Friday, May 29, 2015

Welcome to Canada

We have now been in Calgary for the past two weeks, and I have loved spending so much time with my parents and brother. We left the heat of Las Vegas, and in a few hours we were in the snow!


It was pretty crazy, and we had storms for the entire drive, but the weather here in Calgary actually has been pretty nice. The drive was very long. We left Las Vegas at 3 pm on a Friday afternoon. We drove pretty much straight until about midnight when we got to our hotel in Pocatello, Idaho. We had to get all the stuff set up and the bikes off the car, and so we finally got to sleep around 1 am.

We set the alarm for 7 am, got up, took the kids swimming for 30 minutes, and were back on the road by 8:30 am. Then we drove all day and finally got to my parents house around 8:30 pm. Thanks to many episodes of The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Sophia the First, we survived, but I never want to drive that far again.

My parents just moved into a new house on Auburn Bay Lake a couple of months ago. Their house is beautiful and looking at the water is amazing. However, my girls are trying really hard to make their new house more "lived in." In the past two days alone, Cora found a lipstick at nap time, and decorated everything she could find including the new carpet, and Aubrey had the stomach flu, which included throwing up all over the carpet. I'm sorry mom!
Next summer when the backyard is finished it will be even more fun. Steven did manage to convince both girls to jump into the freezing water. I promised I would too... once it is a little warmer.


We have spent a few warm days at the lake beach. The girls love playing in the sand and water. And Steven figured out how to catch some minnows in a bucket, which thrilled Aubrey. He caught one for Cora, but she told us "he got buried in the sand" when we asked what happened to her fishy. 


My dad got Steven a nice little office downtown at his law firm. Steven is enjoying the scenery as he bikes to work. Calgary really is a beautiful city.

 We took the kids to a farm, and they loved feeding the animals. I'm impressed with how brave Aubrey has gotten.

Ahh... sister love. 

I have also loved going to the temple, catching up with some old friends, hanging out with my mom, doing lots of running, reading, and looking at design blogs/furniture stores for our new house!

We officially close on our house July 9. Since my birthday is on the 7th, I think I will have a pretty good birthday gift this year. 

Things on our house are coming along. It is fun to see the progress.


Our builder has a home in the Utah Valley Parade of homes that starts next week. That house is across the street from ours, so it is a little weird to think that hundreds of people are going to be driving by and looking at our house. I'm just glad that all the people will be gone before we move in. We are getting excited!

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

End of Las Vegas

We are leaving on a very long 18 or maybe 19 hour drive from Las Vegas to Calgary on Friday. We drove up to Utah last week to do some house stuff and I wanted to pull my hair out just with that short drive. My sanity may not make it all the way to Calgary.

On our trip last week to Utah, we got to see the progress made on our house. I loved walking through all the rooms and imagining what it will look like done.

The girls in their future room. This picture was taken after a two hour meeting with our builder and their patience was pretty much gone.

Other than our trip to Utah, we have been having a great time in Las Vegas. Steven's parents have been in Europe the past few weeks, so it has just been us here around the house.

I have loved Steven working from home and how I get to run in the daylight now. I injured my foot right before our half marathon and it is just finally feeling back to normal now. I'm very grateful for that, because it has been really frustrating to only be able to run shorter distances for the past couple months.

We have spent a lot of time at the children's museum. The girls have loved it. I don't love them running off in two directions, but I have been grateful to have a place to take them to burn off energy. They also have really great crafts that we have spent a lot of time on.

Definitely the best part of living here has been how much time we have been able to spend with Tyler and Katie's family. The girls LOVE their cousins, and it has been so fun to watch them play together. We have been able to see them several times a week, and we even let them have a sleepover last Saturday. Even though it was onto Mother's Day, it was the only day that we could. They went to sleep after ten and woke up before six. It made for an exhausting Mother's Day, but we all had fun.

We really have had a great time living here, but parts of it have been hard for me. The girls got back to back sicknesses and we spent a week cooped up inside. I also miss having preschool and gymnastics and lots of things to fill our days. Aubrey, especially, is a high-energy little girl, and it is exhausting being the only source to keep her entertained and busy. I also miss having friends and well... a life. And, I don't even want to admit how many times I have taken the wrong road even though I have a GPS :)

But! We are so grateful we have been able to live here. We have done and seen a lot. I have clearly been terrible at taking pictures, but it has been a lot of fun and we have loved spending so much time with family.