The Last Week

The last week in Utah was chaotic; but in between crossing things off on our to-do lists, packing, and sorting through clothes we were able to fit in a little fun. We ventured to Nevada to say hello and goodbye to my parents. It's always such a fun (and funny) time when we hang out with them. 

We ate lots of yummy food, enjoyed the sunshine, and played some slots at the local casino.  Bear and I got to use our Christmas gift certificate and get that long awaited couples massage. It was so relaxing.  The days seemed to go by quickly but being able to spend that time with my parents was great. 

 

With only a couple days left in Utah, we tried to enjoy as much of the beautiful outdoors as we could. 

^Bear fly-fishing at one of his favorite spots.^

^Taking one of our final walks by the barn in Park City. I would take Shento for walks on this trail almost daily. It became a favorite for all of us. Don't you see how happy Shento looks.^

^We went and cheered for the bikers as they finished up the Tour of Utah. ^

^Us enjoying Park City.  Bear with his cow bell ready to cheer on the bikers as they finished the race.^

Until next time, Utah. You taught us so much about ourselves. In the past two years we have become stronger individually and as a couple. And I will forever be thankful for that. 

The Decision

By the end of July, Bear and I were still unsure of what lay ahead of us. However, we had to make a decision, and we had two choices. To stay in Utah for the next year or move back to New Jersey. Both had its pros and cons. Utah- we already lived in the state. No big moving costs. But we didn’t love living in Utah. New Jersey- we would get amazing health insurance. Bear would be around his academic crowd. But we would have a huge moving expense. We weighed all of our options. 

Over. And. Over. And.Over. We thought we had made our final decision, which was to stay in Utah. But after sitting on that decision for a couple days we decided to re-evaluate. Something wasn’t feeling right to either of us about staying in Utah and we wanted to be 100% sure about this decision.

Again, we created a pros and cons list. But this time the pros for moving back to New Jersey outweighed the cons. We deducted the huge moving expense from the New Jersey cons list because we thought we could move across country with only what fit in our Ford Focus. We would have to ship a couple things but we were determined to make it work. The decision was finalized and we both felt good about it. We were New Jersey bound in just a few short weeks.

Now the problem we were going to run into was the very short time period we had to find a house to live in once we arrived in New Jersey, figure out what we were taking, and how we were going to pack everything into our fairly small car. We wrote out every type of to-do list and started checking things off as quickly as we could. The search for finding a place to live proved to be a lot harder than expected. With only five days left until we said goodbye to Utah our living arrangements in New Jersey were still unknown. We were preparing ourselves to be 'homeless' when we arrived. But graciously my Dad stepped in and found us the perfect house in the perfect location. We literally signed the lease and sent a deposit the day before we were starting our journey to the east. Once that was all finalized everything else didn’t seem so daunting.

Next on the list was figuring out what we should take. We had VERY limited space so we had to be extremely choosy as to what we brought. One day I will write an entire post on how we did this. It might be useful to someone else that finds themselves in the same situation. But for now, I will tell you that we cut back on shoes, clothes, and even my nail polish collection.

^Saying goodbye to all of our stuff in the storage unit. Shento relaxing on top of the piles of clothes.^

By this point both Bear and I were running on adrenalin. I don't even remember having feelings or attachments towards anything we had to leave behind. I just remember thinking that we had a mission (and time frame) and we had to accomplish it. We made piles of things we were taking and piles of stuff that needed to go back into our storage unit. We did a couple test runs to make sure everything fit in our car. It's amazing how packing becomes more of a creative art when you have limited space. 

^The test run to make sure everything fit in our car.^

It was almost go time. We felt pretty confident we had done everything we needed to do to make this journey a successful one.  We had checked everything off of our lists, brought the final stuff to the storage unit, and shipped a couple 50+ lb. boxes to New Jersey. 

It was go time. And we were ready. 

Updates (April.May.June.July)

I feel like I have so much to update that it's overwhelming to even think about, let alone sit here and try to blog/organize it all. But you have to start somewhere, right. So here it goes. A quick and dirty run down of our life in the past 6 months.

At the end of April we found out that we had to move out of our little home in Provo, Utah. It was somewhat of a devastating shock. We had planned on living in that home for the next two years and to find out that we had to move (owners wanted to move in) put a big tilde wave in our plans. The saddest part about moving was leaving our beloved neighbors. They became more than just the people next door. They became some of our best friends. The doors between the two houses were always open. Shento and June (their dog) become lovers and we made some great memories together.

In May I headed to Seattle to meet my adorable niece, Miss Milly Lou Mack. I spent two weeks enjoying every moment with her. Being around my best friend/sister as she took on the role of a new Mom was incredible. Her patients and love for this little human was so moving and such a wonderful experience to be a part of. 

  

Once I got back from Seattle the race was on to pack everything in our house into boxes. Since we didn't know where we were moving we decided that all of belongings would sit in a storage unit until we figured everything out. It seemed like the most logical thing to do in the mist of chaos.  

^Taking a midnight bike ride to Taco Bell^  ^Bear packing all of our belongings into the moving truck^

^We needed a break from all the packing so we took a little ride up to Tibble Fork^

Once everything was boxed up, loaded into the moving van and unloaded into the storage unit, we headed to California for Bear to attend a conference. It was wonderful break from the craziness that had been surrounding us. Bear attended meetings and I got to hang out with my family. 

^Shento and I enjoying the warm ocean breeze^ 

^Exploring the Santa Paula airport with my Papa^

^We toured the grounds of the Santa Barbara mission^

^Bear eating some yummy clam chowder for lunch^

After returning from California we headed to Park City, Utah to stay at my Grandparent’s vacation home until we figured things out. It was a very peaceful and relaxing month of June. I think it was exactly what we needed after the wild and unpredictable past few months. 

We celebrated our 5^th year wedding Anniversary. It's crazy how fast time goes. It still blows me away that we have been married for 5 years. I have been so blessed to have found the most loving, caring, and kind hearted man. We decided that we would enjoy the day together by doing things that represented the past five years of our life.

^We started it off with a breakfast picnic by the lake complete with a heart banner and blueberry scones^

^Afterwards we headed to Heber to have lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant. Delicious and cheap tacos^ 

^We stopped by the Homestead, the place we said our vows, tied the knot, and left as husband and wife. We walked the beautiful grounds and talked about all the memories we have of that day^

^Lastly, we stopped by the bakery that baked our wedding cake and picked up some mini cupcakes. We headed to the near by river to enjoy them^ 

After five years, I can honestly say that each year gets better and better. 

Happy Birthday to me. I turned another year older. Boy does it seem like years speed by. 

We started the day off by enjoying breakfast at one of our favorites. It was wonderful sitting outside reminiscing on the past year and looking forward to the year ahead. Afterwards we took a long walk around town. This has always been one of my favorite things todo. Park City has so many fun walking trails and so many great things to see. We ended up at the local summer street fair. We hung out on the grass and enjoyed the live music. By the end of the day we were both tired, Bear made me dinner and we enjoyed a quite evening on the deck playing cards.  

At the beginning of July Bear attended a family reunion in North Carolina. And I headed to Nevada to visit my parents. 

^Bear's family enjoying 4th of July^ 

^Me enjoying the wonderful fire work show with my Mom (and Dad... not pictured)^

Later in the month we took a trip to Colorado to see Bear’s Aunt and Uncle. Every time we go we have such a wonderful time, and this trip was no different.  

^We went to the small town of Silverton. A cute town nestled back in the San Juan Mountains. The steam engine rolls into town a couple times daily and we were lucky enough to be able to see it. ^ 

  ^We also got to see the beautiful Box Canyon falls. The creek above narrows and spills thousands of gallons of water a minute over the falls. ^

Some of my family came into town at the end of July and the week with them was perfect. Being around my family is always such a breath of fresh air. I LOVE it... I love them. I wish that it could happen more often. I was very fortunate that this trip I got to spend some amazing quality time with my Aunts. Starbucks runs... Shopping...Lunches...Mountain drives... i couldn't have ask for anything better. 

  

Next up... which way should we turn in this life decision. 

my best friend's wedding

In April 

In March, I traveled back to New Jersey to celebrate the love and marriage of one of my best friends. It was so fun being around her as she got ready for her big day. She graciously picked me up from the airport and I spent the evening getting to know her soon to be husband.

After the evening slowed down, her and I sat on the couch for hours catching up. It was so special. It was the night before her wedding and she was nervous. We forgot about the time and I tried to calm her nerves. We laughed and told stories from things that have happened in the past year. It was past 1 am by the time we decided to end the night.

The wedding was beautiful, and it was so great being around friends I hadn't seen in a while.

We've got some updating to do.... Palm Springs is first up first.

We have gone on many adventures, had lots of changes, and are gearing up for more exciting happenings. But before I get into all that, I want to recap the last couple months.

So please bare with me as I recap...  

PALM SPRINGS 

In March, Bear and I  headed to the California dessert, Palm Springs. I have been going here for as long as I can remember, and I wanted Bear to experience all of the same fun that I had throughout the years.

Golf is always on the agenda. We stayed at my Grandparents place which sits right on the golf course, so playing 9 holes multiple times a day is a must. The other must is sitting by the pool. It was amazing until I came down with prickly heat, which makes it almost impossible to go outside.
But we got creative and did some other fun things that we might not of normally done. We shopped around the flea market, visited the Marilyn Monroe statue, explored the art museum, and on the last day when my prickly heat was clearing up we took a beautiful hike around the Coachella Valley.

Palm Spring is always a favorite and this time was no different.