We have officially made it to the first year of the rest of our lives! I know we could say that every year, but this year it rings especially true. It feels good to, for the first time ever, be living somewhere we know we'll be for the long haul. We've had some wonderful adventures and now we're ready to settle in.
This might be basic, but your girl LOVES a new year. New Years is a reflective type of holiday and I'm a reflective type of person. I had such a peaceful New Years Eve. We didn't really make plans because I knew we'd be hosting all my siblings a few days later when my brother was in town and doing New Years types of activities with them then. Halfway through New Years Eve we were like, "Shoot, we should have invited my parents over!" We have such fond memories of New Years Eves spent with my parents in the various places we've lived, when they'd come visit us after the Christmas hustle. I really regret not having them over and carrying that tradition on (sorry Mom and Dad! We missed you!), but I have officially made note to get back on track for future years whenever possible.
We did play several games with Jack after dinner on New Years Eve, make informal vision boards of our goals and hopes for 2025, drive to a lookout spot two blocks from where we live to watch fireworks go off across the valley, and put Jack to bed a little later than usual (9:30). At this point I wrote down some resolutions with Jared and my sleepy lil' husband couldn't hang on anymore past about 10:15. He is such an outlier in our family. The rest of us would always rather stay up just a little longer! There's so much more to do in a day! But he would always rather go to sleep. It's honestly cute and I really wish my children inherited that trait, but alas. I do love when I can greet the New Year at midnight with Jared, but this year I was giddy to go downstairs and have two hours alone by our glowy Christmas tree to reflect and dream and plan.
It was peaceful and magical. I lit several candles, made myself cheese toast, got a bubbly drink, and parked myself in our living room where I could see the lights and fireworks of the valley twinkling and popping outside our big picture windows. We are getting VERY spoiled with the view from our rental house. There is a chance we will have great views from our next home, but honestly it probably won't be as good as the views in this home. You can see most of the valley from the main level of our house, and we get an entire unobstructed panorama view of the entirety of Utah Valley from the window of our primary bedroom upstairs. Because we're on the north side of the valley we get a full view of the sunrise AND sunset every morning and evening. We are feeling very happy with where we've landed and so far feel confident in our decision to build a home right next to our current neighborhood, hopefully by the end of the year. Jared has a bit of a commute to work, but it's nothing crazy (about half an hour in traffic), and the commute feels worth living in this location to both of us. (Not to mention home prices are a little lower on the Utah Valley side than if we decided to look closer to his work on the Salt Lake side.)
And that was our simple New Years Eve! The days since then have been filled with fun and cousin time. I am so grateful that we were able to be living in Utah during this extra long winter break out of school. The days went by so much more quickly and so much more fun hosting cousins and my parents and visiting fun spots with them. Here are some pictures from our week:
^^I will never get over waking up every morning and reaching up to pull open the curtains and see what type of sunrise is playing out right outside my window.
^^We spent a day at Kangaroo Zoo with Cole, Chloe, and Caitlin. 2025 is the year of both my kids being old enough to play at and enjoy places like these. And there are SO MANY fun places for them to play nearby, even in the winter. We are feeling spoiled.
^^New Years Eve games with our game-loving Jack! We are looking forward to Alice getting old enough to join in in future years.
^^At midnight I woke Jared up for a minute to watch the firework display lighting up the entire valley below us. He didn't even have to get out of bed--we just drew the curtains and watched for a few minutes. The fourth of July fireworks are going to be incredible from here.
^^Jordan and Amanda and Asher, Annie, and Eddie came to play!!! Just in the knick of time, too--Jack was asking me so many times every day when he'd be able to play with Asher. It was delightful to have most of my family over for a dinner of carnitas and Mexican rice (we missed you Peter and Abby!) and vision boarding for the new year. This is a fun home for hosting family. We send all the kids downstairs to play, and there's plenty of space on the main level to add an extra table for seating for everyone.
^^Gingerbread houses after New Years. We discovered that we are not cut out to build our own houses. They all fell apart. Next year we'll try and find some pre-built houses to decorate.
^^Dinosaur museum with cousins. Alice's favorite part was commanding me to "stay" while she ran up and down all the ramps.
^^The butterfly biosphere was a delight! It's probably my favorite Thanksgiving Point attraction yet. I thought it was just a room where you could hold butterflies, but there's an impressive indoor playground and much more.
^^Alice and Annie looking for butterflies. I am thrilled that Alice gets to have so many wonderful girl cousins all pretty close in age! There are six all within four years of each other so far.
^^The big kids
^^A butterfly landed right on top of Annie's bow! Felt like we were in a Disney movie. After we were done with the butterfly biosphere, my angel parents brought Chik-fil-a to our home and we hosted everyone for one last playdate. My sis-in-law Amanda is a genius at organizing and helped me get a jump start on deciding where to put things when we finish unpacking and reorganizing our kitchen in the next few weeks.
^^This is random, but one evening we found ourselves stopping for ice cream at sub zero, just for fun. I'm sure I've said this already but it is WILD how many shops and restaurants are within a 6-minute drive of our house. Dozens and dozens of places to explore. We are doing a good job at pacing ourselves but it is really nice and novel for us to have so many options for a casual, quick family night on the town. Have I said enough how much we're loving where we've landed? Just in case I haven't:
^^we are officially shopping for our next home in the new-build community next to our rental! They are in the earliest stages of construction right now so it could be a year before we're actually choosing our home and moving, but community tours began this last week and we were quick to see what we could see. There are three homes being built that we were able to walk through, and one completely finished and furnished duplex we toured to see what the finishes will be like in these homes. The finishes are lovely and impressive and we are pretty committed to purchasing a home in the neighborhood. The dream is to have foothill trails we can walk to, which this area has. We also love that when we move, Jack won't need to make new friends and start over again. We will still be walking distance from all the friends he could make while we're in this rental, and he'll be going to the same school, still within walking distance. Amazing.
^^We spent an evening watching the sun set over Utah Lake. I can't believe we haven't done this sooner. One of the things I miss most about Washington are all the river and lake beaches our kids loved to explore. I forget that we still have that here! Maybe not as many, but the ones we have are wonderful.
Well, I think I already broke my New Years Resolution for shorter blog posts, oops. Here's to a hopefully more boring week as Jack starts school so we can have a shorter post next week!
