Cleavage, OHIO- Our Current Adventure

 Vivint. Bright orange with white writing. The newest home automation system to date and currently, Ethan's new job for the summer. Everywhere we go now, we are noticing orange--we wear orange proudly. Ethan wears the same colors every day, except for Sunday. He's a sales representative for this company and goes out every day to knock doors. I could NOT do this every day. It's definitely a job that takes mental toughness. Our life schedule is so weird:

8:00-8:30 a.m. WAKE UP

8:30-9:00 Breakfast

9:00-10:00 Exercise, shower, and/or play with Wyatt

10:00-11:00 Study Scriptures & Motivate (music, videos, pictures, talks on tape, wife talk :)

11:00-12:00 Getting ready for meeting, studying, and/or spending time as a family.

12:00 Company meeting (training, setting goals, motivation etc.)

1:00 Eat a quick lunch

Head for the doors @ 1:15p.m.

1:00-9:30p.m.  Knocking doors. Walking all day. No communication with wife. Eating only granola bars.

10:00-11:00p.m. Arrive home, eat dinner, talk about the day, massage feet and aching body for Eefie
11:00-12:00a.m. Go to sleep

This is our life Monday-Friday, and Saturdays Ethan knocks from 9:00a.m. till 9:00 p.m. WOAH! This is how we'll be living for 4 months. Talk about an adjustment! 

Goodbye, St. George......... Hellooooooooo long road trip to Ohio. Woah.

We left our truck in Idaho after tears were shed by Ethan. (haha) We packed up our Bonny Lass and headed on our way. For me, ten minutes into driving and the car was already shaking. Something was seriously wrong. I had to turn around and go get some stuff done on the car at the shop. Headed back on the road.... after two hours, rattling was still going on.

I pulled up to a gas station and the guy there said, "Where are you headed Miss?" I told him, "Salt Lake." He got a worried look on his face and said, "Do you see these wires in your tires here? That means the rubber is g-o-n-e- on your tire." I only believed him because we'd been talking about getting tires and I could see the wires myself. I took his word and had to get four new tires. Thank goodness the tires didn't blow before that point. The Lord was watching out for me. On my way again.... I made it to Hannah's house (sis-in-law) in one piece. Phew!

Ethan drove the WHOLE TIME from state to state while I sat squished in the back in the middle seat next to Wyatt. He and his car seat was on my left and luggage/food/games were on my right. I was very squished but we somehow endured it all.

"Mom.... why couldn't you get me cars or tools or something? I'm sick of flowers."

I had a box with me that we called, "Game Box". We rotated between books, movies, and the box the entire road trip and it worked really well! Wyatt was excited each time I pulled out a new game or coloring page. He LOVED the window stickers, despite this picture I captured.

I actually love road trips because it creates some great memories and some awesome bonding time. I enjoyed every uncomfortable hour I sat in the back with him. Wyatt is such a good kid and an AMAZING traveler. He always has been, so it makes things easy for us. (I read the Hunger Games book on the trip too)

We found some place to stop every 4-6 hours so we could all stretch out and just take a break. I tell you what, I am so sick of McDonald's now. We went there because of the play place, but every time I see the golden arches now, I get a little twitch in my right eye. Nooooooo more McDonald's. Yuck.

We stopped at the "World's Largest Truck Stop" and it was actually really cool inside. So many toys, cars, weird souvenirs, cards etc. Wyatt was entertained by all the gadgets and toys while Ethan and I read all the hilarious greeting/birthday cards- they were so clever and funny to us. I did, however, get my first realization that I wasn't in "Kansas" anymore. 

Scary people, tattoo plastered people, smoking all over, honking horns the second the light turns green, lots of cleavage etc. It's just different-very different. There are still great people but it's not what we're used to. We got flipped off and yelled at in the car because we switched lanes too slow haha. Anyway, we enjoyed passing all the state lines... oh, and paying all the road tolls- not!

We found that shakes kept Wyatt happy, so we bought him quite a few along the way :)

Only a couple tantrums and rough moments.  He's not sleeping here, he's throwing a tantrum haha

We stopped at Cabella's at one point and that was really fun. It is SO easy to get lost in that store though. Ethan and I looked away for maybe 3 seconds to look at something hanging up and BOOM! Wyatt was gone. Really freaked us out. We were frantically looking for him and one of the workers noticed I looked distressed and asked what was wrong. I told him Wyatt was lost and he immediately got on his intercom and said, "CODE ADAM. We've got a CODE ADAM! Blue shirt, blue pants, boy, brown hair, sticker on forehead." I was very impressed as all the employees stopped what they were doing and began pacing through the isles until they found him. Took only a minute. It gave us a good scare but provided a good teaching moment. (That's also what I needed to realize that he must stay near me AT ALL TIMES here. He can't be as free as he was in Rexburg and St. George.... not the same kind of people.)

WE MADE IT!

Here's what the view of our new home looks like- not bad eh? Since we're on the bottom floor, we get all the action from the neighbors :-) We see everyone walking by. Which is fun, but we also have to keep things closed for privacy. We like the location though and it's plenty big for the 3 of us.

Wyatt absolutely ADORES and LOVES being with Ethan in the morning before he goes to work. It's the only time he gets to see him so it's precious time. Ethan and Wyatt are laughing every day together and it really brings JOY into the home.

Wyatt quickly discovered all the cool things about the apartment and this is his "Little House." We use this to our advantage when we get ready in the morning. He loves it.

Luckily, our AWESOME neighbors (Jessica & Jon Ghrist) have two darling children who have become a little obsessed with Wyatt, to say the least. Wyatt has someone to play with every day and it's been so fun. Koston & Breeze are great kids and they get along with Wyatt so well.

Wyatt is growing up and doing a lot of BOG BOY things. The latest is brushing his own teeth, taking his clothes off, getting dressed by himself, taking his diapers out to the garbage, putting his own shoes on, helping mom with groceries etc. He is really becoming independent! 

On this particular night he struggled a bit hahaha I told him, "Get your jammies on and tell me when you're ready ok?" He was very excited and worked on it for 5min. Finally, since it was taking so long, I peeked inside and had to cross my legs while laughing so hard so I wouldn't wet my pants. He was being SO INNOCENTLY FUNNY! I was dying and recorded him on my camera.

We've discovered lots of parks & libraries and that's pretty much what we do besides playing with friends. He's really getting into books now. He LOVES reading and going to the library. Makes me happy as a Mommy.

You can check out up to 50 things here! Wowzers! I use the books to make his room more lively too.

I get to spend a lot of time with the other wives and their kids and it's been a lot of fun getting to know each other. Of course we go to the pool, but I wish it were more often. The pool is like ICE, so it takes the kids a while to brave it out. The weather is a bit humid here but it's like Rexburg in that the weather changes day to day. For the most part it's pretty warm here but some nights it's been way cold.

Hee, hee, hee

It took a while before Ethan got his first sale which made it a little stressful being so far away from home. BUT when he made his first sale we were so happy & excited! I left a fun message for him when he walked in and had my camera ready for pictures.

I told Wyatt that Daddy got a sale and got him all excited about it, so when Ethan walked in, Wyatt ran to him while saying, "You did it, Daddy!" I love this picture.

You know me.... all my loudness and excitement! I was screaming & cheering so loud for Ethan that he "Shusshed" me! I didn't care. I was celebrating- I didn't care about the neighbors for that moment. Life is about moments right? So this was OUR MOMENT.

Cruise Sales Tracker.

To help motivate Ethan and keep track of his sales for the summer, I created this huge ship. Not only is it fun to check off a sale each time but it's nice to keep the end goal in sight. If Ethan sells 75 accounts, he gets to go on a cruise for free. If he sells 100-125, he and I BOTH get to go on a cruise! We totally want to do this for our 5 year anniversary this December! 

GO ETHAN! GO!

Wyatt and I have to sometimes use our creativity. This was his ship idea one day.

Garage sale hopping has become a new favorite activity for me. I found all these animals for $5. I thought it was a good deal, especially since the collection has like all the animals, dinosaurs, and bugs. Wyatt's into all of these things lately so it was perfect! I had more fun with them than he did for a while.

WE CAUGHT A FROG! One day it was just hopping around in the tall grass, so we snatched it up! Wyatt was thrilled!

THE ZOO!

Every Monday it's free for residents to go to the zoo here, so we've made this a weekly routine. Wyatt had never been to a zoo before so I was anxious to show him all the neat animals. Again, I love doing "firsts" with Wyatt. His happiness and excitement makes me fill up with JOY. He saw a camel for the first time and we're saving up his coins so he can ride it one of these days for $4.00

They have a lot of neat animals at the zoo that we saw. Wyatt loves the seals and bears. I actually got charged by a bear. No joke. Wyatt's shoe fell off into the little ditch through the fence and I couldn't just leave it there! I tried reaching it though the holes but it didn't work so I quickly hopped over the little fence, grabbed his shoe, tossed it over, looked over my shoulder as I was hopping back over the fence and I see this grizzly bear running at me! When I landed, I looked back and there was the bear, standing on his hind legs, breathing heavily, and looking right at me. AAAaaaaaa! Good thing I brought extra underwear!

When Wyat saw the Rhino for the first time he was really interested in it because something very large was falling from its bottom. Very, large, poop. I explained what it was doing and every time we see a picture of a Rhino he will say, "Mommy! Mommy! The rhino went BIGGGGGG poo-poo!" Hahaha!

Ummmm, these dinosaurs got carried away. Poor guy. Couldn't stand being frozen on the window sill any longer... just had to attack. (As you can see, I had a blast playing with these things)

Wyatt supports and cheers on his Daddy every day, and I try hard to be a supportive wife throughout this interesting chapter of our lives. Ethan is up to 19 sales as of right now and is doing a great job. His people skills totally amazes me and everyone else who sees him in action. We are fighting for a sale a day. Wish us luck! We'll be here until the beginning of September so I'll try to blog about some of the fun things we do here. We're really liking it so far. We've had some great missionary experiences here too.

"Vivint! Vivint! Vivint!"

Being a 20 yr. old four times

What a fun privilege to be 20, four times.
This is how I like to look at it. I'm as energetic as ever. I still need excitement & thrills. I still do dumb things, but yet, I'm maturing at the same time. I find joy with my family. I love being a Mom. I still overcook the simplest meals. People still think I'm 2 years older than I really am. I crave playing sports. I continue to say weird things that are totally off the wall. I enjoy sweating.... when I work out, of course. I love dancing to music in my room etc. . .

I AM, 24.    

I have to give my husband props this year because he seriously ROCKED my birthday.

All the possible things that can make me happy . . . were mine for my celebration:

#1- Doing something I've never done before. Check
#2- Spending time outside. Check
#3- Taking lots of pictures of my special day. Check
#4- Wearing comfy clothes. Check
#5- ADVENTURE! Check.
#6- Doing something potentially dangerous & harmful, yet exciting. Check
#7- Babysitting for Wyatt all taken care of. Check
#8- A nice night out with my hot husband. Check
#9- Delicious food that I don't have to make. Check
#10- Live concert full of great music. Check
#11- Meeting someone famous (that is a good person worth meeting) Check
#12- A gift I actually want. Check
#13- Being surprised. Check
#14- Bouquet of flowers. Check
#15- Slideshow of pictures. Check
#16- Spending time with family. Check
#17- Laughter. Check
#18- Day full of happiness. Check 

This was the beginning of my adventurous birthday. Thanks to Ethan and his work, I was privileged to participate in an entire day full of FUN doing as many things in 10 hrs as possible. (A HUGE thank you to all the ladies who watched Wyatt for us during the day so I could do this-- so awesome.)

It's nice to see that I haven't lost all my muscle due to being 20, four times :-)   I got all geared up and dressed in a harness for my activities. We started out with hiking and using a compass. We had to work as a group and figure out where our destination was- way fun. Then, we had to rock climb to get to higher ground.

Repelling down a mountain anyone?

These pictures seriously show how absolutely HAPPY I was this entire day. This is not a smile that had to be created with my lips and forced out for a picture. This is a smile of pure happiness. Honestly, at this moment I was somewhat terrified because it was 100 ft. down and I was just falling off of it, but I was still so happy. What a thrill! Next time I'll go for a 300 ft. cliff I think.

Again, I'm totally ecstatic. Perhaps a little cheesy? Well, I couldn't help it. Riding on one of the longest zip lines (700ft.) over a canyon of death (I added that in for affect) produces such a face. I really did go over a canyon.

Wooooooooooooooooooooo! You can't see it, but it was raining :)

By this time it was lunchtime, so we enjoyed a homemade meal on the rocks. We had been going for a few hours already. For most people (they were older- like being 40, 4 or 5 times :) they were tired and done for the day, but for 5 of us, we wanted MORE. Oh, and the five of us being me, and four other men. That's how I roll.

SOLTIS had sweet mountain bikes ready for us at the top of the hill. The good part was, we didn't have to ride up all the hills. We just started at the top and got to do the fun part of the riding- downhill.

I'm sure these men I was with were thinking, "Oh great, we've got a girl in our group... we're going to be waiting on her." Hee, hee, hee, little do they know right? Don't worry, I was at the front of the pack and I most definitely did NOT slow anybody down :)  St. George is known for its awesome bike trails that are EVERYWHERE and the one we went on didn't disappoint. It's called, "The Loop" and there are 3 levels/trails of difficulty that you can choose from. My innards were telling me to take on the difficulty, but my heart and smarts (since my life is much more important now that I'm a wife and mother) convinced me to be smart and take it easy.

I have never done full out, real mountain biking before, and WOAH BABY it was intense! This was my #6 on the list up above. I was clenching my handles so hard as I cruised over rocks and bumps and peddled hard up steep hills. I went through sand, I squeezed between large rocks, I had to turn almost 80 degree angles sometimes while going fast down the hills. I admit, one turn got the best of me. I was scared going down one part and the nerves won me over. I fell off the side of the cliff while trying to turn in the right direction. It was a tough spot with a stupid rut, and I hit it. Luckily, when I toppled over, there was a small sand pit that I landed in so I didn't fall completely off the little cliff and CRASH at the very bottom. That would have been bad. I scraped up my hand pretty dang good and it was pounding with pain, my knees had blood, but I shot right back up as soon as I fell down. I wasn't going to sit down and moan, I wanted these guys to know that I was tough. Two were watching above me and when they saw my orange helmet pop up they were relieved. I made sure to warn them and yelled up to them, "DON'T GO TOO SLOW!" They had a great laugh and so did I as a mounted my bike and headed down the steep hill again. This time, a little more scared than before.

The trail lasted about 45min but at the end, we all wanted more. We almost drove all the way back up so we could come down again but decided we needed to get cleaned up for the nice dinner that night. I went home and showered, got all dressed up, cleaned my wounds, and drove with Ethan down to a golf resort where we enjoyed a delicious meal together in a fancy building. 

Ethan and I had a wonderful night together talking with guests and enjoying the food. After dessert, we got a private concert with Jenny Oaks Baker.

This is her latest CD that she recorded and I am trying to spread the word and let everyone know how BEAUTIFUL and fun this CD is. It received a Grammy award nomination this year and almost won, it is THAT good. 

 

 

Anyone who loves Disney or has children, GET THIS CD.

The cool part is, all of songs were arranged by this guy...

KURT BESTOR

Kurt is AMAZING at making music and his talents are exhibited in this CD, as well as Jenny Oaks Baker.

Why should you buy this CD?

#1- They are Disney songs, which are classic, but there are no words to the songs. Perfect for singing along or just peaceful music around the house.

#2- These tunes are perfect for children and bedtime. (It's classical music which is very good for children to listen to.)

#3- You get to enjoy these arrangements that are very different than on the Disney movies which makes you anticipate what you're listening to. "Aladdin" is arranged as a tango! :)

#4- You will be supporting a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Ladder Day Saints who uses her talents to uplift others through good music, and a very talented and incredible music artist, Kurt Bestor who has done lots of music for the church and the world.

#5- The cost of a CD is well worth it. You won't be disappointed.

I'm always inspired by good people who use their talents to uplift others and bring happiness into the world. I am also amazed at professional violinists who can create such beautiful sounds with their violins. It makes me want to pull mine out more and play! She was incredible to listen to.

Ethan bought the CD for me and secretly got her to sign it inside, "Happy Birthday Ashley!" When I opened it I was thrilled :) After the dinner I got to pick up my happy little boy and took him home and fell asleep with him on the floor. It was an incredible day.

Ethan, you really did good honey bunches. THAT is how I like to celebrate my birth! Props to you this year lover boy.

Thanks to SOLTIS, the babysitters, and everyone else who called me and wished me Happy Birthday!

(This was all done on the 27th of April, so technically not on my birthday, but it was all FOR my b-day. I was actually in Rexburg at my parents house for my birthday while Ethan was still in St. George finishing his internship for the last week. Eth sent me flowers for my birthday, so even though we were apart, he still thought of me and surprised me with something. Later that day, he made me a slideshow of all the pictures of the adventures on my birthday and the stuff we did together as a family while in St. George. He really worked hard for this birthday and made me feel special.)

UPDATE ON OHIO COMING NEXT!

Cactus country! What did we do for 4 months?

Soltis is the whole reason why we even came to live in St. George, Utah. Ethan was privileged to work with some incredibly smart and talented businessmen for his internship. Another bonus= 3 of them are my uncles, whom I love :)

Ethan and I are so grateful and fortunate to have had such an opportunity as this. Ethan learned a lot about responsibilities within a company, communication, professionalism, clients, managing finances, assembling portfolio's, stock market, interviews, meetings, and so much more! The skills he learned while working with these men have increased his ability to be successful in the future. 

THANK YOU, SOLTIS.

What else did we do?

Well, let me show you...

St. George is an incredible place to live with nice people, warm weather, beautiful mountains/rocks, and lots of bike trails and hiking trails. One weekend we went to Snow Canyon and spent over 4 hours hiking there. It was a great family outing.

Sweet pic right?

We did a lot of fun things when Daddy got home from work. One particular weekend we made pizza's, decorated sugar cookies, and made a tent in the front room where we watched a movie, "Puss in Boots" and ate popcorn.

I love Wyatt's curly hair. I miss it :-(

 

I had fun making this cookie for a friend of mine that is a die hard ZUMBA gal, but I must say, I'm totally getting into it too. I think it is SO FUN. It's one of the funnest ways to exercise, I think. I love rocking out to music and to be able to dance, sweat, and get gross without people looking at your wet pits and saying, "Ewwww, she's gross!" it's actually acceptable. Hahahahaha. Seriously though. 

We went on SO MANY bike rides together as a family. There were tons of trails to go on and this bike trailer made Wyatt's ride most enjoyable. This activity became almost a daily routine. I commend Ethan for picking it up and being about to pedal our 200lb. chunky bike AND the bike trailer everywhere we went- definitely gave him a work out.

Wyatt did a lot of funny things throughout the day when we were home together. I walked in the kitchen after getting ready for the day and he was just sitting there quietly on his bar stool. He got in the fridge all by himself and grabbed the ENTIRE clump of grapes and was plucking them off one by one. He triumphantly held them up here and said, "Mommy look! I eating Bbbrapes!"

Eth worked about 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. every day and this was the kind of job that didn't have a lot of homework. We really had a fun time spending time together. It was nice to have the whole night off.

Wyatt loves to show off his "jammies" to Daddy every night when he puts them on. These were his new ones from Grandma. Oh, and he is wearing a toe sock on his arm haha.

This looks really bad . . . I know, but it was hilarious! Wyatt told me to, so I am not being cruel. I wrapped him all up and was laughing my head off (literally) and at this point he realized it wasn't very fun anymore. He was a little freaked out that he couldn't move- I would freak out too. We were just playing and having fun wrapping things. This was a one time thing but I'm glad I captured the moment. Look how skinny he is!

I just like this picture a lot. Funny smile, but I like it.

On a long weekend, we decided since we were half way to Arizona, we should go visit Ethan's Nana. The drive and visit to Chandler, AZ is always one to remember. Wyatt loved the warm weather and all the crazy, fun toys that Nana had at the house. When we come to visit, all Nana wants to do is watch Wyatt play and be himself. Kids truly bring us JOY and they know how to enjoy the simple things in life. (It was also fun because we stayed at my cousin, Jesika's, house and hung out with her family as well. It was so fun to talk to her and play with her darling kids.)

Tradition: we all gather around the table and we light these candles for Wyatt to blow out with the stopper. He's a pro at it now. What a fun game for him.

Nana adores her grand babies.

DATE NIGHT= GOLFING! in the sprinklers with ducks....

This was one THEE funnest date night we've had in a long time. We actually got a babysitter for the night so the two of us could go play. We went with our awesome friends, Chantel & Kurt Baker, and had a blast. This was my VERY FIRST TIME GOLFING ever. I have to admit, this is not a sport I am good at, at all. I got a workout because I had to run and chase my ball all over the place. Man, it felt good to WHACK that thing though :)  We had some great laughs when the sprinkler drenched the guys kart and all their personal items. The sprinklers made it really cool actually.

"Jumping Jacks"

Thanks to these two lovely ladies, Chantel & Holly, I did not become a hermit in the condo all by myself. These two girls are what made this 4 month experience so much fun! We went to parks together, did Zumba, had dinner together, played games, went on walks, went running in the mornings together, played volleyball, went out to dinner etc...  I am so grateful for these two girls and for the kindness they showed me when we moved in. I LOVE THEM TO PIECES! I miss them so much already.

I am proud of all the exercise I did by myself and with Chantel while I was here. I went running almost every morning or else I took Wyatt on bike rides around town and on trails. Most the time I went so long that he fell asleep. One morning though, Chantel and I actually hitched up our bikes to go on a sweet trail and I ended the joy ride short. We were dangerously close to getting hit by an oncoming truck who was going way too fast, and my instincts just told me to go for it instead of stop in the middle of the road. So I yelled, "GO!" we were both going fast but I was cut off a little too close to the corner and the back wheel of the trailer hit the curb and flipped Wyatt over. It was very scary. Wyatt was terrified, I was just trying to see if he was hurt, and Chantel was the calm one. Wyatt had a huge goose egg on his forehead and was scared to death crying and the crash ripped a hole in the material, bent the back wheel on my bike, and almost tore through the leash. I felt really bad for Wyatt but he was ok. It was stupid of me to even be in that situation. I'm learning as a Mom that I need to be more patient and things don't need to be done so fast. I learned a lesson. Sadly, we hadn't even begun our ride and the ride was over haha.

My family has all been teasing me about when I was going to get rid of Wyatt's binky and I always said, "soon". I finally decided that he really was too old for sucking on a binky so we had a little ceremony one night. We tied the binky to some balloons, along with a note, and let Wyatt hold onto it until he was ready to let it go. When he let go he thought it was really cool as the balloons soared into the sky. He went back and forth from being sad to happy, sad to happy... but he handled it quite well. I'm totally doing this again. It was so funny.

We went and climbed rocks one Sunday afternoon. So cute.

Ummmmm, he likes peanut butter? HA! We found a pine cone, stuck peanut butter all over it, put tootie fruities on it and hung it in the tree with a sack. (You can see it in the background) I looked over and Wyatt was making out with the PB.

ZION NATIONAL PARK!

Another wonderful, fun, beautiful weekend spent together. We love the outdoors.

This pretty pool was cool, don't drool, fool. Woah.....

I now know that I need to live in a place where there is more sunlight and heat rather than cold. We were lovin' the sun!

EASTER- we painted eggs, made cute cupcakes, talked about the resurrection, and had an easter egg hunt for Wyatt. He was really good at it but the funny thing is that he would find the eggs and put them directly into the bucket. He didn't even care about the candy inside! So weird for a two year old. He definitely had a one track focus on the hunt though. If he found one, he would stare at it and walk right at it, while passing other eggs by his feet that he wouldn't even notice haha.

"I want more of these, or else.........."

Since I was the music coordinator for our ward here, I had the opportunity of putting together the musical Easter program. I was so grateful for this opportunity because I love the challenge of creating music and coming up with a script. It takes a lot of time, effort, and coordinating, but it was so worth it. We had a variety of songs: choir piece, violin/piano duet, singing quartet, sign language piece, choir and congregation etc... The variety kept people's attention and many were brought to tears, including me. Music has an incredible power of touching our hearts. Good, uplifting music truly does help bring in the spirit. It was one of the best programs I've done yet.

Our back porch served as a perfect canvas for Wyatt to draw on. We spent many mornings and afternoons just hanging out here in the sun blowing bubbles, feeding the birds, drawing with chalk, or eating snacks together.

Fortunately we had access to a pool & hot tub so we visited it many times during the week. Wyatt loved going to the "Poo".
My favorite part is that he would say, "Where are my aqua shoes?" He always made sure he had his shoes as seen in this picture. I was amazed at how he could handle the heat of the hot tub! This kid is a mammal! 

Wyatt also entertained himself a lot during the day, which often led to these kinds of incidents ... eating markers.

These pictures only show half of all the cool things we did while living in St. George but hopefully you get the gist. I would come back and live here in a heart beat. The people are great here. I especially have to thank my Aunt Carrie for taking the time almost every Wednesday to teach me how to make bread. I enjoyed bonding with her and the rest of my Aunts and Uncles while we were there. It's so nice to live close to family. 

We are also grateful for Grandma Anderson for allowing us to stay in her condo for four months. This is overly generous of her and we will forever be grateful for how she helped us. We've realized through this experience that being frugal is a good way to live and that families are there to support you. Many others did little things for us here and there and their kindness did not go unrecognized. 

ST. GEORGE ROCKED! It was a wonderful adventure for us and we can't wait for our next one in Cleveland, OHIO!