The Road Trip...w/ a Few Bumps in the Road

I told Curtis that I would blog all about our adventure in getting moved...so, here it goes. 

To move to Arizona, my dad offered to drive the horse trailer down w/ our stuff in it, and we had Curtis's truck.  We were also supposed to have a work van (for Curtis's business) to drive down (but, that's a whole different story that you don't even want me to get started on).

We got a late start on the morning of Memorial Day.  Decided to head down to Phoenix through Nevada.  We had planned to stop in Henderson and stay the night to break up the trip a little and see my older brother that lives there.  And things were going pretty close to how it was planned...until we noticed smoke coming from the driver's side of the horse trailer about an hour past Wells, NV (right outside of the miniscule town of Currie)!!  My dad limped the trailer up the road to a pull out where there was more room to check out what was going on.  Come to find out the tire was shot from the axle and bearing breaking!  Yikes!!! We barely had any cell or data service, but were able to look up Les Schwab Tires.  A guy aswered the phone and noted that he was on call, but he wasn't coming to tow us on a holiday!  (So much for the Les Schwab commercials where they save people on the holidays and help them make their events and stuff!!!) He gave us the name of a towing company, but wouldn't even look up the number for us on that either!!  We looked it up on the internet and were able to call.  The second company was nice, but noted they couldn't tow the trailer on a truck, they would just have to pull it behind their truck and limp it back to Wells.  So, we decided we could do that ourselves and not be out the money from the tow.  So, we found a 2X4, jammed it in the spot that was rubbing on the axle, and slowly headed back to Wells.  (Yep, an hour outside of Wells, and we had to turn around and go BACK!)  We even had vultures swarming above us out in the middle of the desolate desert...looking at us like we were their next meal!!!  (Ok, actually we saw them on the road when we were headed back to Wells, but it was the first time Curtis had seen vultures and he wanted me to write about it.)  :)

We got to Wells dreading the possibility of having to order parts for the trailer and in the meantime, renting a Uhaul, unloading the horse trailer, and loading it into the Uhaul and hitting the road again.  But, things just seemed to work out.  Thanks to my stepsister and a connection that she had, we found a shop to repair the trailer that night.  And a store in town had the parts (and we caught them 20 minutes before they closed!).  The trailer was fixed in time for us to go enjoy dinner!  We ended up staying in Wells that night (it was an exhausting day).  Then we hit the road the next morning and headed to Henderson to rest and play a little.  Then the next day...off to our final destination...Maricopa, AZ!!!

We are (will) be living w/ our friends Emily and Jason down there for a while.  They're awesome!  :)  We got the room all set up for Curtis so he'd be comfy.  And then the next day I got back on the road w/ my dad and stepmom and headed back to Boise.  (No complications on the way home...well, except we accidentally took the scenic route home -ha-ha!)  I got to experience driving w/ a horse trailer.  Not too bad...a little freaky at night over the Hoover Dam bridge w/ lots of traffic and semis and curves in the road...but, I managed. 

So, Curtis is enjoying the heat...softball...staying busy getting everything going for his business.  I'm back in Boise working a few more weeks for my dental office and getting the house cleaned up and ready for renters.  Then I have a small "Kiesig" family reunion.  And, after that I'll be hitting the road again to AZ to join my hubby(at least this time, I'll know my way)! :) 

Moving to Arizona!!!

A lot has been happening in the last month for Curtis and I.  We’ve been running around busy getting house projects completed…putting up gates, finishing the stone around the deck, putting up gutters, getting the yard cleaned up, and getting things sorted and packed...

Yep, packed! 

Curtis has decided to join the world of entrepreneurs and start his own business!!!  And he’s chosen to start his business in Phoenix, Arizona!!!  It couldn’t have anything to do with the fact that his favorite basketball team is the Phoenix Suns…or that spring training for 15 of the MLB teams is in Arizona!  Or that you can play year round golf or softball! 

Actually, Curtis has researched a lot of the car markets in big cities, and has decided that for places we might want to live, Phoenix’s market offers a good chance at success with a small business doing interior repair on cars.  He has been working very hard to get everything set up and arranged to have everything he needs to get his business up and running.  (He’s really excited to take on this new venture…and has been happier than I’ve seen him in months!)  J

(For those of you that may not know…Curtis cannot stay in Boise and compete with his former boss for at least 2 years, due to a non-compete clause…and we don’t want to deal with the legal headaches we might endure if we stayed and tried to open a business here immediately. )

At the end of May, we are moving Curtis down to Arizona to get his business going.  And I will be joining him one month after that to obtain an Arizona dental hygiene license and begin my job search.  We are renting our house out here in Kuna.  And we will be living with friends temporarily in Arizona until we can get things completely up and going. 

Look out sunshine...here we come!!!

Snow in April

Yes, that's right...it snowed yesterday!!!  I had to scrape my windows and had inches of snow sitting on my car and in my yard!!!  April 29th and it still snows here in Idaho.
In fact, Brundage Mountain may be staying open for skiing into June!!! You have to love this place!!! :)   

Zoo Day!

Even though it was rainy and cold...Saturday I took my nieces and my mom to the Boise Zoo.  And it was soo fun!

They were up visiting for the weekend (thanks mom!).  And my 2 year old niece had never been to the zoo.  So, I figured..."Aunt Teppy" (Stephie) should take her to see the animals!!! :) 

We saw lions...and tigers...and bears...(ha-ha! bet you thought I was going to say "oh my!")...and penguins...and giraffes...and monkeys!  We slid down the large giraffe slide!  We played in the prairie dog bubbles!  We fed the goats at the zoo farm!  And, my niece, Cassi, was sooo stinking cute!  (So was Lexi...but, she's 14, so it was more like hanging out w/ a friend w/ her.  And Cassi adores her cousin, Lexi!  They get along sooo good!)  :)

Cassi made monkey noises and repeated almost everything we said.  She toted her monkey (from Build-a-Bear) all over the zoo.  She wanted Max, (her monkey) to go to the zoo too!  It was just too cute! 

I love it when my family comes to visit!  It's always fun to see them! I miss being around them sooo much!!!  I absolutely LOVE being an aunt!!! 




Some cute things Cassi said/did while she was here (and she has the cutest little voice!):

Both mornings when she came out into the living room, the first thing she would say is, "Where's Uncle Curtis?"  (She loves her Uncle Curtis!)

"Teppy, can I have more hockey milk please?"  (Interpretation: Stephie, can I have more chocolate milk please?)

When you tell her, "say, Lexi, where are you?"...she says..."say, Lexi, where are you?"  She hasn't figured out that you don't repeat the word "say" yet! Too cute!