Well anyway… Here’s what we’ve been during the past seven weeks in Utah… We spent the first week just getting used to life in the desert. Scorching temperatures, dry skin, open freeways. But we also reacquainted with family and friends, and the MOUNTAINS. I helped the movers unloaded all of our boxes and furniture into our garage while Trevin finished his work in Michigan. We also started to give the builders a gentle nudge since not much had been accomplished since February. The kids and I had a chance to go to my parents cabin to check it out. We can’t wait until it is finished so we can spend some time there. Hopefully we will be able to get a yard in at our home so we can offer some help there soon. Very soon!
After 10 days in Utah, I flew back to Michigan with Trevin’s mom to attend his graduation. The kids stayed with my sister and her husband, Samantha and Jesse. The graduation was really nice and we had a great time in Ann Arbor childless. We stayed at Weber’s Inn, had lunch at Zingerman’s, dinner at The Quarter, and took the Ford Rouge Factory Tour. Then I flew back to Utah. Trevin stayed in Michigan for the final week of his residency. Meanwhile, the kids and I went to the all Utah County swimming pools to stay cool, barbequed, and just hung out. All the while, nudging the builder more and more.
The next weekend, I flew to Michigan again. This time I went to drive across the country with Trevin. Sam generously offered to take the kids again. I took the red-eye flight to Detroit, so when I landed I went to John’s house (where Trevin was staying) and slept for a few hours. I spent the afternoon and had lunch with Kim and Holly. After a few final errands (closing bank accounts, forwarding mail, etc.), we began our cross-country trek.
We first drove a couple of hours to the little Amish town Shipshewana, Indiana. We had an authentic Amish meal there and continued our travels toward Nauvoo, Illinois.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nauvoo
After Nauvoo, we drove a very long way to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Nebraska was incredibly beautiful with rolling hills of corn. We stayed the night in Sioux Falls on the eastern edge of South Dakota bordering Minnesota and Iowa and a couple of hours north of Omaha, Nebraska. The following day we drove to Rapid City, South Dakota home of Mount Rushmore. On our way we stopped at Wall Drug Store.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Drug
About 45 minutes after Wall Drug, we arrived at Mount Rushmore National Memorial, near Keystone, South Dakota. We thoroughly enjoyed Mt. Rushmore. We spent about an hour there and then started our drive toward Wyoming. The drive through South Dakota and Wyoming were both very dry although the Black Hills were beautiful and very green. We drove to Casper, Wyoming where we welcomed the sight of an Outback Steakhouse. We were starving after our cheap burger at Wall Drug nine hours prior.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mt._Rushmore
After a night’s stay in Casper, we were on the home stretch. We did make a spontaneous stop at Martin’s Cove. It is a historic site in Wyoming. It is located on the Mormon Trail and is also part of the North Platte-Sweetwater segment of the Oregon Trail. While overlooking this landmark, we both noted that all of our stops had been on hallowed ground. We felt a peaceful, somber feeling.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin%27s_Cove
We rolled ahead for a final 4 or 5 hours skipping lunch for Luis’s, a delicious Mexican Restaurant not far from our new home. We arrived at 4 p.m only to find that he wasn’t open on Monday evenings. We settled for Taco Time at the local Chevron. After some unloading and repacking we headed 90 miles south to reunite with our kids.
In the following two weeks, Trevin spent several days in Mountain Green trying to keep the progress on our home moving forward. We jumped around from my parents' and Trevins’ mom’s doing our best not to outstay our welcome (which we probably did!) We did get to spend a few days recreating at the lake and water park. We went to a festive annual July 4th get-together with the Winegar family. Finally, one week after our planned move-in date and five long weeks after leaving Michigan, we spent the night at our new home on Friday, July 13.
On Monday, July 23 Trevin started his new job and was lucky enough to get the next day off, as it was a State holiday. And, so far so good. He seems to be enjoying it so far. I had a brief introduction to the district that I will be working and it is very rural to say the least. More to come regarding that I’m sure.
Since we’ve been in our home, we have had a lot of the recreational opportunities that we missed so much. From our front door, we can hike, mountain bike, and road bike. Within 10-15 minutes of our home there is a ski resort and a reservoir. We went swimming at the reservoir last Thursday night and had a blast!
We have had lots of friends and family who have been very helpful and supportive during this moving process whether is has been letting us stay with them, lifting our heaving boxes, watching our kids, or helping us clean. We have appreciated all of the help. We have met new neighbors that we are anxious to get to know better, especially Avery. We still need to digest everything to know if we would “do it again!”
FYI... Pardon my formatting issues, I'm sure this will improve over time. To see entire gradution banquet photo, click on it. It will enlarge. Also, copy and paste the URL addresses in the text for more info about the places we visited on our trip. Last thing, it's 12:20 am so please ignore the typos :)
