The Fam

Many thanks to our friend and neighbor Hart Evans for snapping a few photos of us in our Hyrum yard the day before we moved away .

Check out a lot more of Hart's photos at Hartshots.com. 

City Livin'

Busy as we are unpacking, fixing and updating our living space, and trying to get a handle on yard work, we still manage to get out and enjoy SLC on occasion.  Brandon and I have been on TWO dates: one to see G. Love at Red Butte (thanks, Frantzes!) and one to see Saturday's Voyeur at the Salt Lake Acting Company with a group of friends from the north 'burbs.  We hope to find a few reliable neighborhood babysitters so we can make 'date night' a weekly occurrence.  A couple of weekends ago we ventured into the city to check out a free event for kids at the Salt Lake Art Center.  Both G and V fell asleep shortly after we got on the road, so we skipped the Art Center went on tour of the downtown area for a little while instead.   When the kids woke up we decided to check out the Children's Library at the Salt Lake City Library.

Approaching the impressive library building.

Playing in the water feature.

 

 

An exciting, frivolous (the Children's library is in the basement) ride up the elevator.

Entrance to "The Attic."

"The Attic" is one of two special reading rooms at the Children's Library.  The other is the "Crystal Cave."

A Light in the Attic (she shines so brightly).

 Yesterday we ventured to Liberty Park with our friend Scott and his 4-year-old son, Keegan.  There's a water feature at the park called "Seven Canyons Fountain".  It's a miniaturized version of the Wasatch Front with water flowing down each of (you guessed it) seven little 'canyons'.  The park also has an aviary, a playground with a sprinkler pad, a sled hill, and even a ferris wheel. 

Getting Settled

Whew. Moving is exhausting - even with the help of the many friends and neighbors who came both to the Hyrum house and to our new house in SLC to lighten our workload (THANK YOU!).


We had a semi-surprise visit a few days ago from my folks, who were 'on their way' back to Chicago on their big road trip to Alaska.  What a treat to have them here, even if it was only for a few days.  They've been on the road since before we found a house to buy, so they had no idea what to expect when they got here.  Fun!

We walked to Olympus Hills Park with Nana.

Had ourselves a snack while we were there.

Beautiful, smiley girls!

Papa, Viv & Nana

"Don't smile, Gavin!" (So much for reverse psychology)

Group photo before our farewell breakfast @ Mimi's.

We've been in our new home for a little over a week now and I feel pretty good about how much we've gotten unpacked and organized so far, but there's still a lot to do.   On Saturday 8/6 we returned to Hyrum to clean the house and to gather up the odds-and-ends we'd left behind, including our chickens who subsequently survived a harrowing 80-mile ride in a dog carrier on the back of our flatbed trailer. They were a little nervous that first day and night here, but yesterday Brandon and Gavin built them a sweet new coop out of our old dog house, so they're feeling much better.

Three displaced chix roosting in a shopping cart.

Area prep.

Adding the nest box.

Up on posts and in place in the corner.

A little help from the G-Man.

Finishing touches.