Fourth of July Weekend

I think William caught the spirit of this weekend of celebrating the birth of our nation!

We were very excited to be able to relax and enjoy this weekend. Let me take you back since the previous post so you can understand why. The Tuesday after Father's Day, our packers (6 of them) came and packed all of our stuff in about 4 hours. (What a treat!) Then Wednesday, our loaders (6 of them) came and loaded all of our stuff into the big moving truck in about 4 hours. (So amazing!) Once they finished I got busy cleaning and staging the little bits of furniture we left there since our house in Burleson is still for sale. I was so worn out by the time I finished, but we wanted to enjoy our community pool one last time, so I took the boys to the pool which I did enjoy.

On Thursday, I drove the boys and my mom to Amarillo. We were able to spend the evening resting up for the coming days. On Friday, our moving truck arrived at our rental townhouse, right on time! They unloaded all of our stuff, also in about 4 hours, and even had our beds set up. We were able to get right to work unpacking right after lunch. The most difficult part of the unpacking is that we are temporarily downsizing by 500 sq ft which includes the boys sharing a room, so we had to decide what to keep out, what to pack up for later, and what to get rid of now. Not a bad problem, just mentally draining. Mom and I were able to get the boys' bedroom all set up which was probably one of the toughest tasks as we combined their two rooms plus the play room into one room and one closet. They were quite excited and wanted to spend the night there, so we went back to the missionary house (see previous post) to get our suitcases. We all rested well that night!

The next several days involved much of the same: Saturday-unpacked the kitchen; Sunday-master bedroom; Monday-living room and bathrooms; Tuesday-worked to organize garage boxes; Wednesday-hung pictures. Needless to say, we were very exhausted by Thursday and took it easy. During all of this, we were so thankful for the church staff families who stopped by to check on us and brought us food and also thankful for my wonderful mom who worked tirelessly alongside me. What blessings!

On Friday, my dad drove up to Amarillo for the weekend. The boys were so excited to see their Granddad and immediately had plans for him. We were all glad for some fun and relaxation. All of the guys really got into playing horseshoes in the front yard. Our townhouse literally is between the guys on each side; a quaint 2 bedroom, 1 LR, 1 eating area, but we really do like it.

The master horseshoe thrower in our bunch with his protege!

Friday evening, we ate supper at one of our local favorites: Blue Sky. They have great burgers, onion rings, and William's favorite: milkshakes! Then we headed out to Palo Duro Canyon for the TEXAS show. We stopped at a lookout point to take in the beautiful sites of the 2nd largest canyon in the country.




We got to the theater a bit early since we decided we were too tired from the week for a hike, but we enjoyed the live music they have in the courtyard area.

Here are some cheesy boys waiting for the show to begin with the incredible backdrop of the canyon behind them.






The TEXAS show was truly a wonderful experience for all of us. They even performed a couple of extra numbers at the end to celebrate the 4th of July and had extra fireworks as well.

On Saturday, we took it pretty easy since we got home very late from the TEXAS show. We all slept in and did not do much until after lunch. My dad helped us out with a few projects around the house, but also got involved in a watergun war with the boys. We all enjoyed an evening game of baseball in the front yard before heading to watch some fireworks.

Jeffery, Granddad, Mimi, and William waiting for the fireworks.

Jeffery, James, Me, and William

I just love this one: James holding the little fella watching the fireworks.

(Ear protection works wonders for the little ones!)

On Sunday, we all headed to church for a wonderful patriotic worship service. Then we enjoyed a great lunch at Abuelo's before my parents headed back to Fort Worth. The weekend was nearly perfect, but we all missed having my sister with us for the 4th. We will hopefully see her next month.

This week, James and Jeffery are busy with basketball camp in the mornings, and we are working on getting our stuff in our garage moved to storage so we can use our garage for our cars especially when the weather turns bad. We are also enjoying settling in and finding our new sense of normalcy. Sure, there are people and things we miss about Fort Worth/Burleson, but we know that God has amazing plans for us here. We are trusting in Him and His perfect will.