Final Farwells

I have finally figured out what missionaries go through at the end of their two year missions.  Part of you wants to stay a little bit longer and the other part of you is dying to go home.  Even though we weren't exactly on a mission here in NY, we can sure empathize with the missionaries from the church!  We hit our two year mark and had to make a decision, should we stay or should we go?  Family and home on one side of the states, adventure and friends on the east, what to do???? After much thought and prayer and planning, we decided it was time to end our adventures on the east coast and head back to the southwest.  The kids were sad to have to say good-bye to dear friends that we have made, but hope to stay in touch with them the best we can.

It was sure nice to have to pack everything we owned, especially since it took the movers two full days to pack and load us, but we did load up Jared's trailer and truck full to the brim so as not to go over our weight limit from Intel.

Our neighbors were so great and were willing to take the kids and let them play since all of my things were in boxes and the kids were dying to tear into them.

But this is what is looked like on our last day here in NY in June 2013.

 We had to say good-bye to our visits from Sam and Michelle, coming up from West Point.  The kids had fun every time they came to visit and loved dressing up in his clothes!  We'll miss you Sam more than you'll ever know!

 

 Lizzie was sad to say good-bye to her preschool and girly friend Elyse.  They became super close and would see each other almost daily.  These two were too funny as they played babies and you could often hear them stuffing babies up their shirts and pretending that they have to rush to the hospital because the baby was coming!  Hysterical!

 The best part was that when Liz and Elyse would play, you could find Savannah, her older sister, and Kate playing too.  The last day they made up this little performance and HAD to perform it before we left.  I only wish that I had it on video!

 We had to say good-bye to our bestie, Grace Mortensen, and her family.  They were a total heaven send for my girls to play with on rainy days, ride bikes with on sunny ones, and go to the pool.  The even brought us dinner the last night and helped us play the night away in a totally empty house with rousing games of "Down by the Banks" and tag.  We will miss you Mortensens!

 Ashely, Lizzie, Grace, Kate, and Isabel

 

We were even lucky enough to find a fun couple to have date nights out and family trips with.  The Jacobson's became quick friends after Jared and Paul, who work together, did the Tough Mudder last year in Canada.  It has been great doing lunches, trips, playdates and holidays together.  We will miss your fun personalities and all the good memories together!  Hopefully we'll get you out in AZ too!

 And of course, there are the many friends we made at church and who we got to serve with.  These kids became part of my family the past year as I was lucky enough to have them in my life and get to know them because I was their mom's visiting teacher.  It was a blessing I needed that I didn't know I needed.  I love it when it works out that way!  I will miss seeing their cute little faces, their hugs, their crazy tag games with my kids at their apartment and my girl Kikyo.  Thanks Herrera family for becoming my own!

 And here's another boy who I wish I could adopt into my family....Aiden.  These two boys hit it off from day one.  Two peas in a pod, and we will miss having the Collins family around the corner for a boy for Cole to play with!  Buds forever!

And what would I do without the Kenney family?  I would have gone crazy!

They were the family that meeted and greeted us and helped us to get to know the community, invited us to play with on their awesome swing set, ride bikes with up and down the street, go to the duck pond, and be my taste testers for all the new recipes I got to try!  These girls were just too cute and ones that I wished I could take with me.  I hope we can be as good of neighbors to someone as the Kenneys were to us!

 

After we had said our good-byes, we did have one more quick trip.....we couldn't leave without a last hurrah!  But that deserves a post of it's own.

But here we are on our final voyage home on the plane.  The kids were even invited up to see the cockpit!  Awesome!  They didn't want to go, but I did!  So I made them at least get a picture.

 Max was an awesome traveler, and since he had his own seat, he passed out and my arms got a little rest.  Sweet baby.

 Traveling for the rest of them was so hard.....ipads, DS's, music, treats, and of course, their favorite.....SODA!  Kate liked that part the best.  She even got a whole can!

 While Max slept, Jared didn't miss out on the chance to take a snooze of his own.

 So, NY.....thanks for a great 2 years of adventure and fun.  We will miss being there but know that Arizona is where we need to be now.