Arizona Surprise

We packed the kids in the car and told them that we were driving to Arizona to look for a house. 

Our driving started out really slow because we got stuck on a two lane highway behind someone moving a house.  After following the house for a very long time Jared said a prayer that he would be able to safely get around the house.  Shortly thereafter the driver had a tire blow out and he was forced to the side of the road.  Let's just say Jared's prayers are really powerful.

We thought that kids would figure out we were going the wrong direction when we crossed into Louisiana, but the girls were busy watching Frozen on the DVD player and Nathan had a blanket over his head because he couldn't stand watching that show one more time.  We stopped for gas and they still didn't get it.  After the movie ended I quizzed the kids on their states and capitals in hopes they would notice all the signs to Baton Rouge, but they still didn't get it.  We started driving through the bayou and I pointed out the interesting topography.  Still no clue. Finally when we were crossing the Mississippi river Nathan asked, "Mom.  Are we still in Texas?"  When I said "No," he asked, "New Mexico? Arizona?"  "No."  "Where are we?"  They still had no idea. So we told them to look at the signs.  They read all the signs for New Orleans and Abby finally guessed, "Louisiana?"  When I confirmed that's where we were the kids all burst into tears.  They thought that Jared had taken a wrong turn and driven in the wrong direction for 7 hours, and they thought that we were going to have to drive all the way back and then drive another 16 hours to get to Arizona. The file for the video I have of the kids finding out is too big to put on the blog, so I'll try to send it out via email.

We spent our first night in Florida with my friend Kate and her family.  It was great to see her beautiful family and catch up with her after 14 years!  We went to church with her the next day and visited the grounds of the Orlando Temple afterward.

After spending a nice Sunday with Kate's family we drove to our condo where we stayed the remainder of our trip.  Our friends from our ward in Washington were kind enough to get us a good deal on a nice condo using their timeshare.  It was nice to have a place big enough for our family that was right next to Disney.