Utah... This Is The Place

Utah... people working together. Utah... what a great place to be!

This is not just any poetic introduction to a blog post. These are the lyrics to a song I learned in 4th grade for the Utah Centennial celebration. I originally thought it was a Northridge Elementary original hit, but when I started belting it out randomly one day, my St. George native husband joined right in. Some of the song's best lyrics? "New technology's here, growing faster each year... This is the place!" It's true...there are a lot of iPad owners up there...

I've had this song in my head for about three months now. Why? Because I am thrilled to announce that Brock, our negative two month old baby, and I will be moving back up to Utah in TWO days!

After a year in Arizona, we decided that it was in our best interest to return to the motherland where Brock will be getting his Masters degree in Accounting from the University of Utah. We found a cute little duplex in a really pretty area in Alpine- halfway between Salt Lake and Orem.

I have missed Utah so much. I can't wait to wake up and look out the window, not knowing what the weather will be like that day. I love rain, and we've had about 3 dusty, ten minute long rainstorms in the past year here. I'm so excited to get to wear fall/winter clothes without sweating. I'm sorry, but it feels weird wearing a cardigan and boots when you're standing 10 feet away from a Saguaro cactus. I want to be able to go outside and enjoy the summer nights. There is something suffocating about 95 degree weather when it's dark outside. Most of all, I can't wait to be close to friends and family again. I won't lie- I get envious every time I see Facebook pictures of our families and friends doing things without us.

I kind of feel bad about the attitude I've developed about Arizona over the past year. I will be honest- I haven't loved it here. BUT... that being said, I will be the first to admit that I don't think I ever really gave Arizona a chance. Last summer we accidentally moved into the worst zip code in the city as far as crime rates go. I think we were the only white people in our entire apartment complex. (I am not racist; I am simply stating a fact.) It was unbelievably hot, ugly, dry and miserable. I got pregnant probably the week we got here, then lost the baby shortly after that. Brock spent those first few months working 70 hour weeks. We knew nobody and were possibly the only young people in our branch; slim pickings as far as a social life went. Basically, we went through some hard things and I think I just associate Arizona with these trials, and therefore have been resistant to adjusting to life here.

Since those first few months, we've moved to a much nicer area, I'm now 8 months pregnant with a healthy baby boy and we have made some good friends. We're even figuring out how to battle the 110 degree heat. (Basically this requires ultra pricey electric bills and never, ever venturing outside.) We learned a lot this year and we're so grateful for the opportunity we had to come down here and get a taste of what grown up life is like.

That being said, we sure are excited to put true adulthood on the back burner for one more year and do the student thing one more time.