Saunders Excellent Adventures: Phoenix

We got home from Las Vegas -- via Utah -- on November 4th,

Jon's birthday.

This was the fortune Jon got in his cookie at Mongolian Grill.

On November 9th we flew to Phoenix, Arizona.

We had a purpose in mind.

After our whirlwind year, one day in August we were talking about what the next step in our lives would be....we had thought about accepting a job in Connecticut (twice) and thought about accepting a job in Switzerland for a couple of years....but that didn't happen.

We were living in limbo -- in an apartment that was okay (except I don't think I really cooked in the ten months we lived there) -- with neighbors we couldn't stand, who'd been making our lives pretty miserable.....

And we were thinking out loud about maybe going somewhere we could afford to purchase a home. Several places came up, Arizona was one of them. We dismissed it....and didn't think about it for awhile -- then one day, while "surfing" for airfare....I found cheap tickets to Arizona. So we bought tickets and decided to come visit -- see if we liked it.

Our niece, Tisha, suggested a Realtor we could work with, "Just in case."

Jon waiting at the airport....

Kyle -- eating his fries while we waited for our flight.

We got to Phoenix, rented a vehicle, and met our nephew, Ryan, and his wife, Tisha for dinner!

We were late!

But we made it and they waited for us.

We had a great time and then headed for our hotel in Mesa.

We had only four days in Phoenix.

We started by looking at homes in Surprise!

We had several that we wanted to see, but none of them felt right. So we listened to Ryan and Tisha, Elder Webb, and our realtor, Kim,

and decided that Monday, we'd look in San Tan Valley.

After spending the day in Surprise....we visited the Mesa Temple

It's beautiful!

They were getting the lights put up for Christmas!

Hooray!

I LOVE Christmas!

Loved this picture of Kyle!

He was holding his hand out to Jon so he would come be in the picture with him -- what a great invitation!

Me and Kyle

That was on Sunday....

Monday, November 11th

We headed to San Tan Valley to look at some homes that we'd seen online.

We found one that we LOVED!

We put an offer on it.

BUT -- they accepted a cash offer instead.

We were so disappointed.

So, we went to visit Ryan and Tisha,

that lifted our spirits!

Kyle holding Lindi

Kyle, Lindi, Tisha and Kylee!

Kyle had fun playing in the backyard!

That night we went to dinner at Red Lobster.

It was yummy!

Tuesday, November 12th

This was our last day -- our plane left at 8 p.m.

We didn't know what would happen, but felt very strongly that this is where we should be.

Kim called and told us that she had a house she wanted us to see....so we headed down the road....it was about 20 minutes to where we needed to meet Kim.

Before we left, we prayed.

We prayed and asked, that if we were supposed to move here.....that we would be able to find a house this day -- and be able to see it first hand before we left for home.

Five minutes after we were headed to see the house Kim had for us to look at, she called and said that an offer had just been accepted. We were disappointed, but kept heading that direction anyway. We figured we could visit with Ryan and Tisha for a little while before heading to the airport.

About five minutes later, Kim called back and said, "I have another house I want you to see. It's 98% re-modeled and isn't on the market yet, but they said we could go see it."

So we did. There was still work going on inside, but we looked around. Liked what we saw and rushed to Kim's house to write an offer.

Then we waited.

We would have our answer by 11 a.m. the next day.

The offer was accepted on November 13th, 2013.

We are buying a house!