Another move is in the works!

So almost two years after our relocation to Denver, we are once again moving!  Ryan has been working a detail in Lake Havasu City, AZ for the past few months and was recently offered the permanent position!  It is a great job for him, much more responsibility and things to learn, so it will open doors for even more in the future.  His pay will be essentially the same and rent is much lower there, so it will be much better for our family financially!  The other bonus is Lake Havasu is only a 2.5 hour drive to Las Vegas, so we plan to travel there 1-2 times a month to visit our family and friends there.

The move is bittersweet, we really love Colorado, Austin has a great school here, and we have met many wonderful friends here.  I think since we didn't have family here, our friends became our family, so it makes it that much harder to leave.  However, now that the girls are getting older, it is much easier to travel, so I plan on visiting in the summers.  Actually, I pretty much plan on traveling north for a good portion of the summer as the weather in Lake Havasu is even hotter than Vegas!

Over winter break we were able to travel with Ryan to Lake Havasu to check out the town.  The population is about 50,000.  It is flooded with snowbirds in the winter and college students in the spring.  The downtown is really cute and the London Bridge is also really cool.  Thanks to the tourism industry, there are plenty of decent shops, restaurants, and entertainment options.  There are no track homes like in Vegas or other places.  Every property has a large lot with a custom built home and the garages are often the same size as the house!  There are very few 2-story houses and no side walks in the residential areas.  Oh, and it's completely normal for someone to be driving around town in an off-road, sand buggy type vehicle.  This place is really unlike any other!

I was able to secure a spot for Amilia in a preschool program.  It runs through a daycare, so I can drop her off and pick her up whenever which will be nice because I will likely have to start driving Austin to school, so I can just drop her off right after.  Kindergarten is full-day there, so she can get used to being at school for longer amounts of time and having lunch at school as well.  I was able to get in touch with the gifted program coordinator for their district, so Austin is all set to enroll in their gifted/accelerated learning program which is a full time classroom like he has been doing here.  There is a great park by the lake and an indoor aquatic center, so the kids will enjoy that.

 One of the play areas by the lake

 Lots of walking paths!

Finding shells in the sand!

Our travel date is February 21, so the moving company will pack us up sometime before then.  I've already started going through our stuff and given away many things.  There are plenty of rentals available, mostly 2 and 3 bedroom, so we will have to downsize a little bit and won't have as much storage as our house here.  We are going to rent a vacation home for a week so we have time to look at all the properties and make a final decision.