Candy bars and MARS

On the last Sunday in our Draper ward, a lady came up to us and was asking about Ryan's new job. When she found out his new company was MARS, she stated with confidence, "You're going to get fat. You will. Next time I see you, you will be fat." Awesome. Thanks for being so sure about that. But when Ryan came home with his "welcome to the company" gift bag last night, I began to question whether she might just be right. :)

(Sorry for the awful lighting... we only have one lamp and a kitchen light in our apartment right now)

Given that we're still a bit sugared-out from the holidays and recovering from our sugar comas, I'm sure this will last a while, so we'll save some for when everyone comes to visit us! ;) Hint, hint...

So much to discover!

We made it! And like the sign says, we have so much to discover. At least the sign didn't say that Ohio was the "crossroads of America" like the other 5 state signs that we saw along the way. We started out our drive at 5:30 a.m. with super thick fog in the dark canyons going through Park City, then with some snow blowing across the open plains blinding us in the very beginning of Wyoming. Thankfully that was no indication of what the rest of the trip was like. We had perfect weather through the rest of Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and into Ohio. Not a speck of rain or snow. The thought of driving across the midwest during the middle of winter was the scariest part of the move to me, and my prayers were answered!

We love our apartment, we love our location, we love how close we are to any store we would need and to downtown Columbus. We love how Ryan learned a new route that shortened his commute from 55 minutes to 35 minutes and that he thoroughly enjoyed his first day of work yesterday.

I'm still not quite over the "missing Utah and our family and friends there" phase yet... but I know it will come sooner than later as I learn the area, meet new people, and find a new job. Yay for change and new challenges and growing and so much good stuff that we have yet to discover!

A Very Merry Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is always one of the best days of the year because I feel like that is really when most family traditions takes place. We were supposed to spend Christmas day with the Smith side of the family but instead spent it driving across the country, so we combined both families on Christmas Eve to celebrate. It was SO fun and SO nice to be with both of our families the night before we moved, and to have both the fun and spiritual things.

The night included delicious prime rib, reading/acting out the nativity story, a talent show, singing Christmas songs, watching a family video, a few presents and some sad goodbyes.

I felt like I wanted to remember every part of the night so I posted too many pictures and now I don't feel like captioning any of them. Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

Young Women

One thing I will really miss about Draper is working with the YW. They were such fun and amazing girls. It took me a few months to get into the swing of teenagers, but once I did I loved it! We had between 25-30 girls and since I started in Beehives and ended up in Laurels a while later, I had just about all of them at one point except for 3 or so. Anyway, they gave me a card and a little gift on my last Sunday. My favorite line was Jordyn's comment: "Ohio!! Really?! How random!" Yes, kind of random. Anyway, I will miss them. That's all.

Gingerbread Houses

Kevin and Amy organized a gingerbread house making party for us this year and it was a blast! They bought SO much candy and food and we thought it would be waaaay too much... but we used most of it!

We worked on these for a long time and then the kids got to judge them all and assign an award to each one. Some of the awards included: the tallest house, the straightest, the tastiest (i.e. most candy), the healthiest (i.e. least amount of candy), the craziest, the coolest, the most Christmasy, and Craig's future house of love... haha.

A Full House

12 adults, 5 kids, 10 cars, and way too many coats, shoes, gloves, and snow pants to count! Ryan and I are crashing here in Alpine for a few days while we are apartment-less and it just so happens to be when everyone else is here too (everyone goes to their in-laws after Christmas). It's a little crazy but a lot of fun!

Winter Wonderland

Some people around here have been busy making snowmen and igloos, having snowball fights, and sledding, while a few others sat inside and happily watched in the warmth (can you guess which one I did? :)

We warmed up with a tasty BBQ dinner at Goodwood later that evening for Marc's birthday. Our party is pretty big these days!