Our New Home

I'll just go ahead and start with the driving part and skip the goodbye's. Just know, they were quite sad. Brody drove the moving truck while Sal and I took the car. We both had books on tape to listen to and only drove half way Monday and the rest on Tuesday. Both of these things together made the trip VERY bearable.

This is what I got to look at for almost 12 hours...

It's a good thing this was also there to look at.
We slept over in Kanab on the grass in front of an LDS church...... I know, we're cheap.

We arrived at about 1 on Tuesday and even though we had a number of family and friends offer to help us move in that evening, we figured we'd just get it done since we got there so early. Surprisingly it only took an 1 1/2 to get everything shoved in to our apartment.... and then about 5 days plus to get it all put away and cleaned. It was nice to have a few days to get everything settled in before reality hit-- with school for Brody and the job search for me.

So far, we're pleased with our apartment (the brand new carpet helped with that) and we're getting used to the heat. I think. Well, actually it's pretty easy to get used to when you just stay inside all day, which is what we do if we can help it. We live right across the street from Thunderbird so Brody can just walk to school and we actually live really close to just about anything. It's pretty nice. Hopefully my job will be included in that 'just about anything' list. Here are some pictures of the before (with all our crap everywhere) and after of our place.

Our apartment is pretty small- 700 sq. ft. (i love it though, it's so cozy!) so it was a little hard to get a good picture of each room (especially the toilet/tub room). Also, I'm not quite done with all the decorations, so some of it's still a little plain. But you get the idea. At least it's all clean and everything's put away.

Here's the outside...

We have managed to squeeze in some fun activities since being here in between all the unpacking. We tried out a restuarant here called Bravi Italian Kitchen (thanks to Berg) and it was SO yummy.

After that we went climbing at the gym that's about 20 minutes away from our house. It was an awesome place except for one thing-- no air-conditioning!!!!!!!!! What are they thinking?!?! We only stayed for about 45 minutes and by the end I felt like I had just gotten out of the shower in all my clothes. It was horrible. We're re-considering our want for a year's pass. I think I'll be ok to wait for winter and just go outside.

On Sunday we made our very first ever Sunday Dinner. And it went pretty well. We did a roast with meat and veggies in the crock pot with bread and fruit on the side. It was pretty yummy, I do have to say.

We really like our ward a lot- it has a good mix of ages and there are about 4 other Thunderbird couples, and a few other student couples from a different school in the area. We've also made a few other friends that aren't LDS but that are students as well. It's nice because since everyone is new to the area and away from home, everyone is looking for friends! There's always a lot going on too. Well that's it, we're excited for this new adventure and we're inviting anyone and everyone that wishes, to come visit us!! (Although you may want to wait till winter...)

THE END!! (finally, I'm caught up)