Moved in. Small miracles.

After leaving Nick and Wilda's, we moved into an airbnb we shared with Megan and her kids. Emilia and Raven stayed at my parents house, but all of them came up in the evenings to the airbnb. 

We played board games, video games, and put puzzles together.

We slept rather poorly.

Cecily got some "merch" that she'd ordered weeks earlier. (That's Ori from Ori and the Blind Forest.)

We got cheap ($1!) snow cones and stopped at the splash pad.

On Sunday, Haylee brought her kids up so that we could do a cousins photo for my mom. We met at a park and I took a few shots of all the kids together. Which I'm just now realizing I haven't processed yet. Sorry Mom!

While we were there, Jules made a friend and the two of them caught a grasshopper whose leg got pulled off in the process. They then made a doctor's office for him and made him ride a toy elephant around for transportation. Picture for proof.

We bought a new game right at the end of staying with Nick and Wilda. It's a game that my friend Camber (and her sister, Jori) introduced us to called Flamecraft. It's about dragons and has cute artwork. The kids played it while we were in Springville with cousins.

Da sistas. :P

The airbnb had a foosball table. No one was very good, but everyone liked hitting the ball around.

Jules and Harrison were both wearing Mario so they wanted a picture.

We had to wait a few hours between when the airbnb needed us out and when we could get into our new house, so we went to my parents. The kids watched Wild Kratts and my mom and I did a puzzle.

We had 10 Uhaul pods and I was worried about how we were going to be able to move all that stuff into our house. My parents were willing to come help, and Gina, and one of Steve's friends. But we had 4 young movers put all the stuff IN to the pods and zero *young* movers to take it all out.  We did ask the church ward here to send people if anyone was willing, but I didn't count on anyone coming.

I ended up being floored by the outpouring of help. I didn't count, but I think over 20 people came. We had 10 pods emptied in an hour and a half. It was miraculous and humbling. I was so grateful. It was also fun to see Em and Mira hit it off with one of the young guys that came to help. ;)

This was our first selfie during a gorgeous sunset from our new front porch. Harrison refused to stand anywhere we could see him, but he's there!

Three days after moving in, we celebrated 4th of July. We went over to my parents' house in the afternoon. Weirdly, I spent a large amount of the morning making shirts for Jules and Mira. I wanted to *buy* them shirts, but I couldn't find anything I liked.

My mom made a yummy and fitting dessert.

I also made myself a hairbow from the scraps of the girls' shirts.

The girls found out from the guy from moving day that a snow cone place in Provo had Sonic themed snow cones. Mira, being the biggest Sonic fan ever at the moment, decided it was a MUST SEE. So we all headed over for seriously expensive, though also seriously tasty snow cones. The Sonic one was better than the Shadow one IMO.

Jules, of course, cried, because we only bought her a $5 rainbow snow cone instead of a $9 rainbow unicorn ice cream snow cone. Childrens lives these days are so afflicted.

The next week, my parents rented a bobcat in the hopes they could move the 3 truckloads of rocks the previous owners had spread over their entire front and side yards. I told my mom we would come help if they needed it and we ended up going over in the afternoon. I don't feel like we helped that much, but the job got done. Now they just need to pour concrete and fill in with top soil and grass.

Harrison loves popsicles. I believe I shot this picture because he was out there talking to it. Haha.

Mid-July, EM TURNED 16! That's so crazy. That's old enough to drive. Though we didn't even figure out the permit situation until we moved back here. But after the birthday party, we went to the DMV and the permit test was passed on the first try. I was super proud. There were two people just while we were standing at the counter that failed and were going to have to retake it. Now we just have to find time to brave actually going out driving.

The party was a Resident Evil themed party because that is Em's current obsession. I don't know if you can see the cut-outs, but all the Resident Evil characters that she likes are on there. Especially Leon Kennedy.

Not pictured: Lizzy. Her mom came and got her early.

All of us except Em and Steve went to the reservoir one day. I built a sand castle while the kids played in the freezing cold mountain run-off water.

My kids were so impressed by this, I have to wonder if they've ever seen actual good sand castles. But I will take them still thinking I'm cool in whatever way I can get.

Later that week, we went to Thanksgiving Point. Steve's work still provides a free pass once a month for up to 8 people. We meant to go while Megan was here, but it didn't work out and Jules has been begging to go see the butterflies. So we finally made it happen. They had a newly-emerged Atlas moth, the biggest moth on the planet, in their incubation area.

Jules and Harrison were both able to hold a couple of moths. The older kids did too, I think, they just didn't come running to show me. :)

There is a butterfly on his right hand down there.

 After the Butterfly Biosphere, we ate a picnic lunch and then headed to the dinosaur museum. It was a quick trip because we also wanted to stop at the curiosity museum. But we still got to play at the sand table and see how much we weighed next to a dinosaur and crawl through caves.

We stopped at the Museum of Natural Curiosity because Cassie came with and told us about the "natural world" trade shop they have. You can bring in things from the natural world (like pinecones, rocks, shells, bones, fossils, etc.) and trade them for cool things other kids bring in. Each item is worth a certain number of "points" and you being able to talk about the thing gives you even more points. Then you spend your points on different items other kids have brought in, or you can save up and buy more gift-shop type items. It was a fun discovery.

 Harrison loves the Octonauts movie where all of the Octonauts' vehicles turn into one big robot (kinda like Voltron). The other day, I found him standing on two of his cars, holding one between his legs, and holding one in each hand. He was pretending to save people. And it was adorable.

One of the things I missed most about living in Springville is going to Reams grocery store. And one of my favorite things about Reams is their amazing sales on fruit. 

They came through for me a couple weeks ago when they had strawberries for 69 cents a pound. So I bought 24 pounds and attempted to make syrup and jam. I ended up with lots of syrup. Not even sad about it.

Also, an example to me of how God is aware of us and blesses us. The thing is, it would have been so easy for me to not recognize it as God's hand. I think it can all be in how we choose to see the world. I like seeing it as God's hand and feeling like there is a greater being out there that loves us and watches out for us.

When we were in St. George, Jules got to talk to cousin Haley quite a bit because Haley was also living at Grandma and Grandpa Watts' while she does a service mission there. One of the ways Haley is serving is in a younger grade classroom at a local school. When she found out Jules likes bugs, she told Jules how they had gotten a butterfly kit where they got caterpillars that turned into chrysalises and then butterflies. She BEGGED me to get her one of those kits. I told her she had to wait until we were moved into our new house and things settled a little.

She remembered. And after a few weeks of living here, she asked if we could get a kit now. I went on to Amazon and found that not only did you have to pay $15-$25 for the collapsible cage and the food and tools and such, but you then had to pay another $20-$25 to get 5 caterpillars to inhabit your cage. With all the expenses of moving into a new house, I didn't feel like I could justify spending $40 on this experience right then. I told her we might have to wait and get it for Christmas and then get the caterpillars when it got closer to spring. She was devastated.

The next day (literally), I went into our garage to get something out of the freezer for dinner and saw something on the ground. I thought it was cat poop, but it turned out to be a caterpillar. Jules was excited to have a live caterpillar and happily put it in a jar and gave it leaves. But soon we realized it wasn't moving and it hadn't eaten any of the food. We told her sorry, but it must have died (it was really hot in the garage where I found it). She set the jar by the front door and with everything that was going on, we forgot about it until about a week later when she went to empty out the jar because she needed it for another bug. She brought it to me and was like, "Mom. I don't see the caterpillar. Did it disappear? Did you throw it away?" and then a second later, "Wait, is that a chrysalis? Mom, did it turn into a chrysalis?" I went to look, and sure enough, it had turned into a chrysalis. 

That particular kind of caterpillar doesn't hang as a chrysalis, but buries itself in the dirt. Since it didn't have any dirt, it just turned on the bottom of the jar. We waited about a week and half and hadn't seen any signs of life in the chrysalis and I was getting worried that it wouldn't make it. I decided we should spritz it with some water every once in a while to make sure it didn't get too dried out to crack out of the shell. Well, Jules was very enthusiastic with her spritzing and we ended up having to dump some water out because then I was worried it might drown (have no idea if that's even possible, but I didn't want to risk it). And when we tipped the jar back, the chrysalis rolled. And then it moved on it's own! It was the coolest thing to witness. I was so glad and so grateful for confirmation that this thing was still alive and doing its thing.

The day we got home from the butterfly biosphere, Jules went to check on it and was like, "Mom, did it hatch?" I didn't think it had, but she persisted. "Why is there a crack in the chrysalis then?" I looked closer. There *was* a crack. I looked around the jar, and there, at the top, was a little brown moth.

I didn't feel like we could afford to buy a butterfly kit for Jules, so he provided one for us for free. Jules got to be a part of the entire process and I didn't have to spend a dime to give it to her. It was miraculous on so many levels and I was and am so grateful.

The cracked chrysalis:

The little brown moth (at the top of the jar).

We are mostly moved in. We have some boxes of stuff I don't know what to do with. We're still debating whether to replace the floors upstairs now or later. We are for sure replacing the 23 year old roof. I'm still trying to decide if I feel capable of building kitchen cabinets so I can afford to change my tiny kitchen sooner rather than later. There are still THINGS. But life is settling. The kids are mostly registered for their various schools. I'm looking for a job for the first time in 15 years. Harrison is stubbornly refusing to fully potty train. (He's great at going #1 in the toilet. #2 is a competely different game.) We are gonig raspberry picking in the morning. And not much can be better than unlimited fresh raspberries. So I better get to bed. Love y'all!

Movin Movin Movin!

I told Wilda today that I didn't do blog posts much anymore because I didn't have my lovely mother-in-law cooking food for me on Sundays. My time is taken up with making the food. But I'm at her house. And she's cooking dinner. So she said she expected a blog post today. Walked into that one, I guess. Haha. :)

Because my kids were moving, their friends wanted to spend as much time with them as possible. Mira's best friend Belle (Anabelle) came over a few times the last few weeks. One of the times, they painted dragons on each other faces.

Later that week, I flew to Colorado to attend Elijah's graduation and my mom's surprise 70th birthday party for my dad. I couldn't say that on the last blog post because it was a surprise and it hadn't happened yet. Alison flew out and Ben's family drove out as well.

I made Raven drive to pick me up at 2am and Alex drive to drop me off at 4am. Those were not good nights sleep for anyone. I was very very stressed out, so that didn't help.

Friday, all of the adults went to an escape room together. We beat it even though the helper guy said only 14% of all groups completed it. And we only used an average number of hints. Go us!

Saturday morning, the graduation was at 9am. It graduation went well. We attempted to be the loudest family yelling for a graduate (because it would've embarrassed reserved Elijah), but we forgot to bring cowbells and air horns, so we didn't win that competition. It wouldn't have mattered anyway because Elijah says he was too wrapped up in completing the class prank (which was having every single graduate hand the principal a tiny plastic rubber ducky as they shook his hand) to realize we were yelling for him.

Afterward, several church members who had graduates had a joint graduation party that we all went to. So much yummy food. This was the display for Elijah.

Saturday night we just hung out. Then Sunday, we had Dad's party. We made him a golf cupcake cake. He read about things that happened the year he was born. Then we played party games. So many games. They were fun and funny and totally silly. Then we heated up the yummiest dinner. My mom had someone pick up catered BBQ from a local restaurant Saturday night and we just heated it in the oven. We also made baked beans, mac-n-cheese, and pasta salad.

While I was there, we did a walkthrough with our realtor (she had to go through twice since we were in two different non-Utah places). It was in Mapleton. We liked it, but we didn't LOVE it. There was another house in Springville that was only about a mile away from the Mapleton one that we also liked but didn't love and the whole time I was in Colorado, we were debating which house to put an offer on. We finally decided to put on offer on the Mapleton one. We got outbid by someone offering more and all cash. So we then offered on the Springville one. I flew home Monday morning, which was Memorial Day, the same day we put in the offer. We finally found out late Tuesday night that the couple had been out of town. They let us know Wednesday that they decided to pull their house off the market. *sigh*

Finally, Wednesday, we did another walkthrough of a house just 3 houses down from the Springville one we'd just offered on. We thought it was great, though maybe a little small, and put an offer in on it. They accepted and we had a move in date of July 1. I was so relieved that I no longer had to make time to look through listings and talk them through with Steve and send them to the realtor and be available to do a walkthrough on facetime. I could just focus on packing!

 Jules wanted a baby dragon in a nest painted on her face one day.

Harrison is always adorable when he's asleep.

I love it when my kids play together.

Two days before we were supposed to put all of our stuff in PODS, Jules' preschool class had a belated field trip to a rock pool beach called Salt Water State Park. I couldn't deny her being able to go to it, so she and Harrison and I spent a morning at the beach and it was SO COOL.

We saw red rock crabs,

a live octopus,

 moon snails (look at the size of them)!

a gunnel fish (not related to, but looks very much like an eel),

lots of starfish (Jules has one in her hand),

hermit and baby spider crabs,

plus birds, a dead lionsmane jellyfish, and lots of mussels, oysters, clams, and one live sand dollar.

And then, suddenly, it was moving day. We hired a moving company to help us load our pods on Friday. They did all the heavy lifting and we finished up after they'd gone. We could have had them do all of it, but to save money we just had them do as much as they could in 4 hours. Then Saturday, we had sisters from the ward come over and help us clean. We got done with that MUCH faster than I expected. People started showing up at 9:30 and by 11, we were almost finished. So we decided to get some lunch and then pack up and start driving. 

We didn't have a table or a couch for 2 days, so Mira decided to eat outside her bedroom window and Em sat on the floor.

We got a hotel room in Pendleton, OR that night and then drove the rest of the way to my parents' house on Monday. There was a rainbow that  was so gorgous on the horizon, but it was really hard to see in the photos. We stayed at my parents' house Sunday and Monday night because we were supposed to do the inspection walkthrough on our new house Monday evening at 5pm.

Steve and I went first and then my parents came with the kids so they could see their new house. Sadly, after doing the walkthrough and hearing all the things wrong during the inspection, we didn't feel like we could buy the house. There were A LOT of medium-bad things wrong with the house (like a basement doorway not being reinforced so the foundation was starting to crack, windows too broken to open anymore, a leak in the roof, piping done incorrectly so sinks didn't work properly, the primary bathroom shower handle being broken off, etc. That's not even all of it.) But the worst part was that it looked SO MUCH SMALLER in person. The bedrooms were all tiny, even the primary bedroom. Four kids would have had to share rooms, but there were not two rooms big enough to share unless we put two of them in the primary bedroom, which is weird.

So we backed out of the contract. Which meant we had to look at more houses. We stayed most of the day Tuesday so we could look at houses in person with our realtor. We weren't impressed with any of our choices. 

Wednesday, we drove down to St. George. We planned to stay with Nick and Wilda until June 25th at which point, we'd go back up to Springville to share an airbnb with Megan's family until our July 1st move in date. But since we'd backed out of our contract, it was up in the air if we'd have to go into ANOTHER place to stay. I was worried about moving my kids around that much.

When we arrived in St George, we had a small misunderstanding with Em's cat, Mystery and Nick. So I drove Em and Mystery back up to my parents' house Friday morning. We arrived around 1:15 and I met the realtor at 1:45 in Saratoga Springs. We looked at 7 more houses that day. The last one we looked at was about 2 blocks from the house we backed out of the contract on. It was bigger and more expensive by about $80k. I didn't want to consider it, but Steve did, so we looked at it.

The next day was my Dad's birthday. When he took a nap that afternoon, my mom and I went with the realtor to look at 2 more houses. One of them my mom and the realtor thought should be condemned. I thought it seemed like a fun fixer-upper project. But Steve hates fixer-uppers, so that one was nixed. The next one had enough bedrooms, but felt so so cramped at 2400 sq ft.

So we ended up offering on the expensive Springville house. I was mad about it actually. I didn't want that much debt or that high of a mortgage payment. But then the sellers were willing to close quickly even though they were still fully living in the house. We gave them until July 5th to close, which would have been a little under 3 weeks. They countered and asked to actually close on the 1st. The same closing date from our original contracted house. It couldn't be a coincidence. I've come to feel like we are supposed to be in that neighborhood. I hope that's the case. 

 We've enjoyed our stay with Grandma and Grandpa. Swimming in the pool a lot, getting rashes from too much chlorine exposure and skin being unused to the dry weather and salt water, playing at the splash pad, hiking Cedar Breaks, going to the dinosaur dig museum, playing with new toys, etc. I got my hair done.

Harrison also managed to break a Corell bowl. Because he's got destructive superpowers.

Cecily and Mira attended a musical workshop with Sebastian and Florence in Cedar City where they learned 5 songs from different musicals and then performed a little Broadway something or other. They stayed at Joe and Cindy's for two nights for that so I didn't have to drive up to Cedar City and back with Jules and Harrison 4 times.

We had a dinner, suggested by Mira, where we only ate things that ended in the sound O. Jello, potatoes, buffalo chicken burritos with avocados and tomatoes. We were also going to have mangos, but they didn't ripen fast enough.

 On Tuesday, we move up to the airbnb with the Staleys, so our time with Grandma and Grandpa is coming to an end. Only one week until we move into our new house!