Last August Aaron was asked to manage the offices in Colorado Springs/Denver. It was supposed to be a temporary thing while USAA found someone to permanently take that position. Aaron was also still managing his team here in San Antonio. He started working one week in Colorado, then the next here in San Antonio, and then back to CO and so on... It was a long fall. Our family had a hard time getting used to Aaron being gone from our home half of every month. He was doing double the work load of his peers, and it was challenging for him to say the least. Aaron has really excelled at USAA and was ranked #1 as a director in the company at the time. I think that was why he was asked to take this on... I think they knew if anyone could handle running two teams, Aaron could. He did an excellent job! He loved Colorado. We started feeling excited about the possibility of a move in that direction. We were hopeful that we may have a new opportunity. It wasn't until the end of the year that they officially made Aaron an offer and asked him to relocate and run the Colorado Springs/Denver offices permanently. We felt good about it. We'd had a good feeling about it for quite some time. (And if you know me... that is just crazy that I was excited about this. I hate change. But for some reason it just felt right.) Aaron and I both felt our family needed a change at that time. And a new adventure as a family sounded fun. We love doing outdoor things with the boys and Colorado has so much of that to offer. We took a family vote. We sat around the table and each of us listed the pros and cons. As a family we decided to accept the offer. It has now been 4 months since we accepted that offer. We put our home on the market in february. Our home sold very fast. We were under contract on it after one day on the market. We never expected that to happen. It's a big blessing.... and we are thankful. But it's also brought on more anxiety than I could handle. It has not been easy. There have been 3 house hunting trips over the last several months and we didn't find one we liked enough to buy. The thought of renting and having to move twice has been disappointing. USAA is moving our things for us and it just would have been so much nicer to just move once and let them take care of it. The next move after this rental home - will be on us. More work and expense. Also, with not finding a home to buy that brought on many more worries. Like where do we put the kids in school? And worrying that when we find a home to buy the kids could possibly have to move schools/ward again. I would hate for that to happen. And we have regretted selling before the end of the school year too. We are realizing now just how much harder it makes it for our kids. The are involved in different things in school that they want to finish up. Dallon is really struggling with the move. He is a seventh grader now - will be 13 next month. It's a hard time of life to move. I understand that. He has said that he wishes he never would have voted to move... that it was a big mistake. And we've heard the classic teenager line "you are ruining my life". It's heartbreaking to see him struggle with it. I hope it brings us closer together as a family. I hope we are doing the right thing. I am thankful for the peace and clarity I felt at the time of making the decision, and grateful to have that to fall back on. I hope we have fun discovering new things to do together in our new city. It will be wonderful to have Aaron home with us each evening after work. I am still excited about a new adventure. Really scared, and excited all at the same time. I can't believe it is already time for the move. We are moving this weekend. The Van line will be here wed - friday (21-23) as we pack the boxes and load the truck. We will clean our home when they are done. Then our family will get in the car with our cat spots in tow and make the trip to CO. We will be in CO by sunday, and our things will all be unloaded off the truck and into our rental home on Monday the 26th.
We will most definitely miss this basketball court in our backyard when we move away. The kids play on it daily. Aaron and I feel it was money well spent. They play basketball, ride scooters, draw with sidewalk chalk, play street hockey, etc. And I know they are safe in my own backyard.
Dallon has a really fun group of church friends. They hang out alot at each other's homes. And they have all been having their birthday parties together too. Dallon has been looking forward to having his friends over to our home to hang out and celebrate his birthday. He was bummed when he realized we would be moving before his birthday. So we decided to go ahead and have the birthday party a few weeks early. They played games, ate pizza, and watched a movie. Easton was really into helping decorate for the party. He set the table with those plates several times. He wanted to get it just right! I thought it was so cute... so we left it just how he had it!
My sweet Grandpa Sullivan passed away last saturday, March 17th 2012. He had a long fight with cancer. I am so happy for him to be free from pain and not suffering any longer. I am glad he is reunited with my Grandma in heaven now. What a wonderful reunion that would have been. It makes me tear up just thinking about it. I am so sad he is not here on the earth with us any longer. My heart is so full of love for him. I have cried many tears over the last couple days. I will miss him so much. I am thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is comforting to know that I will see him again someday.
We spent most of our spring break last week at home preparing for the move this week. But one day I took the boys to the Natural Bridge Caverns. We did the tour of the cave which is over an hour long. I wondered if they'd love it or if it would lose their interest? They all loved it! And when the tour of the cave was over we went outside and they did a gem dig. They all loved it so much. They each came home with bags of gems and arrowheads that they had found. They were so happy with their treasures. And they each thanked me repeatedly in the car on the drive home for taking them. Easton has asked me almost every day since if we could please go back to the cave.
These are a couple of his favorite things right now. He loves his Star Wars Squinkies. He calls them "Squishy's". He plays with them, looses them, and then has to find them to play with them all over again. It's a vicious cycle. He also loves learning his letters right now. He wants to be able to write words like his brothers so bad. We try to work on a letter or two each day.
We celebrated Dawson's 9th birthday party at Pump It Up with his closest friends. It was so much fun... and the easiest party I've ever thrown. 
Dallon played a second season of basketball with this coach and team, the Giants! He got lots of playing time, and he improved so much this season too! The team was undefeated! And took first place in the championship game this past weekend. The championship game was so much fun... the boys entered into the gym one by one running thru the fog as their name was announced! I was so happy for Dallon to get to have this experience.
