First Utah Post

And here we are--Utah!  I honestly never thought we'd ever come back here to live, but if there's one constant in life it's change, right? Our move up here made a total of 7 for our little family in our 5.5 years of marriage.  And it's not over yet!  But, after a lot of adjusting, crying, self pity, and then a conversation with some friends last night, I decided to just be grateful.  I'm so grateful for my life.  I'm so grateful that I had the amazing experience to live in downtown SF and be able to walk to the MoMA and live on the 11th floor of a high rise.  I'm so grateful for our time in Menlo Park and the wonderful friends we have there, the beauty, the weather, etc.  Most people who come to this earth don't get to live in paradise, so I'm so so grateful that I got the opportunity to.  Last night we were talking with some friends who have lived in Utah ever since they've been at college, and that they are excited for a new adventure, which hopefully business school will lead them to.  It made me reflect on all of the wonderful places I've been in that time and the wonderful people/experiences I've had and I realized what a fun life we've had, and that this is just another awesome step on that adventure.  And who knows what the next step will be--Cincinnati, Texas, Charlotte, Seattle, ...?  And yes, I've told Nathan that when we do move again in 2 years, I will cry again, so just be ready.

 So Nate started his MBA program at BYU and is really enjoying it so far.  He's of course a networking superstar and has been so focused on figuring out his internship for the summer and where would be the best place for him and us after this.  I'm so grateful that he is willing to take this stress upon him.  After another spreadsheet session looking at pros/cons of different places to live, my head started hurting.  For me, it was a brief 20 minutes or so, but this is what he thinks about all day long.  We don't know where we're going yet, but we're trying to weigh everything and hopefully we'll find something good!

 Probably the best part of the program for me has been the spouse association, which has so many planned activities, exercise programs, girls' nights, and just an overall support group as we go through the MBA program.  One of these activities was raspberry picking in Mapleton.  It was so awesome. We had a great time, and the couple who run it do it as kind of a retirement project (aka, not for profit), so they were quick to say, "Please eat as many as you want!"  That was really good to have cleared up because there was a lot of the ^ above going on :)

 The raspberry bushes were massive--like 5 feet tall.  We had a great time and are slowly getting to know more people in the program, moms with kids Claire's age, and hopefully it will just keep getting better.

My friend Morgan and I also started a little co-op preschool for Claire and her little boy Grant.  It's been so fun.  Here they are sorting M&M's on " M Day".  This has also been such a blessing!

And, as I see the leaves starting to turn on the mountain, I'm reminded of all that I need to do before the snow comes!  We've done lots of fun activities so far, but there's so much more to do.  So, thus begin the Utah chronicles from our family.  If you're ever here, we have an empty basement just waiting for you to stay--so come!