Finishing up in Utah

We made it through the weeks without Jared. My mom came up in the middle of it for a week and helped me get a lot of the packing done. It was so great to have her here.  We also got to all go to the Payson Temple open house one afternoon.

 Grandma and I took the kids to the Aquarium that I had promised we could go to before we moved.

The last couple of weeks were filled with "last times" and good byes. Here is Mackayla giving her friend Daphne a goodbye hug. We made time for a last visit to the Legacy Center to swim also.

While Jared was gone, there was a some crazy wind storm one afternoon that did a lot of damage everywhere. We had our trampoline staked down, but it pulled the trampoline so hard that it broke all the wooden stakes in half. Luckily it went right over the fence and not through it. Some of my neighbors helped me secure it in the corner of the yard behind our house. It had taken quite a beating. I was really missing Jared at this point. I had to go take the net thing apart by myself and haul it back to our house. Then I had to track down some people to help lift it back over the fence.

The kids wanted to recreate this picture.

Before Jared got back, I also had to try and sell some of our stuff, including our couch set. I found our couch and love seat at a yard sale when Jared and I were engaged for $80. Then 10.5 years later and lots of use, I sold them for the same amount! It was kind of sad, and the kids really weren't happy about it. Mackayla tried making this sign to keep people from buying it. "This couch has been cursed. DO NOT buy it for your own safety! The little one has also been cursed! This is the plain truth."

Jacob, Caitlin, and I got to go to Bradley's first grade patriotic program. It was a great show! Later that week, Mackayla had her dance recital. Jared flew into town just in time to make it to the recital. Ashley picked him up from the airport, and brought him to meet us there. It was so good to have him back! Mackayla got to dance to Thriller, and be a zombie. She was a beautiful zombie.

Some of her fans.

Slurpees afterwards! This was Wednesday night. We had a lot to do in the next two days since Saturday was moving day. Mackayla's class was working on learning a dance, and she was really upset that we weren't going to be here when they performed it. Her regular teacher was on Maternity leave, but her nice sub let us come into the classroom to watch them practice. Her sub teacher knew that Mackayla was having a really hard time with the move, so she was really kind to her. She had the whole class make cards for her on her last day, and her real teacher even came to the school that day to say goodbye to Mackayla. It was very sweet of both of them.

Friday was Jacob's preschool graduation. He really enjoyed his time with Miss Jessica at Willow Pond preschool. He misses his good friend Sammy.

They were officially done with 3rd and 1st grade! We had to take a little break from packing to celebrate.