ABQ Beginnings

600 miles away from my family, my blog suddenly seems way more important...so, here is a humorous retelling of the last four days. (I say humorous because I'm intending to be funny--let me know how that works out by the time I'm done writing this.)

DAY 1--Load the truck

It started out great. Chris left the hotel in Draper at 7:30 in the morning, arriving at the house before 8:00 to finish up the last few to-dos before the truck showed up. He finished those tasks, cleaned up a bit, then read his book while he waited. And waited. And waited.

Luckily, his car was shipped to Albuquerque somewhere in the middle of that. So at least he was stranded at the house.

At 9:30, an hour and a half after the designated truck-arrival time (though still within their approximated window), we were informed that they would not be arriving for another three hours. Delightful.

We went out to lunch instead. There is no problem that Village Inn will not solve. I'm pretty sure about that.

It seemed entirely appropriate at that point to divest ourselves of the responsibilities of parenthood and ditch Amy with all the kids while we loaded the truck. Or, more accurately, watch a bunch of other guys load the truck.

Five and a half hours worth of watching. Fun stuff, let me tell ya.


It was 7:00 by the time we finally pulled out of Salt Lake. That was a bit off from our original plan of leaving at 1:00.

DAY 1 1/2--Drive to Albuquerque

I drove, Chris slept. Then I slept while Chris drove. And vice versa. And again.

It was a long drive.

My favorite part was Colorado. Why? I added a new state to my list. I'd never been to Colorado before, and now I have. Although I must say, there is not much to see in the dark. Weird. The highway signs and the lines on the road are roughly identical to Utah, and past that, I couldn't see anything. Perhaps someday I'll go back during daylight hours. That could be fun.

In addition to not being able to see anything, for the entire span of our Colorado stretch of road I was the only person awake in the vehicle. Maybe someday I'll go back in the daylight with people who are awake. That could be way fun.

DAY 2--Sleep. Wake up to eat. Go back to sleep.

DAY 3--Makeover Day

The girls wanted something fun to do, and I had been planning to cut Chris's hair. For the fun of it, we cut Ben's hair first. Jane was our photographer.

Then we cut Chris's hair. That seemed less picture-worthy (mostly because the girls were taking a bath at that point and we didn't have an alternate photographer handy), so I don't have any pictures. I will say, however, that his hair looks fabulous. So does the rest of him.

Then we cut Megan's hair. It started with a trim of her bangs, then I ended up trimming all the way around.

Now she has eyes again.

Then we cut Jane's hair. Why? Because she asked. Not that you can tell from the expression on her face.

Three unprofessional inches later, her hair is short and semi-uneven, but cute. While I agreed to cut her hair, I did resist cutting it as short as she originally asked. I wasn't up for a trim above the ears.

I was the only one who did not get my hair cut yesterday. I'm totally ok with that.

Following our barbershop, the girls threw themselves a tea party.

Nail painting followed. No pictures of that since I had the nailbrush in hand and the girls' hands were temporarily incapacitated due to wetness.

To round out the day, I found a few self-portraits I thought you'd enjoy. They made me chuckle.

DAY 4--Albuquerque Zoo

I'll post some pictures as soon as we go. Which will be right now.

Amy, Amy, Amy!

It's Amy's birthday. 

Amy is important to us.

In fact, she's one of our all-time favorite people.

She's great with babies.

And crying toddlers.

And happy toddlers.

She's handy for random smiles, too.

And random paint stirring.

We live farther away from Amy now than we did before (like, on Monday).

So we're sending our birthday wishes via the blogosphere.

HaPpY bIrThDaY aMy!!

To Bid Farewell

I'm sitting in a dark hotel room, hoping that the brightness of my laptop screen won't wake up the girls. I have roughly one hour until our official plans begin, but I'm willing to sacrifice that if Jane and Megan will sleep a bit longer and be that much happier today.

All that is left is to load the truck. Then we're gone.

I'm excited for something to be happening, finally. For months and months we've talked about everything--we've talked about moving, we've talked about starting a new job, we've talked about going to grad school. Now we're actually going!

But we're leaving. We won't live in our house anymore. We don't live in our house anymore.

Our apartment is much smaller, but it's going to be fun. Jane is very excited to have the top bunk on the new bunk beds (new is a relative term--I grew up on those bunk beds, and so did my dad). It's going to be easy to keep it clean with the smaller space. It comes with a pool and a playground.

But we're leaving. I know where everything is that I care about in Salt Lake, and I have no problem navigating the roads to get to new places. I revel in knowing multiple routes to the same place and being able to give fabulous directions. Once we move, I won't know where anything is.

It'll be an adventure. It took me a long time to learn my way around Salt Lake valley, but it was fun. I now have many more chances to get lost in Albuquerque, and soon enough I'll be an expert there, too. I won't be held back by something as small as new roads.

But we're leaving. We'll have a new ward, with lots and lots of unfamiliar faces. New callings. Probably an invitation to speak.

We'll have a new ward. We've already met the Relief Society president, and Chris is good friends with her husband from all the way back in our Logan days. Being new in a ward is always fun, too--no one has heard my stories yet.

But we're leaving. Right before Christmas, too. No family Christmas parties. No random stops at Grandma's house for candy and happy meal toys. No driving to Grandpa's after opening presents on Christmas day.

It's our first Christmas on our own. This is our chance to set real Christmas traditions. We'll be closer as our little family of five than we've ever been before. Christmas will be a wonderful day for our family to simply be together, in a way we never have before.

But we're leaving. We're leaving our friends. We're leaving Jane's perfect preschool. We're leaving trips to Draper every other week. We're leaving Outlook and mentoring at Power of Choice. We're leaving going to Grandma and Grandpa's house whenever we want. We're leaving Amy.

It's a lot harder for me to countermand that one today.

I know that moving to Albuquerque is the right thing for our family to do. I know that now is the perfect time for us to go. I know that God has a good reason for all things, including having 40 showings of our house with no offers. I know that we are needed in Albuquerque--someone needs us for something, I just don't know what yet. I know that it will be a fun adventure, full of new friends and new excitements that we didn't even know we wanted.

I also know that it's hard to say goodbye.

An important part of saying goodbye is letting the emotion live. Burying it away only digs holes inside that are hard to fill later. So for now, here is a pictorial farewell. Crying or laughing, it's good to celebrate what we've had here.

Good times.