'See You Soon' Party

Our friends wanted to send us off in style and boy did they ever!  No detail was left out.  Not only are they amazing friends, their party planning skills are tops!!!

It was a hot day but they were prepared with bottles upon bottles of wine.  Check out all the Kim!!!

They even had moving boxes!

And how did they know Mommy is from Waseca??

Aw, Toby!  They didn't even leave him out!

The party planners extraordinare, aka Mommy's besties!  Lisa should be in here too!!

What will she do without these girls?  And others not pictured here?  Sadness!

Julie!

All the kiddos that were there early...more came later!  Trevor and Ashley too were in friend heaven!

Snow cones!!!  

Great place to eat said snow cones!

So glad that Kaelyn and Nick came too even though they didn't know anyone but us there!

A farewell shot!!

Brian is going to miss his buddies too.  :(

They rented a water slide for the kiddos which came in handy on this extremely hot today but not one kid complained!

Cake time!

Erica makes the most amazing cakes!  We hope she goes into business to share her yummy talents!

Three amigos!

Bentonville bound!

And before the night ended these amazing girls presented Mommy with a going away present.   Brian just happened to walk in and capture the moment!  Besides all the wonderful handwritten cards with such heart-felt words about our individual and unique friendships that she's received this week, the girls created a special cookbook with recipes from our various times together and an Arizona shaped bamboo cutting board.  Most perfect gift!  Sara can see herself in her new kitchen taking out that cookbook and making Mary's donuts, Tori's skinny spinach dip, Becky's yummy cookies, Lisa's cauliflower potatoes, the list goes on and on.  Sara's heart (and tummy) are very full.  These are friendships that just can't be replaced, they will just grow in new ways with some distance between us but we are all already counting the days till we see each other again!!!  Thank you friends for everything.  We'll be seein' ya soon! XOXOXOXO

Circus with the Ellertson Girls

Even though the movers were packing up our house, Mommy decided to be fun Mommy and take the kids to the circus as planned with the Ellertson girls.  Thanks Grandma Pauline for coming over to monitor the movers so we could do this!  Mommy surprised the kids and boy were they surprised!!!!!

Mommy surprised herself too to be truthful ;)

Everyone got to pick a treat on the way in.  Trevor and Charlotte picked stuffed animals while Ashley picked cotton candy and Abigail picked a snow cone.  

We settled into our seats and were amazed by the performance!!

The kids covered their eyes for most of the acrobatic one! 

Amazing!!

So glad we could make these memories with the kiddos before we don't have the opportunity to do fun things like with our AZ friends on a whim!  

See Ashley's face in the above picture?  It should have been a sign of things to come for Mama.  Eek. On the way out Ashley had a full on tantrum like never before.  Crying, screaming, hitting Mommy's head as she carried her out of the arena and on the way to the car.  OH MY!!!!!  All because she wanted a snow cone.  Well we agreed that everyone got one treat and no means no so Mommy dealt with her the best way she could in a crowd.  Ignored her until we could find a family restroom and she got a stern talking to.  Then she knew Mommy meant business.  She asked for a hug, sucked up her tears and off we went like nothing happened.  What in the world!!!!  

Brian, Trevor and Friends Go Camping!

On Brian's bucket list before leaving AZ was one last camping trip with Trevor and friends.  So he flew home to make it happen!  Not sure who in the group was most excited, they are all big fans of this special friend and Dad time!

This time they headed to Leech Lake

Ewwwwww

New version of the ice bucket challenge

Buddies for life!

It was a 2 night camping trip..this was the Saturday crew!  On Friday Chad, Leah and Kelly were there!

Don't worry, once again the Mama's and littles who weren't old enough to camp survived just fine.  We went to Katie's and had girl time!!  

Girl Time!

Sara has allowed herself to have some much needed girl time with some of her besties before taking off to Arkansas.

Every single moment has been soaked up in her soul.

She could have never imagined finding this group of friends when she moved to Arizona hardly knowing anyone.  But God knew exactly what he was doing when he put us all together.

"Friends are connected heart by heart.  Time and distance can't keep them apart"

Sign from Heaven

Sara has been a busy little beaver purging contents in the house and selling most all of the furniture and decor since our new house is so different than our current one.  The most amazing thing happened when someone came to move out the guest room furniture on the main floor.  Behind the dresser we found this card.  It most definitely is a sign from Heaven and came just at the right time.  Mama sure misses her Grandma Kelly but we believe she is always with us and this card proves it.  XO

Nana Saves the Day!

Nana Jeanne came again to help Mama with the kids and house!  How different it was this time that she was here without it being the first weekend the house was on the market.  No longer did our schedule revolve around all the impromptu showings!  Yay!!

We got to do things like Pie in the Face!

And birthday parties at Pump It Up!

She so wants to be big like brother!

We took a day trip up to Sedona to see Slide Rock!

It was a lot of walking for Nana's bad knee but she was a trooper!

So glad she is here!

Trevor wanted to try the rock slide!  And eventually he did!  We have a great video!  It was freezing cold water and fast moving.  He was scared but he braved out the one slide then never went back in.

Instead we moved to a calm section where Ashley danced away :)

And Trevor found a butterfly!

Eventually it came to Nana!

What a fun fun day!  We finished off by going into town and having a yummy Mexican meal!

We finished her time with another birthday party.  It was so hot that they only had the bumper boats open outside at Cracker Jax but the kids didn't mind at all!

They loved getting wet!

That is until they had to go back inside for laser tag and cake!  Then they were so cold.  

We also tried out the new Baked Bear in Scottsdale, formerly only in San Diego!

Thanks for coming Nana!!  You are always so good with the kids and helping keep Mama sane.  You want to be sure Mama has time with her friends and Mama wants to be sure you know how loved you are.  XOXOXO