Our Last Week in Utah

So, since I knew you were wondering, this is what we've been up to since we talked last.

Our last week in Utah

Friday: We began our packing for real. I'm so glad I started that early because it took so long and other things kept coming up. I spent 8 hours just packing up the kitchen! The kids went over to Nana and Papas for a few hours and we were able to both get work done without one of us having to stop to tend a child every few minutes. It was glorious. We also took a break and went on our last date in Utah to Cafe Rio. It too was glorious.

I shouldn't complain about the kids too much. They were a big help with the disassemble.

Saturday: We packed as much as we could in the morning and then went to Hannah's friend Xay's 2nd birthday party in the afternoon. I can't believe he's 2 already!

There was a pinata. Xay sure does know how to throw a party! Maybe his mom helped a little too, awesome lady that she is.

We left the party, ran a couple of errands and then met back up with Chad, Ashley and Stephanie for our last drive-in in Utah. We saw Captain America and Harry Potter, and I slept through parts of both of them. I'm getting too old for to be out that late.

Sunday: Morning was a little bit of a waste after being out until 1 in the morning, so we just did our best to get up, get everyone fed, and leave for church by 1. I also had a lesson I had to prepare for Relief Society. I'd been asked a few days before to substitute for the woman who was supposed to give the lesson. I was excited to do it, but I was also worried about it because it was such a busy week already. The girl who asked me to do it said she had someone else she could ask and gave me a timeframe to let her know if I couldn't do it. I thought about telling her I couldn't do it, but then I was running around so crazily that I kept forgetting to call. I was too busy to tell her I was too busy to do the lesson so I ended up doing it anyway. It was just what I needed though. The week before I'd been a basket case at church, I was spending the entire 3 hours wiping away tears. This week I was so nervous about having to teach that I didn't have time to cry. Before I went to give my lesson Devan said, "And you can even do a good job, because they can never ask you to teach again!"

At church we announced that we had to get rid of all the food in our standing freezer so we could defrost it, so we had a bunch of people come over after church to take it off our hands. That was another sad thing about moving with so little notice, we had to get rid of A LOT of food. I put it all out on the counter and 7 or 8 families came over and filled up grocery bags. There was probably 30 pounds of meat, and 20 different bags of fruits and vegetables and 15 fully-cooked freezer meals I'd made. I was so sad to get rid of all that food, but I was glad that our friends were going to be able to use it.

Sunday night we had a Bar-B-Que at the park with Devan's family. I was so nice to be able to sit and talk and say goodbye and I'm glad Hannah had a chance to play with her cousins one last time.

Ben with Uncle Jordan

Nana

Auntie Colie

Ben with a cup

Monday: We packed and ran errands and then that evening some of our friends had a BBQ to say goodbye. It was so much fun!

Sudweeks

Steeles

Rasmussens

Grillmaster Fish

and Mrs. Fish

Not pictured are the Edwards and the Moores, but they were there and it was great. It nearly broke my heart to say goodbye at the end of the night, but I'm happy we got to take a break from all the craziness and have some fun.

Tuesday: Loading day. It was a crazy, crazy day because we decided that morning to find a different apartment than the one we were planning to move into. We'd been told by a few people that the area that we were going to be moving to wasn't a very good area, but then Monday night my mom called and said she'd talked to her cop friend and he said that it was the worst area we could move to. So, instead of finishing my packing, I spent 5 hours on the phone Tuesday morning researching and applying for a new apartment. It worked out and we got into a nice place, but I wanted to kill myself while it was going on.

Wednesday: We cleaned all day. The kids helped.

We cleaned and loaded the cars and ran errands right up until the minute Devan had to go to school that evening. Then the kids were kind enough to fall asleep so I could get some last minute paperwork done that comes when you decide to move into an apartment with 48 hours notice. I visited a couple of friends and was ready to drive off when Devan got home at 7:00.

Even today, a week and a half later, I can't look at these pictures of our empty home without wanting to cry just a little.

I made it a whole 200 miles out of town before I had to stop for the night or die. It seemed like a bit of a waste to pay for a hotel that close to home, but it probably helped to get a few miles behind us Wednesday night.

Moving Blues

I'm having a hard time deciding how to spend my last week in Utah. I'm so sad to be leaving and so I want to do all the fun things we can before we leave. Then there's so much packing and sorting to do and I've barely started. I'm determined to have an organized move this time and not roll into Washington with a truck full of boxes labeled "miscellaneous" and "stuff." Trying to pack during the day when I'm alone with the kids is kind of a lesson in futility. I'm sure that for every item I put in a box, they'd be in another room pulling two things out. Then there's all the paperwork involved in moving. I've spent hours over the last couple of days on the phone. Canceling our gas and electric, transferring power to our new house, finding out who the power company is at our new house. Finding out how to cancel or transfer my gym and zoo memberships. Transferring internet. Finding someone  in Washington to catch my baby for me in 8 weeks. Getting a refund from my old midwife and getting a copy of my medical records. Applying for, signing a lease on, and sending in a deposit and first month's rent for a duplex I've never seen. Changing my address with everyone and their dog that we've ever done business with. I have to go to the library and return some books before they send me to collections. I have to somehow use up or give away the 3 weeks of food I have in my standing freezer. Then defrost said standing freezer. Meanwhile, diapers still need to be changed, meals need to be made, dishes need to be done, ground up crackers need to be vacuumed off the floor. Playdates need to be kept since in 6 more days Hannah won't have a single friend in the world. We need to deep clean this apartment and unclog our toilet that we've been ignoring for 6 months. Our car hasn't started without having the battery jumped for about a week, so we need to figure that out before driving it 850 miles. I want to let Hannah play with her friends as much as possible and I want to play with my friends as much as possible. I want to spend time with girlfriends and couple friends and family. I want to go on a date with my husband before we arrive in Washington on Thursday night and he starts work on Saturday morning. I want to have some fun family experiences for us to remember Utah by. I want to go camping one last time. And ice skating.

But with all that bouncing around in my head, if you asked me any minute of the day what I really want to do right then, I'd say go to bed.

I know that I'm not going to be able to do everything I want to do before we leave and the the things I do get done I probably won't do as well as I'd like to. I'm going to do what I can and try not to leave with any regrets. Meanwhile, I'm counting the days until I feel settled again.

Here are some of the things we've been doing as we attempt to say goodbye to our home.

Tuesday I took the kids swimming during the day. I've missed swimming so much this summer, but I never figured out how to take 3 kids swimming by myself, especially when Ben and Rebecca were both so young. Monday was our first day without Rebecca so we've been taking advantage of the pool while we can.

Hananh waiting "patiently" for me and Ben to get in the pool.

Hannah crying when it was time to go home.

Ben didn't mind going home. He had whale squirt guns!

 

Yesterday we went to our weekly playgroup at the playground at our apartment complex. That's one of the biggest things I'm going to miss when we move. At one point I think there were 8 young moms with their kids. Never again in my life will I be in a situation where I can walk outside my home and have so many friends for my kids and myself. Oh how I love it here!

Ben does such a great job when we go to the park. At that age Hannah would have wanted me to follow her around and play with her, but Ben goes right up to where the other kids are and plays.

Last night I went to a craft night a friend put on. We made these beautiful temple pictures. You could pick any temple you want and then we painted the frames and antiqued the pictures ourselves. I love the way it turned out. I'm waiting until we get into our new house to hang it, but I'm glad I got to make one before we left Utah.

This morning first thing when we woke up we went to the zoo. It gets into the 90s in the middle of the day and pregnant Alex gets MEAN in the heat, so we don't go out much during the day. But last night before bed I decided we'd go first thing in the morning and hopefully miss a little bit of the heat. We got there a little before 10, which was later than I wanted to go, but it was still fun.

We started at the playground, which we'd missed last time we were at the zoo. 

I love this picture because both Hannah and the little chipmunk are eating their little snacks and watching each other.

There wasn't even anything in this cage, but Ben got really excited. It was so cute!

Hannah said, "This gorilla is mean. He's making a face like this..."

This was about the end of our trip to the zoo. Even with a leash Hannah was having a hard time staying with us and Ben was too hot and needed a nap.

We've had a really fun week despite the stress of moving. It's been so nice to be able to go out during the day with just my own two kids. I'm going to try to enjoy only having to take out two kids while I can.

Draper Temple

Last night, for family home evening, we decided to take one last trip to "our" temple in Draper. Temples aren't open on Mondays so the gates were closed, but we had fun walking around and playing a little on the outer grounds. 

I wanted a nice picture of Ben and Hannah together by the flowers. Right before I took it, Devan took out Ben's binky and Ben threw a fit. He's so dramatic. When something doesn't go his way he puts his head on the ground and cries. It makes me laugh every time.  

This is the best we were able to get of the two of them. Ben still has tears in his eyes.

Hannah kept getting in time out for trying to run away into the street. She's in time out for real here, but the look is totally staged. Devan told her to "hang her head in shame."

Ben and Hannah made a friend.

And Dad tried to take a nap.

Hannah spent about a half hour "balancing" next to these little gardens.

Ben tried his best to keep up

We had such a nice evening. While we were there I realized that it had been almost exactly a year since we'd taken the kids to visit the Draper Temple. I just looked back at our pictures from last year. Click here to see them. I can't believe how little they were back then.