Sunday Morning

Sunday morning our family got up and it was a typical winter day in Scottsdale. Absolutely stunningly beautiful. I don’t want to make you guys mad or anything but it was just gorgeous. I said to the kids, “How about we all walk to Starbucks?” There was no complaining from anyone. McK had a friend sleep over and she came along, and then we stopped to pick up another one of her friends. AJ and Luke grabbed their longboards (do you guys know what those are? They’re just like skateboards, but more moveable), and then one of AJ’s friends came too. We had a whole posse with us.

We walked along to Starbucks and on our way we can see the mountains and blue sky and the white clouds. Before we moved to the dessert, I never thought of a place like this having so much beauty and color. I always thought it was going to be brown, brown, brown. Some days I will leave a store and see the mountains in the background and palm trees in the forefront, and think to myself, “Holy Cow, I get to live here?” 

It was just really nice to walk with the fam, and spend some time with them. The weeks are so busy with basketball (two boys who are on three teams – do that math!), art class, car pools, friends, babysitting, Mr. Manic’s work schedule, and other obligations, it seems like we never get family time together. 

Plus, it is really nice to see that finally, FINALLY, we feel at home here. All of our kids have great groups of friends, we feel like if we need to, we have neighbors we can call on if we’re in a bind. It’s certainly not like our old neighborhood, but every day gets better and easier. We’re in a really good place. I could look back a year and a half at some of the posts I wrote when we first lived here, and when the kids first went to school, and how much we all cried and cried, and how much we missed our Chicago home. We’ve come a long way. And we’ve done that because of the strength we have as a family. 

When we got to Starbucks, I said to our group, “You know, I think I could really live anywhere as long as I lived close enough to walk to a Starbucks.” And AJ’s buddy finished my sentence perfectly by saying … “In January!”

Yep, I would have to be able to walk to Starbucks in January. I don’t think I could go back to freezing cold weather. I’m too much of a wimp now. But we all had a good laugh at that. The boys then skated home and we girls sat outside with our drinks and enjoyed the sun on our faces.

It’s nice to be with family and friends, and on the way back, I called my best friend from home, because even though I live here now, I still have my close friends from home, and I’ll never forget them. 

When we got back, McK said we should do that every Sunday. And I liked that idea. I wish we had all the time to do lots more things together. Are there things you and your family do together that have become something of a tradition to you?

I’m sharing this story as part of a FreshTakes on Family Time, and if you’d like to go to their site and share yours, you can win a $50 gift card and a chance to be featured on their site. Some of the stories are really amazing, like the one about this amazing family – the dad is blind yet they find ways to go on family adventures all of the time. It’s truly inspirational.

Thanks for taking the time to read, and I’ll be back later this week with a winner for MWF Seeking BFF, and then next week I’ll have another book for you to win!

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