A Grand Just Kidding

Two things from this last week:

Our house (the one we are still currently living in) is back on the market since the buyers backed out.  They paid for an inspection and appraisal, but then decided our basement doesn't have enough storage for their tastes.  Wish they would have decided that before putting an offer in so we could have gone with one of the other two offers that came in just after theirs.  Grrr...

So, just kidding on my last post as we are back to square one, well, other than the fact that we will begin moving all of our stuff into the new house this week into next week.  Hope the new lookers don't mind maneuvering around boxes during showings.

The other thing from last week is that we just got back from the Meldrum Family Reunion down in Arizona where we visited the Grand Canyon and other nifty stuff around Flagstaff.  John had to stay behind for a leadership scout camp he was involved in, so it was just me and the girls for the trek down.  Thank goodness for blessed electronics making the drive feasible. 

We met some very friendly animals in the petting zoo at the potty stop in Scipio. 

Then we met up with most of the clan the next day at the Grand Canyon. 

 

Of course, a Meldrum Reunion isn't complete without a few games:

 

 

A little ninja action:

 

...and not pictured is our classic kick the can we played several times in the woods next to the house we stayed at. 

 

Last, but certainly not least, lots of fun hot tubbing. 

 

 

Now it's back to reality.  Pass over that moving box please.

 

Done.

Our house is under contract now! 

Waahooo!!! 

We got two offers today.  We accepted the first, and now let's hope there aren't too many hiccups in the next month before it closes :)

Oh, and we got keys to our new place today.  I have been up there no fewer than three times in the last four hours checking it out. 

It's been a good day. 

Flag Day a.k.a. Our Wedding Anniversary

We celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary last Friday (which also just so happens to be Flag Day) signing the massive stack of paperwork for our new house, then dropped the kids off at a couple family members' houses and headed south for a fun get-a-way adventure in St. George and Zions.   

We spent all day Saturday hiking through the national park, including a hike through the Virgin River for the famous Narrows hike.  We spent 5 hours making our way up and back about 6 miles or so through the riverbed, which at times reached up to our waist.  Good thing we thought ahead and bought neoprene socks and some hiking poles - best hiking inventions ever. 

 

It really was a fun weekend.  We stayed at a cute cottage on an acre of land just outside of St. George.  Sadly, I didn't take any pictures of it.  We opened up all the windows at night and listened to all the fun animals sounds at dawn - including quail, a peacock, and a bunch of other critters I couldn't identify. 

We enjoyed a show at the Tuacahn as well, but again, no pictures.  You can enjoy these ones instead:



 Hiking up to the Emerald Pools.

 

Checking out the Checkerboard Lookout. 

Doesn't it look like one with the horizontal and vertical lines in the rocks? 

 

Now it's back to reality, and dealing with life owning two homes now.  Still no offers on our house, but that only means that the right family just hasn't found it yet.  

 

Life Selling a House

We have had 12 showings of our house in the last 12 days the house has been up for sale, but no offers yet...  I say yet, because though we are frustrated nothing has come through yet, our realtor is thrilled because we've had so many showings and all of the comments she's received back are positive. 

Apparently there are some couples still trying to decide which house to purchase (and ours is in the running).  Wish they'd hurry up and decide, but until then, I keep reminding myself that it hasn't even been two weeks yet, so I will be patient.  The right person for our home is out there, and they will find it.

We close on our new house this Friday, but probably won't get access to it until next week.  We don't plan to move in until July though, as we have several commitments before then.

In the meantime, we have had to get creative during showings.  We've eaten out a lot, gone to the park a time or two, crashed at several of our friends' houses, and even spied on our house from across the street to see who is checking out our house. 

Most of the time we have several hours notice, but we've had a couple where they wanted to come by within 30 minutes.  Luckily, we have a nice, quick routine that gets our house in ship-shape order right before showings.  It helps that almost all of our extra clutter is tucked away nicely in the storage unit we got a couple weeks ago. 

We had another showing tonight, so we chilled up at John's folks place for dinner.  The girls had fun making brownies with Aunt Tammy, though Natalie wasn't feeling very photogenic :)

On Saturday, we had two showings, one that just happened to be during the time I had to do a story in Layton, so we went as a brood and John took them around checking out these lovelies while I did my interviews.  (photos courtesy of Kimberly)

 

 

 I'm told Alicia liked this one...

 

 

...and this one too. 

 

Apparently she's the new classic car buff in the family. 

 

Here's to hoping an offer comes through sometime soon.  Cleaning up every minute detail in the house at a moment's notice is getting old :)

Girlies

I spent some time with a couple of my girlies yesterday.  Megan and I went to Wheeler Farm yesterday afternoon with a bunch of other kids her age, and then later that night, Alicia and I went to a Mother/Daughter Achievement Day event where we made these fun creations: 

Fun times, indeed. 

 

 

Oh, and I came across this cute picture of Megan I just had to share.