The hike up Y Mountain

Benjamin has wanted to hike up to the "Y" ever since he first saw it. Yesterday, we didn't have anything going on so it was an opportune time to go. I didn't know if it was possible to take a jogging stroller, but after a little research we saw the hike was "moderate"... i.e. stroller accessible?! Ryan offered to take both boys and give me a morning to myself since he's been so busy with school. I'm feeling quite pregnant too, so I thought that was a wonderful idea. (What a great hubby!)
What a happy boy!
There are 11 turns of switchbacks on the 1.2 mile trail. Alexander fell asleep on turn 3 on the way up and didn't wake up until the last turn on the bottom. The people on the trail were impressed with Ryan and the stroller because apparently not many people push 65 lbs of kids up the mountain. People had heard of him all the way up and someone asked if he was a Marine. It's good he's been working out 6 days a week since we moved here.

Hot Air Balloons and the 4th of July

The 4th of July Celebration here in Utah County is huge, basically lasting 2 months with 2 really big days of festivities on the 4th of July weekend. Ryan took Benjamin to the field where they were launching hot air balloons on Saturday. It was an early morning and as you can see, Benjamin is still in his PJs. It was too windy so only 3 balloons launched that day. Saturday evening, I made the mistake of going grocery shopping at 1930. The roads were closed all over for "The Stadium of Fire". It took me 30 mins. to drive 2 miles. It's nice living where fireworks aren't allowed. I was always afraid our roof in Nebraska would catch on fire from run-away fireworks.
On Monday, Ryan was supposed to run a 10K, but Alexander slept through the night (which still a fairly rare occurrence) and Ryan turned off his alarm, so he got to the race in time to claim his shirt and "finisher's medal". He's still planning to run the course so he can "earn" the medal. Anyway, as he was leaving, he called and said he could see the balloons from the parking lot.
As you can see, the boys were fairly enthralled watching the balloons. They didn't want to leave, but we needed breakfast before heading to the parade.
I dropped Ryan and the boys off for the parade while I looked for a parking space. I finally parked on a corner 1/2 overlapping the red curb. Luckily all the police officers were at the parade and not issuing parking tickets. As I was walking to the parade, I was worried because I thought I had left my cell phone at the apartment and wasn't sure how I'd meet up with Ryan. Then my phone rang!!! It was in my back pocket. Talk about mommy brain. We didn't get any pictures at the parade, but we did see Senator Orrin Hatch. Benjamin was sad he only got one piece of candy (one Jolly Rancher which he shared the last quarter of with Alexander. He's such a nice brother most of the time!) That afternoon, my buddy Carlos from A&M came over for a visit. It's the first time I've seen him in ~9 years. It was good to catch up.

The Move

We have been extremely blessed with the move. My parents came into town on Wednesday. My mom took Benjamin and Alexander to Fontenelle on Weds afternoon and the OCM ALL day Thurs. They actually were still playing there 10 minutes after it closed! My dad drove our car to Colorado on Thursday and I had LOTS of short notice help from the Relief Society getting the house cleaned that day. Thursday night Ryan said it would only an hour to get stuff taken to storage... Haha. They started at 1700 and didn't get home until 2300ish. He actually scoffed when he saw the storage unit and 22 foot long moving truck saying they were too big. He has since apologized because we have chairs hanging from the rafters in the storage unit and it bled over into his parents' unit. The truck was the perfect size... being FULLY packed for the storage unit and 3/4 packed for the move. I'm glad I measured all our furniture and drew it out on the apartment floor plan so that I knew what we were taking would fit. Friday, I desperately called Erin and they took Benjamin for the day... which was so nice for him because he kept getting himself into trouble. Our moms worked away ALL DAY at the stuff we hadn't gotten packed yet and helping clean more. Loading the truck Friday night went a lot quicker than Thurs and we once again had some great help. We called the base at about 2130 to see if they had a room for the night. It looked like we'd be in the TLF (yuck!), but last minute they found us 2 rooms on base. Bright and early Saturday morning we were back at the house trying to finish up inside and pack the garage. Our moms once again were amazing! Thank you every one else who helped us too!
Wow, we ran out of time. I had scheduled the carpet cleaners on Memorial Day and at the time of scheduling said "Now, that's Memorial Day, can you still do it that day?" The lady said "Sure", but then must have been listening because she called a week before the appointment and said "I didn't realize that was Memorial Day when we scheduled it..." So, they came on Saturday. We really needed the couple extra days and it was a mad house when they showed up 2 hours earlier than scheduled. They had another "big" appointment later in the afternoon and only did a cursory cleaning such that our new renter found a piece of pizza behind a door. Needless to say, they came back and re-did the carpets... (and then we spent another $600 on cleaning/fixing the carpets, but that's a story for another day.)

My mom, the boys and I drove away soon after the carpet cleaners arrived. We had a couple of errands on the way out of town, such as dropping off the phone modem, buying dry ice, Omaha Steaks, and dropping hazardous household material at "underthesink". I made the underthesink lady mad because I hadn't made an appointment and all the appointments were full for the day, but I told her we were driving out of town, so they begrudgingly accommodated us. We stopped at Runza in Ogallala as a tribute to Nebraska.
We never did get a family photo taken outside of our "big beautiful new house" so Ryan took one right before he drove away in the moving van at about 1700. He and his mom worked like crazy before he headed out. He parked the truck up at Warren and my dad picked him up in the middle of the night.

We spent Sunday in Ft. Collins before heading out on Monday. I even helped my mom teach Relief Society. It was nice, because I needed the spiritual boost and wouldnt' have gotten it any other way. I dropped Ryan at Warren and drove Alexander to UT in the van. My mom planned to bring Benjamin on Friday in our car (which was a good plan because he would have been traumatized when we first showed up).
Alexander did really well on the drive... especially because he slept for more than 1/2 of the trip. He NEVER sleeps that much. I got the keys to our apartment and then took Alexander to the playground. I started talking to our next door neighbor and cried. I almost called Ryan and told him to forget unpacking the truck, we needed to find a new place to live. Suzy said she felt the same way when she moved on campus. The apartment is 800 sq ft. small and reminds me of the dorms at A&M (Ryan said OCS). It was built in the early 60s and is cinder block. Anyway, it looks a lot better with furniture.

We had 3 guys from Ryan's program and 3 guys from the ward helping us unpack the truck so it only took about an hour. Now to sort through the mess. I keep finding boxes that say "to storage" I wonder what went to storage that wasn't supposed to... I haven't found our tent yet or some of the outside toys. I'm not sure what Ryan sent to Goodwill in the final mad rush either :( We could have used some more of our picture frames too. Oh well... it's just 2 years. All in all, everything fell into place and nothing catastrophic happened (other than the stress with our renter and even that is something we can handle)... so we truly have been blessed.