Birthday Bronco Market Week

We have now been in Detroit for almost a month, and we are still looking for a place to live. We have now set our sights on the downtown area. We've been apartment hunting for awhile--we really like the convenience and atmosphere of living downtown (for anyone who's thinking, oh no, downtown Detroit?! Don't worry, it's actually quite nice).

Ben's birthday was this week, and we did a lot to celebrate. Not only was there ice cream cake, but we got to go to a Boise State football game!

They played (and won) in Toledo, OH which is about an hour from where we live. The people there were really nice, and we found a tasty chili dog stand.  We were not, however, impressed with the town itself--it's pretty sketchy. One guy at the game, upon finding out that we live in Detroit, said, "I'm sorry" (which is not an uncommon reaction, almost always from people who have never actually been to Detroit). Ben and I both thought, sorry man, if you're from this town, you have no room to make fun of anywhere else. No offense, Toledo.

This morning in the midst of our downtown apartment hunting, we went to the famous Eastern Market, which is a 43 acre farmer's market in the city.  It was awesome. They have all kinds of produce, flowers, bread, honey.... the list goes on. And we loved it there--we plan on going every week if we do end up living downtown.

Part of the market is located on this intersection, which we thought appropriate to document. Don't worry, the E stands for Esquire.

New Car!

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.

Michigan, here we come!

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."

Gigantic Canyon

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.

Moving Time!

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.

Missouri Trip

It was a busy weekend for Ben and me, since we were able to visit my family in Missouri for the first time in over a year--the last time we were there was for our wedding reception. Much has changed....

My high school reunion was this weekend, so I was able to see a lot of people I haven't seen in years. Ben was a hit--surprise, surprise. I think he talked to more people than I did. My baby belly was also quite popular.

In fact, all weekend I had people from school, church and other random people touching my belly. No one loved it more than my family. They all wanted to feel the baby kick, and my brothers kept pointing at my stomach and saying, "baby." I think they're excited to be uncles (especially since they're having a nephew....) In further baby news, he is moving quite a bit now--I can even see my belly bounce sometimes. It's pretty exciting to feel.

It was nice to get to spend so much time with my family. We saw HP7 Part 2 (awsome), played tennis (of course) and went to the pool, which I've been wanting to do for months. We were also able to fulfill Ben's dream of having Kansas City barbeque. It was good, though technically it was in Independence. Maybe when we have more time we can take him into the city.

My mom also pointed out that I neglected to pay tribute to Josh's 18th birthday. That's probably because his birthday happened to fall on the same day that we got our ultrasound. I thought giving him a nephew would be a good enough gift, but I don't want him to feel left out, especially since Nate's made it on our blog twice. So I'll take a bit of time to celebrate Josh's birthday.



I know this is kind of blurry, but I love this picture of him and our cousin Haleigh



Joshua Robert Fernquist

Born July 6, 1993, making him legally an adult.

He played golf in high school and still likes to play in tournaments

Is obsessed with the Kansas City Chiefs. A little side note--Josh is the most laid-back of all of us by far, but apparently when the Chiefs aren't doing well, he can get pretty scary.

He's going to BYU-Idaho this fall.

Just received the Melchezideck Priesthood this Sunday--which we were there for and Ben participated in.

If playing Apples to Apples, he will always select the most random card. Festering wounds was one of his favorites and it reduced him to tears.

When he was little, his teeth squeaked when he chewed.

Visiting him in the hospital when he was born is one of my earliest memories-- Geoff and I were pretty excited.

Nate's Visit

My brother Nate came out to Provo a couple of weeks ago to go to EFY and then tennis camp. He stayed with us this weekend and last weekend. This meant that 3 of the 4 Fernquist kids were together, which hasn't happened in awhile.  You can see the excitement.

We kept pretty busy doing lots of fun activities, including playing tennis, going to the farmer's market (and Costco--always fun), watching Fast Five in the dollar theatre, playing lots of Wii, batting cages, and mini golfing (both regular and black light). Ben was surprisingly terrible at the batting cages. On his first try, he didn't hit a single one. But, true to his character, he figured it out the second time and did almost as well as me. A couple more tries might have made him better than me. Maybe.

In other updates, Ben only has less than 4 weeks until he graduates. Yay for no longer being students. He's been enjoying his last term though. His load is pretty light and he loves his ceramics class. He likes to show off his work and have me watch him throw.