Zion

Before Drew was born, we decided to take a weekend and go down and spend it in Zion. My parents and little brother met us there and we had a relaxing weekend hiking, eating, swimming in the hotel pool, and enjoying each other's company. The best idea to go while also 36 weeks pregnant? Eh, maybe not. But it was worth it! Pretty sure that it expedited the whole "going into labor" process and that is never a bad thing! We drove down Friday afternoon and contractions started on Friday evening. They continued throughout the weekend, mostly irregular and not very painful. Just there. So we hiked and swam and played the weekend away.

I carried my prego belly all over Zion and Chad carried Ryder man in the hiking back pack. Ryder was a fan. We hiked the Emerald Pools and then did a little adventuring on our own. Luke had brought his go pro helicopter, so we took the opportunity to shoot a video of the beautiful Zion Canyon before being told by a ranger that it was illegal. Whoops. We might have accidentally shot one more video after that, it's hard to tell.

A trip to St. George would not be complete without a trip to Nielsen's for frozen custard. We just love that place. We gorged on some delicious custard concoctions, everyone trying a different flavor so we could sample a few. The evening came to a close when Ryder either had eaten more than his fair share of ice cream or possibly choked on a toasted almond and threw up everything he had eaten in the last hour. That included The Habit and custard. Not the prettiest sight you've ever seen. Luckily, Chad and I have become like ninjas when it comes to sensing when Ryder is about to hurl, picking him up, and exiting to a more convenient location for the actual throwing up process. Chad grabbed him and had him out the door in about 4 seconds flat. He made a mess of the concrete outside, but at least it didn't end up all over the floor inside Nielsen's! Just making memories, I guess.

Moving.

Moving, in general, is not one of my favorite activities. It's a good thing we had so many friends and family members who were willing to lend a hand! It definitely made for a very fun and quick moving day. My parents came up the day before and we spent that night finishing up some last minute packing and enjoying having family around. Ryder did his best to pitch in, he ate ice cream out of the carton for dinner the night before (we had to get rid of that ice cream some how). Papa, of course, had to join him.

Ryder's favorite part was definitely the moving truck. He could not get enough of it... running in the back while it was empty or sitting up in the driver's seat. He was one happy kid! Then, as 9:00 am rolled around on moving day, so did our friends and in a little than an hour we had the truck loaded up and ready to go. That, my friends, is what I like to call a success! Not to mention that the apartment was squeaky clean. Our friends are gems. I am embarrassed to say that I did not pick up or load a single box in the entire process. Turns out that moving when you're 7 months pregnant is also not the best idea in the entire world. It makes you pretty unhelpful.

I finished up a few things at our old place and by the time I got over to the house, the truck was mostly unpacked. After a morning of moving, we all headed to In-N-Out for some lunch. The perfect way to celebrate having all our stuff in our brand new house! I only wish unpacking could go as smoothly as the actual "moving" part. Almost a month here and we are getting close to emptying the last box. Not there yet, but not far off. I hope I never see another cardboard box. Done and done.

Homeowners.

 That's right folks. We are real, live adults now. After months of house hunting, we finally found "the one" and we did something crazy and just bought it. We bought a house. I kind of still can't believe that we are actual homeowners. That's probably because we haven't actually had to pay the mortgage yet, so I'm sure that will definitely make it feel more real.

We officially signed the papers on Tuesday, February 25th and then we got the keys on Thursday, February 27th. We met at the house that afternoon with our awesome realtor Ben Waller and he officially gave us the keys! Ben helped us every step of the way (buying this home had its fair share of roadblocks), and if anyone is looking for an awesome realtor, we would definitely recommend him! Ben was actually a missionary in the Marina Hills ward way back when and Chad knew him from his mission. It's always good to have people you can trust when you're doing something as big/insane as buying a house.

Our cute little home is in Daybreak and we absolutely love it. It was kind of a crazy couple of weeks, doing the whole "packing up, moving, unpacking, organizing, settling in" thing, but we have finally gotten to a point where things are starting to really feel like home. We've still got a ways to go, don't get me wrong. Chad just said last night that he's ready for a weekend when he doesn't actually need to build something... but we are getting there. All of the house hunting, waiting, playing the real estate game... it was all worth it to now have such a beautiful place to call home. Home sweet home.