Visiting with family

 Hands down the best thing about being in Utah so far as getting to see so much family. My mom, my sister and her family, my grandma. Bill's parents. He had two sisters and their families come to visit. It's been great. I have family on my side here I haven't even seen yet. It's very nice to see all that family. We've lived far away from them for many years. We've been able to connect up with some old friends and hopefully we can keep doing that. I don't really expect us to settle here long-term, though it could happen, but I'm trying to take advantage of doing all the things that we love about Utah so we won't wish we had if we leave sooner than we expect. 

We've already been on several hikes. We hiked the Y last week. We hiked up Yellow Fork Canyon mid week, and this Saturday we hiked Donut Falls and celebrated our accomplishment with some amazing donuts from Darla's Donuts in Salt Lake. So yummy. 

Yellow Fork Canyon

Genevieve actually had a primary activity for the first time since February! They painted rocks.

Grandkids. And a couple friends. 

Spencer had a primary activity too! Horseback riding. That's one cool thing about living in Herriman. Lots of people have horses.

Playing at a local splash pad one afternoon.

CHloe wore all her swimsuits. A one piece underneath, then a long-sleeved rash guard and bottoms, plus the short-sleeved rash guard. Who even knows. But she didn't get cold!  

Hiking Donut Falls.

Picture dump

Turns out we haven't taken a picture with all six of us since last Halloween. Whoops! I'm going to remedy that this week, but my MIL took some shots for us in the backyard this week so I'd have one and gosh, my crew is so cute. They're growing so fast. 

My MIL got a waterslide bounce house last week and much fun was had by all. We're doing it again this week when cousins are here. 

OMG, they are so cute and funny with mustaches on. 

We got haircuts! Spencer is super into Diary of a Wimpy Kid right now and he's reading it out loud to his siblings here. They all love it. 

Good looking crew. 

We hiked the Y on Saturday! It is a HARD hike and my kids all rocked it. We got ice cream at the BYU Creamery afterwards of course. 

At the top. Chloe did not appreciate that I had her stand on the bench. Sorry, baby girl. Didn't mean to scare you. It was pretty steep right behind us. 

Spencer's feet post hike. I couldn't even tell what color my tennis shoes were. So much dust. 

Chloe and Grandma arranged some roses from the yard. 

And she mixed up some sort of yard brew. Blech, lol. She loved it. 

We found a place to hang our rings! We didn't have a spot for them in Washington, so they haven't been out in close to two years. Genevieve used to love these things and she still does. And Chloe and Aaron are now big enough to enjoy them too. I foresee lots of good times outside.

 

Whirlwind trip

 Bill and my father-in-law, plus Genevieve, headed back up to Washington on Friday to get the last of our stuff we had to leave, and Genevieve got to have one more play date with her best friend there. Turns out it wasn't a small amount of stuff. My goodness, we surely have a lot of stuff, even when we are fairly streamlined. Family of six and all. I'm actually going to donate or sell a good amount of this load, but I'm glad to have our bikes and some of the furniture. 

In other news, Bill got a new coil for his 3D printer and has been printing stuff nonstop for our kids this week. No end in sight for that either. They love everything he prints.  

This is Aaron's tiny kitty to go with his favorite Baby Kitty stuffed animal. 

Chloe painted hers with mine and Genevieve's help. 

Aaron lost his first tooth!

Chloe is always cute what she wears and how she decides to sit.

We introduced the kids to Battleship and they love it. 

Aaron and Chloe companionably played the same game together on the two tablets yesterday afternoon for a while. They're such great friends. 

And they all thought it was the height of luxury when they got to take a bubble bath in Grandma's big bathtub and watch Bubble Guppies. Which is hilarious because the older three totally wouldn't watch that show any other time. Haha! I'm tickled that all four of them can still squish into one big tub. They are really not that small anymore, especially the oldest two, so it's cute. 

We made it

We made it to Utah! There were hiccups, but we got here and we have two temperature-controlled storage garages full of our stuff, plus whatever we have unpacked for normal life here. We've already spent time with some family. We have registered the kids for school and gotten car insurance switched. It feels like we're as settled as we're going to be. Here's to whatever comes. Bill is still job hunting. I'm feeling very grateful and a bit more settled than I have since March, so hurrah for that!

 Bill turned the big 3-5 the day we packed up our truck. I had a birthday where I had kidney stone surgery. Now he's had a birthday where we moved. Very memorable.

 Our setup for the drive. That truck was not big enough and was way under powered, so we chugged along at like 65 most of the way. It took forever. But it got us here safely.

 My in-laws have their own popcorn machine in their basement. So much popcorn has already been consumed.

 An impromptu dance party.

 Cuddling with the bear at the cousin's house.

 Walking to the school in hot, hot weather. It was 93 when we left. This is the first time I've ever lived close enough to walk my kids to school. I'm pretty excited about it.

 Spencer's hair is so long and I love it. He told me today he'll grow it just a little longer and then wants me to buzz it all off.

 A shade break. My Pacific Northwesters aren't ready for all this heat, but they'll get used to it.

 Chloe's stellar outfit choice one day. It's probably 97 out and she has a long-sleeved shirt, sparkly tights, shorts, and shoes on. She's definitely a Seattle child still.

 Bill found an awesome old hat that brought back lots of great memories.

And finally, I started a new paint-by-number. So relaxing. So fun. I love these things. I should start giving them away as gifts but I always second guess would anyone really want one? They take a million hours, so I'd want them to be appreciated, but I also have so many of them. Who knows!