Well, in case you don't already know, we are moving! Brandon just accepted a job on Friday to Everett, Washington, which is about a half hour north of Seattle. We are very excited and overwhelmed at the same time. There is so much to do and pack and if you know me at all, you know I HATE MOVING!!! Which is why I never do. On the positive side, I have been going through a lot of things and throwing tons away. We are headed out to Everett next week to look for a place to live and we are also either going to try and rent or sell our townhome. So.....if you know anyone looking for either, check out my other blog:
www.oremtownhome.blogspot.com
I promise we will be great landlords!
And to those of you in Utah, we will definitely miss the friendships we have formed here as well as miss all of the family close by. I never ever thought I would still be living in Utah after coming out here for school more than 12 years ago. I cannot even fathom how fast the time has gone. Aside from family and friends, we will miss the season changes (though I'm not too sad to miss the winters), the wonderful dollar theater, the canyon, Leroy (the most gigantic pig I've ever seen that lives at Hee Haws), corn mazes and pumpkin patches, the Freedom Festival and Summerfest, the scenic mountains that looked so fake when I first moved here, the alpine slides in Park City, Cafe Rio, having so many temples close by, and just the family friendly people and atmosphere that Utah provides.
Things I'm looking forward to are meeting new and interesting people, stepping outside of my comfort zone and into a kind of "missionary mode", watching my husband succeed and to see all of his hard work pay off, raising my kids in a place where they might be a little different and excited to see how they will handle it, living close to the water and going whale watching, visiting Canada and Victoria, and whatever else this new adventure has in store. I cannot wait.
Thank you all for your support and encouragement. We are so lucky to have such great family and friends!
This is the first time we actually made it to see them blow up the balloons.
Amy was not impressed. In fact, she was actually terrified. She was crying and screaming when they blew the fire into the balloons and when the balloons towered over our heads. I think she thought the big pig was going to eat her.
Samantha was just amazed at everything.
Here is the aforementioned pig, which looking at it from Amy's perspective could be quite scary. Samantha has loved this pig from the time she was a baby. We've seen it every year.
Here is the sunrise through the mountains--yes, it was quite early.
Blowing up some of the balloons.
The weather actually was too windy for the balloons to take off. This coke bottle was swinging out of control and actually squished the rainbow balloon next to it. We left without seeing any balloons take off because of weather conditions.
To my surprise, when we came home and I was cooking breakfast, I heard the fire from the balloon outside my window and we went out to investigate and there was this balloon flying right over my backyard! 2 others were flying as well. At least the girls got to see them in the air and Amy appreciated them much better from a distance.
Later that day, we were exhausted, so Grandma and Grandpa took Samantha to Bridal Veil Falls while Hallie, Amy and I took a much needed nap.
Can you tell someone had a popsicle?
That night was the Stadium of Fire fireworks. The girls rediscovered their love of sparklers.
The next day was the actual 4th, so the girls got all decked out for church.
The girls with Grandma and Grandpa.
4th of July cake. It was oh so yummy!
The next day (Monday) was the Freedom Run and the parade, so we had to wake up early once again. Samantha and I ran together and she did AWESOME! It was so fun to run her first race together.
At the finish line.
