Jared and I had a gorgeous trip to St. George together earlier this week. My wonderful parents came and stayed with the kids for 3 days while Jared and I visited some of his St. George family and toured most of the houses in the St. George Parade of Homes. We love doing a Parade of Homes together because it's a cost-effective date if you plan to do most of the homes, and we both love being inspired by the architecture and interiors. The St. George Parade is particularly refreshing because the desert home styles are really different from what we see in Northern Utah, particularly on the home exteriors. And of course, it's also lovely to escape the cold in February and be somewhere where we don't even need a jacket during the day.
It's fun to dream together, even if most of the homes are pretty outlandish. I like asking, "How can I take what I see here and scale it way back to achieve it in a Jared-and-Laura-sized home?" Jared loves the Parade Homes even more than I do, if that's possible. He likes to dream and crunch numbers and imagine that buying a Parade home would one day be possible. A smaller St. George parade townhome maybe would be possible, if the home prices in all of Utah didn't keep ballooning in the way they have been lately. We were shocked to discover that homes in St. George are currently costing nearly DOUBLE per square footage what we're seeing in Utah Valley. We didn't realize just how popular it's become. St. George in the winter reminds Jared of all the best parts about growing up in Arizona. It was refreshing to have a few days just the two of us now that we've finished moving to Utah and worked through the most stressful parts of the move.
I'm a day late on this week's post because Jared and I escaped to St. George for a little getaway while my parents stay with the kids. So far we are having a refreshing, wonderful time together. I will report back on our time in St. George in next week's post. For today's post, I believe I have pictures from most of the big stuff, so I'll do recap our week in the form of photo captions:
It feels good to be standing at the start of a fresh week. Last week was a bit crusty, with a stomach bug hitting everyone in our family one by one. Luckily it was an extremely quick stomach bug so each of us was down for just a day and then right back to normal. It's time to hit the ground running because the rest of our month is going to be pretty full of birthdays, trips, appointments, all the things. Let's get to some pictures:
I am writing this week's post from my bed, looking out my window at our unobstructed view while the sun rises over the valley. We still have many months left in this home, but I'm already mourning the loss of these incredible views when we move. We'll likely have bits and chunks of views from our next home, but nothing like this incredible panoramic experience. I'll just have to keep waking up early to take in the sunrises while I can.
It has been a research-heavy week. We have realized that spring sports, summer camps, fall preschools, and fall public charter schools all opened their registrations in early January and are filling up quickly. There is a good chance that we will keep Jack in the public school that is a short walk from our home, but he has complained many times over the past two months about hating his school, the way the classes are set up, how loud it is. I promised him I would at least look into other school options to see what's available. And as I've done so, the world of public charter schools has opened up.
I always thought of charter schools as expensive private schools. But we have learned that there are multiple highly-rated *free* public charter schools near our home. One is a Montessori entrepreneurship school just a 3-minute drive from our house. One is a STEM school down the road. One school has an incredible space voyager program and many other programs Jack would love. The final one would be a 15-minute drive but is the top-rated public charter school in the valley. They all run on a lottery system for enrollment because they get so many applicants each year. So we sent in applications to all of them just to keep our options open, and if Jack gets accepted to any of them then we will start doing tours and more research to see if the public charter school route could be a good fit, and worth driving Jack to school instead of sending him scampering down the road. He is just starting to make friends at his current school so that will play a factor. But we feel grateful that there are so many genuinely great options in the area where we live. We've never had such an abundance of school options we feel really good about in previous places we've lived.
In other Jack news, Jack had his first playdate with a neighborhood friend! He has been making friends with several boys at school, and one kid in his class, who happens to live right down the street from us, has been inviting Jack over for playdates. This is uncharted territory for me, as I've always been friends with the parents first before I've set up playdates for Jack. I wasn't really sure how to navigate setting up a playdate with a parent I had never met. It seems that sending a note to school with your kid with your name and number on it, for him to give to the desired friend, for him to give to his mom, is the traditional approach these days. Luckily me and the other mom both sent notes with our boys to exchange on the same day. I did a little facebook research to get a feel for the boy's mom and family, felt comfortable with the situation, and sent Jack down the street to play with his new friend Theo. About an hour later they both came to our house. The playdate was a success. If the playdates continue I'll swing by and meet the mom. For now, I'm glad there's someone nice in the neighborhood Jack can play with.
Other highlights from the week:
-I attended the BYU Philharmonic concerto night with my dad! It was soul-filling to spend time with my dad and go to a symphony concert for the first time in nearly a decade. It was was also delightful to watch my cousin, the newly hired conductor of the BYU philharmonic, knock it out of the park with his conducting. I do in fact feel like family of a celebrity now haha. My favorite was the clarinet concerto, which isn't what I would have expected, but it was a blast.
-I had a girl's night with my high school bestie Julie! When she mentioned her husband's excitement for us to have a late-night, I was thrown RIGHT back into high school nostalgia in the best, weirdest 32-year-old lady way. We watched her favorite show, snacked, chatted, and meal planned/scrolled Pinterest in the background. Low-key. 10/10, would recommend. I'm sad she's going to move back to Idaho in April and happy we have these few months of overlap to hang out and get our kids together for frequent playdates. Honestly Jack plays SO well with her boys, so we'll all be sad to see them go.
-We hosted my parents and Grandma Roper for Sunday dinner yesterday! I'm so happy I was able to host my grandma for dinner in my own home for the first time ever. I have looked forward to this for a very long time. We had a classic Sunday dinner--chuck roast with mashed potatoes and gravy, carrots, rolls, jello, and pineapple. Jack and Jared made brownies for dessert, which we munched on while we played Chameleon, which is a wonderful, quick party game. I am so happy we could have Grandma over and look forward to having her in our home more often in the future.
And now for this week's pictures:
