a U-Haul truck, paying for gas, and driving it yourself, but it's really worth it not to have to drive the big truck. This is especially true as our family gets bigger and we accumulate more stuff and need a bigger truck.

I planned our route to be different than any other trip we've made to Utah so we could catch a few more counties. :-) We avoided the Interstate until we got to northern Arizona, but it was a more direct route on good roads, so I don't think it was any slower, unless our unintended detour made it that way. We left San Angelo around noon on the 11th and made it as far as Roswell, New Mexico that evening. Thursday we headed straight west across New Mexico. There was one town, Hondo I think, where we could have headed south and gotten a county near Ruidoso that wasn't directly on our route. With four kids and my in-laws along, I wasn't planning to stretch the trip out just for the sake of getting counties, but we ended up making that turnoff by accident. When I realized the mistake we were only about two miles from the county line--definitely worth it. So we trundled over the line, made a quick turnaround in a casino parking lot, then headed back up to our original route. It probably cost us an hour. Oh well. :-)

We stayed the second night in Flagstaff, Arizona, where we enjoyed the fresh scent of pine trees and the thoughts of living in the shadow of real mountains again. On Friday we let Jeff's parents take his Eclipse and head home, while we made our way in the minivan to my parents' house in Cedar City, where we had planned to spend the weekend. Conveniently, my nephew Isaac was being baptized on Saturday over the mountain from Cedar in Orderville. We were happy we could make it to that fun family event, and look forward to being able to participate in many more family events now that we are living closer to most of our relatives.

After a nice weekend with my family, we headed north again, ultimately to Jeff's parents' basement where we are living until we buy a home in Utah County. On the way we took a few hours to drive past some of the homes we'd been looking at on the Internet. We were able to eliminate a few of them that way, but also determined that there were some good possibilities as well.

There is more to tell, but I think I'll divide up the story into more than one post. We miss our dear friends in San Angelo. We're glad to be back in Utah, close to our families. We're grateful that every thing has gone relatively smoothly with our move so far. We feel Heavenly Father is blessing us and watching out for us.

P.S. County-counting stats: 3 new in Texas, 5 new in New Mexico, for a total of 648 (approx. 20%).