Trips and Stuff

It always seems like nothing happens for a long time, and then all of a sudden there are three or four things to report on.  Maybe it's just me procrastinating a post. But this might be another lone one....

Last week, Ben's sister Lora got married in Logan, UT. We flew out for the event, which was beautiful, and we're excited to have Will in the family.  I'm mostly excited not to be the new one anymore.  It was also nice to get to see the whole family, even though it had only been a little over a month since we had seen the Utah Fishers (and Battys).

On our way out to Utah, we spent a couple of days in Chicago for Ben's work. I went out to Rockford and stayed with my Aunt Mariah for those few days.  This is my cousin Spencer, who's 3, and he and I are the "bookends" of the grandchildren.  We were watching Cars, hence the grin on his face.

The timing worked out that my mom was up there as well, so it was nice to get to see her and be spoiled by the excited grandmother-to-be.  Of course, that did mean that Ben and I had to spend about 48 hours apart....

In other good news, this week we were finally able to find an apartment! It's taken what feels like forever, with a lot of searching and even more waiting--owners in Detroit are notoriously bad at responding or making decisions of any kind. But we found a cute place with a great manager who actually responds, and we're moving in next weekend. But I'll talk more about that later.

I realize I've been bad about posting pictures of myself lately.  People are very surprised to find out that I still have seven weeks left, and we're often asked if we're having twins. Almost every time I meet another pregnant woman, not only am I bigger than her, but she is usually due before me.

Such was the case in our birthing class today.  The class was very educational; we learned a lot about when will happen, how to know when to go to the hospital, helpful breathing, etc.  I admit, it was a bit emotional for me to watch videos of women huffing in pain, knowing I'll soon be doing the same thing.  But we're so excited for our baby to come--I'm getting very impatient for him to get here.

But back on track.... I've decided not only to post a couple of pictures, but also a nice video of me doing DDR.  Our date last night included going to this arcade with antique games (in addition to a few more recent ones)--it was a pretty cool place.

This was an old moving picture machine that played the Phantom of the Opera when you spun the wheel.

I don't even remember what this guy did, but we did find out that Ben is a flirty lover while I am amorous and like oatmeal, whatever that means....

Domestic Canadians

Being a stay-at-home mom when you're not quite a mom yet allows quite a bit of time for projects. In fact, having projects to work on is part of what helps keep me sane during the day.

For my birthday, I received money to buy myself a sewing machine, which is something I've been wanting for awhile.  This week, I finally bought one, and I love it.  I even got a sewing box and a few other things to go along with it.

I thought I should keep my first project simple, since it's been a few years since I've used a sewing machine and I wanted a chance to get familiar with this new one. Burp cloths seemed simple enough, and here was the result (I thought my mom would particularly appreciate the I Love Grandma ones, since this is her first grandchild).

I've actually gotten into a lot of different kinds of arts lately, especially drawing and painting. Here's another baby project I did awhile back:

That's right, this is now one of those blogs where the writer posts all kinds of fancy schmancy homemaker-type projects she's done, with the secret hopes of receiving admiration from all her readers.  Just wait until the baby's born and you get 15 pictures of him taking a bath.

On a side note, yesterday I was listening to one of the radio stations I've found since moving here, and I guess I had never really paid attention to the commercials.  Maybe I shouldn't have been so surprised when they started talking about Ontario elections, web addresses that end in ".ca" and things to do in Windsor, Ontario.  I even heard them say "zed."  Crazy Canadians.

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.