Moving

How quickly things change. I came into this summer without a thought in my head about leaving Colorado and now we are heading back to Utah in about two weeks! I can hardly believe it. It's all happened very fast and out of the blue. Ben is kind of a nut and has been talking about maybe moving since January but I never took him seriously. He was talking about Seattle and then San Diego because his current company has offices there. I thought he was mostly just bored at work and likes looking at real estate in different places. Then at the beginning of June he applied for a couple of jobs in UT. I have always told Ben that eventually I wanted to end up back there to be close to family but we always said the earliest that would happen would be after being in CO for 5 years.

In order to get a job at one of the very few companies that do wireless software in UT, Ben would need at least that much experience. Plus I always had Ben reminding me we would most likely never move back because jobs are scarce, the money would stink, and he wasn't that interested in living there or working for any of the companies in the area. Which was a hard thing for me to accept but had gotten much easier.  I always had a tough time saying goodbye to my family and the first hour of almost every drive home consisted of a conversation of some day getting back to Utah. But once we were home and back in our routine, we were happy being away.

Ben ended up getting a promotion a couple months ago which barely qualified him for some new UT positions, 2 years earlier then we expected. And when they popped up online he applied for them without saying a word to me about it. Even after several phone and on-sight interviews I still wasn't taking it too seriously because I didn't have very high expectations that it would amount to anything. I kept thinking that if he did get the job, the offer would be so lousy that we wouldn't even consider it because that was the case when he applied for jobs in Utah when he was getting ready to graduate.

So anyways...he finally got an official offer in the middle of July and it was better than we anticipated. This all was going on while I was in Salt Lake visiting family and Ben was at home working. It was very stressful and a much harder decision then I had anticipated. It has really surprised me (and Ben) how hard it has been for me to agree to this move. Debating this has made us realize how much we've come to love Colorado and our wonderful friends. There's a lot of things about this move that worry me and the timing seems less than perfect. Poor Ben had started having terrible attacks in July and went to the emergency room and found out he has gall stones and needed go have his gall bladder removed. AND while I was away in SLC he went ahead and gutted the master bathroom to remodel. So I came home to a husband going into surgery the next morning, the bathroom still far from being finished, and an entire house to pack. I had been feeling really great the last few months of pregnancy and out of nowhere everything changed and I felt really lousy and started having braxton hicks contractions at the drop of a hat. They were really slowing me down and making me nervous because I went into preterm labor with the girls around this same time in my last pregnancy. I was really wondering if this decision was right.

But this past week has brought a lot of comfort. I know Heavenly Father answers our prayers and is so aware of the things we are struggling with. Ben had surgery and spent most of the weekend in bed but has since made a full recovery. He has been slaving away on the bathroom every evening and it is ALMOST finished. The girls have been angels this week and let me make a small dent in packing. I'm feeling much better and I think lots of my contractions and feeling bad was probably just brought on by stress and all the anxiety I was having about making this big decision. Things seem to be falling into place and I have such a wonderful support group of women here who are lining up to help me and watch the girls and make this easier. Not to mention a husband that is seriously an animal when it comes to working hard. I know once this crazy bathroom project is done, the stress I feel over packing is going to be greatly alleviated.

Right now I feel more focused on how sad I will be to say goodbye to Colorado but I know once the move is over and done with, I will be thrilled to be back in Utah. I know it is where I want to be and I'm so grateful that this opportunity came around. Ben is super excited for this job and feels like its a good move for him career wise. Right now he works for a really secure, big company with lots of perks but ends up doing a lot of boring work or having no work at all because they end up canceling so many projects and there's lots of red tape. This new company is only about six years old and he'll be one of only 8 engineers and able to have a much bigger hand in development and hopefully a bigger impact.

Plus Ben is getting a little tired of all the back and forth we do to Utah for this or that. In the just over 3 years we have lived here, I have been been to Salt Lake 16 times to visit. That's about 16,000 miles and 256 hours in the car. Most my friends from Utah out here go back maybe once or twice a year and  find it baffling how much we make the trek. I know there is NO other husband on Earth that would do that to make me happy. So I understand why Ben was getting frustrated with me dragging my feet to make this move. It makes sense for us and I know our lives will be simpler and better for it.

Visiting family has been a huge priority while we were living here but I am so grateful that we spent the time away. We really became our own family in Colorado. Rosemary and Evelyn went from tiny 3 week old newborns to beautiful 3 year old little girls. It has been so good for us and we have been so blessed. We have made wonderful friends and awesome memories. We will miss all the open space and how everything is built on a trail system. We will miss the big sky and the sunny clear days all through the winter. We will miss hanging out in downtown Boulder and Denver.  We will miss our lovely home, our big back yard, and the awesome Rec Center we spend so much time at. We will miss our neighborhood full of such fun families that hang out every Friday night. We will miss our incredible ward that has been the best we have ever been apart of. We'll miss the moms group I spend a lot of time with and living near Chris, Cindy and little miss Sadie. We will miss having so many fun visits from grandparents, aunts, uncles, and dear friends coming to stay. I'll miss having Salt Lake as a getaway and a change of pace;  the excitement of going to visit and the comfort of coming back home. Even though it's crazy, I'll miss the long car rides with my family and the time to think and just sit and talk. There's a lot we will miss but a lot we are looking forward to as well.

We'll miss you Colorado. Thanks for being so good to us and becoming a place that feels like home.

These cute faces from our time in Salt Lake this summer are helping me get through the drudgery of packing and goodbyes.