Email Me

To those who need our new address and phone number...
email me at nathan_and_michelle@yahoo.com and I will email you all our new info. I'd like to keep in touch but I feel pretty out of touch since the move. If any of you will be in Utah, I'd love to get together. Call us if you need a place to stay.

Spring Break Salt Lake

When we lived in CA we used to love going downtown to visit Nathan at work and to go out to lunch together. So with time off from school, for spring break, we drove to Salt Lake City and went into the State Capitol to continue our lunch out with Dad tradition. We enjoyed the gorgeous weather on our walk down from the Capitol.

My boys love water features!

Temple square was beautiful.

Liam Joseph next to his namesake Joseph Smith.

And here's our Daniel in the lion's den.

I couldn't help myself. Every mom needs a ring around the rosie picture infront of this statue!

We had lunch at City Creek Mall. It was really busy and really beautiful. We followed the creek, but didn't actually go in any stores--just the food court. The boys loved watching the fish.

After lunch, Nathan hiked back up to the Capitol and I took the boys to the interactive kids' area in the Church History Museum.

The boys got to help build and sail Nephi's ship.

They did some fishing from the ship.

They translated and handled the gold plates. They built temples,

They rode missionary bikes,

Liam had some fun with puppets....Don't you love Liam's expressions?!

Worked the primary children's song turntables,

Planted and harvested gardens, Prepared a missionary feast,

Made pioneer buzzsaw toys, Sounded the trump (the boys thought it was so cool to see how big the angel Moroni on the temple actually is),

More Daniel in the lion's den, Looks like Caleb is one up on the lions!

On our way out, we went to the Visitor's Center. They have a really neat 3-D map of Christ's final week. It had been a long day, but the boys didn't want to leave until they got to see each of the areas located in Holy Week. I think that needs to be our new Easter tradition.

To be honest, I thought I'd have to carry Caleb the whole way back up the hill to the Capitol, or possibly call Nathan to rescue us in his vehicle. But the boys were troopers. They made it the entire way.

One more lion photo op. We played hard and Caleb was asleep just a minute after climbing back into the car. What a fun day. There is so much to see, so close to Nathan's work. There will be many more lunch outings in the future.

Playing House!

We finally moved into our house the 19th and 20th of January. It was such long process, that we found ourselves doubting, even after the closing papers had been signed, that all would go through--but miraculously it did.

Nathan was already busy with the Legislative session, so my mom and dad and I loaded up the first half ourselves. I called our new Bishop to find out how to get the power, water, etc. turned on and he immediately volunteered help moving us in. We were only able to give him 1 1/2 hours notice, but when we got there, he and 6 other guys from the Elders quorum were waiting. Nathan also met us there to unload. All of the guys made quick work unloading. Everyone was so kind and willing to help. They even told us to call the next day when we were ready to unload the rest! We felt so welcomed. It was further testimony to us that the Lord had a hand in our move.

The next day my brother Jared, and my sister Andrea and her husband Paul came down with my parents to complete emptying the storage unit. It fit nearly perfectly in my dad's snowmobile trailor. Once again, we called with little notice to see if anyone would be willing to help us unload. Once again, we were really touched by all those who generously returned to help unload. In addition to some of the elders quorum, we had 3 neighbors stop by to help. Wow! What an awesome neighborhood. My mom made homemade soup and brought drinks and treats for everyone. My sister Emily came down and got the fridge set up and cleaned out. Mom Brady sent us a big box of groceries so we'd have food that first few days, so we wouldn't have to worry about it. We were all totally worn out, and amazed that most all of this had fit into a home under 1300 square feet! Mostly, we were just grateful for family, a new home, with great new neighbors and a supportive ward.

After some food and thanks, we went back to Mom and Dad Brady's to pick up our boys (our car had been loaded to the brim-with no room for the boys). It was around midnight when we arrived at our new home for our first night's sleep. We all slept in blankets on the floor. (Not very comfy, but we were thrilled to finally be there!)

The next morning we went to the church for a primary activity that we'd been invited too. We were exhausted, but I felt it was important to get the boys involved as quickly as possible.

The next few weeks were spent cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, and unpacking. The house had been previously lived in by a dad, his two teenage sons and 3 big dogs. Everything was covered in dog hair. I had a lot of asthma.