Utah's Unexpected Welcome

After everyone left it was time to finally settle in to our place and get familiar with our new surroundings.  It was a weekend we were looking forward to, but some unexpected (and expensive) surprises came our way instead. After a long day we decided to use a gift card Jon had to make a visit to the local Cold Stone for some ice cream.  Only to find out that our ice cream would not be free. We arrived back at our condo and realized we had left all three sets of keys to our place inside the condo. The one and only time I decided not to bring my purse, I realized I should have.  We tried every way we could think of to get in to our place, but nothing worked. A locksmith was called and waited for, and for a small fee and wait, we finally got in.

So, we got over that after a few hours and laughed it off a bit!  Then a couple days later we decided to go up to Salt Lake City and explore the City a bit. Later that night we were invited to a baseball game at one of the Universities here.  So through the construction traffic we made our way to the game and just as we were a couple minutes away the car reacted in a funny but familiar way with dashboard lights on and flickering and eventually killing the engine.  We were able to get over to the edge of the busy street and eventually decided to call for a tow truck.  After about an hour and a half wait he finally arrived and we made it to Nate & Jackie's house.  Turns out the alternator died, but luckily this has happened to us twice before so Jon was semi-familiar with changing this particular car part. We are so thankful for everyone that helped us with borrowing cars and helping with the replacement of the part.  We had an unexpected and costly welcome, but we were well taken care of in this new city as well.

Fox Kids Sleepover

Labor Day weekend recently passed and since we had an extra day off of work and school we had the Fox kids over for a sleepover!  We had a blast all together.  Movies, popcorn, candy, mini golf, carousels, and lazer tag are just some of what the night entailed.  We had a blast having them all over and are so happy to live so close to them now.  We look forward to many more adventures with them!

Arches National Park

While Jesse & Diana were still here in Utah, we took a day trip to Arches National Park. It had been a busy week for us and it was a long trip there and back, but the destination was SO worth it! The sights to see there are incredible and it was an amazing day with puffy clouds filling the skies to make for the greatest pictures I think I have ever captured. I wish we could have spent more time there, but I'm sure we will go back there some day and do some more exploring.

The Fox 7 family came as well, even after facing a couple car issues earlier that morning. The kids were troopers throughout the day's excitement (and being in the car forever).

Balancing Rock

Then it was time to begin the hike. The hike to see "Delicate Arch." It was thought to be a shorter hike and not too difficult, but it was a little harder than we all expected.

Did we mention it was over 100 degrees in the hot desert sun. Jon & Jesse began the hike shirtless...

Some of the views up the mountain...breathtaking!

The hike seemed to go on and on, turn after turn, scaling rocky mountain sides climbing higher and higher, I almost thought we wouldn't make it. But finally...we caught a glimpse of what we had been waiting to see...

...the Delicate Arch

I was thankful to sneak in a couple group shots of all us "hard-core hikers." Jon generously carried the tripod all the way up the mountain so we can remember that moment. The facial skin coloring says it all :).

All around us the rocks are covered in a blackish colored layers that as it turns out is living algae. The algae grows on the rocks and actually protects them from crumbling.

We enjoyed the view for a while as we caught our breath, and then rolling thunder and lightning could be seen & heard all around us...

Then the rain began to fall, and we knew we should try to make it down before the rocks became too slippery to walk on...not to mention this territory is known and recognized for it's sudden onset of flash floods.

It was time to head out and start the drive out of the park. We saw some amazing things from the car as well and tried to get as many pictures as we could. The rain clouds kind of had an impact on that, but we still caught a few.

After making it out of the park and knowing that we had a long drive home with Sunday church services awaiting us early the next day, we suddenly ran into a line of cars at a dead stop. Come to see that a large semi truck filled with food had caught fire and was incinerated. We had to wait for about 45 minutes until we could continue on our journey home. While we waited, out my window this is what I saw. I just love when sun shines through the clouds. It always reminds me of how God constantly shines his blessing on us and he did this day as well. As a kid, I would have informed my parents that that was where heaven was when I saw a sight like that.

We are so grateful that we went, and spent the day with such wonderful people. We feel so lucky to already see so much of our new home state of Utah after being here for such a short time. Can't wait for many more adventures to come exploring our new home.

Here to greet us...Fuchs Family Utah Reunion

We were so blessed to have the Fuchs Family here when we arrived in Utah. It was really busy for us, but they all helped us so much with unloading the truck and moving in (three flights of stairs up) and we had a great time getting to hang out with everyone. We found some time to get some family picture time in so here are a few of my favorites.

We had such a great time and miss the Canadian Fuchs very much!!