Arizona!!

I am beyond excited! We have decided to come to Arizona for Ava's 2nd birthday!! We weren't going to come down again till the last week of May but we talked and I felt that was just too long! By March it will already have been 7 months since our last visit.

Ava and I are driving down on the 5th and Dan is flying down on the 14th. Ava's birthday is the 15th and we are having her party on the 17th and all drive back together on the 19th! I hope it will be a fun filled 2 weeks :)

Memorial Day Trip to AZ

Ava and I got back from our trip to AZ yesterday. We were hanging out with my friend Stacy and her baby Brynlee the Thursday before Memorial day. I mentioned that I had wanted to go down to AZ but decided not to go even though Dan was going to the Indy 500 for 5 days. She talked me into going and I immediately packed up our stuff and left the next morning!

We did the whole drive in 1 day even though I was sure I couldn't make it. Thankfully Ava is an angel in her car seat and doesn't give me any trouble. My mom was so excited to see us! I was so happy to be there as well! Almost immediately after we got out of the car Ava started up and walking! She had at this point gone 6 or 7 steps and that was just the day before. (her first steps were almost 6 weeks before however). She was standing at my moms back door, she turned around and just started walking. She's been walking pretty much non stop ever since.

Everyone told me not to wish for her to walk. I don't know if any of those people had ever had a 14 1/2 month old that weighed 27 pounds that they were bending over to pick up off the floor and carry everywhere???? Its painful on the back, let me tell you that much. Anyway, Love love love that she is walking now. So nice. I did have the moment of "time won't ever go back" which it never does anyway, but still. My baby is very much a toddler now.

We spent a ton of time out at the pool or somehow in water. It was great and Ava loved it! That girl was made for water! She showed off lots of cute tricks while we were there. Her little hand phone answer when the phone would ring. My mom still doesn't believe me that I don't talk on the phone very much. I hardly ever talk on the phone actually. I have no idea where Ava picked that up.

We ended up spending about 10 days down in AZ. We decided to head back home to Utah yesterday. That drive really is a killer. I get really tired when I drive so we end up stopping a lot and I end up drinking lots of soda. I was almost certain we were going to stop in Vegas and stay the night but Dan talked me into at least getting to St George. Once I was there I felt like I was "basically" in Orem and finished the last 4 hours.

Happy to be home and don't plan on going back to AZ till at least the end of the summer. I'm going to enjoy staying put for a bit. I'm also currently undertaking the huge task of reorganizing our house. I was able to accomplish great things in our living room today, as well as our dining room and Ava's room (thanks to my mother in law for coming over)! We now have more room which is always a bonus. I've spent the last 5+ hours working on my office and it doesn't look like its changed much... which is very sad, I did however get rid of a ton of stuff in our storage closet and pack it back full of fun things :)

Memorial Day Trip Part 2

AZ Memorial Day Trip (so far)

Loved our AZ trip

This is the first time in years that I have basically gotten everything on my vacation list accomplished. Took 2 weeks and I still wish i had been able to see more friends and more often! Here are some pics from our trip!

Ava and Chloe! 7 months old now and love playing together :)

4 generations of Kemptons

Playing at Shawn's house

Petting a buffalo at Great Aunt Susan's house

Holding hands with Chloe at the ribbon store

Hanging out with Grandpa Lane

Playing with Uncle Brett

Grandma stuck Ava in a basket of stuffed animals

Playing with the table her Grandpa gave her

Cute little peanut butter and jelly sandwhich

Ava loves her Grandma!

Happy Halloween!!!

AZ trip so far

We left on Tuesday for our 2 week+ trip to AZ. I am so thankful for my sister in law Lisa for letting me stay at her place on Tuesday in Vegas. There is no way I could have done the entire 12 hour drive in one day. On Tuesday morning Ava was up early so we just left at 5:30 and drove in the dark for an hour and a half. As soon as it started getting light out it poured rain till we got to St George. It took us over 7 hours to do our normally 5 1/2 hour drive.

Wednesday we left at 6 for AZ and thankfully the weather was great and we made it in 5 1/2 hours. Ava does really great the first 3 hours in the car and then she just doesn't want to sleep anymore. The last hour of each day was the hardest. I hate having her cry but when I know she is fed, clean and not really tired, there's nothing that will help other than getting the trip over with.

Its been so nice to be here and hang out with my family. Ava is enjoying seeing everyone and playing all the time. She is starting to go to bed earlier which is nice, I just hope I can get her to stop waking up at 2 and 5.

2 years together

We met 2 years ago. Yay us! We went to Cheesecake Factory again this year, it was so good but I couldn't even eat half of my meal. I adore Dan, he is so sweet to me. He tried to surprise me by buying the blue dress I am wearing below, but I ruined said surprise. He is such a good sport though!

I made my mom take our picture with Tiny... He is already starting to grow, it's hard to believe he will ever be bigger than 7 pounds! Seeing as I have no job and we have no children and only 1 car, Tiny is my life right now, which I don't mind. He keeps me busy and my mind off things that I can't control right now. I do look forward to finding a job soon (here's hoping that I can find one!) but taking care of Tiny when he is still this little will be good (I hope) for his behavior in the future.

Moving

Dan turned in his final on Tuesday right after his last class! We were not expecting this so we were not planning on leaving until Friday! Wednesday came and we had nothing to do, so we went and picked up the Penske at 11:30 and brought it home. That was pretty eventful. We had PLANNED on towing the Honda behind the Penske, but that was vetoed pretty quick!

I drove the truck home with the full size dolly behind it (all four wheels would be off the road, instead of just 2 like we had ordered but they gave away)... I hit a curb on the way home and manuvering a 16 foot truck with a 12 foot (?) tow behind it was hard, I couldn't imagine it with a car on it!

We had some issues with the tow and as soon as we had it in our parking lot we just about destroyed it and immedately took it back! So now we get to drive 2 cars back from our sealing in 2 weeks :( not to mention its our anniversary and we will be spending 12 hours in seperate cars.... oh well, at least the day before we will have had a wonderful day! After that we had a few problems getting the ramp out of the truck because it was stuck... so the Penske guys had to come hammer it out of its wedged position... no fun.

Dan's friend Adam came and helped us pack the truck... he is amazing! He was like our go to guy when we needed anything done! He crawled over a ton of stuff and man we couldn't have done it without him! Mark and Kathy came over as well to help us pack the truck and to clean the apartment! It was so nice because it only took a little over an hour for us to clean the apartment!

We loved our first apartment because it was the first place we shared together, it was ours! We had some great memories there, but to say the least we are excited to move on and find another (bigger) place! This apartment will always be our first home and it still feels so weird that we aren't going back.

We hit the road on Thursday at 7:15. Our plan was to go through Saint George and Vegas and hopefully get to Tempe 12 hours later! I was pretty nervous about driving the big truck but I took the first leg because I knew I had to get used to it. We didn't realize how small the front seat was until Dan got in... His knees were up against the dash no matter what he did. I felt bad for him. He drove most of the way because it was more comfortable.

I was suprised that we ended up getting pretty good gas mileage. We were able to go the speed limit (I was nervous, poor Dan). We did have to make a detour through Laughlin Nevada/Bullhead City Arizona because we couldn't go over the dam in the truck. Thankfully we pulled into Tempe at 7:30 AZ time, so it wrapped up a 13 hour drive!

I was suprised but as soon as we got in, Dan wanted to start unloading the truck. My mom, Dan and I unloaded all of our boxes that were in the back part of the truck and left the furniture on. This morning we got up around 8:30 and the 3 of us pulled off the furniture! I couldn't believe we did it with just 1 guy! Dan's amazing!

Exactly 48 hours after we picked up the Truck, we returned her safe and sound to her new home in Tempe. We were glad to give her back, because we hated driving her! haha.

Today we spent most of the day unpacking (and sadly have made 2 trips to in n out burger).... I was able to hang out with Kate and then we went to dinner with Kirk, Kate, Marilyn and my Dad. It was a nice day, but I am tired!

Tomorrow I am helping Kate shoot a wedding for my friends Bryn and Jason! I am so excited!!!

Adam, our amazing moving buddy! He helped us move into apartment in July and was still willing to help us move out!

This is Penny the Penske with all of our furniture in. It doesn't look like much but it was hard to move and pack it.

Here is Dan saying goodbye to Lilac #65!After we had stuffed all of our boxes in... oh man were we exhausted! I was happy that the truck wasn't too full though. We ended up adding a bunch more bags in after this however.

This was the truck that got us from Utah to Nevada to Arizona in less than 48 hours from start to finish! Go Penny the Penske!

This is what I spent the most time working on today.... setting up our bedroom.

This is what Dan spent most of his time working on today....... setting up his media room! No fair!

We Made It

We got into Tempe tonight after a 13 hour truck drive that took us detouring through Laughlin Nevada. There have definitely been some ups and downs in the past few days. I am covered in cuts and bruises but we made it. I was hoping we would get in and just relax, but we have already unpacked half of the moving truck... we are freaks. I'll update more later...

June Plans

Its official. We are moving in 6 weeks from tomorrow and are coming back up to Utah 8 weeks from today! haha I guess we can't stay gone for long! We just bought our plane tickets to come back up for our sealing!

Everything has just worked out that this is the best scenario, there was already so much done for our sealing in SLC that it would have been too much hassle to change it to Mesa. And it was best for us to start the job mid June. Oh well, it will be a wonderful weekend with the family and beautiful weather I hope.

We will spend our anniversary driving my Focus back down to Arizona on Sunday... We will be back late Sunday night in time for me to sit around all day Monday and relax on my 23rd birthday!

Moving Day: June 12th

We decided today that our official moving date is June 12th. Dan finishes his last final the day before, but doesn't have his internship that week so he can help pack things up. June 12th is just under 7 weeks away, I can't believe it.

I need to get a lot of work done on my online classes because they have to be all complete about a month after we move. I have 8 exams total... ugh I better get started!

We are coming back up to Utah the last weekend of June for our Sealing in the Salt Lake Temple and we plan on flying up and driving back on our anniversary!

Sunday Post Secret - Texting and Driving

These are 2 things I currently feel passionate about. I found out our car insurance will almost double moving to Arizona because of the high number of uninsured drivers but I also believe NO ONE should text and drive!!! (I skipped last Sunday because none of the secrets jumped out at me as something I feel...)

We are moving to.......

Its not a big surprise (this is what I have been wanting pretty much since I arrived in Provo 5 years ago)... Dan got a job in Tempe and we are feeling very blessed!! I have just started looking for jobs. We expect to move down sometime in late June!

9 Months

We have been married 9 months today. I joked with Dan that we could have had our first baby by now! Strange thought. Anyway yesterday we were talking about something and I said something like, well you figured that out months ago... then I counted... 21 months ago. Holy moly. Both of us agree, it feels like yesterday that we met and it doesn't feel like its been almost 2 years. 3 more months and we will be graduated and hopefully know a little bit more about where we are moving! We will also be celebrating out sealing, our anniversary and my 23rd birthday. To say the least I cannot WAIT until June!!!My cousin Chainey's birthday party today... here are some fun pictures from our day: