summer 2016

We moved the middle of July of 2016 to be closer to BYU. Jake ended work with a good month or so to have off before starting the MBA program. Mostly just to enjoy some quality time together after working crazy hours for so long. It was SO NICE to have that time together before school started. We had a lot of fun exploring our new area together.

Hike up Hobble Creek Canyon. It was a hot day! 

M and K-man helping Papa roof their new covered patio. 

Maddox with Grandma and Grandpa Pete and Nana and Papa. 

Little J just melts my heart, she is so sweet!

Hike somewhere up Provo Canyon. 

Checking our Bridal Veil Falls for the first time.

We've enjoyed this place multiple times while being back in school!

Having a picnic before we started our hike up to some hot springs in Spanish Fork Canyon. 

It was such a HOT day! We only took like 3 water bottles with us. We didn't think it was that long of a hike. Turns out, it was! 

Jake was determined we would get to the hot springs, though. We kept walking and walking, and we felt like we had to almost be there. We passed a couple different people and they said, "Yeah, just a little bit more and you'll be there." Or, "You're almost there." Ha, I'm not sure what they were thinking because we weren't almost there. We kept walking though, because we figured we had to reach it at any turn of the trail. We finally made it to the hot springs.

We got our feet wet, rested, and headed back after about 10 minutes at the springs. It was pretty miserable getting back, and the kids were spent most of the way back, but we made it back. It felt good to have completed the hike, Jake is good at pushing us on our hikes, but we both agreed never again with that little amount of water and with such high temperatures. Thankfully we made it back safely.  

On our way up, still in good spirits. 

Mr. M thought the hot springs were pretty neat. He liked that he could walk around in them all by himself.

Playing at the local reservoir. 

We went to the Sundance Resort and rode the ski lift up into the mountain. We got off near the top and hiked over to Stewart Falls. It was a beautiful hike!

After the hike we rode over to Heber to get some Dairy Keen. So good... Little Miss J was pretty tired, as you can see!

We got a milkshake to go after lunch and, as you can see, J loved it :)

Fireworks in Salem, I think at their town celebration. It was a great show! They lit the fireworks either on or right by the water.  

Pictures aren't the best, but it was a fun night. 

Exploring new parks in the area. M was in heaven!

M, in his element at home.

Checking out the sweet splash pad in Springville with cousins. It is like a little creek with water running down it and sprayers. So much fun for the kids.

We live right by railroad tracks. The kids had to go out and see the train every time it passed by for about the first 3 months after moving in. 

Miss J playing.

M with his desk. He kept saying, "I've got so much work to do at my desk." 

It was a fun summer! So thankful for Jake.

He is really great at taking us out to do fun things together as a family.

moving on

Life goes way too fast! I have so much I want to document, but so little time. So quickly I'm going to try and get caught up in the next few posts or so.

July 2016
Like I've mentioned, we had big changes coming after Jake was accepted into the MBA program at BYU. Because we would need to move for school, I started to de-junk like crazy last spring; I didn't want to move junk we never used anymore to another apartment. I also got super excited about de-junking thanks to Marie Kondo's method, but that's a story for another day! :)

As I was boxing things up, I took a few pictures to remember our apartment. We absolutely LOVED this apartment. It was a 2-bedroom, 1-bath, with a ginormous living space and kitchen space. We would always joke that we had an indoor track for the kids to play in. We let the kids play with bikes and the red little tykes car (that hadn't been driven outside yet, so the carpet wouldn't get ripped or dirty) inside, and there was plenty of room. Jake, M, and I often reminisce about how nice that apartment was!

This is a picture of the fireplace in the living room. This is one of the things I miss most about the apartment...I love having the warmth of a fireplace in the winter!

This was Jake and I's room.

This was the kids room. A fun story about the picture of the temple: I was at the D.I. one day and found that copy of a painted picture of the Bountiful temple. I was looking at it and realized the artist was our landlord that lived upstairs. I bought it, framed it, and hung it up. Given the friendship we had made with our landlords over the years, I thought it would be special to have.

On Jake's second-to-last day of work, my sister and her husband came and washed windows for us. That Rob, he is a gem! This was one of our kitchen windows and had all sorts of spiders and bugs in it. The deck upstairs sat over it, so it is hard to get to it to clean. Rob braved the bugs and spider sand got it sparkling. Thanks Rob and Tati!

This is Jake getting ready for his last day of work at Goldman Sachs. He really enjoyed the things he was able to learn and do while working there. And boy did he work, H.A.R.D. A normal work week for him was anywhere from 50-55 hours, sometimes more. He was usually up by 4:30am, gone by 5:30am, and didn't get home until 6:30-7:30pm, or later at times. This man did this for 3.5 years.

3.5 YEARS...

 I literally do not know how he did this, but bless him for doing it. While it was hard for all of us, he learned a lot and met some great people. That first job out of college has proven to be a tremendous blessing in many ways.

Post-work picture on the last day. I can't imagine the weight that was lifted from his shoulders walking out of his work building that day. I know I felt a load off of mine! He laid down to take a 20-minute power nap because neighbors were coming to help load the moving truck shortly.

The next day my family came to help us unload the moving truck at our new apartment.

Bless them!! It was hot!

After unloading the moving truck, my parents took the kids and Jake and I headed back to clean the old apartment. While it's no fun doing that deep cleaning that needs to be done before checking out of an apartment, it was nice to have some one-on-one time with Jake! Our landlord's didn't have us pay a deposit or anything when we first moved in, so we worked really hard to leave that thing spotless and sparkling!

This is Jake and I right before we left that special place for good. (The buffet table, recliner, and big TV was theirs.)

So many good memories in this place we got to call home for a few years. As I've learned with life, though, each new move means new memories, new friends, and new things to be learned!