We moved! Finally an updated post.

Well, it has been a whirlwind these last couple months! I finally decided it was time to update this thing! We decided to leave Orem only 2 weeks after we decided we would be moving in mid-August. Those 2 weeks were crammed with packing, procrastinating, more packing, tieing up loose ends on all sorts of things, packing and cleaning. We made some visits and said some goodbyes. We didn't get to visit/say goodbye to everyone we wanted to, but oh well...these days, is there ever really a goodbye with how connected we can stay with technology? One of the hardest goodbyes was Grandma and Grandpa Brewer. They became our best pals and our favorite people to visit while we were in Utah! We already miss them dearly.

We packed up everything into our Budget truck with the help of the Elder's Quorum from church (Thank You!). It was really strange seeing our little basement apartment all bare, and realizing how much STUFF we had accumulated! When we moved in, we had been married just over a year and didn't have very much. By the time we left, our family had doubled and so did our stuff! We had some really great memories there, but now its time to make some new memories in a new place!



 

Ben's Dad came down to Utah and drove the truck up to WA while Ben and I drove with the girls in our ONLY car. We sold Ben's commuter car before we left, so now we are down to a one car family. (Thank you Dad B! It was so nice of him to do that for us!) So far it has worked out really well! :)   In fact, Ben's parents are so extremely generous that they are letting us live with them until we can get into a house! We are hoping to be able to buy a house in the next few months.

 

Cost of living and housing/rent are so much higher here than in Utah! It is crazy that it is cheaper for us to buy a house than it would be to rent a decent place! We've been going through the process of getting pre-approved, taking homebuyer's education courses (really helpful!), and looking for homes! We actually put an offer in on a house a couple weeks ago, but got outbid by a cash investor! Grr! Those cash investors are smart investors, but sure are frustrating when families like us are trying to buy homes! It is way more of a seller's market up here in the NW than it was in Utah. Oh well, something will open up for us soon, I'm sure! (We are trying to put a bid on a foreclosure house as I type this!)

 

Ben is loving his new job and is glad he made the decision to go with this job rather than the Utah job he was offered around the same time. Since we are down to one car, he's been taking the commuter bus from Vancouver down into Portland. Its been working out nicely for him because he doesn't have to stress over driving in traffic, and he gets some time on the bus to read or do whatever.

 

The girls have been keeping me busy and it has been nice to be close to both sets of parents and spend time with family. I'm antsy to get into our own place so I can start "home-making". These 'crafty and cozy' seasons are just killing me thinking about all the cute stuff I could be doing/decorating if I had my own space to do it!  Once we get settled into a place, I also look forward to setting up my music studio again and getting some private students and some students for Let's Play Music classes. In the mean time, I've started singing with the clark college chorale to keep singing and music a part of my life.

 

Ben and I have callings in the ward, even though we are temporary. I am a primary worker teaching the 6-7 year olds. My class is 7 boys and 1 sweet little girl. Its been fun. Ben is the 14-15 year old sunday school teacher. It has been interesting trying to trade off and juggle Alice around during church while we are trying to do our callings. She turns 18 months mid-November, and will (age wise) be old enough to go to nursery, but she is still not walking, so we are working hard to get her walking before nursery age! (She's making some great progress on the walking though! She'll probably be running around in circles in the next week or two!)

 

Here are some fun pictures of the girls since we've moved...they are best friends! So cute. There are a bunch more that we want to share, but they are on Ben's phone, so those pics will just have to wait until we update again. Enjoy! :)

 

A Summer Catch-up Post

Its been a while since we last posted, so most of this post will be pictures to chronicle some more summer fun...

Water Fun- Shops at Riverwoods splash pad

Merrilee was terrified of the water for most the time. She would only touch the littlest squirt of water and only if she was with Alice or one of us. Alice loved the whole thing! :)

4th of July

My parents and siblings all came to town for the 4th of July week. Unfortunately, I didn't get many pictures of family or all the awesome fun stuff we did, but I did get pictures of just our little family enjoying the balloon festival on the morning of the 4th! The girls were entranced! It was really fun. We also went to the Provo freedom festival later in the day. Merrilee loved doing all of the kid crafts, and Alice loved sleeping through it.

 Mike and Song also came into town that week and we spent some time with them! This is the only picture I have to document that visit. Cute cousins!

 

CONCERTS!

Towards the end of July, Ben and I celebrated Pioneer Day with 2 different concerts. On Friday, July 20, we went to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Pioneer Day Concert "The Joy of Song" with Katherine Jenkins. It was lovely. (Thanks Mom and Dad!)

Then, on actual Pioneer Day (July 24th), we went to a Rodney Atkins concert at the Scera Shell across the street from our house! It was SO FUN! We love country music! :)

It was raining right before the concert started, and we saw a double rainbow right over the stage!

Don't worry, it stopped raining before the concert started! 

The Concert was amazing and right during the encore song, tons of fireworks were going off all around the city! It made for a perfect ending to a great night! :)

NORTHWEST TRIP

3 days after the concert, we left for a trip to the Northwest! It was fun visiting with family and friends! 

We went to the zoo, went on walks, visited with friends and family, and just loved being back home in the Northwest! One thing we were sad we didn't get to do while we were there was go to the coast. But guess what?! We will be able to go whenever we want now! That's right folks...we are moving back to the Northwest!

While we were there, Ben had a 2nd job interview with a company in Portland. They liked him so much they asked him back for a 3rd interview while we were still there!After we got back from our trip they asked for a few more things from Ben and a couple days ago, they offered him the job, and we accepted! We are hoping to leave in about a week and a half.

This is all crazy and kind of unexpected, but we think this will be good for our little family. I will miss lots of things about Utah and lots of people in Utah. I will miss the opportunity to direct the Orem Children's Chorale. I was going to be their new director starting the first part of September, but obviously not anymore! I also was going to start up some Let's Play Music classes with school starting in a couple weeks. Hopefully we can get settled soon up in the Northwest so I can start these classes up there!

We are going to try to cram doing all the fun Utah stuff and hanging out with all our awesome Utah friends in the next week between packing and getting ready to go! The next update on here will probably be about our move!

Camping!

A couple weeks ago, Ben and I took the girls CAMPING! Ben got a new awesome 10-man tent for Father's Day, so we decided we'd go try it out with the girls. We have not been camping since Alice was born. We went camping a few times when Merrilee was 4-6months old, but not since. It was an..."interesting" camping trip, but we still had fun!

The girls having so much fun in the tent

We decided to stay close to home for this experimental trip. We went to Nunn's park right by Bridal Veil Falls in Provo Canyon (a 10 min. drive from our house). When we got there, we found a GREAT spot right next to the Provo River and a little bit secluded from other camping spots. It took us a while to set up camp and try to keep the girls contained and entertained while we set up. The girls LOVED being outdoors and getting dirty and the whole experience. Once the tent was up, Merrilee ran the length of the tent back and forth just squealing in delight. Alice followed suit by crawling close behind and giggling. While Ben set up the beds and tried to get a fire going, I took the girls to the campground playground. By the time I got back with the girls, Alice was getting grumpy, so we got the girls ready for bed. 

Right by our campsite

  The girls loved everything so much, they didn't even want to go to sleep in fear that they might miss out on something awesome! Well, Alice did go to sleep fairly well (considering the circumstances), but something woke her up a few hours later and she decided to stay awake and PARTY most of the night. Merrilee did not want to go to sleep. Ben had to sit in the camping chair by the fire and hold her and sing to her until she fell asleep (at around 10pm...2 hours after Alice went to bed).
Here's a little video of the campsite...

While I was trying to console Alice and while Merrilee was dead asleep, Ben had a close encounter with wildlife.

(From the perspective of Ben) So I was using the restroom (a tree behind the campsite) when I heard a really loud noise in the bushes right in front of me. I flashed my headlamp in the direction on the noise, and there was a pair of green eyes staring at me. To see a pair of green eyes with your pants down in the dark is a little unnerving. I walked quickly back to our picnic table to arm myself with a pink umbrella stroller and whipped around again to see the green eyes a little closer. I'll admit, I was a little frightened. After hiding in the tent for a while, I looked out once more and saw a chunky raccoon scavengering through our camp. I'm just glad it wasn't a cougar because there have been a few sightings this year (especially at BYU campus :)

The morning was a little more pleasant. Merrilee decided to wake us up at 5:30AM. She has NEVER gotten up so early...oh well.  Despite the lack of sleep for ALL of us, everyone was cheery and happy in the morning. I pre-made breakfast burritos before the trip and wrapped them in foil so we could heat them over the fire in the morning. YUM! is all I have to say.

We sat around the morning campfire and just enjoyed some family time together.

We really didn't want to pack everything up yet...it seemed like we JUST got everything settled, but we knew we were only prepared for one night and wanted the girls to get good naps at home, so we packed up camp. After we packed up, we took the girls on a little "hike" (walk) to Bridal Veil Falls. We just got a new (used) baby hiking backpack to carry Alice in. It worked pretty well, except that Alice was so tired and grumpy all the way there and back, so her cries were right in my ear.  JUST as we were approaching our car, she finally fell asleep!! Merrilee was very tired and emotional on this little walk also and made Ben carry her the whole way.

It was really fun (and needed) to get back in touch with nature and spend some quality family time together. Now that we've initiated the girls into camping, we hope we can get out a few more times this summer! Anyone want to come with us next time? ;)

Summer fun!

The beginning of our summer has been pretty fun so far. We obviously don't have any children in school yet, but the warmer weather these days tells us that its time for Summer FUN! The last few weeks we've been having some summer fun...

In May we had a fun day with some of our favorite friends (Thanks Z's!). They treated us to a yummy lunch and we let the kids play together. We also let the kids fingerpaint with homemade fingerpaints (edible). Merrilee had fun experimenting with this new art medium and Alice just liked to eat it...I think Alice also found a new crush...<3

Alice trying to hold hands with Baby Z. 

Enjoying this fun chair and G&G B's

On Memorial Day, Ben worked in the morning, and then we went out to lunch with Grandma and Grandpa Brewer. After lunch we headed over to their house and just visited and relaxed out on their back patio. When we got home, it was Alice's bed time and then Merrilee and I had some nice cuddle and story time. It was a nice day!

The weekend after Memorial Day, my brother and his wife came to town. On Friday, the girls (my sister, my sister-in-law and I) went to IKEA. I got a few bins and baskets for organizing things, but had the most fun watching Merrilee play in the 'toy' section. She was quite the little cook! :) I love going to IKEA. I get so many ideas and just long for the day when I have my 'own' home to experiment all my awesome ideas on.  

We had fun going out to eat Friday night with just the adults (Tucano's never fails!). Saturday morning Ben and I took the girls to the first day of the Provo farmer's market just to walk around and take in the sights, sounds, and smells. The coolest thing I saw there was this guy playing the most beautiful, intriguing music on an instrument I've never seen or heard of...the Nyckelharpa...apparently a sweedish fiddle. It was so cool! After the Farmer's Market, we got in the car and headed up to Provo Canyon to meet everyone at Bridal Veil Falls for a little outdoor outing. We got there before everyone else, so we just enjoyed a nice leisurely stroll with the girls along the trail and then stopped in a shady spot to let the girls explore and wait for everyone to show up. Once everyone got there, we went to the falls and hung out for a while. It was a warm day and it felt nice to wade our feet in the cool water. Merrilee had so much fun throwing rocks. She spent the majority of the time just picking up rocks and throwing them!

After Bridal Veil Falls, we all drove up to Heber and ate at a local burger joint called Train Burger. It was delicious! They even had these awesome electronic soda dispensers...it kind of blew our minds. After lunch, my brother and his wife continued on to Park City and us and my sister's family drove home to Orem. We just rested and hung out the rest of the day.

 The Monday after this exciting weekend was really HOT. It was the first day in the 90's here. I pulled out the girls' little wading pool after their naps in the afternoon and we spent a couple hours having some water fun in the backyard. The girls had a lot of fun and they looked so cute in their tiny swimming suits. Can't wait for another really hot day to have some more water fun!




Yes, I realize these are the same picture of Alice, but I just love it so much in both color and black and white...

This past weekend was the Orem Summerfest. We went last year to the Summerfest, but didn't really do anything because the girls were so little.  It is a celebration of the city of Orem complete with food, entertainment, booths, and carnival rides and games.  I got to sing with the Orem Chorale on Saturday morning as part of the 'entertainment'. There wasn't much of an audience yet in the morning, which was good because somehow I got roped into singing a little solo part in one of the songs that morning. After we were done performing, Ben and I walked around with the girls. It was so nice because there wasn't any crowd at all! No lines, no people to maneuver our stroller around...just a few families here and there. I'm sure the crowds picked up later in the day. Merrilee was fascinated by all the rides. We thought for sure she would be scared of them, but after constantly saying she wanted to ride the cars and the boat and the airplane and the animals...we gave in and bought 6 tickets for her to ride some rides. She LOVED them! (all except the merry-go-round and the little 'pirate roller coaster'. It was about nap time at that point, so that probably contributed to the meltdowns). It was so much fun watching her laugh and enjoy herself on the [rickety]rides. Alice fell asleep in the stroller among all the excitement of the rides. After all the excitement, we took the girls home for their naps and I even got to sneak in a little nap too! :)  Later in the evening there was a parade...we didn't dare attempt to watch it...people had their blankets and chairs set up on the side of the road 5 days in advance (pretty ridiculous if you ask me). We didn't want to try to find a spot  or attempt to brace the strong winds that picked up in the afternoon/evening. The winds were so strong we were wondering if they would cancel the fireworks show later that night, but the show still went on! The girls were in bed and Ben and I just walked to the church parking lot for a good view (one house away) to watch the fireworks. It was a FUN weekend! 

Merrilee was holding onto me for dear life on the Merry-go-round. She HATED it! 

We are looking forward to more summer fun complete with (hopefully) camping, family, hikes, bbqs etc. etc. Oh how I love Summer! :)