Moving to the Desert

At the end of July we finished building and moved into our first house in Herriman Utah, just 2 weeks before little miss joined our family.  As soon as we felt settled, life decided to change some things up on us.  Davis had graduated and started working for UVU instructing students.  We built a house in Herriman and planned on staying there for about 5 years at least.  Peyton was born happy and healthy and started growing faster then we had ever expected.  Life was so good to us and we were happy with all of the big changes.  Little did we know that the biggest change hadn't come yet.  UVU only allowed their instructors to work part time and so Dave was working at UVU and then working for another company the other time.  Dave wasn't building hours as fast as we would have hoped due to scheduling, weather and other factors which was frustrating at times but we decided that eventually we would get to the airlines.  Right after New Years we found out that Dave was laid off from his 2nd part time job.  At the time we of course felt panic and frustration.  We needed the money that job brought in and we immediately started looking into other options. Dave decided to contact a guy that he trained with at UVU that worked for a company called Transpac Aviation in Phoenix, AZ.  He told Dave that they were hiring and that he should apply.  He also told us that on average instructors build around 1,000 hours a year which is what Dave had left.  To give you an idea, Dave had been with UVU for 8 months and had built around 170 hours.  The decision was easy.  I don't think we ever thought twice about it.  We both felt that it was the right decision from the beginning.  We applied and Dave had a phone interview with the company in January.  They told him that they would like to meet with him in person and we came down to Phoenix in February.  He found out a week later that he got the job!  It was so exciting and so stressful all at the same time!  Here we had this brand new house that we now had to figure out what to do with.  We had a month to get everything taken care of and be down to Arizona.  The thing I struggled with the most, and still do, is taking little miss away from cousins, uncles, aunts and grandparents.  I hated that we had to do that in order for this to happen.  As it always does, things fell into place.  We were able to get the place in Phoenix that we wanted.  We were able to rent out our house.  And thanks to all our family and friends we were able to get everything packed up and moved down to Phoenix just in time for Dave to start at Transpac.  It is such a weird thing being away from home.  I went to UVU and lived in Orem Utah while I was going to college which was 30 minutes from home.  I think the longest I have gone without seeing my family is 2 weeks maybe?  I am a homebody and I love being around family!  I told Dave that he was to never move me outside of Utah.  I have never had any desire to leave Utah or my family.  For some reason I have felt so excited about moving to Phoenix this entire time.  I was never dreading it or angry that we had to leave.  I felt sad that we had to move away from family, but I was OK with it.  My family helped us move down here and I took them to the airport yesterday.  That was tough saying goodbye but I knew that it would be OK.  I don't know if it is because I know that once Dave is finished with his hours that we will move back to Utah or if because I know this will be such a huge growing experience for me and so good for our little family but I am so excited for this amazing opportunity that we have been given!  I know that I will get homesick and that I will miss the holidays and family parties but I know that it will all be worth it.  It will be such a fun little adventure for us and I know I will learn so much from it.  I am so glad to have the technology that we do and that there is social media, texting, skype to help keep in touch with family and friends.  I am also so thankful for the church.  It is so reassuring to know you will have that family and be able to meet people through the ward.  It helps make moving to a place where you don't know anyone so much easier because you know you will have your ward family that you can turn to and rely on.  I know we will miss everyone like crazy and I know they will miss us too . . . mostly Peyton. . . but we are so excited for this next adventure!