Yuma Happenings...and other trips

Well folks, we are nearing the end of our time in Yuma, Arizona. We hit the road in less than 4 weeks to head home to Colorado Springs and Gunnison, CO for a week.  The #1 question we are asked by family and friends currently is: Where do you go next? Our answer: We don't know!

Looking west towards Yuma after hiking to the summit of one of the desert mountains

Flexibility is one of the important pieces of travel nursing that I talked about in previous posts. You must be flexible or learn pretty fast how to be a flexible person (or at least become okay with being flexible and not let is cause you any stress). I guess the parentheses is the definition of becoming a flexible person. Hospitals often post their needs for a travel nurse about 4 weeks in advance. Needs for a travel job can be known earlier but 4 weeks notice is very normal. We are now 5 weeks out from when Caleb will start his next contract so it's only the beginning of seeing jobs open up where we want to go next.

Our first thoughts are we would love for Caleb to get a travel contract near Greenville, SC. He has a couple applications in at a Greenville hospital, and his travel recruiter is keeping her eyes open for other jobs opening around Greenville/Spartanburg area. We would love to be near family and friends for 13 weeks.

Some other places we are putting applications in which we would be excited to live are one in Idaho, one in Montana, and three in Hawaii. We trust God has perfect plans and already knows where he plans for us to be. We can relax and rest in knowing that in the right time we will find out where Caleb's next contract will start April 18th. Until then we have some more fun coming up while we are in Yuma. Caleb's brother, Nathan, flies into Phoenix next week. He will be on his spring break and decided to come visit us! We will go to Grand Canyon with him and also to San Diego for a day at the beach and maybe some ocean kayaking. He'll get to spend a little bit of time in Yuma with us and maybe even get out for a desert mountain hike.

We are excited he is coming for a visit! It's been fun to take advantage of seeing other family and friends within driving distance from Yuma.

Looking down towards a beach in Dana Point, CA

One weekend in February I drove to Orange County California for an exciting event while Caleb stayed in Yuma for work.  I had the greatest fun being a part of a friend's special day. The day my friend Amanda got engaged! Her fiance Nathan had a romantic surprise plan worked out and it turned out beautifully. Amanda's sister also lives in Yuma so her and I drove out together for the big day. Congratulations Amanda & Nathan! Praying that God has his hand of protection on Nathan while he's deployed and praying that God encourages and grows you both during your months apart. How exciting to have a wedding day to plan for when he returns home!
The next day Amanda and Nathan took us to the beach for a little bit. It was pretty chilly with the wind so we didn't stay out too long to soak up sun. I was still glad we went over to the beach and I got to hear and look out over the ocean. It's always relaxing being near the ocean.

I'm looking forward to seeing if it's any warmer when we head to San Diego for a beach day next week. If it's not warm for sun bathing, it'll be beautiful to walk on the beach and enjoy listening to the ocean at least.

The next weekend Caleb and I made a trip towards Phoenix again to visit my aunt and uncle. We were able to visit my cousins Martha and Steve too who were in Sun City on vacation. We picked more grapefruit, lemons, and oranges from their trees. We came home with even more this time around!

We played a game of putt-putt in the hot sun and afterwards enjoyed a dip in their community pool to cool off. Uncle Steve cooked dinner both nights for us and we thought that was such a treat to have his cooking. He made a very tasty pot roast using carrots from my other cousin's garden one evening. We enjoyed some sweet potatoes also from our cousin's garden with another meal.

One of the reasons I was excited to come to Yuma was being close to California for the beach and visiting with Amanda again and also being close to family we have in the Phoenix/Sun City area. It's been great that it's worked out to visit these places. Caleb's joke has been there isn't too many exciting things in Yuma to do except for Phoenix, San Diego, Tucson... These places are all over 2.5 hours away from Yuma! We have enjoyed a couple desert hikes while here and hope to get in another one with Nathan.

More to come from our trip to Grand Canyon (6 hours from Yuma) and San Diego next weekend.