New Life in Utah

Other than house stuff (which there has been a lot of), we have spent the past six weeks settling into our new life here in Highland, Utah. In reverse order because that is how the pictures loaded and I"m too tired to change them...

 Aubrey was at preschool for this outing today, but we are so excited for these friends. The Jones family is moving in across the street from us once their house is done and they have girls both Aubrey and Cora's age (the two on the left.) And... Sammie (their mom) and I get along super great too. 

We love living close to so many temples. Steven took this on his bike ride this morning. We also love the biking and running we have been able to do. There are 5 running trails within a mile of our house. 

I always thought that my kids were not great a playing by themselves. It turns out they just needed SPACE. They have been playing so well together. Yesterday, they made a picnic in our empty room (we have an empty bedroom because I still wanted the girls to share) and it was so cute. They even put their dolls in time-out for bad behavior...

Cora's first day of school...

Aubrey's first day of school...

Aubrey and Cora both had their first days of school. I miss them like crazy, but we are all so happy to be getting back into a regular routine after our crazy extended summer. Aubrey goes three mornings a week and Cora goes once a week. Their school is really cute and just a few minutes from our house.  We have also started swimming lessons and gymnastics back up again. I love having lots of stuff to do.

Swimming and splash pads to beat the hot weather. Lots of time spent at Seven Peaks. 

We bought a pass to Thanksgiving Point and we have gone there quite a bit. They have a children's museum, farm, and dinosaur museum.

 Pony rides at the farm were a big highlight.

This is the place park. 

 Tour of Utah. Steven loves cycling and was pretty excited to see a professional bike race.

We were good fans and walked all the way to the top of the hill. They still zoomed by in about 30 seconds.

 Highland Fling Days parade. We are small town folk now. I really actually love it. The parade was down the street from our house and the girls were very focused trying to get as much candy as they could.

Lots of playtime in the playroom.

We were lucky that my parents already planned a trip to Utah this summer, so we were able to see them again. My mom was great at helping me decorate the house and these girls are quite attached to their grandma.

California friends came to visit! We loved seeing the Hutchinsons, and then Natalie, Max, and Lucas came to visit too. The kids loved playing in our dirt piles and I wish we had taken a picture.

 We hiked the Y. Aubrey hiked the whole thing by herself, and I carried Cora up. She kept telling me, "Mom, you are sweaty." But it was hot and she is pretty heavy now!

We all ran the Temple to Temple 5K on Pioneer Day. I was really impressed with how far the girls ran. The race was all downhill from the old Provo temple to the new Provo temple. Then Steven I ran back up the hill to the car after the race. That was hard.

My mom and Kimmy ran the race with us too!

My old roommate, Heather, lives about 5 minutes from our house. We are excited for our kids to all be friends. They came over the week we moved in, and the kids all ate quite a few chocolate chip cookies.

I love living at the top of a cul-de-sac. They are building all the houses around us right now, but once that is done, I can't wait for the kids to spend their days riding bikes around the street. Cora has the balance bike down really well now, which is awesome because she is the s-l-o-w-e-s-t walker ever, so we just have her take her bike on our walks now. 

And... that is our life here in Utah. We are still adjusting, and making friends, but I am glad that we are here. We were not planning on moving this year at all, but I feel at peace and know that we made the right decision for our family.

House Progression

We left Canada and spent a few days up in Wallsburg before our house closing. We celebrated my actual birthday, and did our final walk-through. Then, on July 9, 2015 we closed on our first house! It was a crazy week as the girls got super sick the day after we moved in (of course!) but things finally feel like home now.

We were pretty excited. When we first took possession things looked like this...

 Kitchen

Girls bathroom

Railing. That thing was so expensive.

Family Room.

Awesome mountain views. Our exterior will look much better once we have a yard. We are working with a landscape architect and hopefully that will be happening in the next month or so. 

My turquoise front door. Everything else was pretty neutral, but I love the fun pop of color.

We have been working very hard. We came from a two bedroom duplex and we gave away most of our stuff before we left California, so we have pretty much had to furnish and decorate an entire house. Things are not "quite" how I want them yet, but here is a sneak peak. I will take some better (not phone) pictures once I have everything done.

Playroom. This is probably my favorite room in the house. Because of this room, the rest of my house usually looks pretty good. I just shut the door, ignore the mess, and we are all happy.

 Family room. Those shutters make me happy. The design center when we built our house said it would be $12,000 to put shutters on the house. No thank you. We ordered them from blinds.com and installed them ourselves for less than half that price. Steven is getting pretty good with his drill. 

Another view of the family room. 

Girl's room.

Kitchen

Eating nook with my table that I love. 

View from the kitchen, through the nook, to the family room.

Piano. We just got the piano last week, and I am so excited. I took piano lessons for 10 years growing up, but I haven't had my own piano to play in over 10 years. The rest of the living room is currently empty... we are working on that.

Steven and I have had a great time making this place feel like home. I love it, and I love having our own home. I feel blessed.

Rest of Canada

It has been over two months since I blogged. I know that personal blogs are no longer a "thing" but I love having a record of our life with pictures, so I'm going to try and catch up. It has been two months because things have just been crazy. We moved into our new house and have spent almost all of our spare time moving in and working on projects.

But, first... the rest of our time in Canada!

We went to the Stampede. Calgary summers = stampede, and I was so glad that we were able to take the girls. It was a hot day, and we all had a great time.

The girls were pretty excited about their pink cowboy hats.

Face painting, animals, dressing up, dog show, BMX show, Buckaroos, and lots of mini donuts. 

We celebrated my 29th birthday a few days early. Ice cream cake is my favorite. 

The other part of my summers growing up was swimming in my grandparent's pool. The girls really enjoyed it... especially when uncle Trent was around to throw them in the air.

We went out on the lake almost daily. Steven took advantage of working from home and did paddle board rides on his lunch hour. We swam across probably 4 or 5 times too. 

This girl lost her first (and second!) tooth while we were there. I can't believe how fast she is growing up.

My mom was great and took us on many different outings. Here we are at the Telus Spark science center. I love Cora's face when we were supposed to be acting like "a winner."

Calgary has some pretty incredible sunsets. It didn't get dark until after 10 pm... so my normally early riser kids were going to sleep super late and sleeping in. Aubrey even slept in until 10 am one day. That is definitely a record. 

And... one of my favorite pictures of my dad with the girls. We had a fun Canada Day celebrating our heritage.

I'm so grateful for my parents and Steven's parents who let us live with them while our house was being built. I know it wasn't always easy for them, but we made so many great memories!

Hot and Cold

Steven had his birthday on Wednesday. I can't believe that he is 29 (and me soon too). Yikes. We better have a lot of fun this year because we are then officially old and in our 30's.

The morning of his birthday we went for a run, and when we came home the girls had hidden all his gifts around the house. They played, "Hot and Cold" for him to find them, and were quite excited. Hot and cold is how I would describe our days here in Calgary. Some days are so nice and warm, and then some are so cold and rainy!

We sure love the birthday boy. 

On the warm days we have...

Done a garage sale and the girls ran a lemonade stand. They worked really hard and I was proud of them. They spent the week helping us bake cookies, package the candy, and make the signs. They made $37 which I thought was pretty good!

Spent an afternoon at Spruce Meadows watching the horse jumping. Both girls got pony rides and Aubrey spent the day asking for a pony.

Gone to the lake many times and taken rides on the boat. My parents just got a paddle board, so we are excited to try that once this round of rain stops.

Jumped in the lake.. This picture of Steven and Trent is pretty good.

And, yes, even I did too. We actually swam across the lake and back last week. I beat both Trent and Steven :)

On the cold and rainy days...

We went to the Stamps game. It was pretty cold and it was way past their bedtime, but the girls did great. They cheered and clapped for the "red team." Since my earliest days, we have been going to football games and I'm glad my kids like it too.

Their favorite part was definitely visiting Papa up in the press boxes at halftime. My dad is still the color commentator on the radio, so we get a few perks.

When they drive me crazy, I turn on a show. I'm glad they are friends.

And, Steven is great at finding ways to help this little girl burn off her endless amounts of energy.

We have been getting together with my friends from high school and their kids quite a bit. My girls love it, and I love that even after ten years, we all still get along great.

Another cold rainy day was spent at Calloway Park, but no amount of rain can stop their love of rides. The wilder the better. 

We are definitely enjoying our last few weeks here in Calgary. Steven is actually on his way back to the Bay Area for work this whole week. I have gotten quite used to having him home all the time. We are really spoiled, so I'll take a few weeks of travel a year to have him around the rest of the time!