And Here We Are. A posting by the Editor.

We made it to Phoenix. We are here. The Eagle has landed, etc. Jessica is busy unpacking, making me move furniture, and worrying about law school so I am taking one more task off her shoulders and providing you, our Audience, with a brief update.

We did not get any photos of packing up the SLC house due to the failure of the truck rental company (okay, to be fair, the real fail belongs to the previous renter of the truck) and the resultant bad feelings. The reservation for the all-too-small 24' truck was for 0900 MDT Friday, 31 July 2009. We did not get the truck until 1400 MDT. Let's see, 14 - 9 = 5. Five hours wasted. Five hours we could have been loading the truck. We could have been on the road by 1400 MDT. Needless to say, there were some very angry customers. However, we do thank the members of the ward--you know who you are--who showed up to assist us, even if we couldn't find much for you to do.

Once we had the truck in our possession we wasted no time loading it. The two of us, my brother and his wife, and Jillian did the bulk of the loading in four hours. The Elders Quorum president and his wife showed up at just the right time to help us load our deep freeze full of meat and our washer and dryer. I was afraid my brother and I wouldn't be able to handle the freezer by ourselves, especially after busting our butts to get everything else loaded. The EQ president's timing was impecable, thank you.

Some time between 1800 and 1900 MDT we finally got on the road and headed south to St. George. I was by myself in the truck with Jessica and Jillian following in Excursion. The truck was governed at 70 MPH so the drive wasn't spectaculary fast, particularly when it could barely manage going up the mountain passes at 30 MPH. We finally arrived in St. George at 0100 MDT Saturday. We. Were. Tired.

And we slept.

Sometime around 1000 MDT Saturday (maybe later), we finally got our vehicles gassed up, volunteers from St. George loaded (we picked up my dad, Jordanne, and the strong man Matt to help out in Phoenix), and headed south. We arrived in Phoenix at 1800 MST (1900 MDT for you folks who need the conversion) and to the house at around 1840 MST. Yes, that's about nine hours of driving. Stewie showed up as well as Riley, Erika, and their two boys to help us unload the truck. With everyone's help we had the bulk of our junk unloaded and piled haphazardly in the house, behind the house, and some left in the truck for the next day. We. Were. Tired.

And we slept.

We finished unloading everything and got started organizing it all on Sunday. Monday morning we thanked everyone who came down from St. George and bid them farewell. Now it is Wednesday; most of the boxes are unpacked, furniture is where it will be for a while, and life is starting to settle down again.

The new chapter in our life has officially begun.

Now, some photos of the house that my dad took (we haven't taken any yet).