Surprise! Hot Air Balloon Goodbye

Today is moving day. Sigh. We were scheduled to start the journey at 6am but 2 days ago I contacted my friend Jim Desch who is a hot air balloon pilot. I have crewed with him since my first summer here in 1997. The crew all work for free and get paid with flights. 

I have enjoyed giving many of my flights to people I love over the years and that has given me great joy. The last 2 1/2 years (since my shoulder surgery) I haven't really been able to so much. My shoulder can't handle it. 

Kynzi and Karston have always wanted to go up since they were little. You can't really go up as a little kid. Well Karston turned 13 and Kynzi is about to turn 15. I had forgotten in all of my summer craziness and was just going to get together with Jim the other day but it didn't work out. 

So I asked if we could squeeze Kynzi and Karston in with some others and he said we could fill it as a gift to me. So I got Hannah, Meesh and Jenga up (Jenga moves on Friday). 

I woke up the kids and told them we were going to do an early morning breakfast before we left for Cali. "Breakfast" was the balloon ride. What a fun surprise. Only Hannah knew she was going up. Jenga and Meesh thought they were crewing. Love those moments! 

Enjoy some video and pics from the morning below. 

http://youtu.be/QQGMr9RjFF0

Packing with some great friends!

Let's be honest; there isn't much fun about packing your home. The one thing that I find joy in it is being with my friends. The downside is you know they are coming because they're saying goodbye.

We had a party, of sorts, as we loaded up the pods. With Josh and Steve at the helm of packing the rest of us brought out everything relatively unscathed. 

This stuff is hard. I don't like saying goodbye (or see ya later for those who really don't like goodbye). I do like the idea of moving to a place where people will want to come visit. I hope they truly do. 

There are so many memories tied to this place and these people it's crazy as the memories have been flooding back over the past couple of weeks. So much joy has been filling my heart as I have been filing through the memories. As my heart fills up the tears have been spilling out. So many tears. I could say I don't normally cry much, but let's be honest...that would be a lie. 

I plan to update you on Cali life here more often than I have been updating. Join me in the journey. You can even "subscribe" by putting your email in on the right side of this blog. The. You will get an email when I post something new. If you would like that. 

The $10 Pizza Hut deal is pretty sweet!

We are moving so we got stuff to sell

Instead of posting one thing to Facebook and Twitter at a time I thought I would find a spot to put everything. We have a bunch of stuff and if there something that fits your fancy let me know.

Flags are $25 each or $40 for both. 

LPS sold

Djembe sold