We moved!

So we moved. Over a month ago and I am just now bringing myself to blog about it. I don't know why it has taken me so long. I was really excited to move back to Utah but I guess I just didn't want to admit to myself that the Vegas chapter of our life was over.
We knew when Kirk decided to major in Property and Facility Management at BYU that moving to Vegas was a possibility. I always hoped that we wouldn't and after a weekend trip to Vegas I decided I would rather live anywhere in the world but Las Vegas. Ha Ha Ha. When Kirk took the job in Las Vegas we were living with my parents and had been out of a job for 2 months. We were desperate and Tririga was the only company that had even interviewed us. So Las Vegas. Kirk moved to Vegas about three weeks before the girls and I joined him. The first time I drove into Las Vegas I cried the whole way down I-15 that cuts through the city. It was 5:00 pm and dark (it was January) and the city was lit up like a Christmas tree. I saw each of those lights as a person I didn't know and was afraid of how many people were in the city. I cried and cried and cried. I didn't want to live in "sin city." I was terrified at the thoughts of living in another state (not because I didn't want to leave Utah specifically but because I had never lived anywhere else). I didn't like that we were only moving to Las Vegas because we had no other option. But we moved there anyway. Obviously I could have tried a little harder to be happy about the move, ha ha.
We bought a new construction home (for no other reason than it was easy, was in a gated community, and had a nice pool). We loved our house. We loved everything about it. It was everything we could ever want in our first home. Moving into our beautiful new home was big for me. I started to like Las Vegas a lot more. We only had one car and I was at home with the girls a lot. It was really hard to be somewhere I didn't know anyone and without a car. I fell into a pretty deep depression and was lucky to have Chelsey come live with me that summer. It was not an easy summer for either of us but it was also a summer I will always treasure because I got her all to myself. We were blessed to make very good friends. Couples Kirk and I could relate to easily. Our greatest blessing was to be in the Coronado ward where you could have as many friends as you wanted. There were always game night/book club/recipe group to go to. There was always someone willing to help with anything all you had to do was ask on our fb page. The ward was very united and we all felt blessed to be a part of such comrade.
But it was really hard to be so far from family. The trips to Utah were exhausting (especially since Audrey hated the car...passionately). And it was hard for family to make the 8+ hour drive to see us. We knew we would end up back in Utah, it was just a matter of when.
I eventually fell in love with Vegas. I knew I was home when I could smell cigarette smoke and when I couldn't understand the people around me (because they were speaking another language). It took a couple years and a couple different changes but I was able to make my house mine, exactly like I wanted it. We loved the little world we created for our family. We had lots of quality family time and our marriage was strengthened because we learned to rely on each other heavily. But my biggest love of Vegas was the friends I made. Who knew some of the most amazing women on earth live in Las Vegas. I love them because they are down to earth and very real. I felt incredibly comfortable around them...even at my worst. I felt like we were trying our best and encouraging each other. I knew friendships like those were hard to come by and didn't want to move away from them.
Last fall Kirk moved to the sales department of IBM which meant he could live anywhere in the world as long as he could get to an airport. We were only a couple months away from meeting Timothy and didn't entertain the ideas of moving until the new year. We sat down and looked at our finances and decided we could move to Utah the summer of 2014. But then Kirk got a large bonus and our move date was moved up to the beginning of 2014. Then we received help with medical bills and the move date was moved up. Then another unexpected sum of money came and Kirk and I both felt like maybe we should seriously consider moving in 2013. We prayed and decided to list our house in February of this year. We listed high about $30,000 above appraisal value and so we knew it would take a miracle to sell. But we felt that if Utah is where were supposed to be the house would sell. Showing a house with 3 small children was a challenge to say the least. Living in limbo was even more difficult.
But in May it happened. We accepted a cash offer and were going to move to Vernal. We were moving home! The dream quickly died as the offer fell through over the weekend. We were crushed, but it was good for me to see how badly I wanted to move to Utah and how excited I was to live near family.
By the end of June we were exhausted. We were showing our house a couple times a week without any luck. A new job opportunity came for Kirk and we decided to take our house off the market. But our real estate agent asked if we could please show the house twice more.
That was all it took. We accepted an offer the night of the 4th of July. We moved 22 days later. We wroked hard to pack our house up quickly and say goodbye to our home. I made plans to hang out with the friends I was closest to before I left but was mostly so busy I didn't allow myself to feel much of the emotion of leaving. Part of me didn't want to leave. Las Vegas was safe. We knew exactly where we stood and had life figured out. I had such good friends and loved that they were only a text away. I feel like I didn't know how to say goodbye to Las Vegas and the people who meant so much to me here and so I didn't and I will always wish I had.
I almost just typed one up, but started to cry. Maybe I need a little more time before I know just how to say goodbye (I am nothing if not dramatic!).

We had always planned to move to Vernal when we came back to Utah. Both our parents are there and we loved the idea of being close to them and close to our old stomping grounds. But when it came to the day where we needed to find a house we both knew Vernal wasn't the right place for us...at least not right now. We both wanted to live close to our mom's but knew living close to the SLC airport was better for our family because the kids and I could spend more time with Kirk. When we fasted, prayed, and went to the temple we knew this would be best for us. We had never event thought of living in Lehi but this is where we ended up. We found a nice house to rent while we find a home we want to settle in permanently. We love being so close to family and haven't gone more than 3 days without seeing someone from either of our families and this makes us very happy. Our kids are in heaven and love living near cousins. The day after we moved Audrey said "Mom, we live somewhere cold now don't we?" She has no idea, ha ha. The rollie pollie bugs are Kirsten's favorite thing about this house and she tells anyone who will listen about her pet rollie pollie bugs (who roam free in our yard). Kirk was killing flies last night (at least they aren't cockroaches) and Kirsten was very distraught. She kept begging the flies to "fly away! so you won't get dead" ha ha!
Yes life in Utah is very very good.