The Fourth, the Reunion, the Move, and Whathaveyou

El Cuatro de Julio

I have mucho to write about. Sigh. First, the Fourth of July: Well, my family came over to the Ferguson's house in Lehi and we had a BBQ and watched fireworks. That's about all there is to tell. Will was very angry about not being able to sleep and started his new favorite thing: to get very wound up before naptime and crying really hard before I have to feed him a little more and rock him for awhile. Hey, whatever works. And that was the Fourth. Yay for independence. But seriously folks, yay.
Next item of business: The family reunion. This year we held our first Hansen Family Reunion in Pine Valley, UT. We stayed at some cabins belonging to Holly Ence Hansen's family and her uncle. It was a little wild keeping track of the kids but it was pretty fun. We had some good food too. The main day we were there (Tuesdee) started out with breakfast, then tons of relay races (which our team really got cheated on.)
After the frozen t-shirt contest. T shirts were folded up, soaked in water, then frozen. We had to be the first to wear the shirts. Garrett and Katrina are wearing them. We won this one!
The headstand contest. Lincoln won. No contest.
Wrap kids in toilet paper contest. The stupid toilet paper kept ripping.
The Flipping Marshmellow Contest. No really, we were flipping marshmellows.
And my adorable nephew Max...just chillin' in the Bumbo.
After lunch, many people went swimming but I stayed behind to do a craft with many of the girls who got sick and couldn't go. The craft was painting rocks and gluing stuff on them to make rock animals. It was wildly popular and I was very impressed with how creative some of my nieces are. They made animals like a penguin, a lobster, a turtle, etc. My sister-in-law Kristie made a very impressive giraffe with twigs for legs.
This little deer was very brave and kept getting very close to us in hopes of some food. Aaron's cousins Kirstie and Sunnie would have loved this!
Before dinner, Aaron took everyone to the Mountain Meadows memorial and told the story of what happened. I was way too tired to go to this.
And thankfully, this is how Will spent the majority of the day, minus Aaron.
That evening we finished up our family trivia and had an impromptu talent show. We said our goodbyes and it really hit me that I was moving away!
The next morning we got on the road about 8 am, me, Aaron, Will, and my brother Tyler. We drove and drove and drove and stopped occasionally for gas. Will was NOT a fan of long car rides. And I was not a fan of getting stopped at the Hoover Dam and being forced to unload half our truck for security. Erg.
We finally arrived in Mesa at around 4 pm and spent about an hour finishing paperwork and learning that lo and behold, our apartment was NOT ready for us and we would have to move in the next day! We were able to get them to pay for a hotel room at least, but we had to tell all the elders from our new ward to come back tomorrow to help us move in. So we chilled at La Quinta Inn and had Chipotle for dinner.
Finally, the next day! We signed the lease while I wrestled Will who was very cranky. Then we met the elders and they helped us lug everything inside our very HOT apartment. We are very grateful for their help though.
We spent the next two days unpacking all our stuff. And Aaron spent most of the time hooking up our electronics and internet and whathaveyou (you were wondering where that would come in, weren't you!) Tyler left on Thursday afternoon. On Friday Aaron and I went grocery shopping and spent a fortune since we didn't bring most of our staple foods like ketchup and mayo. On Saturday we had a little more of a normal day and finally got rid of our HUGE trash pile. We went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner which was delish! We split the Steak Diane and split the Tuxedo cheesecake for dessert. Ah! We went at about 6 and waited for 5 minutes. It's nice to live in a place where these kinds of restaurants aren't such a huge novelty that people wait for 4 or more hours just to eat there. The best part is that the CF is like 2 minutes from our house so we can drive there and get cheesecake anytime we want. Now you're all jealous. Well don't worry, because today I suffered through whole wheat spaghetti to make up for it.
Our huge trash pile. I did a pretty good job of keeping it manageable. It wraps around the corner though.
The living room. It's all pretty pathetic looking right now but don't you worry, have faith in me and the room will look great in a few years.
I just had to show off our new wonderful dishwasher. Live without one for a few years and you will feel the same way. And finally, the greatest part of our apartment: the view! It is SO beautiful outside our patio and the sunsets here are amazing. And with the lampposts coming on at night, I feel like we're living in the middle of Central Park.
Will is already glued to the tube. Like father, like son. Just kidding...but seriously, I've got em. Well we're all fine here, how are you? We went to our ward today for the first time and got a pretty warm welcome. I was excited when I went to the mother's lounge to feed Will and met a couple of Hispanic ladies who helped me practice my Spanish, and man am I rusty! But some people brought us brownies tonight and were very friendly. Also, there are tons of dental school students in our ward who also live in Lakeview so that will be good. Life here is shaping up nicely. I realize that that was all said pretty quickly, but hey, a lot happened in not much time and I'm tired and you should be grateful I even blogged at all.