In other news, we adopted a new kitty! He is Shiro (named after the pilot of the black lion in Voltron - thank you Brother). He's been with us for about five weeks now and is adjusting nicely. Sister has been kind and gentle with Shiro and he has been sweet in return. In preparation for leaving we purchased kennel for the car so that he can safely ride in the cab with us. We installed a kitty door into the underneath storage where we keep the litter box. He's adjusting nicely and we are happy to have him!
We are getting the outing itch! One day last week while Husband was at work the kids and I checked out a culture pass from the library and visited the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. It was an awesome field trip - especially the butterfly exhibit! There were so many it seemed that you really had to walk lightly to ensure you didn't accidentally injure one. We were so delighted to see such a diverse assortment of butterflies. We also saw all stages of the life cycle from egg, caterpillar, chrysalis and even the butterfly emerging from the chrysalis! It was a special treat. This was not our first visit to the garden, but it was our first time to the butterfly exhibit. The kids were excited to put on their junior ranger / explorer vests and grab their new hiking sticks for the day. Of course they received many compliments, questions, and comments from other garden visitors about their travels.
It was over spring break that I decided I could no longer purchase patches because I ran out of room on the vests! I worked on sewing their last two new patches from Chiricahua National Monument and Kartchner Caverns State park today. I finished 3/4. I think we all love collecting something from these places. While in Boyce Thompson Arboretum I stumbled upon the next round of items to collect for summer 2019 - hiking stick medallions! Boyce Thompson didn't sell a patch and so I just grabbed two of the medallions and later I realized that this was the answer for summer 2019! They already have amazing vests - time for a decked out walking stick!. So, the goal for this summer is to fill their hiking sticks with medallions. The absolute best part about this plan is that Husband can attach them and I don't have to poke my fingers sewing on any other patches!
So...what is the plan for this summer? Well like most RVs, we felt our last summer covered too much ground. Our goals are to stay out of the desert heat for as many weeks as possible, see some National Parks, and work on our land. I may have mentioned we before that this year we will spend a month near our land in Northern AZ doing some projects to make our "cabin" more livable. This brings me to another reason why this past month has been so busy. Three weekends ago we drove up to our land to meet a contractor so that we could get a quote to improve the interior. When we arrived we realized our building had been burglarized. This is the first time in 10 years that anyone has ever broken into the building. Things were stolen. It was disturbing for us all - especially the kids who were really upset and crying and shaking and scared. They kept thinking someone was going to come back and hurt us....it was really sad because our land has always been fun for them.
Though we did not leave much of value in the building the theives did miss the most valuable items stored there and so we had to make a plan to move things from the building. We returned to the valley and in the intervening week we purchased a 5x10 cargo trailer.
The next weekend we drove back up and packed up as much as we could and headed back down the mountain. We then rearranged our 5x5 storage and filled that baby to the brim! I don't think we could fit one more box in there, it is packed full. Now that we have "emptied" the cargo trailer we can take it back up with us and fill it once more to further empty the building to facilitate the projects we will be working on this summer. So the stuff-shuffle (AKA "the stuffle") continues - we continue to pay for storage and now we have this 5x10 trailer to serve as our shed/added storage at our site in Mesa.
In other news we switched from TMobile back to Verizon and our more than doubled our monthly bill for the same service - but we should have better nationwide coverage as we travel (we hope). We also purchased a cell signal booster - which I will write more about when we set it up and I can take some pictures.
During the next month Husband will return to the valley and stay in a hotel for two nights each week so that he can work two days a week on site. When we leave the state he will work completely remotely for eight weeks and when we return the agreement (with his employer) was that he would work in-person one day a week. I have changed all of our reservations to accommodate his work schedule - meaning we will not travel on any of his work days and we will be located in a spot that Verizon claims to have 4G coverage (according to their map). Basically we are staying a week at a time in each location. The trip this summer is two weeks in Utah, two weeks in Wyoming, two weeks in Colorado, one week in New Mexico and a week or two in the mountains of AZ (if we can find a place in a higher elevation that will allow Husband the ability to commute in the second week).
Finally - I have to share a final amazing experience we attended in the past month that was free thanks to our public library! Another Culture Pass experience! Brother and I went to the symphony to hear Romeo and Juliet & Porgy and Bess. These tickets would have cost us $160! Thank you Public Library System!
It was my first time to the symphony and I absolutely loved it. Just seeing and hearing so the cumulative effort and practice of so many professional musicians is an inspiration. But also, I have never listened to a story that way before - in other words. listened to the instruments tell the story of Romeo and Juliet. Though I knew this was the idea, I never took the time to sit and listen and it brought chills to my body and tears to my eyes. It was beautiful. The Porgy and Bess performance featured an amazing soprano and baritone as well as a fantastic choir. Whenever there are singers, my attention is drawn to them, so I did not focus upon the symphony as intently as I did during Romeo and Juliet. It was all beautiful and I can't wait for Sister to be a bit older so that she can enjoy it with us. Brother and I had a wonderful time. I am so thankful to Husband for watching Sister, because I know he would have loved it too. Here is one picture I snapped before the performance!
Ok, folks I am going to document our adventure so I will keep the posts coming - also I plan on having better cell/data this summer so I should be able to keep you up to speed! Write you again soon! Hope you are all planning amazing summers as well.
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