Home and Family

We have learned a lot on this trip. One of them is you can take your dog inside Home Depot. Coda, of course. loved it! Every time we buy a new house we start shopping in earnest at Home Depot!

Back at the house we resumed opening and sorting boxes. there is a shocking amount of boxes to go through!

We took a short break when my sister, Annette dropped by with her daughter Lyndsie and her two granddaughters. It was fun showing them the house. Miriam and Sophie were more interested in the dog!

We went over to Brittany's house for dinner and Ed got Mabel laughing her head off! Brittany said she was crabby before we got there, but it was hard to believe!

After dinner we got to see Mabel walking around the living room with her old lady type walker. What will they think of next? It was so great, and it made her feel very proud of herself to walk back and forth between Grandpa and me. We enjoyed it as much as she did!

Deer, Dear Friends

We were so excited to see the beautiful deer in our backyard this afternoon, munching away on our flowers. We loved his great big mule deer ears.

Coda was so happy to have some deer friends out here, as well as Maryland. She was on high alert!

We also had dear friends, Chuck and Renee drop by and help us unpack. We had lunch together and enjoyed hearing the things Chuck and Renee (California transplants) have enjoyed about living in Utah. We're looking forward to enjoying the good life they are talking about!

Moving in Day

We met our van driver at the new house this morning at 7 a.m. We were raring to get starting moving in!

Ed got the not so coveted job of checking off every item and box by number as it rolled into the garage!

It was fun watching the house slowly come together with a few furnishings. But, it was also exhausting. We got 20,000 steps from just working around the house.

We had 4 hard working boys helping us today. When we couldn't find the dog, we occasionally found her hanging with the workers on their break.

Thank heavens Ed is retired and had the time and patience to copy his forms for Victor and sign each page of the inventory list.

Brittany and Mabel dropped by after work to see how we were doing! It made us remember why we're doing this!

Mabel had a good time playing with a discarded tape roll!

Mabel was also very interested in Coda, but Coda did her best to steer clear of Mabel.  Mabel is crawling really well now, but she couldn't keep up with a dog on the run!

We're back at Grandma's tonight, taking a break from moving in. We hope to stay in our new house later this week if the second van with the beds shows up!

New Home Owners

We are now the owners of a beautiful, new home in Alpine Utah. The realtor and the title company met us there there morning, and we signed a couple of papers, and it was ours!

 It has a beautiful view of the valley from the front porch.

And a beautiful view of the mountain behind.

Coda didn't know what to think of it. She was happy just to follow Ed and me around wherever we went.

We had lunch while we waited for the movers to show up. They did not show up. When we called them they said they would come tomorrow. It might have been nice to know in advance!

Since the movers didn't come, we decided to go down to City Hall and sign up for our utilities. It had a cute small town feel, and they even gave us a welcome bag with goodies inside it!

We drove to Walmart, where Ed said, "Look, there is our moving van!" Sure enough, Victor, our Latvian driver was biding his time in the parking lot. He promised to bring a crew of guys to unload tomorrow morning!

In the evening we dropped by to see Mabel, who is getting bigger and more clever every time we see her!

We enjoyed dinner together with Brittany and Mabel at a Mexican restaurant that had an outdoor patio (for Coda).

Ed says it feels like he is visiting, and we will be going home soon. Maybe when our furniture shows up it will feel like home!

Arrival in the Promised Land

We made it! We drove up to Grandma's house at 7 p.m. this evening. She had dinner waiting for us, despite our 3 hour delay at the tire shop. (By the way, it was a nail in the tire this time.) It is so good to be here, and we're excited to become Utah homeowners tomorrow morning!

After a car trip 2323 miles long, Coda says, "Don't ever do that to me again. Dibs on the bed!"

Tiring

What's a day without a trip to a tire store? We started out all hopeful this morning only to have a new flat tire indicator on the dashboard!

We're chilling at Tires Plus, hoping for the best  (a patch). This is sixth tire store in 6 days!

1. Firestone in Ashland, KY
2. S&S In Huntington, WV
3. Bridgestone in Betzville, IN
4. Mini Cooper dealer in St.  Louis,  MO
5. Bridgestone in Lake St Louis, MO
6. Tires Plus in Aurora, CO


Not to mention 5 gas stations where we pumped up air. Is the saga over yet?

Pie, Goodbye

We seem to always end up having pie from Village Inn our last night in Denver. Yesterday we followed tradition, and had no guilt about it after our long morning hike!

Thanks, Verlene and Paul for the hospitality. We look forward to having you visit us in our new home in Alpine. Don't forget to bring the dogs!