Utah

We've now been in Utah just shy of 3 weeks, and it's been a very busy 3 weeks! Darius started working at the SL airport on the 1st, just a couple days after we arrived. I spent the same day looking around the SL area for a new place for us to call home (which luckily I did) with Joy and Carrie in tow. A day later I flew to Louisiana and back again to pick up Ben and Zach from Nini and Papaw...thanks again for watching them for us Margaret & Alfred!

While waiting to move into our apartment, we were fortunate to be able to stay with my sister Michel's family in our parent's room (Thanks again for opening your home to us!). The boys thoroughly enjoyed their cousins and their cousin's toys! We made dinner for everyone a few nights, and the boys and I went with Michel and her family on a beautiful hike and enjoyed some beautiful colors in the foliage.

 

 

This is the first year we've really experienced a traditional Autumn with the boys. Even when we lived in Alaska, there wasn't that distinct change in season. When we visited Joy's place last week, the boys were curious about the leaves in the driveway, and I was caught a little off guard when I tried to explain Autumn to them.

After a week of staying with family, we moved into our apartment in North Salt Lake last week. We're really happy with our apartment, but the one downfall is that it's on the third floor. I had come down with a cold from the trip out to get the boys, and Darius loaded up the rental truck the morning of our move by himself. Once it came time to haul everything up three flights of stairs, we were both already dreading it. Lucky for us we had Joy to help us out and two extremely nice neighbors that pitched in to help us. All the extra hands easily cut our time in half.

The days following the move were full of unpacking and getting settled into our new place mixed with getting ready for my sister Carrie's baby shower this past weekend...another post.

This week started out with a visit to Black Island Farms. My sister-in-law Stacey invited the boys and I along on a field trip her daughter Hope's preschool class was having there. It was a massive farm with corn mazes, fields of pumpkins, farm animals, tractor rids, and lots of fun stuff for the kids to do. We had a great time, and the boys were very sad when it came time to leave.

 

 

 

 

 

In addition to all the help Joy's given us with the move-in and unpacking, she's also been over to hang out a lot. She's my workout buddy, company at night when Darius is at work, and is now my cooking/baking student. I'm no expert in the kitchen, but she wants to learn, so I'm game to teach her what I know. Yesterday was pie 101. We made 3 apple pies here, 2 for our helpful neighbors and 1 to keep. We then moved on to Clair & Stacey's where we made 4 more, 2 apple and 2 banana cream. She did most of the work, and her pies came out beautiful and super tasty! Awesome work Joy!

If you would have asked me a couple of years ago if I'd ever live in Utah again, I would have firmly said no. When I first moved away over 10 years ago, I thought that there were better options out there. It wasn't until marriage and kids entered the picture that I began to realize the importance that family plays when raising kids. Knowing this I still had my reservations about living in Utah until this past Spring/Summer. After the trips I took with family this year to some of the national/state parks, I realized that Utah has so much more to offer than I ever thought it did. It's sad I grew up here and never appreciated all the great stuff to see and do here. I'm glad that I have the opportunity now to rediscover this state with my own family.

Utah - Hogle Zoo

Wednesday morning I took Ben and Zach to a zoo for the first time. They have always enjoyed looking at animals in books and on DVDs, so I was excited to see what their reactions would be to live animals.

There was a good sized group of us that went. Carrie and Joy came with me and the boys and we met up with Clair, Stacey, Makenna and Hope at the Hogle Zoo. The first animals we saw were the monkeys and the elephants. Their eyes got all big watching the elephants and Zach oohed a lot over them.

The carousel in the zoo was great and I think it was probably the biggest hit among all the kids. Looking back on it now I wish I would have taken the boys on it. I wasn't sure how they would react, but after seeing how Hope enjoyed it I think they would have had fun.

By the time we reached the giraffes the boys fell asleep. We spent some more time walking through the zoo with everyone before we headed out. Carrie had a staring match with a giraffe and Joy got drooled on by a sloth...good times!

It was great to see Clair and his family and I appreciated the time they took to come down to Salt Lake to meet up with us.

After leaving the zoo Carrie navigated us to Lone Star Taqueria for lunch. The little taco joint has some massive burritos and I'm all about a good burrito, so I was excited to try one. I wasn't disappointed, but my belly could have gone with the half size rather than full.

We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping (yuck). I really dislike shopping, but in Cordova your shopping options are slim, if not altogether void. I had a modest list and stuck to it pretty good, which made it a little less painful. Carrie was a great help to me and watched the boys when I had clothes I needed to try on. I was able to get pretty much everything I needed for myself, Darius and the boys in one area, and was happy to have it out of the way.