Shortly after graduation last year, I arrived home to discover that my roommate was moving out and I had to find a new place to live. I decided that with school payments behind me, I wanted to either buy a house (AH!!!) or just move into an apartment on my own.
I got a realtor and looked at some places, but nothing really appealed to me in my price range. I even was prequalified but lost out on a couple of places that looking back I'm glad I didn't get.
In the meantime, I was busy looking for apartments because I did not really want to stay in the place I was. In July, I found a cute little apartment in Holladay, straight across the valley on the east side. In a day I saw it, signed the contract, put my deposit and planned to move in August.
Moving day happened, and friends came round to help me load up the rented U-haul. I learned that they are GOOD friends and next time I'm hiring help.
Thirty days later, I was on a plane back to California. My brother and sister-in-law planned to fly me out when he had to travel for work to help with the three kids, but his trip got canceled. We had already purchased the tickets so I came out anyways and then flew down to San Diego to celebrate my parents' 50th anniversary.
(And now I have pictures)
Day one I got to see one of my new nephews for the first time. I was mesmerized by his beautiful round brown eyes. He was pretty unsure of me, though.
That night we played trivia games and just visited. It was the first time we had been without any kids (except for two babies, but we didn't mind them!)
In the months leading up to the anniversary, we all worked hard to do temple work for many ancestors. Nieces and nephews did baptism and confirmations, while the adults were assigned to do the other ordinances. This was our stack that we took to the temple to do sealings:
While not all of us were able to be in the temple, it was still a great experience to go to the House of the Lord with my parents and all my siblings. I was able to learn some things.
It wouldn't be a family party without traditional homemade ice cream and some cake to celebrate my parents' 50th.
We also took some family pictures.
I sure do love this crazy family of mine.
