Last Weekend in Utah

Friday - was my last day of work. And since it was also Pioneer Day (yep- our office is open on Pioneer Day) we had a potluck lunch. What a great send off!

Fri evening - Dene and Mike headed over for one last salmon BBQ (Christy- we ate ALL of the salmon you sent home with us! Well, minus the last 3 frozen pieces that we gave to Dene and Mike to take home- we thought they were the most appropriate to give them to since they're from Alaska and all!)

Sat afternoon - we headed to Seven Peaks with Rissa and John to use up the passes that were burning a hole in our pockets since I bid for them online a few months ago. I thought that I had outgrown water parks a few years ago, but I was wrong! It was especially fun to watch how dramatic Brant and John were about riding certain slides and then the victory they felt afterwards on going down the steep slides (Brant talked about it all evening!). Afterwards Rissa and John treated us to 5 Buck Pizza in Provo - a great way to end the day!

Sunday - our last sunday in this ward. We couldn't have left on a better note - Elder Roberts returned home last week and gave his homecomming talk. This was the Elder that we ran into over Easter dinner in Georgia at my mom's house and who spent his last area in the Fayetteville ward- the same ward that we will be moving to in Georgia (at least temporarily). One of my young women's leader from GA and her daughter were also sitting in the congregation yesterday listening to his homecomming talk and it was so fun to run into them!

Later that afternoon we headed to the Roberts home for dinner to celebrate the homecomming of Jacob and the farewell of his brother Justin who will be leaving on a mission to Italy next week. It was terrific!

What a great way to spend our last weekend! (If we were moving in the middle of winter, I probably wouldn't have any hesitation to pick up and move, but this past weekend isn't going to make it any easier for us to move this Friday).

A secret talent

One of the talents that I discovered early on about Brant when we were dating is that he is an excellent mover. He helped me pack up and move twice when we were dating, and twice again since we have been married. While I'm wanting to "take a break" every 20 minutes from packing, he'll keep working full throttle until everything is in boxes and moved.

He's been planning our move to GA for the past couple weeks, and last week I even came home to find this piece of paper pictured above.

Can you tell what it is?

It's a blueprint of what the inside of the moving truck will look like once we get everything packed in it. He went through and measured all of our furniture and bigger items, and then strategically placed them in this blueprint to maximize all the possible space we will have with the truck (since this is a voluntary work move, we have to eat the costs and move ourselves, so we're definately maximizing all possible space so we don't have to rent more truck than we need).

He also keeps talking about how fun it will be to be a truck driver and drive with the windows down across the country with the wind blowing in his hair.

So if you happen to be out on the country roads a week and a half from now and see a 16 foot moving truck with the company name "BUDGET" in big letters splashed across it and a guy with a goofy grin with his window down driving it, don't be surprised when you realize it's Brant.

What a stud.

Good Times

Canada-Photos/ Google Images

A week ago, we had a ward party at the Scera pool in Orem. I'm not sure who had the sweet connections, but they rented out the entire swimming facility (including the lap pool/ diving tank, serpentine slides, leaisure pool, water playground, and more) just for our ward.

It was soo much fun.

And then this past Saturday we got together with Rissa and John and headed up the canyon to float the provo river in tubes.

The water was absolutely freezing! Not to mention trying to stay clear of the side brush.

And we had the absolute best time :)

If you live in the Provo area, I'd highly recommend floating the river.

We're Leavin... On a Jet Plane

Actually, its more like in a 16 foot moving truck.

Yes, my friends. The Utah chapter of our lives will soon come to a close. After 9 months of waiting, Brant's request to transfer to Atlanta has been approved!

This development happened pretty fast -meaning that they notified us on June 26 and gave us 4 days to decide (telling us that if we did take it, Brant would be based out of Atlanta beginning Aug 1). It will be a fast move, but we took it.

While we look forward to this move, we will miss our time spent in Utah. I'll miss all the activities and events going on, the dear friends we've made here, and the memories we built. I think there might even be a tear shed when Brant has to say good bye to his garden here that he's spent so much time on.

Besides a couple of months right after my mission and the short visits back there, I haven't lived in Georgia for almost 10 years. Things I definately look forward to in Georgia are catching the last half of the Brave's season, being reunited with good high school friends, having warm winters, and....

Adding to our family :)

Not only are we relocating from Utah to Georgia, we'll be expecting our first visit from the baby stork around the 3rd week of January (that's how babies work, right?).

Actually, at the '11 weeks and 5 days' doctor's appointment earlier today, we had the "listening to the baby's heartbeat for the first time" experience. I was excited to hear the heartbeat right away!

Until I realized that it was my own heartbeat.

hahah!

But- we did eventually hear the baby's heartbeat :)

So we're getting ready for some big changes around here and excited about digging our roots deeper out in Georgia. I'm sure that we'll be back in Utah visiting every once in awhile, but until then, and to my Utah friends- I'll miss you and definately want to get together with you before we jet out... in a moving truck :)

P.S. Name that tune!

Happy 123456789!

It will happen today at 12:34 and 56 seconds (on 7/8/9).

What a nice evening

This evening after dinner, Brant and I rode our bikes down the street to watch the Orem Owlz play at UVU.

I love summer nights.

P.S. It was a great sunset tonight, but don't be fooled by the picture. The pocket sized point and shoot camera we took with us wouldn't work at the game tonight. I found this photo from Google images.

Back

Hi.

Remeber me? I think that was the longest blogging break I've taken in the past year.

Anyways, here's what we were up to on the 4th:














Since Brant didn't get home from a trip until after 3pm that day (and decided not to run in the 5K that morning since Brant would have missed it) I head to the Freedom Festival Parade with our good friends Rissa and John.

My favorite part?

The missionaries.

Go figure.

Sugi (and other UPM alumni)- check it out. The Utah Provo Mission even has a sweet float in the parade now! Maybe they borrowed that globe from the VC in St. George? haha!

Later that afternoon we had John and Rissa over for a sweet BBQ of Alaskan salmon and hamburgers. Brant did a great job on his salmon complete with green onions as garnishes.

Later that evening we headed over to the fields across from the MTC to watch the fireworks. Fireworks are always fun, but I think everyone could tell this year that there were budget cut backs. It seemed that the fireworks lasted for about 30 min- with a 15 min intermission that made up half of it. It was still fun, though :)

What a great holiday!