Our move

This is currently what my living room looks like. The sad thing is that it was pretty much cleared out yesterday and then we brought the last truck load from storage a couple of hours ago.

We have had a busy, fun week. We spent Sunday night at my mom's house and then headed out of Puyallup with my dad at about 9 on Monday morning. It was really hard to say all our goodbyes. We decided ahead of time we were only going to get as far as Boise and then spend the night, so we made it a pretty leisurely trip. We stopped at the fruit stand next to Ellensberg and I discovered donught peaches, so then we had to stop at another fruit stand in Yakima so I could buy a couple more pounds. They were so delicous. I ate peaches at every single meal until Thursday.

We got a late start on Tuesday and didn't get to our apartment until about 5. We got the lease signed and the cars unpacked and then Dad and Devan got a load from storage while Hannah and I grocery shopped. The next morning I had class from 8-11 am and then 5-8 pm, so I wasn't able to be much help moving in, but the men got about half our stuff moved in and by Thursday morning I felt like I had quite a bit of it unpaked.

Thursday afternoon we took a break from all the moving to go see the Kennicott Copper mine.

Here are some fun facts about Kennicott from their website:

Kennecott's Bingham Canyon Mine has produced more copper than any mine in history - about 18.1 million tons.

The mine is 2-3/4 miles across at the top and 3/4 of a mile deep. You could stack two Sears Towers (now known as the Willis Building) on top of each other and still not reach the top of the mine.

The mine is so big, it can be seen by the space shuttle astronauts as they pass over the United States.

By 2015, the mine will be at least 500 feet deeper than it is now.

If you stretched out all the roads in the open pit mine, you'd have 500 miles of roadway - enough to reach from Salt Lake City to Denver.

This is the best family picture we could get. Hannah's a pretty girl.

On Friday after I got home from school we visited Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake.

Devan enjoyed the Conference Center tour a little too much...

And there's my baby walking down steps all by herself...

I feel behind on homework already and like I'll never get the apartment all unpacked, but we've had a fun week being Salt Lake City tourists.

Samurai's Japanese Steakhouse

Tonight we went out to dinner with Mom and Kory and Aunt Renee and Mickey for Mickey's birthday. We had such a great time!

Hannah getting ready to go out in her mom's yukata


The restaurant had a great atmosphere.

Hannah loved all the food!

We told the server it was Mickey's birthday and so they sang her a Japanese birthday song and made her bang on a drum. She was completely embarrassed, but it was so cute!

Great food and a great time with family!

Bunnies and Giraffes

This isn't supposed to be the first picture, but my computer is being weird and I can't seem to move it down. It doesn't start the entry on a very good note, but just keep reading. It's not as bad as it looks.

Yesterday we were invited over to my uncle Randy and his wife Penny's house. They have a beautiful home and yard and sitting around on their grass was the most perfect way to spend a sunny afternoon. We got there just in time to see my cousin Holly's daughter, Kaede, before she had to go home. I tried to get some pictures of Hannah with her second cousin, but she didn't want to cooperate. It's a great picture of Kaede though. Kaede just turned 6 and is going into the first grade soon. I can't believe she's so grown-up already!

We visited Randy and Penny in the beginning of June when Hannah was just learning to walk. That day she had a hard time because she couldn't walk as far as Kaede. Now, just two short months later, she was running all over the place. They have a huge yard and it was so nice for Hannah to have a big area to explore.

Hannah got to sit in a little girl sized chair. Once her grandpa sat in it and she went over and pulled him up and took her seat back.

She's been noticing little chairs a lot lately. I think that it's finally clicked for her that she's a lot littler than everyone else and she likes things that are her size. I took this picture a few weeks ago at my mom's house. She hopped up on Kory's little chair, grabbed the remote control, and watched TV. So cute! I guess I don't like that she's familiar enough with that scene to mimic it, but cute nonetheless.

But I digress...

Hannah finding rocks just like she does everywhere she goes...

This isn't a great picture of Hannah, but I wanted to show this great little nook they have next to their house. I really should have gotten more pictures of the garden -- it's so beautiful.

Some other highlights of the day... Hannah saw their kitty and went right up to him and said "Meow". She's really hit-and-miss with her animal sounds, but I was glad that when she saw the cat it jogged her memory. And that she said it when there were witnesses around. Babies never do tricks on command...people must think I just make up all the things she can do. We also got to see Randy's completed basement. He had to redo it after some flooding and it looks absolutely amazing. Also, the day before yesterday Penny passed her last final, so she is now an official nursing school graduate. Congratulations Penny!

And the most important part of visiting Randy's house... the bunnies! This is Bun and Bun-Bun (I don't know which is which). We've been talking about bunnies all summer, ever since the first trip to Randy and Penny's. Hannah was excited to get to see the bunnies again.

It was such a nice, relaxing afternoon and Hannah loved being able to spend the day with so much family.

When we got home we dug in the toy box looking for something to play with and found her horse or giraffe costume (There's ongoing debate about which it is. Any insights you may have would be welcome.) My Aunt Renee got it for her at the beginning of the summer, but so far she hadn't liked wearing it very much. However, this time when I put it on her she loved it. I rushed to get the camera, but by the time I got back she'd gotten too hot and was mad again. I took the pictures anyway.

A day at the beach

Last weekend Devan, my mom, Hannah, and I all took a trip to Westport to go to the beach. This is our second trip to the ocean this summer. Maybe I'll write about our first trip later... but probably not. Hannah loves the beach.








She loves to play in the sand...


















and try to eat it...


















and collect rocks...

















and make friends with the birds...


















and chase waves. We all LOVE chasing the ocean...









Devan spent a good amount of time building an awesome hole.

It attracted quite a bit of attention.

Hannah found a shoe on the beach (you remember how she loves shoes, right?). We don't have any idea where it came from. In the background you can see more spectators flocking to the hole.

Devan took a break from the hole to fly our Spiderman kite and teach Hannah to love kites.

And then I buried Hannah in the sand.

The day ended with Hannah pooping in her swim diaper and Devan dunking a naked, poopy, sandy, screaming baby in the ocean. All in all, a great day at the beach.