UTAH

We have been in Utah a little over a week now! Minus no sleep and a very clingy Thomas, and daddy not being here, we've had so much fun. We did the Tulip festival with Sara, Amanda, and Brittany and all the kiddos. Tulips are still my favorite. 

We've done just about everything at thanksgiving point, I think I was there every day last week. Thomas has been having so much fun with his cousins-and they are so sweet with him. He especially loves Tyler. 

He's warming up to grandparents and aunts and uncles, one minute he loves them the next he's scared of them. But I love this picture of him and my mom. 

Kyle was an instant favorite though. 

My mom was watering flowers one day and Thomas decided he wanted to soak himself. Head all the way under and all!

And tulips round two::golf carts are the way to go. 

I no longer have to worry about flying alone with Thomas because we are moving back. Next weekend believe it or not. We are excited to be back with our families close by. JT told me to stay here because I am prego and pretty useless for moving, and Thomas would be no help either. So he is handling the packing and driving along with my brother in law guy who is heading out to help Friday. We are very thankful he was so quick to offer help. So hooray! Utah will always be our home I hope. 

Side note: I am 27 weeks today!! 13 more!! Or 91 days. 91. That number is both scary and exciting to me. 

Birthday trip to Utah

Thursday of last week, jt asked me where I wanted to go for my birthday dinner Friday night. I jokingly said mi ranchito, my favorite place in Utah that I crave on a weekly basis, and he just said okay. Good husband right? Which led to us looking up flights and deciding to take a spontaneous Utah trip. We left Friday afternoon and I get to stay ten whole days! JT went back Sunday evening but I'm just happy he could be here a few days with us. And have my birthday dinner at mi ranchito. So this trip has been my rather expensive birthday present which I am more then okay with! Thomas had never been on a plane before and I seriously was having anxiety about it the entire time waiting for our flights/on the flight. But he ended up doing great, even with a long layover and long flights and getting in so late. I just have to get him back to Utah alone....so anxiety is still going strong. I'm sure he will do great though. 

Our three hour layover in Phoenix. I was so swollen and sore from flying, JT occupied Thomas most of the time and let me just sit and be a prego whale and eat my pizza and diet coke. Thomas ran around the entire time I think. Literally. But it paid off because he crashed out for the entire flight into Salt Lake. We didn't get in until 11:30 so we were all tired but it was nice to have a sleeping baby for one of the flights. 

We spent the weekend at JTs moms house. Amber and Casey were staying there too, we saw JTs dad and Shelle, Ashlee and rod and the girls, and of course his mom and Troy and little sister. I took no pictures I can't even believe it! But it was great to see them, even though Thomas was a whiney clingy crib hating stink the entire time there. The last hour or so on Sunday he finally was a little happier and allowed grandmas and aunts to play with him. 

His new thing is to do something, clap for himself, and then stare down every person in the room until they start clapping for him too. It is so hilarious. 

Before JT left we went for a quick drive up AF canyon and let Thomas walk around a little bit. He loves the mountains just like we do. 

And apparently it wore him out because he fell asleep like this. 

We've had a great week so far but are definitely missing daddy. I'll post more in a few days about our trip. Allison and Guy get here tonight and I am so excited to see them!! Thomas will have so much fun with his cousins and I can't wait. 

Cannon Beach

On Monday we took a little unpacking break and drove about an hour and a half away to the coast with JTs mom and step dad. Oregon and Washington are some of the few states that I never explored as a kid with my family so I am soo excited to be able to see everything the northwest has to offer. We drove down into Portland and then headed as west as we could possibly go to Cannon Beach. The drive there was amazing. I need to be better about taking pictures, it was definitely picture worthy. A tiny little road through huge forests of the tallest trees I have ever seen. And then all of a sudden we hit the cutest beach/tourist town and we were at the beach! It was about 50 degrees and cloudy and windy but still beautiful. 

These beaches are so different here, lots of rocks all over the place. I'm excited to come back when the weather warms up to see what it's like!

Thomas's hair kills me in this one. He needs a haircut. Bad. 

Out of nowhere he has turned into such a little man. He loved watching all of the seagulls and dogs that were being walked along the beach. He has become super aware of everything that goes on around him and wants to be apart of it all, never wants to stop moving, and constantly jabbers and tries to communicate. 

We ate an early dinner at a local restaurant with lots of fresh seafood (puke) but I decided to be a good sport since everyone else loves it, and apparently nothing beats sea food right by the ocean. We were the only people in there other then a pair of probably 60 year old women who were way too drunk for 4:00 in the afternoon. I think we overheard their entire conversation. 

After dinner we headed back to try and beat rush hour traffic. Apparently getting stuck in rush hour from Portland across the bridge to Vancouver is awful...like hours of waiting on the bridge awful.  It's crazy how different living in a huge city can be. But it's beautiful here and we can't wait to explore more this weekend!

Utah-->Washington

We are officially Washington residents!! Weird. 

We made the drive last Friday night and drove straight through all night, thinking Thomas would sleep the whole way and it would be a piece of cake. Let me tell you-that is not what happened. Not even close! He slept the first few hours, then decided to be awake and screaming/yelling/trying to escape until 3 in the morning. He has never been a great sleeper, really the only place he will sleep is his crib. Which is both a good and a bad thing. He slept from 3 until about 6, which is when we got to our house here. It was a long night and one we definitely don't want to be doing again anytime soon! 

JTs mom and stepdad were nice enough to drive the truck out for us so we could drive together in our other car. I'm sure it was a miserable drive for them but they were so happy and willing to do it and we are so grateful they did!

We set up air mattresses and all got about three hours of sleep until we started the unpacking. It rained the whole day and was sooo foggy. I guess I need to get used to that. It has been thick fog and drizzly rain ever since we got here almost a week ago! This is my view every. Single. Day. It hasn't gone below 50 degrees though-which is wonderful. I'll take this over the freezing cold anyday. 

Thomas loves this back deck off the middle floor. It will be a great place for him to play once the weather warms up! 

Since Saturday it has been trips to stores, unpacking boxes, and organizing everything. We are finally starting to feel like we are home. It has been half a year since we lived in our own house as a family of 3 so it's nice to have all of our own things and our own space again. But we are already missing out family and friends. It will take awhile to adjust I think.

 

JTs mom helped me hem the curtains in the picture up there, I never would have done it by myself. Why does IKEA make all their curtains SO long?? I will never understand. Our place is a little townhome in Hazel Dell, Washington. Basically Vancouver. It has three levels and three bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms and a little one car garage. So really similar to our house we had in Lehi. It needs a little bit of TLC but it will be fun to fix it up the way we want too! Mostly just painting the awful walls-dark purple, green and a peachy neutral? Terrible. I'll post some pictures of it in the next few days once everything is all unpacked finally. 

We are slowly getting used to the idea that this isn't a vacation and we will be here for at least 3-4 years. It will be good for our little family, but we will welcome visitors at any time!!