Our Next Great Adventure

For a long time we thought Georgia would be the place we put down roots, but Heavenly Father had other plans for us. On Saturday, May, 20, 2011; we made our way back West. We watched the movers pack our whole life into boxes, watched our home go from the home that we had filled with memories, laughter, and love; to just a house we once lived in. As I watched the movers put our stuff onto the truck I felt the rush of excitement that comes with going to a new place, where you start with a clean slate and have a chance to be better than you were before. A new place filled with new adventures and new memories. I also felt a stabbing fear; fear of the unknown, fear of not fitting in. Fear of not making great friends like we made Georgia. I know everything will work out, but that first step is always the hardest.

So for the next few days our life was going to be filled with hotels, fast food, potty breaks on the side of I-80, and gross, gross, GROSS gas station bathrooms. The kids actually did great on the drive. It was such a blessing. There were only a couple of things that can make a car trip truly awful, those are, crying kids and stomach issues (let's just say we didn't stop for any Mexican on our trip). Thankfully we avoided both of those. I wish I could say we had amazing adventures seeing amazing things along the way, but mostly we just saw flat farm land (mostly cows) and sky. We did, however, have a great time singing songs (we love the Tangled soundtrack); talking, sleeping, and reading out loud to Jason (my dad gave me a great book about one of my ancestors). We did have a fun experience at a gas station in Wyoming. It was so windy when we drove through there. I'm talking gusts of like 50 mph. The kids had to go so bad and we were finally in an area where there was a turn off that had a gas station; the last three times they had to go we had to just pull over on the side of I-80. Having Charlie pee on the side of the road with the wind blowing that hard, made for an interesting experience. So we get to this gas station and I have to get the older three out of the car. The wind practically blew my door off! It was hilarious watching the kids faces when the wind hit them. I haven't heard the kids laugh that hard in a long time. The wind practically pushed us to the bathroom. I had visions of Charlie being blown away (have seen how skinny he is?).

Once we hit the Utah state line everyone started to get excited, which for the kids entailed singing our Utah song (I like to make up random songs about things, I know you wish you made up cool random songs too) and asking if we were at our house yet. After about the millionth time of asking Jason said, "Yes we are living here on the side of the road." They stopped asking after that.

The drive into the valley was amazing. There aren't words for how beautiful it is here. The mountains were still covered in snow (it snowed a week after we got here, crazy) and the sun shining on them made them seem to almost glow white.

So now begins our life in Utah. I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous about fitting in. Tomorrow is our first Sunday in our new ward and I'm terrified. I know everything will work out, but meeting new people is hard for me. I miss my old friends who knew me and where everything was comfortable. Other than that part it feels wonderful to be here. I forgot how much I loved the west coast weather. It was 78 today and I didn't feel like I needed to turn on the A/C in the car; I just rolled down the window and enjoyed the breeze. I haven't seen but one fly the entire three weeks we've been here. I love it, no cockroaches, big hairy spiders and any other big nasty bugs you can think of.

The home we are renting is pretty good. The only complaint I have is that the dinning area is really small and that the previous tenant didn't clean this place before they left. It was a disgusting mess. I have since scrubbed it down (several times in fact) and it is getting better, we've almost eliminated the funky smell in the basement. Despite all that it will be a good home for the next few years. Then we will be building our dream home, just not 100% sure where that will be. I'm 90% sure it will be in a community called Daybreak. This place is amazing. It has it's own temple (in the neighborhood), schools, 13 miles of trails for running or biking, shops, parks and the most beautiful homes! It's pretty amazing!

I look forward to seeing what life will bring to us out here. As long as our family is together I know it will be great!

Welcome Home, Let's Party! (and other totally awesome events)

On March 29, I got one of the greatest surprises EVER! Jason was due to come home on April 3, but he decided to be sneaky and not tell me he was actually going to be able to come home early. Had I known he was going to be home that day I would have skipped the gym and made myself look nice, but that wasn't the case. I get home from the gym (and lunch at a girlfriends, yes I went in my gym clothes, she's cool like that) and start putting the boys down for their naps. Just after I get them all down the phone rings, it was Jason. I was so happy because he never calls in the middle of the day. So we're talking and then the door bell rings. I tell Jason to hold on while I check to see who is here. I look out the window and at first don't see anyone. Normally I would have just gone back upstairs, but I decided to open the door to check if someone was still there (probably not the safest idea); I open the door and there stood Jason (trying to hide in the corner of our porch). I was speechless! I ran up to him, jumped on him and gave him the biggest hug I could. He was finally home. No more Iraq! It was the greatest surprise.

About two weeks later I got the chance to surprise Jason. I had been planning a surprise party for Jason, sort of a welcome home, happy 30th birthday and a farewell all rolled into one. Mom and Dad W. came out for a visit during this time (which made it just perfect, you'll see why in a moment). On Friday, April 15, I told Jason we were going out for a fancy dinner with his folks at a hotel called The Partridge Inn. When we got to the hotel I told him we had to use this new entrance, because the regular one was being worked on. This door actually led directly into the banquet hall where all our friends were waiting. Jason opens the door for me and then steps in behind me. It took a few moments for him to figure out what he was looking at. Just then everyone yelled surprise! He had no idea, that's probably because we had to throw together an impromptu surprise party a week before because he was getting suspicious. We had a wonderful buffet dinner, dancing and way too much carrot cake. His cake was delicious, although I think maybe they told me we needed more than we did, because we came home with about 30 lbs of cake. They also had written the wrong birthday number on it earlier in the day. So glad that Mom W. and I went to check out the room before the party. They had originally written Happy 12th Birthday. Thankfully it was fixed by the time we showed up for the party. The DJ kept us all dancing till closing, and let me just say we have some dancin' fools for friends. It was totally awesome! In case all of this wasn't enough, Sean and Liz surprised all of us by being there. It was so wonderful to have the whole family together! Thank you Mom and Dad for coming out and thank you Sean and Liz for leaving your precious little one behind so you could make Jason's party even more amazing! We love you all!

How do you top off a party like that? Well, you enlist Nana and Papa to watch all five kiddos and you secretly book a room at the hotel. We got our first night alone in more than two years! It was wonderful. We even meet up with Sean and Liz and enjoyed an adult only breakfast, I can't remember the last time that happened. It was so nice to get an evening alone with Jason (and a morning as well). I am so blessed to have such a wonderful man for my husband.

In April Jason left once again, but this time just for a few weeks to get things ready for our move out west. He found us a house in the Cedar Hills area of Utah. I am very excited to see the house in person! We are nestled right up against the mountains.

This month has been extremely busy with the usual end of the year stuff, in addition to getting ready to move. First we had Emma's end of the year program. She was so cute. I can't believe she'll be in first grade this year! Such a big girl.




This past Saturday, May 14, was a very busy day for us. I participated in the Ft. Gordon Marine Mud Challenge in the morning. It was so much FUN!! I still can't believe that I did it. It was a five mile course with 19 obstacles. I ran with three girlfriends, Megan, Emily and Diane. What a great group of ladies. We completed the course in 2 hours. Jason came along and took pictures, and laughed at me...A LOT! I realized from looking at all the pictures that I'm not very graceful, but at least I'm not clumsy. While we were waiting to go over an obstacle Jason told me that he heard over the radio that someone broke their leg. That was not encouraging news, but I managed to not break anything, so yay for that! I did leave with lot's of cuts and scrapes on my legs and arms. Plus I'm still stained red from the mud. Maybe the third shower will get rid of it all. Will definitely be doing one of these again. Next time Jason and I will be on the same team, I would love to see him doing this.
















That same night the girls had their last ballet recital. While I won't miss spending tons of money on ballet, I will miss seeing them dance on stage. They danced so well this year (we will post the videos on youtube after the move to Utah). They both looked beautiful! Great Job my dancing princesses!








So we are all caught up for now. Tomorrow the packers come and put everything we own into boxes. I'm excited about the move, but am also sad about leaving. We have lived here longer than any other place since we've been married. To all our amazing friends we are leaving, we love you! Thank you for being there when we needed you, for making us laugh, for loving us for who we are, and for becoming our family!

I will be blogging during our LONG car trip with FIVE kids! I'm sure I'll have plenty of material to work worth.

Long Over Due

So in the interest of saving time, I'm going to give you the extreme Reader's Digest version of the past 6 months and just post a ton of pictures.

We start at Christmas, it happened, it was fun, need I say more. We also hosted a totally awesome Christmas dinner. We did a murder mystery. We have way awesome friends!
















Jason and I celebrated our 10th anniversary! He missed it, it was lonely, but he sent chocolate covered fruit, once again, need I say more.



Kids kept me on my toes, which may or may not have caused a few gray hairs. Thank goodness for hair coloring.

Charlie turned 4! My little Bubba turned 4, I can't believe it. He had a Toy Story party, which he talked about for weeks after (giving myself a little pat on the back right now).




I'll leave it here. I will be posting a more informative post next about when Jason finally came home and all that went on then.