Utah house hunting

Rick and I have been discussing (and discussing and talking and thinking and meditating) a lot about where we want to live in Utah. We have thrown around a bunch of ideas, including a small cabin/house at Bear lake, a townhouse in St George to be a second home/vacay house. We have ruled both those out.

Now we have 4 plans:
1. Daybreak, most probably build because we aren't finding any of what we want for sale.
2. Herriman, a subdivision without a lot of rules, restrictions, have chickens (a house next door to one I'm looking at has horses).
3. Herriman, South Jordan, Riverton, Bluffdale, regular subdivision with amenities like HOA pool, clubhouse, work out room, walking trails, with an HOA.
4. Something on Lake Utah.

They each have their pros and cons. I looked at a bunch of different stuff - 3 days of looking and looking, meeting with realtors and builders. My head was spinning, but we are narrowing it down. For the first time, we actually have time. Plus with the kids we always chose the school district first and then chose house. The house being the 2nd consideration.

Rick is 100% at Daybreak, I'm 90-95% at Daybreak; this is interesting because we have changed with me before being all about Daybreak and Rick not sure. We both love the whole concept of the planned community and all the parks, pools, etc. it offers. At first Rick wanted a bigger lot, maybe as big as 1/2 acre, then changed his mind when he realized as he ages he won't feel like taking care of it.

We are both going back to Utah in 2 weeks to look with a realtor at the above mentioned areas and to finalize plans for building if that is the way we decide. We have the lot we want locked in until then.

I love walking around the lake. I've taken pics of the boardwalk, but below is another one.

I left Scott's and stayed with Paige on Fri evening until I left on Mon morning. I watched the ggrrls on Fri while Paige and Kincade went out with friends.

Sat morning I took the ggrrls over to 2 model homes in the new part of Silver Lake that the ggrrls super wanted to see. They love walking thro models as much as I do. Stella and I left to drive to Herriman and look at the house again, then on to Daybreak and look at the lots again. She suggested eating lunch at IKEA and wandering around there. She also loves looking at bedroom sets for kids, so we went to RC Wiley next door.

We were gone 4 1/2 hours. Busy but fun and productive day.

Sun I went to church with them; at 5pm all the Upstills came over for Hattie's 4th birthday party for the family. Paige fixed baked mac and cheese, with toppings to add later of frozen cooked peas, bacon, and fresh tomatoes. Scott was working so I took a bowl down to him and we chatted. A quite fun day.

I got up at 6am to get ready and get to Scott's by 8 and he took me to the airport.

 

 

 

Long walk with Stella

One of the last mornings Paige and fam were here, Stella and I decided to go on super long walk. We went on the trail between the houses. She took some fun pics of a bunny that she posted on the photo stream. This was a fun walk.

Kayaking

For different reasons Rick and I haven't gotten to take out the kayaks much this summer. We were at the lake 3 weeks ago kayaking with Paige and family, and then also boating. So we were super surprised to get to the lake and see how much it had gone down. Since we have had water at the boat ramp we use, I'm never seen the lake this low. We need a wet fall.

Hiking on Great Hills Trail

When Paige was here I was looking for short, 2-3 mile hikes for us to do with the ggrrls. This one is off of Great Hills Trails by the Arboretum.  It had lots of ups and downs, stream crossings, lots of trees and was just a fun 2.3 mile hike.

Rick and I decided to do the same hike. The deer were in the playscape area and later wandered onto the road; people nor cars upset them so they must be used to humans.

Missed the entire month of July

I was busy, out to Utah for a couple of weeks then back to Austin with Paige.

Scott and I flew back here with Paige and ggrrls. Kincade came a week later, then Scott went back to Utah. He stayed for 2 weeks. Kincade also stayed for 2 weeks and they overlapped for a week.

Paige was here for 3 weeks. We had a lot of fun. I think the ggrrls were getting tired of being here, out of there routine and beds and friends at the end. I'm glad they stayed for so long, it will be the last time. This time next year we will have already moved to Utah and been there for a few months.

I'm really not looking forward to moving us to Utah. It will be our first major move since Idaho that we have done on our own without the company picking up the tab. It will be a chance for us to declutter and make sure we are taking only that stuff that we really want.

Rick and I are both super looking forward to him retiring and us living in Utah with 2 of our kids. Jason will never leave Indy and Chris and Aly will be in Seattle. So lots of fun traveling to see them.

Pizza Grandpa's bug arrives to its new home

It was delivered at 9:30 on Sat night. Rick was happy to get it home to Texas. We had an orange super beetle we bought together even before we got married that I drove; I loved it. This is a 1977, ours would have been a few years older; it seems so small now. I don't remember it being that small. Also noisy. It doesn't have AC, ours didn't either.