(this is a crazy long post. I wanted to get all this down for our family journal. I know I'm forgetting a lot of info, but for the most part, here is our story)
Where do I even begin?
Months and months ago (maybe even a year ago) we started talking about moving. We didn't know where or when we would move, but we knew the time had come. We were ready for a change, again not knowing what kind of change, but we knew we wanted A change, and we wanted to buy a house.
We looked into all our options of where to go. Our options were stay in SJ, move up to Walnut Creek, move anywhere in the Bay, a different state (we thought of Utah, Washington, etc), and even So Cal. We prayed a lot and talked a lot and thought a lot. We weighed all our options and went back and forth many times on many different choices. But we couldn't make a decision.
Around October(ish) Dave said we were moving in the spring, so I'd better tell him where we were going :) We both felt like Utah was the best, most logical choice (family of course, cost of living, kids in the neighborhoods, good schools), but had a hard time saying this was our final decision. We've loved being on our own. We've created a tight knit little family and always wanted to keep that. We love the CA weather and all our friends there. We felt settled there and at home in San Jose. So to actually MAKE the decision was extremely hard.
In November, after dragging our feet, we made the decision that Utah was our choice.
But we needed to get the OK from Adobe... Dave talked to his boss about our decision and how we were making this move for our family and we felt this would be best. Dave's team is in San Francisco (which he commuted up to the city 2 times a week from San Jose) and he would keep his same job. His boss and team were cool with us trying out this move, on terms that we would move back if things weren't working out. And on terms that he would fly in for various meetings, etc (hello? who wouldn't want to go back?!). This was great for us, since we always want to keep a little toe in the Bay Area.
So the house search started.................... blah
For many different reasons, we narrowed our search area to Lehi, Highland, and Alpine. We found a great realtor in Utah County and began looking.
First, I should mention that all this was a big secret for our family and friends (both in CA and Utah). No one knew at this time what we were thinking or doing. We at first kept this a secret because, honestly, we didn't want anyones opinons :) We wanted to make this decision on our own without anyone telling us "oh, you don't want to move to UT!" or "you should move to 'this' area or 'that' area, or don't move there..." kind of things. We just wanted to make the best decision for our family.
We looked at hundreds of houses online, constantly, everyday and every night. In December when we visited for Christmas, we went house hunting one Saturday.
We found a little house in Alpine that we liked. (At this point we just needed a good little "translational" house that we could buy, and get our feet wet in Utah and see if we liked the area. We also wanted a house that we could rent out if we needed to move after the year trial.) We put an offer on the house. The owners of the home were so so weird with us, and basically ignored all our offers. So we bagged that house and moved on.
After this offer fell through, we felt a little discouraged, but we also had time on our side. We were in no hurry to move. So we just kept looking, and talking with our realtor. (who was a great realtor and we high recommend him and will use him again.)
In February (8th and 9th) I flew out to Utah, incognito, and stayed with my Kelly (which was so fun!). She was the hostest with the mostest!
I went out with our realtor on that Saturday and looked at around 15 houses and a few lots in Alpine. Yes, it snowed the whole time I was there. Dave thought I would freeze and begged me to stop at Cabella's to get a coat. But I was fine. This was my car...ha ha, I felt like a gangsta :) And no worries that when I was sitting on the plane to go home, the wings of the plane were frozen and they needed to spray down the plane. Freaky.
Anyway, this house (our house now) was the first house I looked at. I didn't like it, but kept it on the list. The house is a little on the smaller side (sorry CA friends, but it's smaller for UT :), and we don't need a big house, so that was ok, the backyard was small and I didn't/don't love the layout with the bedrooms and family-room, and other little things about this place that just bugged. BUT, the house was new and in a new development with a club pool, good school for the kids, and the price was awesome that we could rent this place out, if need be. So the search went on through the day, and NOTHING else caught my eye. Nothing. I went home feeling really discouraged. I felt like the trip was a waste of my time and money.
The next week as we talked, somehow, we came to the conclusion that we would try this house out. I honestly don't know how we came to this decision, it just kind of happened. But the basement was not finished, and we wanted to have a finished basement before we moved in. We went back and forth with Ivory (the home developer) to see if they would finish the basement and roll that price into our mortgage. They agree'd (after much persuasion) and we felt good about that.
Then one Friday, when I was sick as can be and Dave was home for the day, we were signing our contract papers and having them turned in that day (Feb 15th to be exact). A great house in Alpine opened up and we jumped on it! We made an offer that second, without seeing the house in person. They had multiple offers that day and we got into a bidding war. The price kept going up and got into a range that we felt like it wasn't a "transitional" house anymore and not an easy price to rent out. So we passed on the house. That day was crazy and stressful. But we felt good about passed it up.
So we sent in our contact to Ivory, and the deal was done. We got the contact back and our closing date was March 28th. Although the date kept changing and ended up being on April 12th.
So we started packing up our house. Every night we would pack a little at a time. Dave is the master packer and had everything organized on listed as to what night we would pack what. Still NO one knowing what we were doing (except for a few close friends)...not even our kids. They kept saying "what are you doing, why are you packing everything up?' Ha ha, we told them "we are spring cleaning...we are taking everything out of the house, cleaning it and putting our stuff back."
The last week in February we had a meeting with Ivory, via Skype, to pick out the materials for our basement. The house was specked for a 7 bedrooms house...what? This house is not big enough for 7 bedrooms. So we asked them to knock out a wall to make the family room and playroom flow together and be one big room. We would make the other 2 bedrooms downstairs an office for Dave and a photo studio for me!
March 3rd we finally told our kids what was going on. We explained to them we bought a house and were moving to Utah. They were excited the first second and then sad the next, when they realized we would be leaving CA and their friends. The next month was a roller coaster with them, and lots and lots of questions, and lots of tears (from the kids and myself).
We also told our ward and San Jose friends. Lots of tears that day, but also so many kind and sweet emails, texts, and phone calls from dear friends.
The rest of the month was filled with packing and getting rid of stuff. We sold a lot of stuff on Craigslist, and took car loads (like 5) to Goodwill, and gave tons of stuff away for free. We sold our tramp (getting a new one), our BBQ (getting a new one), some furniture, etc. De-junking feels SO good and really the only good thing about moving. And honestly, Dave is an amazing packer, it's one of his callings in life. The actual move was so organized, and all the guys kept saying "this is how you pack and move!" EVERYTHING was in a box, everything. And if it didn't fit in boxes we had, Dave would buy a box to fit it. No loose ends.
At first we put all the boxes in our garage, so we could live a somewhat normal life in the house.
During all this time we also had many sad "see ya laters" with lunches and dinners and get togethers. We have been so overwhelmed with love for these amazing friends of ours. We have received the most thoughtful cards, and notes, and gifts for remembrance. Moving away from such good people is crazy hard, and harder than I thought moving would be. But these friends we will keep forever and are so thankful for their friendship, support and love.
And on March 23rd, my church friends threw me a SURPRISE going away party! I had NOOOO idea and was completely surprised and shocked! They were so so so sweet to even think about this! They wanted to give me a surprise, since we were surprising our families and friends in Utah! The party was so perfect, a cupcake party (so fitting) and so fun. I've never felt so loved. This gesture of love was so appreciated and I will always remember this. Such amazing ladies (some had already left before we got this pic...) who have taught me so much and who I love so much. Thank you ladies. You'll never know how much I needed this, loved this, and appreciated this.
The story of how they got me to Jessie's house.
We had planned to go out of town this weekend. I booked the hotel and told Dave we were leaving on Friday (the 23rd) after work. He said "aaaaa, you'll have to cancel Friday night for the hotel, I have a special surprise for our family that night and it's the only night I can do the surprise". What? I was so confused. I racked my brain trying to figure out what in the world he could surprise us with.
But I canceled the hotel for that night. Around 3:00 on Friday afternoon, my friend Jessie text me saying "hey, Dave is stopping by tonight to pick up a compter thing, will you come with him...because I have a little something for you"
Around 4:30, Dave text and said we were going to dinner before our family surprise. Luckily he said that, because I got in the shower and got somewhat ready for the night. I hadn't even planned on getting dressed.
He got home from work with cupcakes and said "tonight is 'Love Mommy Night'" or something like that and we were going to celebrate me. "OK..." I thought. Why couldn't we have this night in Monterey, where we were planning on going. But we went to dinner (which was a disaster with our kids, who were super crazy) and all I wanted to do, was go home and rest.
But we needed to stop by the Kilger's first. So we went to the door, and when Jessie answered I said "I feel weird coming to your house to pick up MY gift"...she laughed and said "your gift is in the back" And as I started walking back I hear "SURPRISE!!!" and for a few seconds I couldn't figure out what just happened! ha ha. But a whole surprise party had been planned and set up for me. I immediately started crying! Thank you, thank you.
On March 27th, the kids had their last day at Santa Teresa Elementary school. Such a sad day. We love this school and had a great experience there. Their teachers this year were both amazing teachers. We felt so blessed to have these teachers, who love our kids, and helped them to learn and grow.
These were their gifts I gave them.
The kids came home from school so so sad. Both crying and saying they didn't want to move. This broke my heart, because I knew how they felt and I felt the same way. But their teachers and friends got to say their good-byes and left them feeling loved. We couldn't ask for anything more. Ava's teacher took a pic of each kid and put them in a book for Ava to remember her friends. And Max's teacher had a whole travel package for him to take with him.
Our trucks came on April 5th and left on 8th. Many of our guy friends, and the Yeates, showed up to help load everything. We are so thankful for them! They worked so hard! We paid them with lunch, which of course, was NOT enough.
We were left with nothing in our house, except a TV and our blow up mattresses.
This thing was a beast to pack...that's a whole blog post in and of itself!
Our life for the next 3 days...
And on April 10th, we drove out of our San Jose drive way. Leaving our home, our friends, our neighbors, and our life. So so much harder than I ever thought it would be. Me crying the entire way.
Dave and I drove separately me with the kids :) But they did great and having the Tahoe made the drive much more bearable We stopped in Reno over night, and the next day drove the rest of the way to our new house!
And now the moment we had all been waiting for...
SURPRISE UTAH, WE'RE HERE!
