Day trip tp Alabama

 I actually cried when I had to sell my piano before we moved😢 It just wouldn't have made it. Thankfully, I was able to sell it to a girl who was writing her own music and had been saving up her money to buy a piano. Since it was going to a good home, it made me feel better. But still, that left us without a piano for a few weeks before we moved and a few weeks after - I didn't realize how much therapy that piano provided until one of my kids said "Life is better when mom has a piano." I mean, it could have been the stress of moving but still, I do love to play! Long before we actually moved, I started looking on Facebook marketplace for a new piano. It wasn't like looking for a piano in the East Valley, hardly any options out here! But I looked at a lot of pianos and finally opted to go to the Steinway Gallery in Spanish Fort, Alabama (just outside Mobile, about 90 minutes away from us).

When Sophia was 6 weeks old, we went to Gulf Shores for vacation. It was so lovely - even with a tiny baby! My sister, sister-in-law and her family, and some of our Texas neighbors were all there with us! (Pretty sure there is an old blog post about it if you want to see how cool it was!). That vacation was probably the start of the live-by-the-beach dream. So since we were already driving to Alabama, we decided to do some other fun stuff along the way, starting with Buccee's! IFYKYK. 

Roasted nuts, BBQ, treats, home decor, all kinds of Buccee's tchotchkes, and like 100 gas pumps that are always full! It's an experience and we had a good time! Next was the Steinway Gallery - the fact that it's in Mobile Alabama is weird. But apparently, the art scene is a lot bigger here than I realized (thankfully). Micah, the sales guy, was darling! He's from a tiny town in Alabama and had seen a performance of the Marine Corps band at an inauguration when he was young.  He decided that's what he wanted to do when he grew up. He did it! And now that he's out of the Marines, he married his childhood sweetheart, they have two kids, and he sells pianos. He showed us a lot of cool stuff. 

A picture of John Lennon playing his white Steinway piano on which he wrote Imagine (the copy at the store was autographed!) And the newest invention to come out of Steinway is the Spirio, a next-gen player piano that uses AI. A pianist performs on this instrument and the instrument records every nuance of the piece - how hard the key was hit, the volume, everything! Then you can watch the video of the performer and (if you have an extra $30k AFTER you buy your Steinway) listen to them on your piano! It's like a virtual concert - so cool. But for Sophia, the best bit was informing her that only a few weeks before, Zac Farro, drummer for Paramore, had just purchased a piano for his beach house nearby. Sophia's orange hair is a tribute to Hayley Williams of Paramore. At the end, we bought a piano! And we knew a lot of cool new things! The piano was delivered a week later. 

It is glorious and Sophia and I have been playing a lot! Probably making everyone else in the house a bit crazy cause there is no where to hide!

After the piano store - Lambert's! Home of the Throwed Rolls! Good southern cooking with pass-arounds like fried okra, potatoes and onions, apple butter and molasses for your rolls. We had pot pie, dumplings, BBQ pork, country-fried steak, and pot roast. PLUS all the rolls we could eat (which was surprisingly few since they were so big but SOOOO yummy)! Mya was with us but doesn't love to be in pictures with us (plenty of her own selfies tho 😁) 

 

After that huge lunch, we rolled out of there to see... duhn da da duhn...

Bama Henge!

No joke, some rich guy paid an artist to recreate Stonehenge right there in the middle of nowhere Alabama! It was pretty cool even though it was like those rock walls kids climb at fairs. Sophia loved that panoramic feature that allowed her to be in several places at once. 

Last on the list of adventures that day was the Crestview Fall Festival. Very fun! My favorite part were all the vendors selling Jesus t-shirts

 We are in the Bible Belt after all!

It Continues to be Dreamy

 Because it's hard to find our house, we put in this cute little mailbox so we could tell people "when you see the mailbox, drive down the dirt road that seems to go to nowhere. When you get to the end, there we are!" We are on very friendly terms with the Mail Lady (she is also a wealth of local knowledge), the UPS guy, and the Amazon drivers. 

THE VIEW

Thanks to the Binghams for this going-away present. He has been returned home!

What I see from the front door

What I see when I lay on my hammock while it's sunny

What I see when I lay on my hammock while it's raining

What you see while you're sitting at the kitchen table

What Dan sees while he is working

A side note on the dogs in the pictures. They are not ours. We do not know who they belong to, we've heard it said they are "neighborhood dogs". Whatever. They are very friendly and we have named them Doug, Toffee, Bandit, and Cocoa (not pictured because she is shy). We do not feed them, only play with them. They come around when they feel like it, eating my porch decor (bye-bye mini pumpkins that look like balls), and catching squirrels (circle of life I guess). Wilbur says come spring the dogs will catch the otters and possums around here. We might need to dig a gravesite. 

OUTSIDE

Deer

Fish in the pond

Frogs on the paddleboard

Snorkeling with the only gator around

Paddleboarding any time you want

Trees to climb

Tree Swing

OTHER THINGS TO LOVE

This bay is right by the Stake Center in Niceville. So when the kids have an activity there, we can go enjoy the water!

When I walk upstairs, I love the reminders of home. My dear friend Michelle Silva gave me the little Willow figurine holding a heart and I always feel loved when I see it. And nothing beats that incredible picture of a sunset at the Gilbert Temple! I love this picture!

We've been to several beaches already - water is still warmer than it ever is in the Pacific. 

Since this is for posterity, and I must be honest, even with all this super amazing beauty and peace, things are hard. It's hard to move away from friends and family. It's hard to be far away when someone has a birthday. Early morning seminary is hard. Trying to make new friends is hard. Halloween was hard with no one coming out the boonies to trick-or-treat and no friends to go with. But that's a post for another time, too. We keep praying and having faith - remembering the experiences that got us this far where God's hand was so obvious to us. We will keep watching for it. 

Across the Country

 Our travel plans were janky at best. I was flying with Mya, Sophia, and the cat while Dan was driving the Uhaul with Zoe, Milo, and the car on the back. We fliers took the long way: L.A. to Dallas to Destin. With a cat. It was an adventure and all I can really say is that we made it. The plan was to sleep at the house that night. But by the time we got to Destin, it was so late and I was so tired! Did I really want to drive out to the middle of nowhere in the dark, hoping that the utilities had all been connected so we had power and water, we definitely had no food or toilet paper at the new house. So we spent the night at a hotel by the airport. The cat was seriously done with us! 

We had to be at the school early the next morning to complete registration so with the two hour time change (we are on Central and now participate in Daylight Savings again😞) we were up very early! We made it through Friday by going to the store for essentials, buying a washer/dryer on Facebook marketplace (the guy brought his darling, precocious 8-year-old daughter who talked my ear off! Then I woke up Sophia because the two of them were like kindred spirits! They talked quail and guinea pigs and most likely we will have some quail instead of pigeons) and then we went to the Crestview High Homecoming Game. We had heard that the marching band a.k.a. The Big Red Machine was the epitome of cool. It was okay. We were used to Campo Verde so it was a high bar! But it was obvious that this is a small town with a lot of deep roots when we saw the bleachers were full of people having reunions!

While waiting for the Trucker Dan (he fancied himself a long haul trucker on the trip so he needed a CB radio name) to get to us on Saturday, we just chilled. But it wasn't super comfortable.

Meanwhile, the drivers drove more than 30 hours to get here! Driving a 26-foot truck while towing a car that has 4 bikes on the back is no joke! You really have to think about where you are going to stop whether for gas, snacks, or hotel. One of the places they stopped, Dan met a man and his wife who were trying to get home from a funeral but they had no gas and no money. Dan was able to fill up their tank. It's those little opportunities to give back. To recognize that while on this journey, we have had countless angels put in our path by God to help us. Now he could be that angel for someone else. 

One of the best places they stopped was Buccee's. For those who have never had the pleasure it's worth it to go out of your way for that experience! They got beef jerky and the yummy candy pecans plus some pretty good gas station BBQ. Zoe is now a fan for life!

Just after noon on Saturday, the truck pulled in. They stopped at the top of the hill to unhitch the trailer before driving the truck down to the house. We met all the neighbors who live at the top of the hill - they were so friendly and welcoming. It was very heartening! All of them but one live in mobile homes. Some are really nice places while others are very run down - one even has a piano out on their porch! 

We had some help unloading - one of the movers and I had a book club while we were moving stuff. He is a huge Brandon Sanderson fan but had some great recommendations for other authors. Though he is a sci-fi fan, I read The Name of the Wind (by Patrick Rothfuss) and really enjoyed it! You never know when you'll find a fellow bibliophile!

This is the sunset from our front door. Wilbur Flemming (age 81, 2 ex-wives, member of the men's prayer group at his church, and wealth of local knowledge) lives through those beautiful trees on 40 acres with 2 HUGE lakes (he's thinking of selling if you want to come be our neighbor). Through those trees are the lakes and when the sun sets over them...WOW! Almost as beautiful as the Arizona sunsets over the soccer fields. 

So now we are unloaded. We downsized 1500 sq ft and purged A LOT of stuff back in AZ (more than 10 trips to Goodwill and D.I. with my car chuck full)! But still I don't think we have room for all this. Good thing there is a Goodwill just down the street. 

Saying Goodbye

Honestly, this was the hardest part. From the moment we told people we were selling the house, my chest always felt tight. I kept questioning if this was still the right thing to do. Luckily, and also a blessing, we have the best friends who (though so sad and kind of mad that we were leaving) continued to support us. They would say "Even though I'm not speaking to you, I hope everything goes well. Let me know what I can do to help." They brought dinners, they cleaned, they loved on my kids, we had a fantastic going away party hosted by the Young Men and Young Women. We had goodbye dinners with Jennie & Kelwin and goodbye lunches with so many friends. Really, you carried us through this hard time and were also God's cheerleaders for us so we could do this hard thing. Realizing I don't have so many special people in these pictures and now I kind of understand the kids fanatic picture-taking! If you have a picture of us together, please send it! So in no particular order are the goodbyes we said. 

Goodbye to the Gilbert temple. The closest temple for now is Birmingham or Baton Rouge (both about 4 hours away). The one in Tallahassee (2 hours away) will be open next summer. 

The surprise party the kids at church gave us! As mentioned before, Dan does a Circle K run almost every day, so the party was soda themed! Great music (thanks Owen) and fun drinks (thanks Cassy) and really cute going-away gift baskets (wish I had a picture but thank you Lauren, Jessica, Melanie, Kirsty, Sarah, Amy, and Stacy).

And we will forever treasure the words of love from Sydney and Owen. 

 

And not to be forgotten is our annual tradition of Pie Night. For more than 13 years, we had friends over the Tuesday before Thanksgiving to eat pie (or other favorite fall treats) and this last time was so special, even though it wasn't at the right time. The always amazing Maureen Saurey gave us this beautiful book of Arizona. People wrote messages inside of love and friendship that  we will cherish forever!

The best across-the-street neighbors you could ever ask for! When you know that they will always have your back whether for a cup of sugar or listening to the stories of Sophia, we were incredibly blessed by the Mroczeks!

One more time buying Sunday soda from the Walmart vending machine (no Circle K on Sunday:)

All the kids came home to say goodbye to the house and to be together there one last time. Kass won the game of Monster with this most excellent hiding place. 

Saying goodbye to brothers. 

Finally, early on the morning of October 5th, we left a piece of our hearts in Gilbert Arizona. For "some reason" that morning I drove out a different way - past the Rigby's house. It was early but Dave was out talking to a neighbor. We stopped, all of us teary, to say one last goodbye. Typical Dave, made us feel excited about the adventure we were about to undertake. He just has a way! Another person God put in our path on this journey (though Dave and the rest of his family have been there all along:).