Packer Planning

Brad and I had our move planned to the T.  We knew when we were arriving in Minnesota, how long we were staying, and when we needed leave to arrive in Philadelphia.  Aaron planned to be in Minnesota at the same time as us.  Ryan and Alissa were coming a few days after we were scheduled to leave.  However, if there is one thing I've learned about Packers is that you don't plan on anything.

It wasn't planned for Greg and Lauren to come to Minnesota for the weekend.  Neither was it planned for us change our moving plans and be able to stay 3 additional days (yay!)  We didn't plan for all 4 Packer boys to be in Minnesota at the same time.  And somehow, with not planning all of this, it all worked out.  We couldn't have planned a better time if we tried.  It's one of the things I love about the Packers.  Somehow in the end, not planning everything turns out great.  We loved that we were able to spend time with all of the Packers!

This little girl is such a sweetheart.  After going out to eat we were driving home in separate cars.  I waved to Kate in the other car and Lauren asked Kate who was waving at her.  She replied, "That's Aunt Alisha.  You know, she's my best friend."  Melts my heart.

And if everyone is going to be together for the first time in a very long time, you know there is going to be a family picture.  Don't worry, given 1 day to shop, return clothes, and shop some more, we were able to find matching outfits for everyone.  Once again, Packer planning at it's finest.

Look Where We Are

For our whole married life we've been working towards a goal, to get Brad into dental school.  Brad has studied for hours on end, done research for a professor, took so many practice DAT tests he thought he'd explode, did humanitarian work in Nicaragua, and spent way, way too much on applying for a lot of schools, not to mention the expenses of interviewing.  We've lived on a budget and saved what money we could to finance (in a very small part) this venture.  We've moved across the country for this opportunity of Brad attending dental school.  We are paying a ridiculously huge amount of money for him to attend one of the best schools in the nation.  This is not a small undertaking.

Three years to the very day of starting our new life together, we have at least something to show for our commitment to our mutual goal.  This anniversary has been very different from every other anniversary we've had.  There was no special getaways, no evening together, not even going out to dinner as a couple.  Instead, Brad got something else.  Brad received his white coat, a symbol of becoming part of the dental profession.  During the ceremony the dental class recited a professional pledge, a sort of dental Hippocratic oath.  I am so proud of Brad for making it to dental school.  With studying, applying, and interviewing nothing was for sure.  But Brad has made it to dental school.  It feels like we have finally started on the path toward becoming an actual dentist.

These are the other LDS dental students in Brad's class.  In all the other years there are only two.  We are so excited to have so many friends who are doing exactly the same thing!

I've been reading this poem for months, thinking about our life.

Sometimes I get so overwhelmed with life.

And then I try to look into the future and I picture us together,

and no matter what we're still together,

and somehow life doesn't seem so hard,

or so long.

It just feels like the things we do make life hard,

But being together is who we are.  That's our real life.

I think today I was able to see a little bit of that future together and see that this path, the sacrifices, everything we've been doing will be okay in the long run.  This is our life and I'm so glad I get to have this adventure together with Brad.  Happy 3 year anniversary!

Red Rocks in Moab

Throughout our marriage, I have known that we are never going to live in Utah permanently.  It's just not in the picture for us.  However, while we were on this trip Brad asked me, "What would you think about living in Utah?"  That's how much fun we had on this trip to Moab.  We loved seeing both Arches and Canyonlands.  Utah really does have so much natural beauty to offer in its National Parks.

We arrived in Arches a little later in the day than we had hoped.  We did make it to Delicate Arch in the evening.  There were so many cameras set up taking pictures at sunset (and quite impressive cameras at that.)  This group of photographers was so big, that none of the tourists dared to go up to the arch.  Some tried, but the group of photographers started booing until they moved away.  We stayed late into the night for star pictures.  Plus, you can't beat stargazing at the Milky Way.

We spent our second day in Canyonlands.  It was amazing to see just how powerful erosion can be on a landscape over millions of years.  From where we were the river was 2,000 ft below us!

Canyonlands was beautiful, but I think we would have enjoyed it so much more if it wasn't for the bugs.  Mosquitos weren't the problem, though there were a few of the kind that really hurt when they bite you.  Thousands of little gnats would swarm around your face, land all over you, and go into your nose when you breathed.  They were horrible!

We left Canyonlands early because of the bugs and headed to Arches.  Such a good decision.  We were treated with the most beautiful sunset of our entire trip in front of the red rock.

We learned our lesson and stayed away from Canyonlands.  Instead we spent our last day in Arches.

Anyone recognize this?  This arch was filmed in the beginning of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.  It's called Double Arch.

Landscape Arch.  The most spectacular arch of our whole trip.  At one section it is only 6 ft wide and is 290 ft long!

We had a wonderful trip.  Hopefully one day we can come visit Utah again and see all the National Parks it has to offer.  We had such an enjoyable time hiking and taking too many photos!

Idaho

This was a long time ago, but we had so much fun with Zack and Karen going to see Uncle David and Aunt Colleen in Idaho.  They were excellent tour guides and took us to their cabin in the mountains next to this huge reservoir.  The scenery was perfect and the company exceptional!

Soaking our feet in the hot spring as it mixed with the river

Shoshone Falls

Caldron Linn

Eagles, rock chucks, skunks, oh my!

We had so much fun and enjoyed relaxing.  Thanks for having us!

Dynamic Reflections

We're finally getting to some old pictures from earlier this summer.  One of the big struggles with getting them developed was teaching me how to do HDR photography.  I've been pretty good about taking lots of these bracketed pictures on my camera, but I haven't been able to properly put them together in one image since I haven't known how.  However, thanks to a patient husband and this HDR tutorial, I've been able to learn how to finish my photos.  These are my first attempts.  What do you think?

These pictures were from Payson Lakes, just a short drive up the canyon from where I've been working for the past year.  I wanted to make sure we went there before we left Utah, so on one of our last Sundays we took a drive to see the beautiful lakes in the Nebo Loop.  If you're ever in the area or looking for a good place to go camping, give it a try.

Philadelphia

Philadelphia is an adventure.  Like I said earlier, some of it's good, some of it's different, and some of it's going to take some getting used to.  In fact, one of the girls in our ward said it took about a year to completely adjust to Philadelphia and like living here.  Oh, I hope it doesn't take that long.  So far Philadelphia has been mostly good.

Our first day here was a bit of a shock.  Let me paint you a picture of where we live.  Our apartment is pretty nice.  We live in the second story of a new building.  2 Bedrooms, hardwood floors, dishwasher, and best of all, central air (which is super hard to find out here.) However, the neighborhood we live in isn't the nicest.  Not that it's scary, but you can just tell when you reach this different part of town.  Since the first day arriving here and we've been getting out of the house more, I've realized that most of Philadelphia is like this.  Unless we live in the suburbs (longer transit time) or in the middle of Center City in a high rise ($$$), this is about as good as it gets.  We are very glad that we have a nice place to live.  Unpacking is making it feel more and more like home and is helping me to come to terms with this new situation.

There are great things about Philadelphia as well.  The neighborhood that is just south of us in University City and in Center City is very much a downtown area and I've really enjoyed exploring it.  It's a different experience to walk out your front door and get exactly what you want so close to you.

Love Park in Center City (I want to go back and explore)

Another great thing about Philadelphia is the history.  There is so much here!  Independence Hall, Liberty Bell, Valley Forge, Betsy Ross House, Franklin Print Shop, just to name a few.  We've been able to see only a little bit of what the city offers in our first few weeks and it's amazing how much history is here.  You may notice that I've added a new page to our blog called, "Phillie Bucket List."  This is something I started compiling when we knew we were going to be moving to Philadelphia.  We're hoping we can get through a lot of the list before we leave in 4 years.

And the food!  Part of moving is the "eating out until you want to puke or you have the kitchen put back together" stage.  Which means we've successfully found the nearest and least scary food establishments in our neighborhood (our poor waistlines are showing it.)  We're had cheesesteaks at Gooey Louie's (so, so messy, but so, so good) and at the Reading Terminal Market.  Every chinese restaurant (at least that we've seen) has exactly the same menu and is not very good.  This is very bad for chinese lovers like me and Brad.  We eat chinese food like it's good Southern soul food.  Chinese is our comfort food and we are going to search high and low for a good chinese restaurant here in Phillie.  Also, we've been sad to learn that there isn't really good Mexican out here.  They have Chipotle and Qdoba (which are both good), but if we want family style Mexican, we're making it at home.

Gooey Looie's Cheese Steak

Our favorite food discovery has been water ice.  No, not ice water.  Water ice.  It's hard to explain.  It's like ice cream, but with snow cone ingredients.  In fact, it's scooped like ice cream.  But oh so good when it's been 103 outside.

Pineapple and Strawberry Banana Water Ice with Gelati

Other funny things about Philadelphia.  No right turns at red lights signs at pretty much every intersection.  This can be a bit annoying.  If it's red, you can't go.  If it's green, there are pedestrians in the way.  And they are serious about it.  The cops will ticket you for turning on a red light.

You have to cash on you.  Our first indicator was the toll roads only taking cash.  Then the little water ice place only takes cash.  When we asked about going to the Reading Market we were told the only payment accepted in the whole place is cash.  A lot of places out here deal only in currency.  Which is a little weird.  I used to never carry cash.  Now I ask Brad before we leave the apartment if we have enough cash.  It feels like we went back in time to when we got paid for doing chores with cash and that's all we had.

We are still figuring out Philadelphia, and I'm sure there will be more interesting things to tell you about here on our blog.  But for now, we are enjoying the adventure.

Across the Country

Moving.  I don't think I'm ready to do it again anytime soon.  I'm very grateful we went with the we-pack-the-trailer-they-move-it-across-the-country moving company.  It was so nice just to drive in our car and be comfy.  This allowed us to do more of a vacation as we go move which was so much fun.  We went to Mt. Rushmore on our way out.  It was pretty cool to see in person and I'm glad we did it while we had the chance.  I don't think we'll make that trip again.

(We also tried to go to Crazy Horse, but they wanted more money than what it cost to go to Mt. Rushmore.  So this is the best picture we have.)

We also stopped at the Mitchell Corn Palace.  Everything is made of corn.  All the pictures, the signs, the colors, all made with corn.  

We broke up our 4 days in the car with a stay in Minnesota with Brad's family.  In true Packer fashion, plans were made and changed at the last moment so that all 4 Packer boys were together in Minnesota.  This has not happened in many, many years.  Also in Packer fashion, a family picture was put together (with matching outfits non-the-less) within 24 hrs.  More pictures to follow of our adorable nieces and nephews in their own post (including 2 newborns, yeah, we're that lucky.)

We were a bit sad to leave Minnesota and head onto our final leg of the trip.  It was a little crazy with the brake problems we were having in Chicago which led to a 45 minute detour driving through the city.  We were glad to see the sign for Indiana saying we had officially left Chicago.

(I tried to get pictures of the state signs, but 90% of them were either half a sign or blurry.  These are the ones that actually made it.)

So after 2,358 miles and 33 hours in the car we made it to Philadelphia.  There is so much to be said about our experience in Philadelphia so far.  First, Todo, we aren't in Kansas anymore.  It's so different living "downtown" in a major city.  Some of it's good, some of it's different, and some of it's going to take some getting used to.  But that's for another day.