The Cousins Having A Meal Together

We gathered at Grandma and Grandpa Wrights' house the day after Halloween for a meal and fun activities. The cousins sat together at the same table. These are all of Sarah's cousins on the Wrights' side.

Visiting The Roomies!

Hayley Olsen Smith and Katie Riddle Richards were my roommates at Ricks College (BYU Idaho now) 19 years ago!!! I hadn't seen Katie in 9 years and Hayley in 16 years! Katie was traveling through on vacation, so Hayley decided it would be great for us to get together at her house in Heber City, since this would be a great opportunity with the three of us in Utah at the same time. We feel sad that Melissa Gadberry Schmeider, our other close friend and roommate, couldn't join in on the reunion. We got together the second weekend of October 2010 for one evening, to accomodate Katie's travel schedule.

We were so happy to see each other that we shed some tears! We had a great time having dinner and caught up on old times. We laughed and giggled until almost midnight, the kiddos bouncing off the ceiling. (Yes, we are bad parents, but Katie had to leave for the airport at 4 am for her flight back to North Carolina, so we had a hard time leaving each other.) The husbands were amazed at how many stories and crazy times we had back then. They were amused by our laughter, I think! Sarah got along perfectly with Hayley's three girls. Sarah and Linzey were SO cute together and were "best friends" before the night was over. Linzey is just a couple of months older than Sarah. We look forward to getting together with them again for a playdate when the moms can fit it in to our busy schedules and travel the 50 minutes to each other.

National Radio Astronomy Observatory- Very Large Array

We took a detour to Soccoro, NM, on our drive to Utah. This was quite a detour. It took us about an hour off of the freeway to drive to the VLA in the middle of nowhere! Truly, it was the middle of nowhere! It has to be, of course. Matt was in heaven and nearly bought the whole store of its souvenirs! We will never go back there and will never be in the gift shop again, so we splurged and each got a T-shirt and Matt got a hat and a science toy for Sarah. If you aren't familiar with the VLA, you will be when I say "Jodie Foster had a scene here in the movie 'Contact', based on Carl Sagan's book."

Southern Utah Drive

This is Wilson's Arch in Southern Utah. When we were driving from NM to UT, we couldn't believe how beautiful our drive was! Amazing! It was gorgeous all the way up from the mesas of NM, to the red rock/arches/formations of Southern UT. We just had to stop for this photo, even if we were just passing through. We will be making a trip down south to see the Nat'l Parks someday, now that we live in Utah. Driving through was not enough!

Boo!

Sarah was a ghost for Halloween this year. She said she had to be a scary ghost and not a happy or friendly ghost. She has wanted to be a ghost since about November 1 of 2009! She reminded us off and on throughout 2010. We went to our new ward's Halloween Party with Grandpa and Grandma, at the church, and bagged going out to trick or treat later, as it was raining and blustery cold. Sarah was content with her bucket of candy being half full and was tired of wearing the top half of her costume by the end of the party anyway.

This Is The Place

We are now residing in Utah! Matt got the job at IM-Flash in Lehi, Utah, and has been working there now for two weeks. We are also going to be moving into our condo sometime in the next week or so. Our household items are on a truck, heading to UT from VA, and are guaranteed a delivery date before November 9th. Our new address is: ask me if you'd like it.  Here is an outside shot of our new place that we are renting for a time.

Matt and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary by going to the Mt. Timpanogos Temple, which is just a 5 minute drive from our new residence! We are so excited to have a temple so close! In almost 16 years, we haven't lived less than 2 hours away from a temple. We will attend often! We must not take it for granted how easy it is to go do temple work.



The cousins hanging out on Grandma's bed. Cameron, Nathan, and Sarah get along perfectly. Sarah has been waiting for the time when she could be closer to her cousins. Our biggest advantage and blessing in living in UT, is that Sarah will get to see her cousins more often. She may even get a trip down to Las Vegas, NV, in the near future, to go visit her cousins on Matt's side. She has yet to meet the three cousins there. We only live an 8 hour drive from Matt's sister and family. We are close, relatively speaking! No pun intended!





Playing in the Autumn Leaves!


Sarah and I met up with an old friend who lives closer to Salt Lake City. She and I knew each other and become close friends while in Junior High. We have kept in touch since our graduation from High School. I saw her again, after 15 years of not living anywhere near her, last year. We made a trip out to Utah for my nephew's baptism, so made time to see each other and have our kids meet. Kim Swensen has a son, named Cody, who is now 6 years old. We met up a couple of weeks ago at an amazing old park (thank you for introducing us to Discovery Park, Lindsay!), chatted, ate a picnic lunch, and watched the kids play for 2 hours while we chatted some more. It was a great outing for the moms and for the kids, who get along great!

The Trek To Utah

I must update you on the turn of events for our family! I have not been updating this blog, but feel I should mention our whereabouts and major life changes that are happening at this time.

Matt retired from the USAF, officially, on August 28th. He was on terminal leave until then (since the end of May), so we were still seeing a paycheck and living as we have normally done. During the summer, Matt sent resumes to hundreds of prospective employers, but nothing turned up. So, we are now officially in the unemployed catergory that many other Americans face at this time in this bad economy. We moved from Virginia and are now trekking west to be where we have family and a good support network during this stressful time.

We are actually in New Mexico at this time, visiting Matt's parents and living in limbo while Matt continues trying to land a job. Matt's parents have been kind and generous in having us stay with them. We thought it would be a good thing to come this way to visit to let them see Sarah and to let Sarah have a good, month long visit with her grandparents and Heidi, their dog, who Sarah absolutely loves and adores! (I think we may have to get a dog sometime when we are settled somewhere!) We have had a nice visit and have seen some sights around the Las Cruces area, as well as hanging around and living the everyday life in someone elses home. Here are a just a few of the pictures we have taken during our stay here with The Turnbaughs:

Grandpa, Grandma, and Sarah at the White Sands National Park


The three of us at the top of a sand dune at the White Sands National Park


Sarah on top of a sand dune


The sand dunes. It looks so much like snow! It feels like the sands of a untouched beach on the bare feet, however! Amazing!!!


Here is a photo of Sarah at the Farm and Ranch Museum in Las Cruces. This photo took place in a big play room they had for the kids in the museum. Sarah is on a see-saw. (More photos will have to come as we download from our other camera. These photos are from our cell phones, so were quick to post here.)


We are actually heading to Utah on the 29th of September, in order for Matt to get to an interview he has in Lehi, UT, with a company called IM-Flash. They are paying for our travels there, so that is a nice "gesture". We were going to be driving our two cars that way anyway, so our stay in NM is only cut short by a week. We are trying to stay neutral about the possibility of getting the job there in UT. We will live with my parents in American Fork, UT, for as long as is needed, until we can get situated and can afford to get our own place. My parents are also wonderful and generous in having us "live" with them, temporarily. We will stay in their finished basement, which is in the process of being finished, even as I write this. They are bending over backwards to get it ready before our arrival. Thank you, Mom and Dad!!!! So, next time I post here, it will be from Utah and from our temporary address, which I'll post here: 111 South 930 East, American Fork, UT, 84003