Maximizing Moments

Life is an interesting journey.  Stephen started a new job in Salt Lake City, Utah a couple of months ago and has been living there and commuting back and forth on most weekends.  The job is great and we will be joining him in SLC soon, but in the meantime we have been trying to maximize our time together and minimize the impact of the long-distance divide.  A difficult challenge for sure but also fun and exciting to see what the future holds as we start a new chapter in our lives!

While he has been in snow . . .

And cold . . .

And mountains . . .

We have been keeping the home fires burning and texting and FaceTiming with him a lot . . .

To stay in close contact as best we can while separated

Which means sending a lot of selfies back and forth . . .

With kissy-faces and emojis  :)

But when we have been together we have had had a lot of fun, like hot-tubbing in our backyard in 40 degree weather, which may not be Utah cold but is certainly cold enough to make the hot tub very enjoyable, especially since the kids and Stephen did the polar bear plunge in the freezing pool water before getting in!

And thankfully a lot of the kids' events have been on the weekends he has been in town.

Like the Pinewood Derby

But the Scout cake-off was on weeknight so Sophie had to step in and help Harrison create his Star Wars themed cake in Stephen's long-distance absence.  (Probably turned out better than anything their dad would have been able to do :)

We went on a picnic and to see the alligators at Brazos Bend Park one weekend Stephen was in town.

We had to leave Olaf in the car for most of the outing because he is basically perfect gator bait!

And Stephen was able to fly into town just in the nick of time one Thursday night to see Sophie's lead role as a narrator in a play at school. 

Other extended family members came out to support her too!  Thanks, Deb, Lyn, and Henry!

I was able to go up to Salt Lake City one weekend with Stephen to look for a house for our family there.

We got to see the Macs at BYU while I was there and go out to dinner with them at a yummy Thai restaurant in Provo.  :)

And we visited my dad's grave in Lehi, which we hadn't been to in some time.  Emotional.  Everything changed 12 years ago, and it really has not been the same since.  And now both Stephen's parents are gone too.  Lots of loss.

Now it is time for a new chapter in our journey.  One that brings us back to ancestral roots in a lot of ways but takes us out of our comfort zone and familiar places.  Exhilarating and fear-inducing at the same time.  Better is almost always harder.