Finding Our Way Down New Paths

The last two months have been a true exercise in resilience and flexibility. What started as a predictable summer, took a quick turn towards unpredictability. Within a week of taking our house off the market, we received an offer to buy, that we could not turn down. This offer required a 4 week move out and close date, and so the whirlwind began.

Sorting, packing, discarding, and selling 25 years of belongings was no small feat! Preparing two adult children for college residency for the fall complicated the move, while determining where we would live and where to store our belongings, stimulated our best organizational skills!!

By June 26th, we were packed, kids moved to their college apartment, belongings in storage, final papers signed, and we closed the door on our family home for the last time.

With the future wide open for Ray and I, we determined we would restart our traveling service mission in a new 24ft Lance travel trailer. After finalizing that deal, we hit the road.

First stop, our mountain house in Alpine, AZ for a week to catch our breath, enjoy the 70 degree weather, and plan our next adventure.

By mid-July, we were on the road and headed for Cloudcroft, NM. What a beautiful, quaint little town. We parked our trailer at Deerhead Campground just outside of town. We began everyday with a hike into town for breakfast, to enjoy the free WiFi so we could work, and then set off for some adventure.

Our service projects here included learning to crochet tiny newborn hats, crocheting squares for blankets, and photographing headstones at small family cemeteries for the genealogy project "Billion Graves".  As always, we watched for trash pick-up along our hiking paths.

As we crossed New Mexico, we loved encountering serendipitous adventures like the Very Large Array space observation fields (think the movie "Contact"). The first nuclear detonation site, White Sands Missle Range, and Sunspot Solar Observatory  and a many ghost towns. One we just had to check out was Mogollon, NM.

We returned to our mountain home in Alpine, again to regroup. Ray is scheduled for work trips all through August, so our cross-country service mission will continue at the end of August, while celebrating our 35th wedding anniversary.

With starting and stopping our planned year-long road trip, we decided, after much looking and deliberation, to buy a house near Oracle, AZ. We've downsized in square footage and stuff, but up-sized in the surrounding beauty. We have an abundance of desert and mountain hiking trails right outside our back door, mountain views surround us, and new adventures await! 

This summer we've found time for family camp outs, and celebrated our oldest granddaughter Jennah's wedding, a long awaited trip to the temple with our oldest daughter, Heather, all our summer birthdays, a quick trip to Disneyland, and a new car purchase for Audrey, and Sam starting at ASU in just two weeks.

Our next travels will take us to the Pacific Northwest for a stay in the San Juan Islands, then across country to New York, Pennsylvania, Missouri, and Illinois, celebrating our anniversary with a church history tour and stops at as many temples as possible. We will continue to seek out service opportunities using the JustServe app. We are so thrilled to be able to enjoy our beautiful and amazing country and the chance to find ways to meet new people, share The Gospel, and serve along the way.

Our lives are thrilling and sometimes move faster than we want. Yet, we are blessed beyond measure. We are blessed with people to love, the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ, our health, and each other. On to new adventures...