Shortly after Scott finished his internship for Union Pacific last summer they gave him a full time offer to come back and work for them after he graduated. We were thrilled because Union Pacific was a company Scott had decided he would really like to work for and the offer was everything we were hoping for and more. But at the time we had just brought Ellie home with her trach and the only thing that was keeping us alive was our amazing support group of friends and family who all pitched in to help us. Even with their help we were barely staying afloat...and I mean BARELY. The idea of leaving everything and move half way across the country was a joke. It wasn't even an option. In about January, Scott and I were getting settled into a good routine with Ellie and we decided to start limiting the help we accepted from family. We started to realize that we could do this on our own. It felt so good to be taking back control of our life and I started to feel a glimmer of hope about the future. Soon we started talking about the possibility of moving again and the glimmer started to grow. In February, Union Pacific offered to fly us out to Omaha to check things out since I had not made it out during the summer. Thanks to my wonderful Mom, who agreed to watch Ellie and the rest of our kids for 5 days we were able to make the trip out there. She deserves nothing less than a metal of honor. Especially after 3 of the 4 kids got a stomach bug and were throwing up in their beds all night. This was the first time I had ever left Ellie for more than a shift at work and I was a wreck!! Our first night in Omaha I had a complete breakdown at dinner and sobbed at our table while the whole restaurant awkwardly stared at us and wondered what Scott had done to make me cry like that. After getting it all out of my system I was good to go and was able to relax and enjoy the rest of our trip. During our trip, we visited the Union Pacific Center which was incredible and I finally got to meet all the people on the coal team that Scott worked with last summer. They are all such amazing people and have been so good to us! We logged a lot of hours with our realtor looking at areas and houses. We visited schools, wards, and even visited the children's hospital where we were able to meet with the team of doctors that would be taking over Ellie's care. We were very impressed and confident that we will have access to all of the resources we need for Ellie. Even with all the business matters we had on our agenda, and the fact we were in Omaha Nebraska in February, this felt like a luxurious vacation. Getting uninterrupted sleep four nights in a row and going on dates every night was amazing. We were able to go out with several other U.P. couples and ask them all about their experience in Omaha and working for U.P. At the end of the trip Scott and I had no doubt that Omaha would be a great fit for our family and we already knew that Union Pacific was exactly the kind of company we wanted Scott to be working for. The day after we got home Scott accepted his offer and our life turned into a whirlwind as we tried to get everything in order for our move. As we juggled selling our house, a long distance house hunt, Scott finishing his final semester of school, planning and coordinating the transfer of all of Ellie's medical care and supplies, planning and executing three birthday parties, all the end of year activities, along with all the regular craziness of day to day life we were also saying goodbye to the place we have called home our entire lives. We made a list of some of our favorite Utah activities and did our best to do them all one last time before we moved. Here were some of the things on our list.
Skiing X
Bike Ride up Provo Canyon X
Picnic up Canyon X
Bridal Veil Falls
Thanksgiving Point
Dino Museum X
Farm X
Gardens--tulip festival X
Museum of Natural Curiosity
Mountain biking X
Discovery Gateway
Golf
Riverside X
Hobble Creek X
Thanksgiving Point
Gladstan X
Talon's Cove X
Fox Hollow X
St George Golfing Trip X
Zion House X
Hike the Y
Living Planet Aquarium X
Bean Museum
Swimming at Riverside X
Swimming at Provo Rec X
Arete Gymnastics open gym X
Zoo
We didn't get to everything on our list, but I felt like we were really able to enjoy our final few months in Utah.
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| Played baseball in our backyard any chance we got. |
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| Enjoyed as many walks around our neighborhood as possible. |
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| Miles took Ellie for her first ride in Grandma's black truck. |
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| Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving point. |
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| This was one of our first outings and well... you can see how happy she was about it. |
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| Miles loved helping Daddy and Grandpa with a few projects before selling our house. |
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| Family Home Evening at Riverside golfing 9 holes with Grandpa. |
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| Mason practicing his approach shot. |
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| Miles swinging his club as hard as he possibly could at anything and everything. |
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| My girls lounging by Riverside pool. |
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| And even more walks. |
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| Brynn practicing her nursing skills. |
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| Mason's first time riding solo up Provo Canyon. He was a champ. |
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| My parents met us up the canyon with Ellie and some dinner for a picnic. |
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| Of course Mason had to do some off-roading with Scott on the way back. |
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| A duck laid her eggs in my parent's flowerbed. She faithfully protected her eggs for a month. A few days before we moved they hatched. The kids were enthralled with them. |
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| One of the things we miss most in Omaha is our Saturday visits from Pooky and Papa. |
I had the chance to get together with some of my best friends from High School one last time before we moved. It is crazy to think we have 18 kids between all of us. When did we get so grown up?
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| Me, Paige (Banks), Stacie, Gina (Ivy), Chelsy (McKay), and Tiffany |
Stacie has been by my side through thick and thin ever since Jr High. Probably 40% of the storage space in my brain is filled up with memories made with this girl. Biking to and from summer swim team, towel fashion shows, cruising around in her white Bronco aka "the Simps", sneak sleeps, triathlons both before and after we started training for them, taking an unplanned detour around Lake Tahoe together, and witnessing each other fall in love with our husbands. No matter how much time passes or how far apart we are, Stacie always shows up when I need her most. I look up to her and want to be more like her in every way. I'm going to miss her, but this move won't change any of that. Love you Stace.
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Stace, Tiff, and I were...how do I say it....well, pretty awesome when we were in High School. We decided we should recreate one of the many pictures we took together. I said let's recreate the super cute picture we took at this very park 10 years ago. They said let's recreate the one where we appear to be having an ugliest face contest. So that's what we did.
Clearly our kids have inherited our attractiveness.
But seriously, I love these girls! They made me who I am today.
Goodbye Utah.....for now.
