hellooo seattle

we made it! hooray. after a crazy couple of moving days, we said goodbye to our friends, took one last swing on the playground, grabbed one last cafe rio salad and were on our way to the airport.

the new company [heretofore referred to on this blog as "msft" so as not to get me in trouble w/ the hubs and/or random google searches] generously flew us out in first class, which was cool since i've never flown first class before. but actually it turned out to be more like a cruel joke, because wow. you think it's bad flying on an airplane with a baby? try flying on an airplane with a baby when you're also sitting in the super-quiet VIP section with a bunch of stuffy, rich men who won't even smile at your adorable baby who is grinning right at them. yeah. i was pretty tense. also there were no warm towels so the wedding singer got my hopes up for nothing.

anyway, we're here. and the sun was shining when we landed! yay, thanks for the great welcome, seattle. i think you and i are going to do just fine together.

we're staying in temporary housing until our stuff gets here, hopefully this weekend. the apartment is a lot like the one we stayed in last summer. plus there's a jack-height window which the kid looooves. the first thing he does when he wakes up every morning is reach for the front door and grunt -- i swear, he'd be outside all day every day if he could. so it's nice for him to have his own little window to peek out of and think he's playing outside.

on today's agenda: pick up our new keys, go to the post office, make a home-cooked meal for dinner and possibly go to trader joe's. oh, and try to find my way around town without solely relying on my verizon navigator. new lives are hard to get used to.

out with the old, in with the new

everything is off the walls, we've got boxes lining our living room and my suitcase is packed. the movers come tomorrow and we fly out on wednesday! next chapter, here i come.

we've been busy cleaning out and organizing and it is really fun. i love feeling like i'm getting rid of clutter. HOWEVER this inevitably leads to me getting nostalgic and mopey when i have to throw things out. i get very attached to things, apparently. clothes that i've had since college, the couch we bought together when we were engaged, the desk b got when he moved to san francisco, etc. etc. -- even though i never wear the clothes anymore, the couch was falling apart, and i hated that desk.

b told me this commercial was meant for me. i shared it on facebook too, but it's hilarious:

speaking of getting rid of things, i don't think i ever blogged about b's car accident. a few months ago he was coming home from the gym and hit a car who turned right in front of him [pretty much an exact replica of the accident from last year]. he was completely fine, no airbags even, but turns out the car was totaled. MY car, the one we bought three weeks after we got married, the one i zipped all around southern california in. boo. b effectively destroyed both our california-license-plated cars in the two years we were in utah. all that remained from the corrolla were hubcaps:

today, we picked up a new car. thanks to a sweet insurance payment we didn't even have to pay out of pocket. [actually, b bought it a few weeks ago, but had to wait on various paperwork to go through. nothing like the last minute!] we're now the proud owners of two honda accords.

it's bittersweet, feeling like this part of life is coming to a close. it seems like just yesterday we were moving in and b was starting school. geez. time goes too quick.

next blog post coming at you from seattle!

friends + the last week

we've been squeezing every last second out of the past few days, trying to enjoy utah all we can before we move. [three days left! ack.] here's a little of what we've been up to...

we lived in pasadena before we moved to orem, and we had an a-maz-ing group of friends whom i loved and was very sad to leave. fast forward>> two years and there are now EIGHT pasadena families living along the wasatch front...it's like a mass migration. we all got together on monday for a potluck/going away party and i was so happy to see my friends!! [we missed you jen!] [and no, i'm not holding jack, he was in bed by the time we took this...that's allison's baby dean who is younger and bigger than j. big boy!]

and speaking of friends, i met up with my ex-roommates christine & lacy this week for brunch. we met in the dorms, lived together in apartments for 2+ years and have been bff ever since -- and then, we all had cute little boys within a year of each other. we were quite a site, managing sippy cups, binkies, grabby little hands and squealing babies over conversation & french toast. worth it!

every night when i go running, i look up at the mountains and try to burn their image into my brain. it is so pretty here. i'm going to miss these mountains:

little jackal has been a champ lately, even though our apartment is currently a giant maze of boxes and we're constantly dragging him around town to run errands. in the meantime he's been trying some fun new foods, including snow cones [thanks leandra for the tip on the snow shack]:

and pickles -- he reeked like relish all the way home. please note the seeds covering his shirt.

one very hot day, we went up to byu to finish up some business. it was so fun to show my boy around our alma mater and tell him this is where HE will go to college one day too [though i'm sure he'll still cheer for utah football if b has anything to do with it]:

we saw an exhibit in the lee library that had jack's name written all over it -- literally! [wah wah.]

jack also met a lizard. grossssss. [my cousin's kids have one.] we washed his hands 0.3 seconds after this picture was taken.

and, my favorite sister came to see us last weekend -- for one last utah hurrah, and to help me with a little pre-birthday bask for mr. jack [more on that later]. i looooved having her here. come to seattle rachie!! we miss you already.

and that's a wrap! at least, for this post -- as soon as the next three days are over, then UTAH is a wrap. sad.

busy busy

one week till the move! crazy stuff. don't even worry that our joint to-do list currently takes up five pages in three different notebooks [see above]. oy.

this week is a liiiittle busy. between prepping to take a week off work, not to mention shutting down our utah life and shipping all our possessions to a new state, we've got a lot going on. plus moving is always a great excuse to squeeze in last-minute lunch dates and visits with friends. so, in the words of tim gunn, i'm making it work.

a day at the zoo

we're crossing off the utah bucket list, right and left -- last week: taking jack on his very first trip to the zoo!

we went to salt lake city's hogle zoo; i'd never been before, but b has gone ever since he was a kid. grandma & grandpa wells accompanied us and we had a great time.

except...it was hot. i really like to plan ahead on things so i get annoyed if i don't anticipate something -- this heat was unexpected and i didn't like it. no water, no baby hat, wrong shoes, no shorts, wrong stroller...ugh. guess i'm ready for the seattle perma-cool. but anyway. we persevered and all was well.

jack loved the elephants and got mad when he couldn't touch them. he also cried when we had to leave the camel exhibit.

i wore a leopard-print shirt that day, which i just realized as i was uploading photos. it was not intentional. but just so you know, we didn't see any navy-and-purple leopards at the zoo.

since it was hot we spent a lot of time in the indoor exhibits to cool off. [check out jack's pink cheeks.] also lots of the outside animals hated the heat too and hid in the shade so we couldn't see them. lame. inside animals were happy to play. here's our little fam:

jack & grandma:

j with grandma & grandpa. LOOK at the sky + green hills! oh utah, you are really pretty sometimes. i'm going to miss these mountains.

my favorite were the giraffes. you can get up high on platforms, right next to their heads, and watch them eat. there were also animatronic dinosaurs scattered throughout the park which we loooved. we being me and b and our jurassic park obsession...jack heard one growl from the t-rex and burst into tears/shaking. poor kiddo.

then we hit up ruth's diner for dinner -- a perfectly quaint comfort-food hideaway up in emigration canyon. it was so picturesque and pretty, and i finally stopped sweating out on the back patio. all in all, a great day.

consumption

this is what my nails look like right now. i had been dying to try the new sally hansen nail strips and then got a coupon + a target sale + 5% discount with my target debit card so i was ALL over it. these are supposed to be the lace ones but i sort of just feel like i painted my nails black and then got paint smeared all over them. ha. i hate when you get really excited to buy something and then it's not quite as awesome as anticipated.

and while we're talking about buying things, is it weird that we were in seattle for four days last week and yet we still went to trader joe's four times? no? okay, good. because for a minute i sounded like a totally obsessed freak. which...maybe...never mind.

also, in preparation for the move, we're selling like half our crap. can't wait to clean out, pack up, transport and upgrade. this includes our couch, desk, a giant box of fabric scraps, a lamp...i can send you our KSL listings or give you details on our upcoming yard sale if you're interested. wink.

first trip to seattle

this week we flew to seattle to look at apartments...and to introduce me to our new home. i've always been intrigued by seattle and i was quite looking forward to checking it out.

direct flight from slc > seattle (score! also featuring direct flights to LAX and ontario for $99/one way, in case you're wondering) and jack was a champ. we landed and it was a beautiful sunny day. headed right up to downtown to eat clam chowder on the pier and visit the world-famous pikes place market [another to-do from sleepless in seattle]. we sampled the most delicious fruit of my life and watched guys throw fish and climbed up 500 stairs.

we look like we could be seattle locals already, right?

we headed over to a gorgeous little park to watch the boats and people and dogs, and so jackal could crawl around a little bit. i spent basically the whole trip trying to figure out my bearings and understand where we were on the map, so it was fun to sit and look out at the islands across the water and see all the trees, houses, skyscrapers etc and try to absorb the fact that this is my new home.

we spent the next few days touring a billion apartments [okay, more like 7] and trying to figure out where we wanted to live. it rained pretty much nonstop for two days and i was starting to reconsider our move -- well, not really, but i WAS wondering if the sun would ever come out again and also pondering the going rate for a good pair of galoshes because i've always wanted them but could never rationalize the purchase until now.

apparently, this is what seattle looks like most of the time:

i call this "gloomy" and b calls it "rainy." he says i should focus on the positive aspects of rain. this is difficult for me after growing up in a place where it rained maybe 2 hours a month.

however, even i cannot argue that all the rain makes for some GORGEOUS scenery. the dirt is spongy, the trees are green, and there are lakes around every corner.

one of the weirdest things for me to get used to were all the TREES! you literally cannot see more than a few feet off the road because there are thick forests of trees everywhere. until now, the only places i'd ever been where there were that many trees were on the east coast and up in the mountains. so this incorrectly led me to believe we were in very rural areas -- but we were NOT. right on the other side of the trees were shopping malls, target, houses, etc. very tricky.

we ended up finding a great apartment in issaquah -- it's just south of lake sammamish, up on cougar mountain. i didn't take any pictures this time around but i will definitely introduce you properly once we move in. i'm pretty proud of myself for making such a big decision in just a few days [in all fairness, we DID go up there three days in a row to scope it out, so i guess i didn't make it THAT quickly] and i'm excited to move in.

the apartment is up on a hill, but only 1.7 miles from target and 4 miles from trader joe's. [OH how excited i am to be living in trader joe's country again!!] it's also less than 20 minutes from brandon's new job -- which is in the exact SAME building as our new paper source, be still my heart! i told him we'll be visiting often -- so it's a great location all around.

i think jack likes seattle too. he's particularly intrigued by all the nature, as evidenced by an outstretched arm and a highly excited "buh! buh!" every time we saw a bird or tree. the poor kiddo did great on the trip, especially considering he had basically zero planned naptimes and spent most of his time in the car seat. he'd conk out on any car ride longer than five minutes.

this trip definitely helped me wrap my head around the move a little better; until now, it sort of felt like we were staying in utah forever and that a potential move was still far away. but now i'm ready. i keep thinking about all the pretty trees and how green everything is and i can't wait to go back. the movers come in just a few weeks and then we're out of here!

awkward.

ugh. i've just been nailing it right and left lately in the embarrassment category. this is most likely a result of karma, because the other day b and i were discussing most embarrassing moments and the best one i could think of was when i got hit in the stomach with a soccer ball and passed out in the middle of the field at 6th grade recess. (true story.) apparently i needed more humiliation in my life.

but anyway. yesterday i had a big meeting for work and i left it feeling pretty happy, but as the day went on i realized i should have been a LOT more aggressive in laying out our goals and in directing the conversation. ugh. sucks!

b took a negotiations class in his MBA program and he is constantly going on and on about finagling with people and how to get the best deal and how you never want to "leave money on the table." [his new skills are coming in handy these days as we are currently in the market for a new car, a new couch and a new apartment. oh, and he just got himself a job, so i guess it helped then too.] i've never been good at this stuff. i don't negotiate well, i'm not a sales-y type person, i don't like feeling like i'm forcing someone to do something...i just take what's offered to me and i go with it. which is silly, because how are you ever going to get what you want unless you ask for it? (this is also why b and i started our careers at the same time and for the 3 years we lived in LA, he made a looot more money than me. because he asks for it. me, on the other hand..."you want to give me a job?! okay!" bah.)

moving on. when i was leaving said meeting [at this amazing amazing store that i never even knew existed -- i'm serious, go there if you're planning ANY type of party] someone in the parking lot said "lyndsey?" i turned around and it was my best friend from elementary school -- who i haven't seen or talked to in over 10 years. not to mention the last place we'd hung out was more than 800+ miles away. [AND she's not mormon, which is weird. you usually run into every mormon you've ever met in the state of utah, but rarely do i see other people here.] short, random, awkward conversation ensued...but i'm really glad she said hi. what a small world.

and finally. today jack and i were at the fabric store and a woman moved her cart out of my way so we could get by. as i walked past, i heard her whisper to her friend "...so embarrassing!" hmm. not something you usually want to hear. so i looked down and of course her words were directed at me -- having a bigtime wardrobe malfunction that i didn't even know about. super awesome. not to mention the fact that these days i'm pretty much perpetually covered in unidentifiable blobs of baby food.

i should probably just hide in my apartment from now on and stop interacting with people. my awkwardness knows no bounds.

grant is 1

jack is almost 11 months old, which means his 1st birthday is right around the corner. his bff, grant (my friend aimee's baby) just turned one last week! hooray. i have LOVED living close to aimee the past two years. we've been together through it all: pregnancy complaints, labor comparisons, weekly play dates, swim lessons, marathon training...i love my aimee!

anyway, to celebrate granty's birthday, we partied it up last week. on his actual bday, we went to thanksgiving point to see the farm animals! both boys [and moms] loved it.

the babies even got to pet a goat!

then, on saturday, we went to grant's party. aimee did a ridiculously amazing job planning the cutest hungry caterpillar party on the planet [which i am fully qualified to say, since this is one of my clients]. i mean seriously. look at these photos.

she made little caterpillar headbands for the kiddos. jack yanked his off in five seconds but not before we got a pic!

plus, our OTHER bff, erica, came to the party also. [she has an under-1 baby too, tenley, and plays with us frequently as well...but she lives allll the way in slc so it's not as often as i'd like.] the three of us met in the dorms in college and have been friends ever since. i love seeing these girls and i love that our babies are all just a few months apart.

yay for friends! and yay for jack's birthday coming up. although upon arriving at grant's party, b looked at me and said, "wow. hope you're going to step it up for jack's party." lol. uh...no promises.