Three Year Celebration

Back on July 11th we celebrated our three year anniversary.
 

We ate here, 

and got:

It tasted even better than it looks :)

We drove around looking for areas we might want to

move to, spent time in Barnes & Noble, and on the way

home saw this pretty sunset. 

And then we got ice cream :)

Our anniversary was on a Wednesday, so that weekend

we decided to celebrate some more :) 

We got a room at the B&B where we spent our wedding night

and spent the day downtown.  We walked all over.  We 

enjoyed City Creek, Temple Square, Galavin PLaza, and Gateway 

mall.  At the Spaghetti Factory, where we had diner, we sat in

the Trolley car :) We looked around the new Weller's bookstore, 

and just enjoyed downtown at night, with a little bit of summer rain.

 

There is a park in the avenues that has one of my favorite 

views of the Salt Lake valley, so we went to enjoy it.  The rain 

clouds made for a very animated sunset.

 I love milestones, and I love celebrating them.
Three is not considered a milestone number, but it's 
another year I got to enjoy with my best friend, so I will
celebrate all I want! :)

Baby Day!

Here are a few more pictures of the day our little Packman 

joined our family.

Parker picked his waiting spot

  Katie was admitted to the hospital pretty early in the day,

so naturally the thing to do was join them and spend the 

day in the waiting room.

 waiting...

 still waiting...

 Other than new mommy, the waiting game was hardest on new daddy.

There was lots of Ipad games and reading going on.

 walking around waiting...

 Moms and in-laws

 He's here!

 All that waiting definitely paid off.  He was born around 6:50pm,

but due to a few complications we didn't get to see him until around 9pm.

He had the thumb-sucking down like a pro.

 My dad was in New Mexico, so we skyped him and my 

grandparents in England.

 Just a little excited to meet this guy :)

 It's blurry, but he has his daddy's lips and his mommy's chin.

 And his Grammy Debbie's long fingers and toes!

 Visitor activities

 That's as close as Shaun would get.

 

 Beautiful mamma and baby :)

 

Still catching up!

4th of July!

 We celebrated with a family BBQ at my parents, watched 

soccer with friends, visited more friends, and set off a few 

fireworks for the kids.

 American flag on top of an English trifle, in representation of how

America kicked their trash all those years ago... Tasty victory.

 

 We took leftover trifle to the Oblads so they could polish it off, 

and polish they did.

"Aunty Cicily let me sleep!"

 Tim and Aly Oblad were in town from Texas and

we got to meet their new baby, Eli.

 Steven's parents were watching the grandkids, so we set off 

a few fireworks for them.

Happy Independence Day!

Farewell to Cedar

The fateful day finally came...

Steven's parents so kindly rented a moving truck for us, and them and my parents came down to help us finish packing up and moving out.  We also had help from our awesome neighbors.  It took most of the day, but we packed our life into that truck.

 

This is how we spent the last night in our apartment.

We emptied this bottle so I could later fill it with my tears.... :)

Clearly I wasn't strong enough to hold that thing back, maybe if Steven had helped me instead of just standing there... :)

After a few stops we were on our way!

 

"Moving Stinks!" - is what he is really thinking; not, "stop taking 

annoying pictures of me while I'm trying to drive"

 

On the way home we passed a few of the fires that were plaguing the state.  The whole way was fairly smokey. 

A few things we miss about Cedar:

• friends
• being so close to all Southern Utah has to offer
• St. George/ temple trips
• the lack of (the need for) 4+ lane freeways
• The Little Brick House
• friends
• everywhere taking ten minutes or less to get to
• walking everywhere in relative peace and quiet
• filling up with gas every other week instead of every week
• the 'small town' feel
• friendly Cedarites
• chatting with neighbors outside, and game nights!
• our funny primary kids
• Cedar Canyon and the giant red hill
• 'downtown'
• simplicity 
• And many more things, but mostly our friends!

A few things we love about the 'Big City' 

• being close to family
• not missing out on family/friend events
• not being woken up by the freeway at night
• unlimited shopping and restaurants 
• walking around downtown and temple square in the evening
• nieces and nephews
• fast internet :)
• closer to temples
• giant purple mountains
• Curry in a Hurry
• more than one library to choose from
• not driving like a utahn, frustrating actual utah drivers
• no constant wind!
• being available to help family in a moments notice 
• new opportunities and challenges