The Return to the Hole

As we are preparing to move across the street to our beloved duplex that we have dreamed about living in since the day we moved into our basement duplex. I would like to give a brief history on both of the basements that I have lived in. The first was my Sophomore year in college. Where my good friends from the dorms and i decided that it would be so much fun to live in our own little place, and the price was just right. So we lovingly called the basement "the hole". What started out to be a great idea turned out to be a year we would never forget. There were five little girls upstairs who made a lot of noise, we could take a maximum of 5 minute showers because there was only one water heater. Not a lot of people would visit us because we were not conveniently located and we were considered a pack of wolves because we were inseparable. But I actually have the best memories of that year. The day we went dumpster diving right after Valentines Day and got a ton of flowers and told people that they were from our secret admirers when asked about them. The weekend we went to the library to find a book on how to fold napkins because there was nothing else to do. The day when we decided to be brave and ask people to come to a party at our place and only one person showed up... When we accidentally burned the sugar container because we left it on the oven burner. These are the greatest memories and luckily we were able to laugh at the events while they were happening. These roommates of mine have become my best friends and we became closer because of this funny year.

Fast forward to moving to Michigan where we found ourselves in another hole. We rented this place sight unseen, and we found out quickly why the landlord was willing to work with us from Utah! The place was not what we had expected. However as soon as we met our neighbors everything changed. Not only did they welcome us the first day we arrived, they gave us cinnamon rolls, invited us to a BBQ that night, told us where to go shopping and helped unload our U Pack. They have changed our whole outlook on Michigan and I will be forever grateful for them. I will look back on all the times when we were living in our second "hole" where we are sitting in front of our TV with the sound down on the lowest setting because we don't want to be too loud. Trying to teach Zach to be quiet because we make a lot of noise as it is. Learning to turn on the fan at times to go to sleep at night because the walls are so thin between the upstairs and the downstairs that any sound carries. The great food that our neighbor gives us upstairs, our favorite being his famous BBQ. The week in December when we didn't have any heat because the heater needed to be fixed. These are great memories and ones that I will remember with fondness. However if you ask me if I would ever repeat both of my experiences of living in "the hole" ... Heavens NO!






Here are my favorite roommates of all time, and maybe because we acted like this we might have scared a couple of people. These are the amazing flowers we found in the dumpster!



And this is my lucky family that I am so blessed to have in my life. I would live with them anywhwere!

Aaron and Christina's wedding

We were so lucky to be able to go to see TImmy's family for the last wedding reception for the Johnson boys. We had a wonderful time. We drove with Christina's "American Mom" Cindy. She was a very nice lady who was patient with constantly stopping, and putting up with Zach's little episodes of screaming. Here is Zach dancing with Cindy at the reception



The time at home with all the cousins was action packed, but unfortunately we don't have any pictures of that time. Zach was much happier than he was on his first trip to MO, but he still was a little unsure of all the other cousin's invading his personal space. He has "oldest and only child syndrome", which we hope the new baby will cure him of. But Zach like to play with everyone outside on the slide, swings (one of which Mark broke!) and the sand box.



At the reception, Zach was is heaven. He loved all the food and space to run. We also had fun with all the activities in the program. The dancing was also alot of fun. Here are some pictures to highlight that part:



Alicia and Keith were quite the dancing duo. They worked to floor well and captivated the crowd.







I think that about sums it up. Also I think we were supposed to send the pictures Melanie downloaded onto our computer to everyone else. So someone remind us if that is what we were supposed to do. If you want pictures we can send CDs.