Goodbye Arizona, Hello Utah

I guess this post has been a long time coming. I haven't wanted to write about it because it seems to make it real and final. We are leaving Arizona and moving to Utah. I recognize that I have many friends who would love to be in our shoes and move up to Utah, but I have been struggling with this for the past month, since it first started to look like it would really happen.

Last year, around September, we sort of brought up the possibility of moving to Utah when In-N-Out expanded into Salt Lake and Provo. It seemed so much in the distant future that I didn't really think it would actually happen. In January, we moved back to our house. When Corey got close to the end of his final semester of school, he asked me if Utah could be a possibility. I guess I was hoping that if Utah was in our future, that In-N-Out would just ask Corey to go there and then we could decide. Instead, it has been kind of a volunteer thing. In-N-Out needs and wants managers to go out there, but mostly that happens on a volunteer basis. I'm guessing that if nobody wanted to go, they would start in with some incentives or something, but I don't really know for sure.

We kind of came to the agreement that we would only go if it meant becoming a store manager for him. Since he wasn't even a second manager yet, that really didn't seem likely. But Corey really has had his heart set on this opportunity to help open In-N-Out in a new market, so when push came to shove, he finally convinced me to let him tell his bosses that he would be willing to go even as a second manager, a promotion he finally received in April.

So since he graduated, our world has been spinning out of control, at least mine has. All of a sudden, moving to Utah became reality and we have now put our house on the market and have received 3 offers already. We don't get to accept/reject the offers, though, because we are doing a short sale, due to the difficult market and mortgage situation we have found ourselves in. So the bank gets to decide whether or not to accept or reject these offers.

So, there it is. We are moving to Utah. I will miss Arizona. I'm not sure I'm ready to face the cold again. I'll miss swimming almost every day in water that is 90 degrees and warmer. I'll miss endless sunny days. I'll miss my parents close proximity and the relationship they've had with my kids will be forever changed. I will miss our ward and neighborhood and how I can just walk from our house to Westley's school and the YMCA and pool right next door in less than five minutes. I'll miss owning my own home for the time being. I'm sure there will be good things about moving to Utah. But I will miss Arizona. It's all happened so fast I've barely been able to blink!

Phoenix Zoo Summer Celebration

On the carousel

Grandpa with the kids in the African Savannah overlook

Daddy and Eliza climbing up the African Savannah overlook

On May 29th, we were able to attend the kickoff for summer at the Phoenix Zoo for free. We had to reserve tickets in advance, but we were able to also bring guests for free, so I invited my parents. We got there around 6:30 pm and walked around the zoo, looking at as many animal exhibits as were open (not all were open for the evening hours). We stopped at the splash pad, but the kids were really timid about playing in it, which was weird. It may have been because it was so dark and crowded that they didn't want to play. We also got to ride the carousel twice for free, and that was a lot of fun!

Moving On Up

Westley's kindergarten graduation was the last week of May. He earned several awards just before graduation and during graduation, so we were proud of him for that! Here he is at the ceremony waiting for it to begin. He's struggled with moving and adjusting to a different school with a different teacher and different ways of doing things. He finally adjusted, and now he's going to have to do it all over again next year. Adversity makes you strong, isn't that how the saying goes?

Our Little Diva

A little while ago, I bought a little purse for Eliza that came with sunglasses, a little plastic nail polish bottle, a little plastic lipstick, a cell phone, and a little plastic perfume bottle. Here is a picture that says it all!

Egg-cellent Chefs

On Saturday, Caleb, Travis and Eliza were "helping" me make pancakes. I had put the flour mixture, the oil, and the water in the bowl, and Caleb was stirring it. I had cracked the eggs and put them in a measuring cup. I turned around to get a fork out of the drawer to slightly beat the eggs before letting Travis pour them into the batter mixture. When I turned back around to stir the eggs, they weren't there. Instead, I saw them slipping from the measuring cup in Eliza's hands right into the still-open utensil drawer. She had missed the bowl completely in her effort to help with the pancakes. So there we were, pancakes half-made, Eliza, Travis and Caleb all standing on kitchen chairs by the counter, Eliza holding a now-empty measuring cup, staring at the drawer that now housed two raw eggs. I started to laugh and couldn't stop. I took a picture with my cell phone and sent it to Corey, receiving back the message, "What the...?" Here are pictures from the incident:

Caleb's Compliment

Since children tend to be unflinchingly honest when pointing out things they notice, it's always a huge compliment when your 4-year-old son tells you that you're beautiful. Today was not one of my best days. I didn't get a shower all day and by 4:30 in the afternoon, I had my short hair pulled back in a tiny ponytail and my glasses on with no makeup whatsoever. I was getting dinner ready when Caleb came into the kitchen and said, "Mommy, you look really pretty right now." It certainly made my day!