Back to Utah

On Tuesday, August 24th we drove to Utah for a last minute “one last summer vacation” trip.  I say last minute because we weren’t even planning on going until 2 nights before.  John and Kristen (who had lived with my parents all summer) were driving their stuff back to Utah and were planning on spending the night with us on Monday night.  My mom, Ashley, and Michael were flying there on Monday, so they were going to be there all week as well.  I wasn’t even thinking about going until Sunday night when Dan said, “Hey, why don’t we go to Utah too?”  “Yeah!  We should!”  I said, when I realized we COULD go.  Dan had the whole week off because this first month of work he is working one week on, then one week off – working the same schedule as the doctor he’s taking over for.  We did have to take Annie out of school, but hey, it’s just kindergarten, right?  I’m pretty sure she already knows what a circle is.  So, John and Kristen stayed with us Monday night, and then bright and early Tuesday morning we both pulled out of our driveway and headed to Utah!

It was so fun helping them move into their Wymount apartment and seeing their set up.  They got a great little spot.

I also helped Ash get all moved in and organized into her Liberty Square apartment.  She’s living there with Allison and Andrea (cousins) so it was fun to be able to see their place.  Bummer I didn’t get a picture of Ash moving in! 

We stayed at the Brinton’s with my mom and Michael, so of course it was fun just hanging out at their house!  Their house is the perfect place to just hang out and relax. 

Andi, Mom, Ash, me, Monica, and Kim with the 3 babies, Drew, James, and Noah.

We also got to see these guys while we were there!!  I posted something on my Facebook account about us taking a last minute trip to Utah, and a few hours later Kristie called me and said, “Are you guys really coming here this week?  Because we’re here!”  We were so excited.  Our girls couldn’t wait to see Cohen and Chloe.  We took them to Trafalga Lehi and played there for awhile . . . . it’s so nice to be able to do all this stuff for free!!  Thanks Brintons:)

         

And of course some pictures from the Trafalga in Orem.  No trip to Utah is complete without some arcade games, dippin dots, stacks of tickets, and picking out some cheap prize from behind the counter.  The kids love it.  And so does Michael:)

We also went out to dinner (Cafe Rio) with our good friends, Brandon and Sara Hicks, who recently moved to Salt Lake from Ohio.  It was so fun to see them again as well.  And then the rest of the week we spent just doing our usual Utah stuff – buying new t-shirts at the BYU Bookstore, dinner at Brick Oven, shopping at University Mall, going to Seven Peaks, etc. (Although 7 peaks was a total bust this time – we went during the one afternoon that it was rainy and stormy.  We went down one slide, and then went home. haha.)   Dan got to go golfing Saturday with Scott, Amy, and Chris, and then we all went out to dinner at Cafe Rio and then went back to the Brinton’s to shoot some pool and play foosball.  We drove back to Reno on Saturday night.  We didn’t leave until 7 pm (which is a little later than we would have liked) and got home at 1:30 am Reno time.  Not too bad at all.  We’re just happy to be living in the west now so last minute trips to Utah like this are now possible.  It was so fun, and I’m glad we went.  We always have so much fun in Utah . . . . and now we can just go whenever we want! 

Time for a haircut

Can you believe this little guy is 5 months old today?  I can’t!  He seems to really be growing up these past few weeks.  Especially since we gave him his first haircut last night!  But he desperately needed it.  He had this thick little patch of hair right on the top of his head that was starting to really stand out and look kind of funny.  Poor guy.  We probably should have cut it before now.

Doesn’t he look good?  haha . . . he looks a little more bald, but at least this way it will hopefully grow in more even.

Utah Fun

Here are a few pictures from our time in Utah.  On Saturday, May 29th, we headed up to the Ogden train museum with David, Scott, Elisha, and kids.  Outside of the museum they have all these old trains just waiting for people to explore and climb all over them.  I thought it was kind of funny how they had no rules or safety regulations when it came to climbing on the trains.  You could pretty much do whatever you wanted on them . . . . and we did.     

Then on Tuesday, June 1st, (after Dan had driven our moving truck to Reno and flew back to us in Utah) we headed on down to Provo to spend a few days there.  We stopped at Temple Square on the way down, walked around, went to the Church History Museum, and took some pictures. 

 

Down in Provo, we stayed at Bryan and Andi’s house.  It was so fun to see their new house and spend time with them and Hailey and their new baby, Drew.  On Wednesday we went to Seven Peaks with them an hour before it opened to the public.  Have you ever had a whole water park to yourselves?  Well . . . . I highly recommend it:)    

Bryan and Dan took advantage of a completely empty wave pool and did some surfing!  haha. . . .    

Then on Thursday they took us to their newly acquired Liberty Land.  This old ghetto Frog Hopper ride looked harmless, but man, did it get your stomach!  It was so rickety, I thought it was going to hop right off the track!  I’ve been on a ride like this before, and it was really smooth and gentle, but this was just the opposite . . .  

Thanks Bryan and Andi for letting us stay with you guys and for the fun week!!!!

Moving

I know this happened awhile ago now, but I still wanted to post these pictures and get this all in here. 

So, the big moving day finally came.  We packed the truck up on Monday evening (a huge thank you to all of our friends who came to help) and that night Dan’s dad flew in.  Then, on Tuesday morning, May 25th, we had our final check out with our landlord, said some last tearful good-byes to friends, and loaded up our van with all the last minute random things that hadn’t made it onto the truck.  David left a few hours before we did, since he had to take it a little slower with the truck.  We locked up the house, got all situated in the van, and started the engine, when all of a sudden Annie just burst into sobs.  Fighting back tears of my own, I asked, “Annie, what’s the matter?”  “I never said good-bye to my room!” she cried.  So, of course we had to get the girls out of the car and take them back into the house so that they could say good-bye to their rooms.  Actually, Dan just took them back in the house.  I don’t think I would have made it.  We finally pulled out of our driveway and I don’t think my tears stopped for a good half hour.  And as we drove away I couldn’t help but think about a day 3 years ago, a few days after we had moved to Ohio, and how I had cried that day too.  I had my moving “break down.”   But those tears had been tears of sadness and uncertainty.  And as we drove further and further away, I thought about how wrong I had been about Ohio.  We were really happy there, and I know we will forever love Ohio.

But, on with story.  The first day we drove to Nauvoo.  We arrived Tuesday evening with just enough time to tour Carthage Jail, which is actually about 30 minutes away from Nauvoo. It was so moving to see the place where Joseph and Hyrum were killed.   The original door is still there so you can see the actual hole where the bullet went through the door and killed Hyrum.  There is such a special spirit there, and I’m so glad we stopped here.

Wednesday morning we woke up in our hotel room, packed up the car again, and drove a few minutes to Nauvoo.  We had planned on only spending a few hours there, but we ended up staying until 2:30, and still felt like there was so much we didn’t get to see.  The temple was beautiful, of course, and the town was so interesting.  We took an hour wagon tour that took us all around the town, and then we drove around in our car as well.  So many fun things to see and do.  My favorite part was how all the older missionary couples were dressed up as pioneers and would come to the doors of the shops and wave and yell, “Hello!  Welcome to Nauvoo!” as our horse drawn wagon went by.  I really felt like I was in the olden days.  The highlight for Dan was visiting the house that his great great great grandfather, Joseph Bates Noble, lived in.  He and his dad signed a book (like a guest log) specifically for his posterity and found names of other family members who had previously visited the house.  Pretty cool.  

I love all the women statues at the Visitor’s Center.  We had fun trying to recreate some of the poses!      

We are so glad David was with us for this drive across the country.  Not only was it so fun to have him with us, but we are so grateful for his willingness to drive our truck.  He claims it was fun for him, but I don’t know . . . . The truck ended up breaking down on him 3 times, causing him to be stranded in the middle of Wyoming, having to spend another night in a hotel room (we had gone on to Utah already), AND he had to hitch-hike in the middle of who knows where for who knows how long . . . . it’s an understatement to say that our truck caused us some headaches.  But we finally all made it to Utah all safe and sound.  We spent the weekend in Kaysville at Scott and Elisha’s house and Dan drove the truck the rest of the way to Reno by himself on Sunday.  Luckily, after breaking down about a block away from Scott’s house, the truck gave Dan no further trouble and we could finally be done with it!  Dan unloaded our truck into the garage of our new house on Monday morning (May 31 – Memorial Day) with the help of about 25 guys from our new ward.  What a blessing the church is!  Dan said things were just flying off the truck so fast.  Then that afternoon, the kids and I picked him up from the Salt Lake airport just in time to get back to Scott and Elisha’s for a Memorial Day BBQ.  The end.