Wah-Hoo!!!!

After a few weeks of uncertainty... and lots of praying....

This handsome man has a job!!

He's going to be working for the IT center at the Provo MTC!!!

GO DALLIN!! :)

Heaven-sent

Last Thursday our swamp cooler stopped working.

I know... how inconsiderate of it to just stop cooling our home when it has been well over 90 degrees everyday?! We had our ceiling fans on constantly... but moving around hot air and pulling in more hot air from outside isn't very satisfying. Our only moments of relief would be while taking a freezing cold shower. (Dallin said he felt like he was back on the mission...)

When we got home yesterday we had a marvelous surprise! A brand new cooler was installed and cooling our apartment!!!

Okay, so it was still a billion degrees in the house when we got home and there was no swamp cooler installed... but we did go pick one up, got it home and then installed it ourselves.

We now have wonderfully cold air blowing into our home. I guess I'm just being reminded to never forget to be thankful for all the little blessings in my life.

The 2 car garage

Yup, we've upgraded from the 1-car-garage-turned-studio into a 2-car-garage-turned-single-bedroom.

Things have been a little insane since we arrived in Provo on Monday afternoon. The couple that lived in the apartment before us weren't able to get their stuff out on time due to problems with the moving company, so we couldn't get our stuff into the apartment for a few days and got to sleepover with our great friends Brandt and Liz.

The house required quite a bit of deep cleaning and painting, but it's looking much better now. We spent our first night in the apartment on Thursday, 4 days after we'd gotten into town. Here's a few pictures of our first meal/night in the house. We felt like we were on the show Hoarders because there was so much stuff everywhere that we could hardly find room to set up our tv tray... what an adventure. :)



Dallin was very excited to resume unpacking after dinner.

He has good reason to be excited because this is what the apartment looked like...


This is all the furniture that was left behind.... we don't really have room for all of it... haha!

This is our home. Can you see where the garage doors were? And the huge dead branch threatening to fall on our roof at any minute? Don't worry we're taking care of it.

And thanks to Sydney and Nick who introduced us to the most delicious/massive snow cones in Provo, we've helped ourselves to them 3 times since we got into town... it's helped relieve stress, and cool us down. :) If you come to town (in the summer) we will definitely take you to Hokulias.

Cocolalla

Dallin and I ended our summer with a BANG by spending a week at the cabin with the family.

Eliza, Talia and Brayden were so entertaining, and Dallin and I just couldn't get enough of their cuteness.

We always have so much fun at Lake Cocolalla.

This week's vacation consisted of:
playing LOTS of games,
reading, napping,

tubing/skiing,

fishing (Dallin caught around 30 of these little guys...),

kayaking,

eating delicious food (including leftover wedding candy!!)
roasting marshmallows
and cliff jumping.

Here's the cliff they jumped off of...

The boys looking all macho (getting ready for the jump)

Julie and I were a little afraid for our husbands' lives,
we were ready to jump in or give CPR if needed...

Here's the boys after they both safely made it...
I think they were a little shaken up... I know I was and I didn't even jump.

We were sad when the weekend came and it was time to head back to Kennewick. Why not just stay up there? Who needs to go to school anyway!? lol!

We love the Carters!

I know this is late,

But we had to give a shout-out to Elayna and Mitch who got married on August 13th.

Their wedding day was beautiful and amazingly not too hot (for August.) Although it was still sunny enough to need some shade :P

Dallin snapped this great picture of Grandpa coming out of the temple.

The reception turned out wonderfully. It was a huge relief to have everything go so well after all the time put into decorating and fixing up the backyard this summer. The hanging lanterns made it through the whole reception without falling down... a definite success (as they had fallen down twice since we first put them up the previous afternoon.)

All in all, it was an amazing day. We are so happy for you guys!
Welcome to the family Mitch! :)

Hello friend!!

On Saturday morning my dad, Branden and Trevor drove to Hillsboro to help Dallin and I pack our home into a moving truck/trailer. They were all such troopers to walk up and down the three flights of stairs to our apartment to take out all the boxes and furniture. They took the stairs at least 25 times.

Anyway, all of our stuff is now in Kennewick, in my parents garage, waiting for us to drive it to Provo in a few weeks. BUT Dallin and I will still be in Hillsboro until Wednesday evening.

Therefore our apartment looks like this....

Since our apartment has nothing in it, it's not too fun for me to sit here all day while Dallin is at work so I've been playing with some of my new best friends.

Their names are Joanna and Michael.

Yesterday we went blueberry picking, played Uno and Sorry, made grilled cheese and tomato soup for lunch, jumped on the trampoline and had a wonderful dinner together. I love these guys! They love life, and you can't help but smile when you are around them.
I am so grateful for all the friends we have made during our short time here. Thanks to everyone who has invited us into your homes and your hearts, you really have made us feel so welcome. Our ward family really is amazing and we will miss everyone!
We hope to be back next summer!! :)

We're not ready to leave

When I mentioned packing, this is what Dallin did...