Saunderberrys

Sunday after church Linn, Dwight, Liberty and Isaiah headed to Iowa City for Isaiah's surgery on his legs. The rest of us became Suanderberry's to help watch the little Saunders Elizabeth and Elijah. We make quite a team! The house is in good order, clothes are clean, babies are clean, everyone is fed and all are happy!! Isaiah's surgery went well, Dwight is now in the hospital for hepatitis and quite ill, so please keep him in prayer! They will make the trip home when he is well. Pray for peace and stamina for Linn as she takes care of everyone there and for safety on their trip home.

We miss you here, but this is what we have been doing.

Graham taught Drew to us the BB gun.

April got in the action too.

Elizabeth just looking cute!

Morning reading in bed with Lori!

A little trip in the car before bed?

OK, to my defense in letting them play outside in their PJs they saw a deer in their yard eating strawberries!

Blueberry pancakes for breakfast.

A little African Drumming.

Happy Kids!

Moving to Durango Colorado

We left this:

We packed up our two moving trucks on May 21st with the help of some awesome friends in Idaho. We spent a short night on the floor of our house, woke up on Friday to finish cleaning and packing the last of the items: plants, cleaning supplies, bedding etc.
Steve was not too sure the rest would fit in. I told him I was awake very early figuring just where everything would go, we'll make it fit!! We drove all day Friday one 26' truck driven by Steve, a 16' truck with trailer to carry Josh's Trouper driven by our son-in-love Vince, the PT driven by Josh, Vince and Lorissa's car driven by Lorissa and last but not least me in our Suburban. You really didn't want to get stuck behind our caravan!!!

Victor now minus 8!

View from behind

We drove all the way to Moab, Utah got to the hotel about 9:30 crashed in bed and awoke at 4:00am in order to arrive in Durango by 9:00am. Driving moving trucks is a slow business! It was worth getting up early to get the great help on the other end unloading all our possessions.

There was a fantastic group of guys who unloaded us in about 2 1/2 hours! Thanks!!

Our destination! Durango Colorado

Lorissa and Vince spent a week with us in Durango and then they headed off to LA. They flew from LA to Washington to load up their possessions and move them to San Diego. A little more moving than they had hoped for. So glad for your help! Thanks guys!

This house is just a rental we will be here until our house in Idaho sells(please pray!) then we will move to a more permanent location. Come for a visit we miss everyone!!

The Good-Byes

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Sports Camp

Drew and Ruth got to participate in Sports Camp put on by several churches in the area and held at our church, The River Church. They spent every evening last week learning about soccer, singing songs, hearing Bible stories and having a great time. There was a great turn out for this VBS, about 150 kids each night. Hey, notice that Drew has no more cast! He has to wear a brace and thankfully he had no incidents while at Camp!! Thanks Erik!

LIFE And JOEL'S GRADUATION

Does life seem to fly by for anyone else?
I was going to post a blog yesterday but I started to download photos and realized that I can't really start from where I am I need to go back and catch you up. Yes, I must be one of those sequential people!!
Steve lost his job on December 30th, he was praying that God would open up a full-time position in a church. Not that easy with our family needs. However, during this time of waiting Steve and I were able to finish off the work on our basement remodel, and move the kids into their new (although temporary) rooms.
Our daughter Lyndsie was set to get married in North Carolina on April 5th. In March I had been madly trying to work on ring pillows, ties, vests and dresses. Just when we think that maybe God was NOT going to open up a pastoring position we hear that our friends who pastor in Colorado are losing much of their pastoral staff to various other things! Hummm! So, Steve lets them know that we are interested if they would consider us. After a couple of calls and a "lets get you out here", which we said we could do after the wedding, we got another call, "Can you come tomorrow?" Uh yeah, sure we're not really doing anything at all!!! Thankfully I really was almost done with my sewing, two vests and two ties left to do, so the weekend(Saturday) before we were to leave to drive to Asheville, NC we took a 12 hour drive to Durango, CO! We went to church on Sunday, their mission Sunday, and I could tell Steve was back in his calling! We talked, drove around the area and talked some more, by Tuesday we were headed 12 hours back home.
Wednesday morning it's back to sewing and packing for a four day drive to NC. Lorissa and Vince were staying with us, so we loaded up both cars. We left on Monday arrived on Thursday, rehersal on Saturday, wedding on Sunday, a little more time with friends and family, left to drive home on Wednesday arrive home on Friday. Is anyone tired yet, I know I am!! Had a fantastic time with family at the wedding, nice to have everyone together.
By the way we decided to take the position that was offered in Durango, so before we left for the wedding we put the house on the market with friends of ours. So, not only did we pack but we also moved furniture and took down family photos and made the house look its best as realtors would take photos while we were gone!
When we got home it was packing for three weeks then off to Joel's graduation. And why not throw in another trip to Durango on the way to LA to look at a rental house! That only adds 12 hours to the trip, spend a couple hours looking and 12 more hours to San Dimas - are we crazy? DON'T answer that! Many of you have been telling us that for years!


Our son on the "Big Screen", at Angeles Temple

He was ready to grab that diploma, before they change their minds! 
Proud parents
At Ryan and Abby's house to celebrate Mother's Day and Joel's Graduation.

Ryan, Abby, Steve, Joel, Emily, Lori, Lorissa, Vince

Spring in the Mountains and Broken Arms

PRETTY SURE THIS IS A CASE OF SPRING FEVER

MONDAY
We went to bed last night with the snow still coming down!! YES, I said snow. Some of you don't understand that with temperatures still in the 70s and 80s but around here Spring often comes with more snow.

FRIDAY
OK, that line was written on Monday of this week right before our friends came over with dinner!! From there I never got the computer back again, you have to wait in a long line around here!! Ever since Monday the skies have been spitting snow, rain, hail or something in between. Which is probably why Wednesday night's accident happened, Yes, Spring Fever that's what I'm calling it.

WEDNESDAY

Just finished dinner and we hear some yelling downstairs not so unusual in a house full of kids. Up the stairs comes Steven carrying his little brother, Drew, trying to calm him down he carries him to me. I'm looking all over for blood, don't see anything, so now I'm looking at Steven and asking what happened and what's wrong with him. I realize later that he is trying to tell me with his eyes so that he doesn't alarm his little brother as to how bad he thinks it is. However, I'm getting slightly annoyed because I don't get what he's silently telling me. Finally, he says look at his arm, OH, now I get it! Looks broken for sure!

I sit down and try to calm him now that he knows what it is, thanks to my dullness. I try to put him in a position that won't hurt while everyone else scrambles around to get our shoes and coats and a little pain killer! We head to the hospital trying to keep his arm still over the bumps, OUCH! I can tell he is getting more and more worried about the broken arm and the hospital so I make a call to his big brothers in California. Getting them on the line I tell them what is going on and tell them their little buddy needs a bit of distraction to get him to the hospital! Bless them they talked to him the whole way and by the time he got to the hospital he was so brave!! Thanks Jason and Ryan, you saved the day!!

He broke both bones in his arm! Ends up they were climbing on the back of the couch with Steven pushing them off! He slipped or was pushed(?) and came down catching his fall with his hand. The arm was ex-rayed and splinted and we were sent home. Next day we call the clinic and they tell us to come in to cast it about 1:30. We sit in the room for awhile and then she tells us that we will have to see an orthopedic MD and theirs is out of town for seven more days and Drew  can't wait that long in a splint!! OK! We have to go over the mountain to Wilson the next day. Seems like a good Doctor knows his stuff, Drew's ex-ray looks good, won't have to be manipulated to set it, YES! What color does Drew pick for his cast? Well see for yourself. We have one very secure boy yes- sirree.

Lyndsie & David's wedding

Just for all of you who couldn't be at the wedding! I will have a slideshow up on my blog in the next week with even more pictures... but for now, here's for you Aunt Rod! ;)

~Abi