All Moved In

One week later and Grant and I are all moved in. Not too bad, right? We actually got everything unpacked, besides decorations and books, by last Monday and then didn't get around to pulling out the decorations and sorting through our boxes of books until last Thursday. But now our apartment is completely unpacked and set up and it feels like home, which is such a great feeling. I love the area we live in, I love our ward, and I love our apartment complex. The gym is really nice (and so close to our apartment) and the pool, even though I'm pretty sure we won't be going for a while, is beautiful. Everyone we've met here has been really helpful and nice. So far so good.

I made some attempt to clean up tonight and take pictures of everything. The pictures never come out right, but you'll get the general idea.

Bedroom:

Bathroom:

Dining Room:

Living Room:

Desk Nook (off the kitchen):

Kitchen:

That's our laundry room through that door. I would have taken pictures but let's be honest, it's not that interesting. I might post more pictures of our kitchen in a couple of weeks because we're getting all of the appliances switched out. Instead of white, we're going to have a new stainless steel fridge, microwave, stove, and dishwasher. They're also going to replace all the gold knobs for brass. I'm pretty excited--it should look really nice when it's all finished.

And did you notice my new pillows? I made those when I was home in Connecticut in December. I'm so happy with how they turned out and they look so much better than the old ones.

From this

 To this.

Quite an improvement, right? They fit my style and my furniture much better I think. And they were my first pillows I've ever made, so it just feels good to complete that kind of a project. Grant likes them too. Bonus! I had plans to recover my chair (the one that used to be in the same fabric as the red striped pillows) in the gold/brown/grey fabric you see on the pillows now, but apparently I got this fabric for a steal. When I saw it in Connecticut it was only $3.00 a yard. Everywhere else it's $40.00 a yard...so that's probably not going to happen. I'm watching to see if it ever goes on sale again.

My next project is making a coffee table for our living room. I saw something on Pinterest that gave me the idea and Grant and I started it last night. It'll probably take a few days, but I'm very excited about it! I'll post pictures as soon as it's all done. Wish me luck!

Another Move Under Our Belts

Grant and I finally moved into our own place! We're both very excited about this little apartment. It's in Grapevine and so far we've found that we're close to great restaurants, a shopping mall, the airport, and the best part, closer to work! I didn't realize our commutes were going to change at all, but the move cut off 15 minutes from my drive to work (and let's be honest, that 15 minutes really makes a difference when I'm late getting out the door...every morning).

We got the keys to the new apartment last Friday night and came over here to clean. Then Saturday we woke up around 6:30am, loaded up a U-haul and all of our cars, and unloaded everything in just a few hours. I unpacked the entire kitchen, laundry room, and bathroom while Grant went to coach the Young Men's Basketball Team (that's his calling--pretty awesome, right? He brings a clipboard and everything). When he came home we both worked until late that night and got almost everything set up. On Sunday we unpacked more and went over to Grant's parent's house to clean where we had been staying. And then today Grant unpacked more while I was at work since he had the day off. We're still not completely unpacked, but we are so close! We just have our boxes of books to sort through and figure out which books we want to put up on the shelves and decorations to put out. Not too bad, right?

I promise I'll post pictures of everything just as soon as we finish up. For now though, you can enjoy this mountain of boxes that I unpacked all by myself while Grant was at the basketball game. Impressive, right?

We also took a break from unpacking on Saturday night to grab froyo with Nick and Briana. Definitely a good choice :)

And on Sunday morning we celebrated the first morning in our new apartment with a big breakfast of eggs and pancakes. It also didn't hurt that our new ward starts at 1:00pm, so we have plenty of time to sleep in and actually make a good breakfast.

Big Update

After days of packing up our apartment, cleaning, and long hours of driving, Grant and I are finally in Texas! But before I post about that, I want to backtrack and talk about everything we did before we left.

First and foremost, one of our very best friends, Jamie Wood, turned 24 right before we left and we were so happy that we could still be in town for the celebration! His wife, Nicole, made the cutest invites and sent them out to all of us. For the party we all met at Kiwanis at 7pm to play some Wiffleball. Nicole also made cupcakes and brought sodas with straws for everyone to enjoy before the game. It was perfect.

After Wiffleball and treats we met up with some more friends at Applebees for 1/2 off appetizers. It was a great way to get together with all our friends before we left, plus you can't beat the prices!

In addition to Jamie's party, we also went down to Provo to get together with all our friends at Shoots, one of Grant and I's favorite restaurants in Provo. Unfortunately the service was absolutely awful (first time that's ever happened there), but being with our friends one last time was great. We were able to see Justin & Holly, Jamie & Nicole, Lindsay & Preston, and Cory & Caroline. We would have loved to see Ben too, but he was working until late and couldn't come to dinner or volleyball after (which some of the group played after Shoots). Instead of playing volleyball myself, I went to my good friend Lyndsey's house and she gave me another set of eyelash extensions. I know I posted about her back in May, but I've got to say again that she is fantastic! If you live in the Provo area and you're looking into eyelash extensions, definitely go to her! Her prices are much cheaper than you'll find in a salon, and she's just as good. You can find out all the details here.

We also wanted to say goodbye to Grant's brother Dan, his wife Shannon, and their adorable 2-year-old Gavin. They only just moved back to Utah (from Texas) last February and we were really sad about the timing. It's been awesome having them so close and I wish we could have lived close for a longer amount of time (maybe you guys should just move back to Texas again!) We're definitely going to miss them. We went over to their new, awesome house (that they just moved in to) for dinner one night to eat and hang out with them and Dustin. We're really happy we were able to see them all one last time.

More goodbyes were said when I had my last day of work, and I wasn't expecting to be as sad as I was! Since I only worked there for two months I didn't think it would be a big deal when I left--just a few "Thanks for everything!" and "I'll visit sometime!" but everyone was so sweet and they got this huge cookie cake for me in addition to lots of boxes of cookies. Plus we had a BBQ that day, so I definitely felt spoiled.

I also had the chance to go out to brunch one last time with my good friend Lauryn and I'm so glad I was able to do that. It was really sad to say goodbye to her but I know I'll see her soon one way or another. That's the great thing about friends you've known your whole life. I can go months without talking to or seeing them, but the next time I do it's like we never stopped talking :)

After saying all our goodbyes, we prepared for the move. Grant and I spent an entire day loading all our furniture and boxes into the U-haul. And since we were loading up in the middle of the day everyone we knew was at work so we did everything ourselves--and moving goes a lot slower when it's just two people, haha. We've been so spoiled in the past and every time we've moves we've had so much help. This time it was a lot of work for just the two of us. But we finally got the U-haul, Grant's car, and my car completely packed around 10:00 at night. Next we cleaned our apartment, which took us about two hours so we finished around midnight. We felt so bad because we were staying with Justin and Holly for the night (since our apartment was empty) and we thought we'd be able to get there around 9:00pm, but we didn't actually get there til around 12:30am. They are such good friends though and we really appreciated them staying up for us and letting us still spend the night with them.

The next morning we woke up early and got on the road! I was initially worried about driving by myself for such a long time, but it turned out to be better than expected. Grant and I checked out a couple of books on CD for the drive and that definitely helped, plus the junk food we got to snack on was delicious :) And after 2 days of driving 19 hours in total for me, and 24 1/2 hours in total for Grant, we finally got to Texas! (Grant took longer than me because he was pulling the U-haul behind his car and he wasn't able to go more than 55 mph the entire trip--it was rough!)

Once we got a good night's rest we unloaded the trailer and started unpacking all our stuff. We planned our trip so that we'd have a week to settle in before Grant started work, and I'm so glad we did because it took us a while to get everything unpacked and set up. And now we're in Texas! It's been great so far, but I think I'll leave all the details for another post :)

Family Time

Grant and I have been lucky to spend our last few weeks here in Utah with some great family members. We really wanted to be able to say goodbye to everyone before taking off for the big Texas so we've tried to get together with everyone that's here.

First we had all of Grant's cousins who are here in Utah come over for a Game Night. I made a cake and some Muddy Buddies and we all chowed down while playing card games and Loaded Questions (which turned out to be pretty revealing, ha).

Then last week Grant and I went over to my Granny's for dinner. It was great because my aunt Debbie and Uncle Bruce were able to come with my cousins Blake and Taylor, as well as my Aunt Kathleen and Uncle Bruce with their sons Carter and Brandon, and also my cousin Erica. We had a great dinner and Brandon (who's 5) had fun taking silly pictures of everyone with my camera. Then Taylor, Erica, and I reenacted a picture that was taken of us when we were about 5 or something for my Granny.

 mmmmm food!

 Brandon impersonating the Hulk

 Everyone with their silly faces for Brandon

The original--Erica, me, Taylor

 And 15 years later...

Family photos!

And for Labor Day Grant and I went up to my Grandma's cabin up in Kolob Mountain, right outside Zion National Park to be with my mom's side of the family. We first met up with my cousins Jordan, Zach, and Afton and her boyfriend Austin to go hiking in Zion. We decided to hike Emerald's Pools, which was so beautiful and a pretty fun hike.

After our hike we drove the rest of the way to the cabin and met up with my Aunt Gaye, Grandma, cousin Zoe and her friend Annie. We had a great dinner and then stayed up late laughing over stories and playing games. Then on Sunday we had a great day sleeping in, riding ATVs, playing more games, and just hanging out with everyone. I snapped some pictures around the cabin while everyone was up doing stuff because a lot has changed in the seven years since I've been there!

Monday we had plans to go back to Zion and hike The Narrows, but it was overcast and raining off and on so the hike was closed. Instead we decided to just spend the morning relaxing, and of course playing more games. Before we all took off in separate directions we took a couple of pictures outside (Afton and Austin aren't in these because they had to leave Sunday night).

It was such a great weekend and we were so glad that everything worked out and we were able to go down there and spend time with everyone, especially because we're leaving in just one week. We really want to make it down there more!

The view from the top of the mountain (we rode the ATV up there)

So yeah, we leave in just over a week--crazy! I just want to spend our last few days hanging out with all our friends and doing everything we love most here.