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.