Busy busy.......having fun!

June, July, and August were so busy. Life flew by, but so many things happened! To begin we drove out to California in hopes of finding an apartment the last week of June. We found one- and what a blessing it was!

We did take a break and go to the beach with the kenneys to roast smores so fun!

 At the end of the week we drove up to Northern California for a Call family reunion. My family is so funny, I really enjoyed spending time with them one last time before we officially moved.

We hung out at the Kenney family ranch. It was so nice to sit and relax there were so many things to do just on the ranch. There were four wheelers, shooting range, basketball hoop, a pond to swim in, lots of space to hike/walk, and last but not least the pinball machine in the garage. 

here are a few pictures from that week

 this is us at Burney Falls. ...just in case you were wondering that water was like 40 degrees, only crazy people would jump in it.....

 So of course I had to try... (but I only tried after Jared jumped in and then swam around for a while) I guess I thought it was going to be warmer.

 It definitely was not warm....but once in a lifetime experience, unless you do it again. Which is exactly what i did after encouraging my nephews Carter and Jackson to jump in.

 I tried to get Seth to jump in and he said he would do it if I did it with him. So I jumped...he did not. but dont worry after seeing what I went through TWICE he knew he had to do it.

Mission accomplished! We are more awesome because we jumped in freezing water

Another day we hiked around Lassen National Volcanic Park. It was so beautiful! 

 We went on a three mile hike up Bumpass Hell and it was well....smelly. It was at least a couple miles of bubbling sulfur pots. Stinky by pretty cool.

The weirdest part of this hike was that it was so hot but there was snow on the trail leading up to the stinky sulfur pot. It was great for two reasons: first, it gave you something to cool down with. second, it kept the younger kids busy and not too bored.

Later that night we went shooting. This was my first time in my whole life shooting a gun! I shot a bb gun, a 22, a shotgun, and a revolver?

 My nephew Nick shootin' it up!

 Yes I shot at a broken laptop and I hit it every time!

 Seth took a shot at it with the shotgun

 Here are a few of my family members. The little kids were given a chance to pull the clay pigeon machine.

The next day we went on another hike to a cave! I didn't want to go at first because Mary told us horror stories about bats, luckily, there were not any. Walter loves his cousins

 Taking pictures in the cave

can you say photobomb...TWICE  and not only that Walters forehead barely made it in the pictures

Most days there was always someone out in the lake/pond thing. It was nice to have a place to cool off.

We even got my DAD into a canoe on the lake. Granted, he and I almost capsized at the very beginning but with a pro like my dad we had nothing but smooth sailing from there on.

Another great thing about the reunion was doing nightly activities. We had watermelon carving, a Chopped dessert competition, guess who family game, a backyard Olympic challenge, and arm wrestling competition!

Arm wrestling is not just for kids!!!

 Jon looks really interested in the outcome of this match. haha

 Brady and Jared sat in this exact position for a very very long time

 It was fierce competition....Pat is like the strongest person I know, so the fact that Seth beat him was really shocking to me. ... and I think to Seth too.

So Seth took first in the mens category, ana got first in womens (big surprise there) and I think carter got first in the kids, luckily no one got hurt :)

Well that pretty much sums it up...other than it was THE BEST CALL FAMILY REUNION EVER! I guess I did forget to mention that it was our first reunion but whatev, it was pretty awesome! 

That Saturday morning we left around five am so that we could make it back to Utah for a play Seth had been really wanting to see and then to finish up packing for our trip back to California two days later. We made it to Utah and headed to the play Guys and Dolls with Seth's parents at the Orem Hale Center Theater. It was really well done and so fun to watch! 

Monday we get our moving truck and pack up our stuff at the Calls and then the Sainsbury's. And we were off to Vegas around three pm....Seth drove the moving van and I rode with my side kick walter. I technically left about an hour and a half earlier than Seth but he got to the hotel first. We probably made like four stops ...poor Walter he hates the car. Now he even cries if we are in the car for thirty minutes. 

Our hotel in vegas was awesome I really wish we could have got there sooner so that we could have had more exploring time. I had only ever driven through vegas. 

Around 8 the next morning we headed for our final destination! We got there around noon and while I drove to drop off Walter at Mary's so that I could help unload. Seth just drove straight to our apartment. I think Monday night Seth got a hold of a counselor in the bishopric of our ward and asked for some help. Because it was such late notice we didn't think anyone would be able to come. I pulled up to our new apartment and there were 4 or 5 guys there helping unload. What a blessing! It was super duper hot and our apartment was the farthest from the front door! Not only that but we have a lot of heavy stuff! But with all of that help we were able to get all of our stuff in our apartment within an hour. 

A couple hours later we drove down to join the Kenneys for dinner. Geesh did i mention what a life saver they had been this entire experience. After dinner I wasn't feeling too well, I thought that maybe I had over eaten. So we left around 8 and get Walter into bed. Around three a.m. I was in so much pain that I knew something had to be done. So we took a trip to the ER. it was not fun. but the pain medication helped a ton! They told me I had Colitis. Which I had never heard of before, nor do I want to hear about for the rest of my life. Thousands of dollars later we left the hospital and I came home,  Did I mention that this was our Very First Day moving to California? haha. I laugh because I don't want to cry. So I slept and slept and took medicine for the first two days. I started functioning later that week and was slowly able to unpack our apartment. What a great intro to Cali huh? (well if you read my last post about the DMV you know that the first move experience wasn't great). but along the way there were so many miracles. And I am grateful that our experience was not WORSE. We are finally moved in and I am feeling awesome and enjoying the weather. ....but more so I'm enjoying being close to some family and DISNEYLAND.......to be continued.

CA DMV

We went to the DMV a couple of weeks ago. Yay for us, right? I was expecting a 2 hour wait (sad, right?) based on the fact that the last time I was at the SS office it was that long. Well....We got there around 10 am. and there were at least 100 people there. doh! so after waiting in a line to state what we wanted to accomplish. They gave us paper work and told us to get back in line. After that we were sent to the longest line, where we waited two hours. Good thing we had plenty of time to study the CA Drivers test booklet....and play risk, temple rush, read a book. After that line we were sent to another line to have our picture taken (wait what? we are getting our pictures before we pass the test, weird they must have a lot of faith in us). I was then promptly sent to another line to get the test. I stood and took my test that I had been nervous for all morning...."this sign means what? When can you turn? (which is actually a trick question since CA has so many wacko signs)" and so on and so forth. I complete the test and wait in line to have it graded. Did I mention that there was only one person working the test desk...so all 100 + people had to go through just her to get their test and then to have it corrected right there. 

The test lady calls me forward and starts going through my test and with her red pen she started making marks on my paper. I did not know how many I could miss without failing. but I knew my fate when at the very bottom of the test she marked how many wrong and wrote an F and paused. ...."F, F? I could not have just failed, those were ridiculous questions? anyone that can read english should have passed that test!!" well all of these thoughts were raging through my head when I finally gasped out, "F? I failed?"  the test lady briefly looked at me and said, "mam what're you talkin' about? You miss six and you fail, you only missed two." Well I passed with flying colors, even though she wrote a big F on my paper.....must mean something else, like Fantastically well done? 

 The test lady handed me my test and in my exhausted and overwhelmed state I found a seat to wait for seth to get done with his test even though I felt like yelling "if I have to stay one more minute in this place I'm going to go bonkers!" Now interesting situation. I noticed that at the DMV, seth and I were two of the 20 Caucasians there, everyone else seemed to speak another language. One of the individuals who was from  Turkey (i think) came up to me. I had noticed her when I was standing in line to get my test corrected while her boyfriend was standing in the line to get the test. She said, "you just took the test?" I responded in the affirmative and then she said "could I see the test?" I probably should have said "oh, what for" to gauge her intentions instead I yelled NO WAY. As you can see I had gone bonkers by then. I had sat in line all morning (it was about 1pm ) to have somebody ask if they could see the test...which by the way had the answers marked on it. 

Oh but it doesn't end there Muh haha hahah.. Seth finishes up his test and comes to me and says we need to do a few things for our car registration. I inhaled slowly through my nose. okay, I can do this. We just need to get a quick smog inspection, which I had thought we might have to do anyway. I called Mary, an angel of a sister, and asked if she could watch walter for another hour. If I would have had to take Walter with me on this awesome adventure, I would have cried. 

We finished the smog inspection and headed back to the DMV. By this point we had paid money just to have an application for the car registration and then we just paid money to be tested and get a certificate. So we head back and pull our car to the exterior car check (dont worry we had to wait in line there too). We finished that and Seth was so kind to send me off to mary's to grab something to eat and the plan was to pick him up and be done for the day. BUT WAIT, it gets better. Seth  texts me and says "im in line AGAIN"....twenty min later he texts and says "almost to the front of the line, do you want to come pick me up?" Then twenty more min later he calls around two thirty and says that we still did not have all of the information. that was at about 2 thirty, the DMV closes at 5pm. Seth said that we needed to hurry and find a place that is a certified brake and light check place. 

As we were looking for said place, Seth told me the story of what happened in the DMV. He finally got the front of the express line they put him in because he said he had already waited in line all morning. The lady at the front said, "oh, this is not getting processed today, you do not have all of the required paper work." and Seth is just astonished! after all of our work, someone at the DMV had forgotten to mention that we needed one additional piece of paperwork. Had it been mentioned earlier we could have quickly got it done when we were out getting the smog test. But here it was 2:30 and the lady at the counter was sure that we could not get it done before closing time.

At this point Seth was so frustrated! I would have cried if i was there. He said "look, I cannot comeback another time and get this done. I start work next week and will never have a weekday to come in. I have to get this done because I am the only one on the title. My wife cannot come in because she was recently in the ER and cannot get this done and sit in line again with our 17 month old baby boy." The lady seemed to listen to our concerns and gave us an address to get the work done and then to hurry back and come straight to her without waiting in line. 

So here we were driving around looking for this place she had referred...yup didn't find it. so we stopped at two or three other places and one place referred us to the last place we ended up going. So I called ahead and asked in the kindest voice I could if they could help us out. The owner said if you can get here in five minutes we will try but there is no way it will be done before five. Well they started the work at 3:55. Seth and I sat anxiously in their customer waiting area...which were two chairs in the parking lot.

 Seth was so frustrated and hungry and probably frustrated even more because he was hungry. I told him to go across the street and get something to eat. 20 minutes went by and he came back and ate a sandwich as we talked and tried to laugh about our predicament. "it would be a miracle if we could get all of this done today" we both thought. Well at 4:40 the car was pulled back into the parking lot so Seth ran into the office and filled out the last of the paperwork, get our certificate and pay for the inspection. Boy did it seem to take forever to get that done. By the time we got in the car we had about fifteen minutes to get to the DMV. We made it there with five minutes to spare, seth jumped out of the car and ran inside. I sat outside in the car anxiously for ten minutes before seth texted me saying he was just waiting to be helped right after the guy she was currently helping. The DMV had closed their doors, but this meant that seth could get it all done, assuming we really did have all the necessary paperwork. Ten more minutes passed and he walked to the car with a huge grin. We had done it! It took from 10 am to a little past 5 pm to get everything done but we did it! 

I would never wish a DMV visit on anyone. We were so blessed to get things done in the nick of time. On the car trip back to mary's to get Walter, Seth said that as the lady was putting the final paperwork through she was reflecting on our earlier visit where she had told seth that he was missing paperwork. She said that sometimes she notices that stuff but that she doesn't say or do anything about it, and then later the customer would get a letter that says they would need to provide that additional information. BUT, when she saw that we were missing the last certificate she somehow knew she had to say something. Now you could judge her and say, "hello! you should ALWAYS tell the people when they are missing something." I would agree with you, but no one is perfect so I am just so grateful that she did. I am sure that our heavenly father watched out for us not once but several times that day.  

 

The Sainsbury family month-by-month for the year 2012

Starting off the year: Seth is in the BYU MACC program and is excited to graduate in April 2013. Julie passed her series 7 and 63 and was a licensed broker for Fidelity from June 2011 to April 2012. In February we were blessed to have Walter Seth Sainsbury join the family, weighing 8lbs 11oz.! Julie is now a stay-at-home mommy, happy to be with Walter as he grows and learns, and boy has he been growing! He has been in the 90th percentile since the day he was born. 

In the first ten months he has been with us we have traveled and experienced a lot! 

     -At two months we went to St. George and went hiking in Zions National Park. 

 

     -In April was Walters baby blessing, he was blessed in the same outfit that Seth was as a baby.     

     -May we moved to the Sainsbury farm and got to hang out with the family for a couple of weeks before moving to NY.

     -June we went to Southern Utah to hike through Little Wild Horse Canyon. The second week of June we moved to NYC for a summer internship with Deloitte. We stayed with the Chenn family for the first half of the month and then helped them pack for their move to Utah. At the end of the month we found a studio apt at the Monterey just south of Harlem. Walter and Julie went sight seeing almost every day and were joined by Seth on many grand adventures (to list a few);the Bronx Zoo, famous museums, boat tours of Manhattan, Waffles and Dinges, playing chess in the park, a Broadway play and Sunday game nights with friends. 

     -July we traveled to Pennsylvania by bus to attend a wedding reception of Julie's best friend. We love NY and will miss going and doing all the amazing things we experienced.

     -August we returned to Utah; our first week back we headed to Woodland, Ut for a Sainsbury family reunion!   We also got to hang out with the Chenns in UTAH weird! And I had a good friend come visit Walter. I'm convinced he will be as big as her pretty soon.

     -September we went on Walter's first camping trip up Payson canyon and then we did the Nebo loop just for fun on our way back. 

     -October we went to Spanish Fork for Seth's work party (Vivint) such a fun carnival, derby destruction, and firework show. This same month Seth flew to California for an interview with Disney and in November he would accept the offer for a two year rotation program in Burbank, California beginning July 2013. 

     -Mid-November Vivint flew Seth out to Canada to do some auditing in their offices in Calgary. This fall semester Seth played on two intramural teams one for soccer and one for flag football we loved going to them and cheering even when there was a foot of snow on the field. Thanksgiving break we carpooled with the Sainsbury's to go to Broomfield, Colorado for an Anderson holiday weekend and celebrated our third anniversary. 

     -December 1st we started the Christmas season out right, by traveling to Vernon with the Sainsbury's to pick out a live Christmas tree for the farm house. Mid-December Seth has finished his finals and got his tonsils out. We finished the year by spending Christmas with the Call clan, Seth went to Texas for auditing work with Vivint, and then we rang in the New Year with the Sainsbury clan.

2012 has been an amazing adventure and it has taught us one major lesson: you never know what or where your next adventure will be but you should try your hardest to enjoy the good things NOW, so you never have to think "if only" in the future...

 

2013 will be full of even more changes

but we are excited to move around and experience the good things in life, 

month-by-month, 

wherever it may lead us.