We hurried on laid a new layer of shingles as part of the selling and moving process in Orem. It was hot, long work and made me grateful for really good friends and neighbors, as well as the fact that I am not a full-time roofer!
We are in love with the new home and space. We have all enjoyed going out and running around in a huge backyard together and playing tag after dinner in the evenings. Nothing beats a great backyard in the summer. We have wonderful neighbors and the kids have made friends quickly, although Alexa still cries occasionally because she misses her old friends. Our kitchen table was ironically one of the last things to come over, so we ate our meals on the front porch for a couple of days. Honestly, it was heaven. The first day we moved in our sweet Alexa found some wildflowers and unprompted put them in a water bottle to put on our "table" outside. We sat there eating in camp chairs and I was overwhelmed with how blessed and happy I felt. We only have neighbors on one side and they're on the far end of our rectangle-shaped 0.60 acre lot. We ate outside in peace surrounded mostly by horse fields and dirt. Eventually that will change because the area behind us will be developed into 1/2-acre lots, but for now we are really enjoying the space to ourselves.
We will spend the fall and winter renovating some of the inside of the house--rebuilding the stairs, new flooring on the main floor, repainting, rebuilding some (or all?) of the kitchen, putting in an office / guest bedroom, and building out a new pantry. Kyle demoed the stairs within the first couple weeks with Quinn's help (thank you!), so we climbed up to the second floor using a ladder for a couple days. It was fun holding baby Liam in one arm, his bottle in the other hand, and then climbing a ladder to lay him down for a nap...in his crib on the second floor. The kids thought it was the best house ever--climbing a ladder to get upstairs was awesome!!
Casey and Jess also invited us out on their new family boat. It was beautiful weather and a busy day at Jordanelle. Alexa was the only kid who wanted to go on the tube, Tyler had absolutely no interest whatsoever. Kyle was feeling sick so he stayed home with baby Liam.
We are happy, healthy, and grateful. And Liam discovered Cheetos and black beans. He says they are both delicious.