Goodbye, Utah

I apologize in advance that this post will be long! Well, yesterday we loaded up our moving van, and it's on its way to North Carolina, hopefully to bring everything in one piece! And tomorrow James, Hannah, and I will pack into the car for a four-day trip across the country (thanks, Mom and Dad, for driving our other car!). In saying our goodbyes, I just wanted to post all the fun things we've done in the past month to make the most of our last days in Utah.

First of all, I want to thank the Winders for taking us in! We've really enjoyed the two and a half months that we've lived with them, and Hannah has loved spending so much time with Grandma and Grandpa. And I realized the other day the awesome room that Hannah has been sleeping in (it once belonged to Beav--James' youngest brother). Here is Hannah's space on the shelf...

...which sits right below Beav's memorabilia!

And her crib, where she has sweet dreams...

...directly beneath this Manchester United flag (if she's a huge soccer fan, we'll know why!).

Getting back to the things we've done. James and I had been to every temple in Utah except for Monticello and the new Oquirrh Mountain Temple, so we had to finish up our temple tour! We drove to Monticello for a quick weekend with my parents and stopped by Arches Nat'l Park on the way home.

Hannah with Grandma and Grandpa (do you recognize him without a mustache!) at Arches.Our final temple: touring Oquirrh Mountain at the open house (someday we'll make it even more official and do a session there).

Before Jordan left, we went on a picnic and walk around Silver Lake (you can't leave Utah without enjoying the mountains one last time!). And Hannah met her first ground squirrel!

We enjoyed spending the Fourth of July with the whole Winder family at a BBQ in James' parents' backyard. Hannah loved the fireworks so much--she was totally riveted to them and would try to imitate the sound they made with her own high-pitched squeal! And remember that this is Hannah's excited face!

Hannah also became better friends with her giant second cousin Owen (who is only five months older than her!).

On July 5th, Beaver did this to Hannah, and the girl that hates to cuddle actually crawled away from him as a result! She'd being trying to crawl for about a month and a half, but this made it official. Now she's crawling all over the place!

Hannah, Grandma, and I visited Wheeler Farm a couple days ago, and Hannah really enjoyed it (we think!). She was totally intrigued watching the cows...

...but her favorite thing was petting the horses!

We've also spent a lot of time visiting family and friends that we won't get to see for a while. We'll miss all of you so much!

We've had a blast, but now we're packed up and ready to go!

We will miss Utah, and especially being so close to such wonderful friends and family, but we are so excited for our new adventure! North Carolina, here we come!