We've been in Michigan for almost a week now and we're already getting into our groove. Ben's first day of work was yesterday, and it went well. The first little while at a job is always a bit dull, with all of the HR info and training that goes on. But he thinks it will be a good fit.
I'm also getting into my routine--I spent yesterday cleaning, organizing, doing laundry, etc. All those typical housewife things. I've got a long to-do list, so I should be able to keep busy.
This weekend we bought our first car. It's beautiful and we love driving it. Next step: buying a house. We really like the area and we have a few places in mind that we'd like to live. We're both anxious to start looking.
Our lives have been very hectic the past couple of weeks, so there are quite a few exciting things that need updating on (I don't think that's grammatically correct, but it will have to do).
First of all, Ben graduated! It was an exciting day and a great ceremony-- 45 minutes from start to finish. Quite a bit of our family was able to attend, including all of our parents. Ben was pretty excited, despite the fact that other life events have tended to overshadow his graduation. I can definitely sympathize there.
It's such a relief to have that chapter of our lives closed. Of course, there's still grad school, but luckily we have a bit of a break from school before we have to deal with that.
We were able to spend the following week with my family. My mom came out for education week, which I attended with her since I had finished working. My dad stayed with us for the weekend because Geoff got the Melchizedek priesthood. Geoff also stayed with us that week because he was in between apartments. Needless to say, it was a full house.
We packed up our moving truck on Saturday and officially said goodbye to Provo. It was a long day, and we were sore and exhausted afterwards--we didn't get done packing and cleaning until about 1 in the morning.
We've been staying with Ben's brother and sister-in-law, Russell and Kim, for the past few days. We're flying to Michigan tonight, which we are both excited about. Yet we still agree that it just feels like we're on vacation. Ben's work starts on Monday, so we'll have some time to get settled and find a car.
We'll be staying with another of Ben's brothers and sisters-in-law, Nathan and Rachel, until we find a house. Which will probably be a couple of months. I'm still hoping we can close on something before the baby comes. We'll be sure to post updates on how Ben's doing at work and how our search is going and what it's like being "Michiganders."
Ben has been wanting to see the Grand Canyon for quite some time now. We figured since we're moving soon, we should take advantage of the opportunity to see it while we live so close. So Friday, we packed up the car with all of our camping gear and a ton of food and headed for Arizona.
About 20 minutes into our drive, we took an impromptu stop near Santaquin for a place called Red Barn. We saw a billboard that claimed amazing ice cream, so we immediately pulled over and got some. It lived up to the advertisements.
We drove down to Mt. Carmel, right outside Orderville (the combined population of which is probably less than 600), where we camped for the night. We were both a bit surprised when we got there to realize the camping ground we had made our reservations at was little more than a parking lot. Apparently this is common for southern Utah, because those are the only types of camping sites we saw along the way.
We had a nice evening there, with tasty tin foil dinners and peach cobbler. Ben also became friendly with the Australian-German man camping next to us.
Saturday morning, we drove down to Kanab, where we had breakfast, and then continued on to Grand Canyon National Park. We had heard about all of the wildlife in the park, but were pleasantly surprised to find this road block right after we entered the park boundaries.
We went to the North Rim, which is less crowded than the South Rim--not to mention 2 hours closer. It was a beautiful day and did not feel crowded at all. We first went on the Bright Angel Point hike, which is really more of a walk, that juts out into the canyon, with steep drops on both sides. I had to struggle a bit with my intense fear of heights, but the view was beautiful.
I know it looks like I'm ignoring the canyon, but the view extended on both sides of the trail.
We then picnicked at a spot with a great view of the canyon. Ben, of course, took a nap.
The next, and last, hike that we did was the North Kaibab Trail, which took us into the canyon. This is probably the most popular, or at least most famous trail. It goes all the way down into the canyon, and a lot of people hike down on donkeys (I was often quite jealous of those people).
We just did the first leg of the hike, which took us to the Supai Tunnel, and was only a little over 2 miles each way. Keep in mind that this trail is going straight down into a canyon, so it often felt like longer to a certain pregnant lady....
If anyone takes this hike, we highly suggest walking through the tunnel and not just stopping at the water fountain before it. The view on the other side of the tunnel is amazing.
After this hike, we drove back to Kanab, where we spent the night. We drove back Sunday and made another impromptu side trip when we decided to drive through Zion's National Park. The drive was amazing, it put us right up next to the giant rock formations--pictures just don't do them justice.
There are a couple of tunnels that we went through on this road. It was a beautiful drive and a great end to the trip.
It is official, Ben and I are moving to Michigan. Ben will be working with KPMG, doing economic analysis (at least that's what I tell people--he'll deal with transfer pricing, but I don't understand it well enough to explain it in depth).
We got the official offer a couple of weeks ago and finally nailed down a start date. He will start working August 29th, which means we'll be moving out there on August 24th. We're pretty excited about the move--it's a job that Ben really wanted and in an area that we really wanted to live. A big upside is that we'll be near Ben's brother Nathan and his family.
So now we're just wrapping up school and work here, getting ready to pack everything up and ship it out. We're looking at houses, so we'll be staying with Nathan and Rachel until we close on one. Yes, we are definitely becoming grown-ups--moving across the country, buying a house and having a baby.
