Here, There, Everywhere

Golf

I forgot to post a few pre-graduation pictures...

James participated in the AICHE golf tournament the last week of school and got the "Closest to the Pin" award. He had a lot of fun.

Since graduation everything has been a whirlwind.

4-wheeling

Here is James 4-wheeling with his sister, Allie at Aunt Jolaynes' up Spanish Fork Canyon, Saturday after graduation.

New Shoes

James got his first pair of Allen Edmonds. He bought the Mcallister in walnut. Thanks for the graduation gift, Mom and Dad Low! No thanks forgiving him his taste in expensive shoes. ;)

Anniversary 

We celebrated our 3rd Anniversary packing. *FUN* — Its really okay that we didn't get to dedicate a bunch of time to a special celebration, I like to think we celebrate our marriage every single day. I LOVE our team. James is the best husband for me and I feel so blessed to be sealed to such an amazing man for time and all eternity. I know we can do amazing things together with the help of the Lord. Go team Low! Here's to 3 years into forever. Here's a wedding photo, just for fun. :)

Moving

We moved out of our apartment less than a week after graduation, which was just about the right amount of crazy. This was our 7th move together as a married family. I have to say, I don't think I got quite as anxious with this move as I have with previous moves, which was a great blessing and kind of a miracle because I think it usually stems from unrealistic fears of the feeling of being unsettled...and we weren't even moving directly from one apartment to the next this time. 

It was very bittersweet to say goodbye. We had an amazing quad/ward in Wymount and were sad to leave that behind. We were excited for the next adventure though and it turns out there are some perks to living in a real apartment....more on that later. Anyway, all of our stuff went into a storage unit while we did some interim adventuring

Hotel Pinson

Once we go our stuff into storage, we stayed with my Parents and Grandma in PG for about a week and a half. I worked during the day and James helped my mom with various projects in the yard. Luckily we got to spend a little time with my parents some of the evenings and one night we had a date with my Grandma Crawley. We played phase 10 and James just kept pounding on us. Not nice, but we had fun.

Wedding

Next stop, Dallas!—just kidding... We had a plane change in Phoenix and a stop over in El Paso, but we did eventually make it to Dallas, where we spent a weekend for James' brother, Tanner's wedding. It was a busy weekend between flying there, the rehearsal dinner, bachelorette party, the temple sealing, 3 trips to Chick-fil-la for lemonade, getting set up for the reception, the reception itself, Skyping with Elder Riley Low on Mother's Day, and flying to our next destination—Seattle (with a plane change in Albuquerque, and a stop over in Oakland ...and a delay in there or something like that). To put it this way... we went to the airport many hours before James' parents and they had to wait for us to land at the Seattle airport. Congrats to Tanner and Robin Low! We love you guys and are glad you got married!

Seattle

Seattle was fun. I mostly worked the first week + Monday there and mostly played the rest of the second week. Some stuff we did below.

Me swinging on the giant swings at Mom and Dad Low's. Thanks for all of the underdogs, James!

Mariners

James and I went to a Mariners game with James' good friend, Ben Carlson and his son. It was fun. Thanks to Dad Low's boss for always letting us use your awesome season tickets when we go to Seattle. It was fun to go hang out, but I think the Mariners got 1 home run the first inning and then nobody scored the rest of the time we were there, which I think was halfway through the 8th inning. Here's a picture of James and I at the game...what you don't know is that it took James about 12 tries to get us both in the shot. ;P The guy in the back there probably thought we were trying to take a picture of him.

Open House

Then there was the open house. I was working that day and subsequently avoided most of the set-up, but was off in time to get my party dress on and pin a few pictures up on a board. :) As I was doing so, I see James walking towards me from across the room, carrying a tv and telling me he shredded his pants picking up the TV. I am not seeing shredded pants. When he gets to me he turns around and sure enough there was about a foot-long tear in the back-side of his pants, creating a butt-flap of sorts. Well, that was the only suit he brought to Seattle and there was an open house about to start in 10 minutes. James zipped back home, holding the flap in place as best he could (per my insistence) and dug through the closet to find an old suit James had passed down to his brother who is currently on a mission. Saved. James showed up at the church wearing it – a light blue sear sucker suit – and steals the show. Love that man. 

Cake

My Mother-in-law made all of the cakes for the open house. Some would say she made "too much." What do you do when there is "too much" cake left over? Well, if it is good cake you eat it 3 times a day until you don't have "too much" any more. It was good cake.

Zoo

James and Tanner and Robin and I all went to the Seattle zoo. They were feeding a lot of the animals while we were there, so they were pretty active, which is always fun. Some highlights included the bears and the elephants. I also enjoyed when Tanner found some kid named Riley's mis-placed name tag and stuck it on the glass home of the closest snake. A group came through a little behind us and someone said "Awe, look guys, his name is Riley..." 

If looks could kill....

Tanner's bird face?

Mini golf

Tanner, Robin, Allie, James, and I all went mini golfing. It was loads of fun. Some of us had a harder time than others...

Reptile Zoo

Mom & Dad Low and all of us kids (minus Riley) went to the reptile zoo, which was way cool and I recommend it. You can even wear your princess outfit and they don't even care.

Portland/wedding

Since we were in Seattle, we got to drive down to Portland for a day for James' cousin, Lucy's wedding/sealing, which was lovely, but I can officially say I am all wedding-ed out for a bit. 

Smartphone

Our last day in Seattle, James decided it was time that I upgrade my phone and he was not taking no for an answer. Goodbye, Pantech Link (aka the worst phone ever), hello gold iPhone 5s. I love it. I knew I would, I was just being cheap and I don't always trust myself with nice things. Honestly, the best part about it is the ability to to send and receive picture messages and group messages. No more having to be embarrassed about having to explain that I have no idea what someone tried sending me because it just says "No Subject" when someone tried sending me a group or picture message. Of course there are lots of other features to love, but the basics are exciting for someone like me.

In case you are wondering, the glass screen-protectors are awesome. I love that there is no texture like there is with Zagg and similar plastic-y ones. I also got a gold case that sort of matches.

Utah

We flew back to Utah (direct flight this time, wahoo!) to begin the festivities with my family. We had a family dinner on Sunday and and a cook-out on Memorial Day. I love my family! It was so nice to get to spend some time together before we left. Thanks for being so amazing guys! 21/23 of my parents' grandkids and 6/8 of my parents' kids + their spouses were there. We missed Michael and John + Katie + the munchkins, but hopefully we will be able to see each other soon! Don't mind me, just trying different filters out on my phone. haha.

James at the Seattle airport waiting for our flight back to Utah.

My cute mom and her wild hair.

My sister, Cindy and my niece, Lila and I at the cook-out. I am regretting not going around and getting pictures with everyone. :(

Washer and Dryer

So we were planning on getting a used washer and dryer when we got to Kansas City because we knew our new apartment would have hook-ups...but then I realized it would be nice to get them while we had the moving truck and I didn't see any postings on Craigslist in KC that really caught my eye. I found a set on KSL a few days before we were to leave for KC. One owner, single guy, good condition, lightly used (he actually had it in storage for several years) — and we got the pair for $280. Sold! :) To add to the excitement of getting a washer in dryer, we picked it up from West Jordan in a truck that had a hole in the gas tank, hence the gas can you can see in the bottom of this photo. 

Family Pictures

Just 2 days before blast-off we got my sister to take a few family photos for us. Thanks!!!

And that's a wrap! By this point, we were so ready to be done living out of suitcases and you are ready to be done reading my blog because this is way too much adventuring for one post. Sorry to make you eat an elephant in one sitting. I am seriously going to try post more often and stop doing these posts that never end. That said, post on how the move went coming soon!