Our stake had a steak dinner at the cattle ranch about 45 min. away. It was so delightful. It was beautiful and peaceful. I could have stayed there forever. The kids and I were feeding a horse that had wandered over to the fence and every time we would pick the grass and put our hands up to feed it Nathan would laugh so hard. I think it was because the horses lips were so funny to him. I love children's innocent laughter. We had such a great time there. The church has elderly couples called there on their missions (as far as I could gather) and I think it might be kinda nice to end up that way. So fun.
This is the park by Eliza's school. It is so nice. This is us there on our first full day in town (Thursday). When we pulled up there were a few ladies there and Nathaniel said he thought it was probably a playgroup of LDS ladies. He was right. As I sat down to make sandwiches for lunch, a lady came up and asked me if I was by chance Tennille Sorenson. To which I replied, "Wow, this is a small town." She turned out to be Lori, a lady I had talked to on the phone when I couldn't get in touch with our bishop and wanted to get help on the Ely end of unloading the truck. Her husband is the 1st counselor in the bishopric. Funny that she was the first person we randomly run into at the park. She has been so good us. She brought us dinner that night. The funny thing is she reminds me of my friend, Lori, from Tucson. It's kind of comfortable and familiar with her because of that.
Just playing around with Tanner while unpacking. Eliza and I thought we should see how well Tanner fit into the doll stroller. Not too bad...and super adorable.
Daddy was reading the kids a story as they laid in our bed. It was so cute. Kate and Nathan both had their blanket/shirt and were sucking on their fingers while Liza played with her fidget string. My kids as they really are.
My little cute in a hoodie. Love it!
Kate wears the most random clothing. I mean snowboots, swimsuit, and the bow I made her for Matthew's wedding. What a combo. She's missing Arizona with the swimsuit, embracing Ely with the snowboots, and has a little bit of fancy with the hair bow. You can see the black eye too.
Eliza on her first day of kindergarten. So beautiful and grown up. I tried hard not to cry the first day. I did cry on the first day she rode the bus (the 3rd day of school). That was hard to send her out into the world. She was nervous about all of the big kids on the bus.
Kate wanted to come with us when I dropped her off at her classroom. Then she wanted to stay. It is so hard for her to see Eliza doing something that she can't be a part of.
Tanner's first swing experience. Kate was on the other side. Eliza and Kate were fighting over who got Tanner on their swing. Size won. Isn't he sooo cute? I love that smile.
Eliza being held up by Daddy at the park.
That's called grass, son. We haven't seen "real" grass as I call it in a long time.
The Nathaniel's having a race. I'm not sure who won. How do you gauge that?
The artist and the masterpiece. I had turned my head for 10 seconds to help Nathan with the pen he broke and I hear, "Mom, Tanner's wearing purple makeup!" Poor kid, he puts up with so much.
Daddy on his first day of work. Eliza's second week of school. He walks her to the bus and then continues on to the courthouse. It is about half a mile maybe a little more from our house to work. He comes home most days for lunch. I love it. We may not have the white picket fence, but my husband can walk home for lunch. That's pretty perfect.
I love these pictures. Daddy with his briefcase and Liza with her backpack hand in hand. I have looked forward to these pictures for years. I cried a little and watched them walk all the way down the street together.
Matchy matchy green squared (name that movie, Bri). Eliza has color days at school. Today was green day and we picked out Eliza's outfit last night. This morning when Kate got up she picked out an outfit that was identical to Eliza's. I thought it was sooo sweet. She wants to be just like Eliza. I want them to be best friends like I am with my sisters.
I think this picture is so cute of my kids. They are my whole world.
The exercise room (room to the left off of the entry from the front door, beside the living room) The story of moving is soooooo long that I'll post pictures of my house and tell the story later.
View of the living room from the entry. I bought this rug for $55 on ebay and I LOVE IT!
This is the view of the living room from the recliner. The door with the backpack (off to the right) is to the entry, the other door (straight ahead) is into the kitchen. Tanner's room is off to the left. His door is between the around-we-go toy and the loveseat.
This is the mini hall that looks into the bathroom. To the left of the bathroom is Nathan's room, to the right of the bathroom is the stairway to the girls room and toy room upstairs.
The kitchen/dining room. Can you see the white buckets at the table? We didn't have room to go around the table when there were chairs on that side of the table.
Looking into the entry from the living room. From this view the exercise room is the door to the right and my bedroom is the door to the left which you can't really see. (You can see the rug doctor off to the side. We've become really good friends since we moved in.)
Storage room. This is in the back of the house opposite of Nathan's room. Same side of the house as the kitchen. I loaded up on food in Tucson. Nathaniel, his Dad, brother Quentin and Kurt (from Ely) all hate me I'm sure for making them move all of this food into the house.
This is the view from the storage room looking down the hall into the kitchen. Off to the right are storage cupboards. One is full of food and the other coats. To the left is the bathroom that we use since the other one only has a tub and a sink that doesn't drain. Eliza is in my bedroom doorway. It is in a really unusual place. It is right off of the entry opposite the exercise room and you can go into my room from the kitchen as well.
Our bathroom/laundry room.
This is the view from the front door of our house. That's our van out front.
This is the front of our house.
This is the front of our neighbor, Ernie's house. Nice, isn't it?
This is off to the other side- Joe's. Both of our neighbors have very nice houses. I don't know how we got right in between them.
Street view looking to Ernie's side (and toward the brothel.)
Street view looking the other direction. Liza's bus stop is right out there kinda by that truck in the middle of the way there.
Liza and Kate's room. Mom and I made these quilts back when Nathan was a baby. I love them.
We saw this as we were packing up to leave Arizona. (Just outside Nancy's house) It was like a farewell present. It hardly ever rains in Yuma so it was unusual. Our last full day in Arizona was 118 degrees and like 300% humidity...okay, so not really that humid...but it felt like it as I packed the car. I do love you though Arizona in spite of these things.
The courthouse where Nathaniel works. It is 100 years old. It is a very stereotypical old courthouse. I love it.
My handsome husband on his first day of training. He thinks I'm a little too trigger happy with the camera.
This is the steam train that goes right past our house (well, one street up).You can go for a ride for a small fortune of $24 a person. Not going to happen! Nathan LOVES to hear the train whistle. He imitates it all of the time. He is very animated when he does it. We have to remind him to not be quite so loud when he does it.
This is right by the train depot.
This is the local paper. I was well versed with the "for rent" part of the Ely Times long before I ever came here.
This is the main road here.
This is the only grocery store. They have Sweet's brand cinnamon bears and Western Family brand. It is home! The first time I walked in to the store the first thing I saw was snow shovels and I started to smile. I haven't seen snow shovels in 3 years. Next I saw camouflageonesies. Yep, not in Tucson anymore. But, they made me smile too. I almost bought one for Laurel's little girl. They had ones with pink lace. I thought that would be funny...but I had a hard time shelling out $6.50 for a onesie.
This is just before you turn the corner and see this...
That is the sign that says Welcome to Ely. You blink and you miss it...and you probably run out of gas 'cause there's no other place to fill up for hours.
The stop light as you come into town. Yep, this is "in town"
Nothing like McDonald's to make you feel like it's home. Our first night here we went to McDonald's and since they are all so similar it didn't seem so different.
We were married in April 2004. We have 5 beautiful kids- Eliza, Katelyn, Nathaniel Jr., Tanner, and Kelsey. Nathaniel is now officially a lawyer and I love being able to stay home with the little ones.
