Texans

Our move was a fast, last minute one. We found out December 30th and left January 4th. The packing and cleaning had been started before our long and super fun Christmas break, so the task wasn't as bad as it sounds. Well, no worse than moving is anyway. ;)

After packing the truck with help from friends and family (Thanks!), we had dinner with my sisters Natalie and Melanie and her family at Brick Oven as a final farewell to Provo. Provo has been my home for almost nine years and it was a good way to close that chapter for me. (And on a side note, Cameron and Paige finally made peace that day and are again good friends.)

After dinner we got straight into our packed truck and drove to Spanish Fork to stay the night with a friend. (Again, thanks!) We spent the next two days driving across a few states on thankfully dry roads. The first day was a success. The second one, not so much. Cameron was being horrible and so was mommy, I'm sad to admit. But driving across 8 hours of barren Texas land, extremely tired and sore in a moving van with a tired child isn't the formula for cheerfulness. Cameron finally fell asleep at 8:30 and was out for the final three hours of the drive. Tired kid! Thanks to Tyler for keeping it all together that day and driving the whole time! (I tried and kept having visions of crashing.)

Tyler's work put us up in a hotel until we could find a place. It was a nice place with two floors so we could easily put Cameron down for bed and naps. Cameron was thankfully very calm and relaxed through the entire move and hotel stay. He also adjusted very well to our new place: the first night in his new room he snuggled down into his crib and went to sleep without a sound.

On Thursday and Friday we spent the day driving around town and getting familiar with the neighborhoods, and I spent the evening/night scouring the online listings for apartments. It was a long, tiring and stressful process but by Saturday we had narrowed it down to one place. We were adamant about having a place downtown to be close to Tyler's work even though it would be more expensive, but it still had to be as affordable as we could get (without sacrificing safety or amenities like W/D), which was why the process was so grueling because property + downtown + safe almost never = affordable. I turned the town inside out to find this place. We spent Saturday, Sunday, and Monday morning waiting for everything to click into place. Luckily we were able to move in Monday afternoon and had help from people in our new ward (the church is true) and the process was quick. So now we are surrounded almost completely by college students and even have frat and sorority houses down the road. But we figure we were just barely students ourselves, and it meets our criteria of being close to Tyler's work and affordable (affordable enough, anyway). In fact, I am pretty sure we were very blessed to find this place. And it's a small step up the "appreciation ladder": a washer and dryer and a dishwasher! I have been doing dishes by hand for almost three years now and I can't believe the increase in free time. Watching Tyler and I turn it on for the first time was probably comical. And of course the washer/dryer combo saves me untold time and hassle. I will give an "open house" of our apartment once I have things set up. ;)

Monday morning Tyler went for his first day of work. I insisted on taking a picture. He has really enjoyed it so far and we feel very blessed that he got this opportunity. We knew everything would "work out" for our best but I am still always amazed at how well Heavenly Father takes care of us. Our move has actually been full of small miracles and blessings, it really humbles us.

As for the city, we really love it, just like everyone said we would! I like living in a more urban neighborhood because it keeps me from feeling isolated. Just a few blocks away is a big street with lots of shops and restaurants, etc, that we all took a walk down the other day--we're an oddity pushing Cameron in his stroller surrounded mostly by college students and young people. In fact, children have been a rarity at most places we've been--I'll have to research where the mommies take their kids. But we've already visited a park so he could run around, which we'll be doing very frequently. There are lots of green spaces here and also a real good community feel. The people are very friendly and non presumptuous. All in all, it's the perfect city for us: a small community feel + the resources and vibe of a big city. Oh, and I have to brag that the day Cam and I went to the park, it was in the 60s and people were running around in tee shirts and jogging in shorts. Ahhhh, I won't miss cold weather!

Trying out a local pizza joint in a converted old house! Delicious and of course very trendy.
We found our library quickly and Cameron couldn't have been happier. This one is right downtown and actually had some homeless people hanging about...I think I'll have to take him to a more suburban branch in the future!

Stay tuned for our future adventures in Texas! We'll have lots of new things to see and do and are excited to share!