Christmas Vacation 2003

Mom and Dad got to go somewhere for Christmas 2003: up north a few towns to house sit and cat sit for Dad's brother and family. After finals were over, Dad's brother gave us a ride north. Our student apartment at the time wasn't bad, but it sure was nice to get away to a "real" house (and its accompanying pantry). Our hosts left not long after we got there, and we settled in to enjoy it all, like the college kids on vacation that we were. After we'd memorized the house, we ventured out to the bus stop and made our way to a shopping center with a movie theater. We got ourselves a big book of Dr. Seuss stories that included "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and then watched the third Lord of the Rings movie, thus completing the Lord of the Rings arc of our courtship story.

Mom's folks came up for Christmas, but didn't stay long because of weather concerns. In years to come, one of Mom's favorite things about living too far for her folks to drive was that people stopped changing their plans because of weather rumors. :) After they left, we lounged about some more until our hosts returned, just in time to save us from starvation after we'd eaten all their food. Mom also inadvertently spoiled their cats rotten with petting.

But, alas, the end of house sitting marked the beginning of a rough time for Mom: wisdom teeth removal. The dentist used a local anesthetic to remove the sideways-growing rebels, which meant that both Mom and Dad knew about most of the surgery. Mom's Uncle Jim gave us a ride home afterwards and helped us get prescriptions filled. We'd checked out It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World from the library somewhere around the same time, and let me tell you, that was quite a crazy New Year's Eve, living it up on yogurt and pudding while mostly passed out from pain and meds in Mom's case and waiting on Mom in Dad's case, all with a bizarre show in the background. Amazingly, we did manage to hear the fireworks when they started, and even staggered outside for a minute to see some. We also managed to regain consciousness by the time classes started up again a couple of days later.

Thanksgiving 2003

Our first Thanksgiving officially as family. With Grandma and Grandpa (Dad's folks) off in Russia, it was fairly easy choosing to spend the holiday with Mom's family (Grandmother & Grandfather). We stayed at their home for a few days and in that time enjoyed Thanksgiving, celebrated Dad's birthday (his second one with Mom's family), and even visited Grandfather's school class (once upon a time he was a school teacher for 30+ years, for all those out there who know him in his new career).

Our second apartment

Our first apartment served well its purpose of giving us time to find another place. Just a couple of blocks away, we found a nice place that felt like a serious starter home (it was still an apartment, though, in a different complex). The best feature was the view from the front window: a great big lawn . . . that belonged to the church building that was also on the block. There was a driveway running between our building and that lawn, but the driveway didn't show up easily in that view. It gave the illusion of living on a grand manor. It was a good thing we lived there when we did, because a few years later, after we were long gone, the church building had an extra wing added on that ruined the view from that living room window. Another interesting thing about our time there was that Mom's Uncle Jim (Grandmother's brother) moved in to the apartment right upstairs from us while we were there.

Our first apartment

A single student at BYU can live anywhere university approved, which means 1) buildings (not just apartments) will be segregated by gender and 2) there will be some minimum living standards the landlords are obligated to uphold to keep their approval status. And, of course, like anywhere, there's a good chance that your personal rent rate is going to be lower on your own than it would be if you were paying for the whole apartment.

The time came for Mom and relinquish their cozy singles contracts. Some of the apartments we checked out were scary. Others were pretty and pricey (and it doesn't have to cost much to be pricey for a couple of newlywed students, let me tell you). We finally settled on buying ourselves more time by starting out with a summer only contract at a complex that normally housed singles. It was near the campus and the Provo library. On Sundays, we only had to pass two other meeting houses to attend church at the chapel that Mom had lived in front of for the three years before that. Laundry was down three flights of stairs and across the street. The closest full service grocery store was about five or six blocks away. Doable, but we still liked it when people in the ward with cars took pity on us and let us go grocery shopping with them.

This was all in the days before we had a digital camera, but we did manage to find and digitize a little something from that era:

Farewell, fair Galant

When Mom & Dad got married, they had a car, a dark green Mitsubishi Galant that Grandma & Grandpa had given Dad since they would not be needing it while away on their mission in Russia. We had that car for seven days of our married life. It took us down to Los Angeles where we got on the boat for our honeymoon cruise and then waited patiently in the garage until we got back. It got us through the LA freeways and out of California. And then, just as we were entering Las Vegas, it crashed, with Mom driving. Everyone was able to walk away (although the driver in front of us was rather upset about her damaged car and sued us almost three years later, something the insurance took care of thankfully), and our insurance gave us a decent check for the value of the car, but that was the end of cars for us for a little over three years. Honestly, it turned out to all be a bit of a blessing in disguise, since we didn't really need a car as students with free bus passes living close to campus. Even when we moved to Seattle a couple of years later, we still didn't need a car, since Dad's job gave him a bus pass. At the time of the crash, the money we got was perfect for keeping the rent paid. Over the next few years, the lack of car saved who knows how many dollars in gas, maintenance, and insurance. Of course, things wouldn't have worked out as well without kind friends and good public transit. And, of course, when we did finally get a car again some three years (and two kids) later in Ohio, we were quite glad to have one. The new car? Another Galant, only white this time. Mom had to smile when Dad brought it home, thinking it was as if the previous car had returned to us "resurrected." This post is written several years after the fact in the wake of another car crisis. But, guess what? That "resurrected" Galant we got is still going strong and getting us through it, as of March 2010.

The Great Engagement Photo Shoot

Once upon a time, one of Mom's neighbor roommates was very handy with a camera. For instance, consider this picture from a roommate photo shoot back in 2001.

That roommate moved on, but fortunately not far away, which meant that Mom and Dad called her up to do our engagement pictures. We begin with the one we used for the announcements, continue with a favorite, and then end with a few more just because they happen to be scanned. Enjoy!

And now, a special behind the scenes bonus feature for those who managed to scroll down this far. The great secret of our engagement shoot location, and a great tribute to our photographer for pulling off the shots she did under the circumstances. The location was . . .

Yup, that's right. The Pizza Factory in Provo. The old bridge had been upgraded when we went back ten years later, but the rest of the scenery was pretty much the same. Amazing what a camera can do in the hands of an expert, eh?