Au Revoir Utah!

When we had arrived in Utah in July of 2012, we were lucky to be able to stay with my parents while we came up with a housing game plan. My sister had talked about us moving into their basement apartment while we were there, but we wanted to check out the local housing market before we made any decisions. After looking for a little while, we quickly noticed that the rental pricing was way higher than the Atlanta area and we'd be paying more for a little house in Payson, Utah than for our mortgage payment on our beautiful, large home in Canton! We decided then to move into my sister's basement so we could save on money and to fully live the experience of being by family! The house was also in a great location in Payson, close to the downtown area and only 10 minutes from my parent's house. It was fun to be across the street from Peteetneet. I knew that it would be heaven during the winter time to have sleigh riding so conveniently available. Cousins are the greatest and wouldn't it be heaven to get to be with your cousins everyday? Once we moved in we shopped at IKEA and furnished the house the best we could. The apartment had only 2 bedrooms and so Jeff created 2 extra rooms with PVC pipe and painters cloth. It was genius! Scott kept his up for most of our stay, but decided he didn't want to have a room to clean and so he took it down and slept on the couch! Andrew kept his up the entire time. It also had only 1 bathroom. I think that was probably the hardest! Especially when we came from a house with 3.5!

Living in the same house with family worked out great for the many family emergencies we had throughout the year. More than a few times we were summoned in the middle of the night and we were able to set up easily who would stay with all the kids and who would run to the hospital. It was also nice because Jeff and I were able to use some standby plane tickets that were given to us by my sweet friend and Kris and Doug were able to care for our kids and the routines stayed the same for everyone. We had way too much fun and so we extended Jeff's work convention and went on a cruise after because when will we ever live in Mary Poppin's basement again? The kids didn't seem to miss us too much while we were gone, but can you blame them when they have the fun Meeks to play with?

Another added bonus of living in the same as your sister is that it was easy to set up carpool and dinnertime. I drove and picked up the boys from school and she did the same for the girls. We also alternated each night who made dinner. It seemed silly for us both to making dinner each night. I'm glad that we both had open kitchens too and so all kids in the house knew they could eat whatever upstairs or downstairs. You can tell we were both raised by Paul and Phyllis King. (Their kitchen was open to anyone!)

The most amazing thing is that even after 18 months of 12 people living under one roof is that we all still get along. I think the Meek's are probably the only family that we could ever do this type of living arrangement with. Kris and Doug are both very kind and compassionate people. We learned a lot from them. They are also very low drama people and so it worked out great.

It was sad the day we left. Kya and Kathryn had been attached to the hip for so long, we knew that it'd be a rough goodbye for them. Also for Kiley and Halle because they have become so close during this time. Sometimes the party does have to end at some point!

We stayed with my Mom for a week while we made our final preparations to move overseas. It was great to have that time with her and I know my kids enjoyed being spoiled by her. I am so proud of her and how she is working hard to move forward without my Dad. She is really making an effort to keep going! Now we just hope that she can come to France and visit us soon!