Sabino Canyon Pictures

Walking along the rocks



A little waterfall - water coming down from the mountain tops



Our ride on the trolley bus



And some scenery...

Wayyyy behind here!

I feel way behind in my postings! We still don't have internet connection at our apartment, so we have to come down to the office internet cafe couple of times a day to check emails. There is not much for the kids to do here, so can't spend much time at once. I have a bunch of pictures I would like to post too - so maybe one of these days we will get connected!
We went to Sabino Canyon today. Rode a trolley bus to the top, stopped part way down and had picnic lunch and walked along the stones along a little creek. Was beautiful! Will add a couple of pictures from today too.

Busy unpacking and getting our home set up.

We are sure enjoying the weather down here. We have been busy unpacking and arranging our little apartment. The kids have beds made up on the floor in the corners of the living room. Do plan to get them some cots real soon.

We have also been busy meeting some new people down here. On Friday night we were at a Spring bar-be-cue at Court and Melanie Wainwright's. Scott knew him from when he lived down here the last time about 12 years ago. And she is a neice of some of our friends from Iron Bridge - Audrey Tulloch so its a small world :) There were 5 families there, all with kids around Devon and Kylees ages. Then today for lunch we were at Jason and Donna Lennox. They have 4 kids too. So the kids have had alot of fun too.

Scotts weekend is Mon and Tues, so that seems different right now. His hours are 7-3:30. He says he would rather work in Oscoda, seems that it's kinda a dump to work in here. But its better than nothing for now.

We don't have internet set up in our apartment right now - plan to do that tomorrow. We can get a connection here at the office. So maybe soon I can get some pictures posted next week.

Kids Korner - March 21

Devon: We are in a new apartment. I can't wait to going swimming today. I can rollerblade now. We found a dead mouse in mommys rollerblades YUCK!!! I like to ride my bike too. I have a new friend Zach. He lives diagonal from me. He is 7 years old. We have a park here too.

Kylee: I ride my bike all the time. I have a new friend - Emma. She goes to fast on her bike for me. She is 5 years old. She is Zachs sister.

We've got an apartment

Yaa - we have a new temporary home :) We start moving in later today, but will probably stay in the hotel one more night. Its in the Northwest end of Tucson (about 18 miles from Scotts work) It is a spacious one bedroom on the main floor with an entry right from the outdoors, and a patio out the back door!! It's in an apartment complex with gated access. It has 2 pools, 2 spas, playground and fitness center - so should keep us busy for a while :) Will post some pictures in a couple of days. Our new address is

3500 West Orange Grove, Apt 10106
Tucson, AZ
85741

Looking for an apartment

We are as settled as you can get in a hotel room. I spent most of the day yesterday looking at apartments and calling them. There are a ton of apartment complexes, but alot of them won't take less than a year lease. We found a couple of 6 month ones, a 3 month one and a couple of month to month mobile homes. Looked at a couple trashy ones yesterday as we are still learning the area, but did find a pretty nice one - wanted a 6 month lease though. Will look at more today and hopefully we can find one today that will work. The hotel room is kinda small :)

Beautiful weather here, mostly in the 80's! Tomorrow its supposed to get to 90!! But we have found that if you get out of the direct sun, it doesn't feel that hot. Need to drink lots of water - we were told that if you get a headache - you know you need to drink more. It is a different heat than we know up north.

Scott has been at training the last few days at work. Nothing that he hasn't learned yet, but its policy that you take the training before you start. Today is his first day of "work". He gets the DAY shift!!! We were expecting nights being the newest there. But, there are about 12 starting with him and they asked first who wanted the midnight shift, and most people wanted it - its cooler then. They even had to take some who wanted nights and put them to days. We wanted the day shift because of schedules with the kids. We don't know what his weekend days are yet.

Kids Korner - March 18

Devon: Thank you Mrs Dubuque for all the new toys. My favorite one was the "rattle snake" I scared some people at a restaurant with it. They got freaked out and laughed. Its hot in Arizona, and we can go swimming and ride our bikes.

Kylee: Thank you Mrs. Dubuque for all the presents for our trip. My favorite ones were the candys! I like Arizona. Its hot outside and I like hot. I ride my bike at Arizona. I got a new water bottle with Dora on it.

Arizona Pictures

Yaaa!! We finally saw the Arizona sign.





The first cactuses we saw



Taken outside our hotel

New Mexico Pictures

Some Typical New Mexico Scenery











These mountains were right close to Albuquerque. They were beautiful!!

Texas Pictures

Texas Landscape - not much for trees




And More



Snowing in Texas

We Made It!!

We are all excited to finally be here!! It sure was a long trip. It did seem to go better today for the kids - the hour count-down really helped. I never saw them so excited before that there was ONLY 4 more hours :)
Today we left at 8:00 - 33 degrees. We drove the last 636 miles for a total of 2222 miles!!!
In Tucson it was 67 degrees at 7:30 in the evening! Finally some warm weather. Saw some beautiful mountain scenery. Will post some pictures tomorrow. The kids were fascinated by the mountains and the cactuses. It really is different from what they know in MI or WI.
We are at a hotel in Marana for a week or so until we can find a place to call home for a while. Plan to start with the realtors as we hear there is an abundance of empty homes here with some willing to rent out. We are 3 hours behind MI timezone.

Oklahoma Pictures

The trees are getting shorter and more "sprawly"



Notice the Red Soil



More OK scenery

Getting Tired of Driving!

Last night we stopped in Tucumcari, New Mexico. We left at 9:30 yesterday morning and drove 590 miles. Now the trip is getting long for all of us. The kids are starting to get bored and nothing sounds fun to them. I can totally understand - as I am tired of driving too!! ONE more day!!!
In Oklahoma, the trees were budding and some fully out, the grass was getting greener, and thats where it was the warmest so far.
Can you believe it actually snowed. In Texas it was 32 degrees and they had about 2 inches on the ground. For about 1/2 hour the roads were not good at all - very slippery. We were about to stop and then drove out of it. The warmest we saw was 47 degrees. Good thing we brought some winter clothes with us.

Missouri Pictures

Arch in St Louis, MO




Typical Missouri scenery



And again



Passing Time



We are FULL



And Again..

About half way now

We left this morning around 8:15 - only 20 degrees!! We only thought we were going to get warm weather right away :) Travelled about 516 miles - we are in Joplin Missouri - but only 8 miles from the OK border. The warmest we saw today was 48 degrees - now its 43.
Sammy did fine today - only gave him water until we stopped tonight. He is having a hard time sleeping while travelling - mostly tries to sit up and his head droops and bobs around. Scott says he has a picture of him trying to sleep - will post it later.
Still haven't ran out of ideas to keep the kids entertained - they are doing way better than I thought. Their favorite thing - Mrs. Dubuque - Kylees teacher (and Devons last year) sent a package with us. Each kid gets to open a present every hour- some markers, a pencil, a book, some chapstick etc. Its the highlight of the hour!! They are loving it!!
The other fun thing that they have just learned and are having a blast with - getting the truckers to honk their horns. :) I remember when we used to do that! Will try to post some pictures in the morning before we leave.

Kids Korner - March 12

I thought it might be fun to add a section for the kids to tell their point of view. I will just type what they tell me, so you might get some interesting details :)

Devon: I am very excited to go to Arizona! I want to go there because its hot. We are going to play in the pool and ride my bike. I am going to miss my friends at school though. They all gave me hugs and high fives on my last day. The trip is long. In the truck, I talked to Kylee on the two-way radio lots!

Kylee: I really want to go to Arizona. Its hot there and I want to play there. Sammy is going to come with us to Arizona.

We are on our way...

We left this morning around 9:00. Travelled about 480 miles and made it to Dwight, Illinois at around 9:00 pm. We did make quite a few stops though - one for about an hour.
The kids did great. They were mostly entertained by talking back and forth on the two-way radios and cell phones (we have free talking phone to phone) Devon has been riding with Scott mostly, and Kylee with me. Sammy is riding in the back seat of the truck. He is doing good to. We did learn one thing though as we don't usually take Sammy in the vehicles - you don't feed a dog while travelling. I fed him one time we stopped and he threw it all up :( He must get motion sick, as he looks out the side window ALL the time.
Kylee started asking if we were in AZ around Lansing area - because there was no snow there :)
When we left home, it was 29 degrees, the highest we had today was in IN - 38 degrees.
Now off to bed - that was a long day!!

Busy, Busy...

On Friday night we changed our plans "a little" and created a lot of work for the little time we have left. Scott spent some time looking over the snow-mobile trailer we were going to take, and decided it was kinda rusty underneath and maybe wouldn't make the trip. We decided it made more sense to take Scotts enclosed work trailer full of our stuff. So yesterday was kinda busy - running all over town finding boxes, and packing up almost everything in the house. We are close to 3/4 done packing already!! The kids helped a bunch. This is the first time we moved that they really could help much. And they worked like little troopers, and were SO happy to help out :) I filled the boxes, they carried all that was light enough for them (about 1/2 the stuff!!) out to the trailer and Scott packed it up. Their little legs covered some miles. And they slept great last night.

We finally got the news!

Well today we finally got the call we were waiting for. In one way, it has seemed like a long 5 weeks, waiting each day to find out where we are going to live temporarily, but in another way, we all have enjoyed having Scott home all the time. It sure is going to be a change when he is gone to work again.

Scott starts work in Marana, AZ (near Tucson) on the 16th of March. We are aiming to leave on Wed the 11th as travelling for 33 hours with 2 kids and a dog will take a few stops :)

Now.. off to continue with the packing and preparing the house to be empty for 6 months or so.