We're Coming Home Part 2

4/30 Albuquerque --> Payson

5/1 Payson --> Parker

5/2 Parker --> Palm Desert

5/3 Palm Desert

5/4 Palm Desert --> Rialto --> Fallbrook

PAYSON,AZ

We left pretty early Wednesday morning, stocked up on coffee and gasoline, and spent the rest of the day driving. It's always a long haul across the 40. In Grants and Gallup there is not much of anything and those towns aren't much to look at. It's actually depressing, really. A lot of that part of the freeway runs through Indian Reservations.... It looks more like shanty towns though. We imagined this place hundreds and hundreds of years ago. The wild horses running across the painted deserts, Indians hunting and gathering as they pleased, wild animals roaming. It probably looked much more beautiful back then......now all you see are four lanes of concrete, broken fences, broken homes, and broken spirits. You just feel sad when drive through there. And you realize how destructive man can be, not only to our planet but also to each other. 

We passed by the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert National Park and were sad we didn't have time to drive through it again. We jumped on the 77 South, then hit the AZ-377. They were two lane highways running through open fields and rolling hills. I always wonder why no body takes these routes. The speed limit isn't that much slower and the scenery is just so much better, but hey I won't complain because we enjoy the peace of the untraveled roads. After we went over a few rolling hills we started to notice more and more trees. Each foot we climbed higher they just kept multiplying. Before we knew it we were at 5000 feet in almost the exact center of Arizona in the town of Payson. They call it the "Heart of Arizona" for that reason. We couldn't argue with it's nickname either. It was a quaint little mountain town. Reminded us of home, Lake Arrowhead, but with department stores and a Walmart. I guess the roads were a little flatter too but it had the same crisp mountain air and trees with the small town feel.

The L.A. Kings had a game that night so we called ahead and found a sports bar that would play the game for us. It was Game 7 of the Sharks series and we either had to win or be eliminated from playoffs. It was a nail-biting first period at the "Buffalo Bar." We ended up getting most of the people in the bar to watch the game and cheer our boys on! In the last period we blew them away and advanced to the next round of playoffs. After thanking the owners for letting us crash at their bar for three hours to watch the game we drove a mile down the road to the Walmart and took a celebratory shot with Ian! We fell asleep with huge smiles on our faces that night!

PARKER, AZ

It's been a couple long days of driving so before we headed to the World Help Conference we needed to shower! So Thursday morning I woke up early and started the first leg of the journey to California. We only stopped in Glendale for In'N'Out Burger. It was amazing... every bite was delicious and cooked to perfection. We savored our lunch stop, changed into desert clothes (it was getting so HOT!) and headed to river oasis. We made it in time to relax by the pool and soak in that Vitamin D that I have been missing so much. We enjoyed a couple of drinks and a nice dinner then got all cleaned up for the weekend ahead.

WORLD HELP CONFERENCE, PALM DESERT, CA

I woke up at 6:30 am to start the trek out to Palm Springs. We knew it was going to get real hot real quick so we tried to get there as fast as we could! We knew we could hide out in Amber and Bryan's air conditioned room! We made it just in time to visit with Marley and Lennix before they headed to the grandparents for the rest of the weekend. 

We spent the next three days hanging out and working. While the boys worked the conference me and Ambs worked on some props for her up coming photo shoot, went to dinner and watched the hockey game, went to the pool and relaxed and went to lunch the next day. It was nice to just be with her and get a chance to catch up. I don't think we have done that for at least four years so I enjoyed the time. I also got to meet up with a friend/mentor from high school. I haven't had coffee with her for years so we ended up talking for over three hours nonstop just trying to get caught up on life. It was a blast. 

Bryan and Jordan had some breaks in between meetings so we went thrift store shopping and coffee shop hunting. One night we blasted music like high schoolers in the car until we found ourselves at the ACE hotel. We got some drinks, found a fire and explored the funky place. 

On the last night of the conference Amber and I went over to the meeting where the Children of the World choir was performing for everyone. It was probably one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. All these kids (probably 10 and under) from all over the world were singing and dancing. I had chills from their first note and was crying by the end of it. My heart and passion for mission work was definitely re kindled. I can't wait for that opportunity to come. We helped the boys clean up and pack up all their equipment because tomorrow we would all be heading home!

It was a great weekend and we loved the opportunity to hang out with Amb and Bryan and to make a little money. We stopped by Rialto on the way back to Fallbrook to pick up the Jetta for a week. We found that we had to start work in Yellowstone on May 20th. We were bummed because it only gives us 9 days to be home and only 5 days for travel up north. We had so many dreams for our trip this year but I guess we will have to be flexible.

my handsome feeding some baby ducks before his meeting

Tired little lovers at the ACE Hotel  

We went to grab drinks with amb and bry one night!

We're Coming Home

4/26 Hot Springs --> Oklahoma City

4/27 Oklahoma City --> Amarillo

4/28 Amarillo --> Albuquerque

4/29 Albuquerque

SATURDAY 4/26/14
For some reason the air never smells sweeter than we head off on our next adventure. Even though we have lived in Destiny for over a year and a half that nervous excitement gets us every time! We definitely enjoyed our time in Arkansas and soaked up all the beauty of winter and spring. That transition was really quite amazing. From ice storms to thunderstorms to watching everything turn green. It was truly incredible.

As we pulled out of the ranch we stopped real quick to top off the fluids and check the tires and then we were off. We decided to take a new way out of Arkansas. Instead of the the normal way through Hot Springs and out to the 40W we jumped onto the 270 West from Royal almost to Mena and then took the 71 North to Fort Smith before heading to OKC. It's those little two lane highways that always get to us, with the little pop up towns in between all the farm land. We were just a day ahead of the huge tornado and the pre-storm skies illuminated the fields all across the horizon. The greens in the grass and the trees were so vibrant and alive, the tall yellow plants danced with the wind along the roadside, the streams glistened and reflected an eerie blue as if they were trying to warn us all of the storm to come. I wanted to jump out of the car and go get lost in a corn field and dance across the prairies. I know most people have these preconceived notions about Arkansas, I know I did.... but man have you ever been there? It is seriously a beautiful state. The humidity and constant storms keep it so green and there are so many trees and ponds and rivers. That's something that I think this California girl will never get used to.

I loved every minute of our drive to Fort Smith. As it got later we rushed to find a home in the OKC Walmart so we could batten down the hatches before the storm hit. We were nervous this tornado cruising by us was going to cause a horrible storm but we ended up only getting a little bit of rain. It was quite traumatizing though because we got to Walmart so late that we were too tired to put the tarp on and we hadn't tested out our new roof.  I woke up every twenty minutes jumping out of bed to make sure there was nothing leaking. To my surprise there was never a drop of water. It seemed too good to be true so I continued to wake up in pure panic throughout the whole storm.

SUNDAY 4/27/14
I spent the morning grabbing a few necessities at the store then we went over to the laundry mat to do the massive amounts of laundry I had been avoiding for a week or two. Jordan stocked up on propane and then we hit the road. We read the news as it poured in of the tornado that tore apart and demolished some the beautiful little towns we had just driven through in Arkansas. Gratefulness filled our hearts as we both knew that storm would have tore Destiny to pieces. We were once again reminded that checking the weather is extremely important when living on the road.

We only have 260 miles to go today as we are planning to spend the night in the Walmart of Amarillo. The same one that we got stuck in the blizzard in over a year ago. We needed to have a toast there to celebrate another year on the road!

Jordan is driving and I'm sitting in the passenger seat with my feet on the dash as we make our way across the Oklahoma plains. The winds are strong causing us to rock back and forth like a boat. The highway cuts through farmland that is so green you can feel the life that has been stored up all winter bursting from the earth. There is tall wispy green grass that grows right on the edge of the highway, it sways back and forth with the wind. Lone trees with crazy branches are scattered about the fields as if to break up the flatness of this state. A light brown mist is covering our horizon, the dust storm is coming. It's almost eerie because you can't see anything past the brown cloud and all these beautiful fields are about to disappear.

So I just lay my head back on the head rest and soak in all the sights from my windows and think of all the sights I've seen from this seat. Then comes a smile on my face and I think to myself......

Wow,
my house has some of the best views in the world





MONDAY 4/28/14
I don't think I like the 40 freeway anymore. It seems that just about every time we are on it something crazy happens or we run into some gnarly storm. I think I'll just call it the wind tunnel of America. Well at least the stretch from Amarillo to Albuquerque. We were white knuckle driving across the desert as we watched our gas gauge move closer and closer to empty. The wind was blowing 30-35 miles an hour straight at us with gusts over 50 mph. Mind you we only have four cylinders and no overdrive at this point (not that we could have used it anyway). With the pedal to the medal we were barely cruising at 35 mph and couldn't stay in our own lane. So even though we were anxious to see our friends in Albuquerque we had to pull over at a rest stop. At this point we walked around the motor home to see if everything was still attached and noticed that we lost part of our roof.... the part we just added to finally have a leak proof house. We also lost the plastic molding that keeps water from the seams where the motor home walls are screwed together. It was pretty discouraging but just like everything else you have to realize this is part of life on the road. There will always be setbacks! We sat at the rest stop for the next three hours. We tried to hide behind a picnic area but the wind still managed to rock us back and forth and howled as it went through the little cracks of Destiny. We tried to go outside to keep the "stir crazy" at bay... the wind nearly picked us up off the ground. I would have been able to fly if I had something to use as a parachute!

We ended up making dinner there and hoped that as the sun set the winds would die down. We were just praying we would have enough gas to get to the next gas station. Our mpg goes from 13-18 to 7-9 with the wind like that and we only have a 12 gallon tank. We definitely didn't plan for this storm!











ALBUQUERQUE
By the grace of God our gas stretched as far as it could and we found some super ghetto gas station on the side of the freeway. It was closed.... and sketchy but fortunately two of the six pumps were left on overnight and we were able to fill up!
We finally made it to Albuquerque super late but were so excited to see the Soto's! They are the incredible family that we met in Kauai 5 years ago and who we visited last year on our way home. Danny and Abby have two beautiful kids who we love to hang out with too! We spent the next two and half days catching up, playing, and just enjoying each other's company. For whatever reason hanging out with them is just so easy and natural... and just so comfortable. We laugh a lot and have some amazing conversations. They are passionate about natural living and eating healthy. We always love to soak in their knowledge and share what we have been learning. They absolutely spoiled us while we were there. They gave us our own room, hot showers and fed us like royalty! They also hosted a big family dinner with their friends and family. Abby made some amazing dishes and Danny killed it on the BBQ! I literally ate three platefuls. We had such an awesome time hanging out with everyone. The kids went to bed after dinner and we broke in their newly landscaped backyard and fire pit. It was such a bummer we had to leave after only 2 and half days because Jordan has committed to working at the World Help Conference in Palm Springs on Friday. We have a lot miles to go and only a few days to get there.
With super grateful and refreshed hearts we said our goodbyes. Even if we only get to see them once a year we love them so much and are so thankful to have them in our lives. They are by far some of the best people we know! ~'Til next year Sotos~

 

11 Days, 10k Miles

As we landed in LAX we just felt uneasy. The airport was packed. There were music festivals all over the country, many people were on spring break, the weather on the east coast was horrible causing all sorts of delays, and the chance of us getting on our standby flight to Dallas was looking very unlikely. After a few hours of waiting and getting bumped from gate to gate watching flight after flight leave without us, we were just done. We hadn't slept in a week and honestly we still wanted to be in Kauai. We actually considered hoping back on a plane to our little island home.... I mean the seats were open! But we knew we couldn't (at least not yet....), we had things to finish up. As "gypsy" as we might be, we still can't bail on our commitments.

We spent the whole night in the LAX airport and then the last plane left for the evening and we were just stranded there until 5am the next morning. So we wandered around empty terminals... tried to sleep for a little bit and hope to get on the first flight out. As we made it up to the gate we saw on our names on the standby list at #90 and #91. We hit our wall at this point.... I called my friend to ask if she could change our standby flights to Monday, we called off work for another three days and then we rented a car and drove home to Fallbrook. We were ready for a shower, for real food and sleep. And after all of the emotions we had experienced over the past week and losing our friend Sam, all we really wanted to do was see our  families and squeeze them tight. 

It happened to be an incredible weekend to come home because my baby sis was getting induced on Saturday and Jordan's dad was having his birthday BBQ at the beach on Sunday. We booked it home that Friday afternoon in hopes of beating the LA traffic. We got to surprise Jordan's mom (she had no clue we were coming) and we finally got some real (non-airport) food and took a big long nap!

We woke up feeling refreshed and went to dinner with Ian and Richelle and the babies at the Hooki. We got to meet Jude for the first time and really enjoyed seeing them. Zoe girl has gotten so big. After dinner Richelle and the kids went home and the boys went to do their own thing and I passed out. In the morning on Saturday I got to hang out with Marley and Brudder while the boys went golfing. Marley had just got a new play set with a fake blow dryer, brush, mirror, and butterfly clips. She "did" my hair about 30 different ways and got the brush stuck in my hair at least three times. We played this for at least an hour and then came back to it a few more times through out the day. I can't believe how much she has grown up in the past three months. Her attention span and focus these days is crazy! I was so impressed. We had a lot of fun together. And Brudder-goo is just about walking now... it's sad how fast they are growing!!! After spending most of the day crawling around on my hands knees chasing the kids and playing I jumped in the car and headed to the hospital in Rialto to surprise my little sis. She didn't think I was going to be home for the birth. 

I actually got to be in the room with her pretty much the entire labor and delivery. It was a little intense and a little hairy at times but I am so glad that I got to be there with my mom and my sis and of course to see that little miracle, Jace arrive! He was 10lbs and 21 inches long! Everyone was healthy and he was such a cute lil chunker!

After it was all said and done I got to spend a few minutes with them and then I "debriefed" with my mama for a bit. We were in the delivery room for the entire night long with no sleep. After a big coffee I headed back to Fallbrook to take a little nap before going to Scott's birthday BBQ. 

Zoe loves her Uncle Jordy

Ian teaching her to gold before dinner

Meeting baby Jude for the first time!

Zoe wanted some baby kisses too

I told Jord he looked like a cute lil dad carrying that...
You could see his reaction haha!

All cuddled up in the back seat

so excited to see this little bundle of sunshine

Love this little brudder goo

Marley making my hair beautiful

he has been ALL boy since the day he was born

little climber

all smiles and cuddles for this one!

These two have some kind of connection, ever since she was a baby. It is absolutely
priceless and it was so cute watching her RUN and yell Joydan.......Joydan!!! She was so happy

non stop kisses for him!

Poor baby nobody loves her!

Surprising sissy at the hospital

there is a baby in there!

Almost time for Jace to come!

an intense delivery and 10 pounds later here he is!!!

Daddy love...

so proud of her!

Holding this little love

a dad and his boys

two best friends came to play too!

the fam- minus Ally :-(

Chloe and Andy even showed up for a visit

some of the most important people in our lives...

We had so much fun at the beach!!! The weather was perfect, all of our closest friends showed up, and we just had a really good time. We stayed pretty late and then headed to Justin's for an hour or so before we had to drive back to LAX to try to get on a flight. At this point we just really, really didn't want to leave. Our hearts have been so happy and full with our friends and families over the past couple of days.

We got on a plane to Dallas and then got stuck there for a while again.... Our patience was running out in these airport waiting rooms. We eventually flew from Dallas to St. Louis and were going to rent a car and drive back to Little Rock. But luckily after we fell asleep on the St Louis airport floor for a while we woke up to our names being called for a flight back to Arkansas. It took us a full day of travel but with the help of our amazing friend, Jana, we finally made it back to Little Rock where we picked up White Lightning and drove back to the Ranch in Hot Springs.

sad.....

over it!

sleeping in St Louis on the ground....

So it was eleven days and we traveled over 10,000 miles. We flew across the country and over the pacific and back. We were able to support our close friends in a horrible situation. We made new friends. We spent time with every one of our closest friends across three different states. I watched my nephew come in to the world. And we were able to celebrate Scott and the amazing father he is. 

We feel humbled and blessed that we were able to do this. We are extremely grateful for our mobile and flexible lifestyle that allowed us to drop everything and go. And we are just so so thankful for the amazing people that we have in our lives.