Well I sure left you all on a little cliff hanger with the BIG announcement about moving to Texas! and then I left you hanging for a really really really really long time!
Sorry about that!
To make a long story short (but still kind of long),
In April we found out about a job opportunity for Spencer in Waco, Texas. He would be selling Home security systems (door to door) with his cousin for a company called Vivint.
We decided that this would be a great opportunity, so we took the leap!
We had three weeks to get ready for the trip! YIKES!
We had three weeks to get ready for the trip! YIKES!
Right before we left we took a quick trip back home to Caldwell for my uncle's wedding
and to visit our families!
Me and spencer hiked Centennial Butte that is right next to my parents house! (We've seriously been meaning to do this since back when we were dating!)
We took fun pictures at the temple!
Blake took his first steps!
We went bowling!
and hiked Jump Creek!
We had a lot of fun on that trip!
Then we went back to Rexburg, cleaned our apartment and loaded up the car with the necessities and took off on our 23 hour drive and our summer adventure!
(Blake got a little tired of the packing :)
Our first stop wasn't too far away!
We stopped in the Salt Lake area to visit some family and friends that live there!
We had such a blast seeing everyone!
and we realized as we were driving away that we didn't seem to get ONE picture with any of them!!
Just this really cute one of blake trying to take off with our car :)
Then we drove the rest of the way to Moab, Utah to our first of many hotels to come!
On a more embarrassing note, I had no idea that Moab was home to Arches National Park!
I just picked a city that was a third of the way to our destination and booked a room!
Then once we were there Spencer (and all of the signs) let me know about this awesome little fact!
(Blake being cute at the hotel)
So naturally first thing in the morning we packed up our bags and took a drive through the Park!
It was so much fun and so awesome to see all of the red rocks and the cool formations!
So glad we stopped there!
After that it was back to the road!
We took some stretching/cleaning up major diaper blow-out/learning how to drive breaks!
We drove another 8 hours to a city called Tucumcari, New Mexico. Nothing special there... just a random place I decided to book a hotel! haha :)
And then on our third day of traveling we finally made it to Waco, Texas!!
We were so excited when we started seeing texas flags and waco signs!
We ended up staying in a hotel for quite a while when we got there! I think it was about 3 weeks! We became professional "Hotel Occupants" as we got accustomed to elevators, pools and moving our belongings :)
We also took a fun trip to the Waco Zoo with Blake! We had the whole park to ourself because of the weather and so it was a wonderful day!
While we were at the hotel Blake figured out the walking thing and it was so much fun to watch him take little chances and how he was so proud of himself!!
Right away we Started noticing things about the place that we lived that were different then what we were used to and different than we expected!! The most obvious was the hot humidity! Oh boy were we warm! But then we noticed how it was green and full of trees! I was totally expecting a desert! So that was a fun little surprise! And on a random note we started noticing cars like these...
All over the place! Don't know what was up with that? haha but we kind of made a game of trying to take as many pictures of them as we could :)
Blake got to go on his first swim!
Then before we knew it is was May!
And we were still in our hotel...
But we made the best of it!
Spencer started working, and I figured out how to haul groceries with a luggage carrier and a baby :)
We met some great friends! and Blake had a little baby who was just his age! We had so much fun together!
Then It was finally time to move into our new apartment! yay!
We ended up living in Killeen Texas just an hour away from Waco.
Me and Blake played while we waited for spencer at work.
We hung out by the pool
played with friends
went on some fun trips to the outlet mall
Spencer worked really hard everyday going door to door
and I got into running!
Spencer Took a trip back to Idaho for Becca's Graduation!
and then He flew back into San Antonio
and when I went to pick him up there was a huge storm and flash floods!
It was crazy to see how much water there was everywhere and especially on the streets!
We made a date out of it and enjoyed some time together while Blake was Staying with friends :)
Then June Rolled around and we decided that we should probably sell and move out of our apartment back in Rexburg so that we wouldn't have to be paying for two apartments at the same time!
So me and Blake flew back to Boise to pack up!
and Holy cow flying with a baby is tough stuff!
The Next week consisted of a lot of traveling, packing, selling things on craigslist and moving!
It was a very exhausting week physically and emotionally and I was so thankful to have the help of my mom and sister while I packed up and sold a lot of our things and put the rest in a storage unit!
Good bye Hyde Park Rexburg Home!
Then me and Blake hopped back on a plane back to Texas and we were so excited to make it back just in time to spend Fathers day with Spencer!
Only a few days later we had some issues with our Office in Texas and decided to make the move to Modesto California to join another office of the same company.
So I came home from packing just in time to do some more packing and traveling!
I'm telling you, this has been a crazy summer!
So we packed and packed as fast as we could, said bye to some great friends and hit the road again for another 23 hour drive!!
The first part of our trip was in the craziest lightening storm! I wish I had some pictures!
And then when we got further along our drive we came to a part where we drove really close to the Mexican Border. It was such a humbling experience to be in the middle of a huge american city with lots of wealth, and then to be able to see the fence and the divider and see the poverty that was on the other side. I am so grateful to have the blessings that I enjoy everyday.
Then we made it to California and thought that it would be fun to stop in Riverside (where Spencer grew up!) and visit some of his friends.
We also got Blake's first hair cut which was really fun!
Then Finally in the middle of the night we made it to Modesto CA and moved into our new apartment there.
We made some fun memories in Modesto too! lots more swimming!
And Blake's first 4th of July! We had lots of fun at a company BBQ!
After about three weeks in Modesto and not as many sales as we would have liked, and a bank account approaching the red line, we realized it was time for us to be done with our Vivint summer.
We learned SO many lessons on our traveling adventure...
We learned that we can live with just the things we can fit in our car! which is kind of a nice things to know that you can live and make do with just a few things!
We learned that we actually love Idaho, and miss Rexburg!
We realized that sometimes, despite hard work and a positive outlook, some things just don't work out for one reason or another.
We learned that it is okay to admit defeat and start over.
We learned that Heavenly Father has different plans for our lives that don't include door to door sales. Plans that include finishing up school at BYU-Idaho, and continuing onto medical school.
We learned that it is important to listen to promptings from the Spirit, because it is by doing those things that we end up closer to being the people that we were meant to become.
So we packed up our apartment yet AGAIN, and headed towards Caldwell to live with our parents, find jobs and save up so that we could get back to Rexburg, and buy back furniture and things that we sold.
On our way back we decided to take a detour and see San Francisco! We had a lot of fun sight seeing and driving around those crazy streets!
and then straight from there we drove home!
As soon as we got home we celebrated Blake's Birthday,
Helped my parents move, and then jobs quickly fell into both me and Spencer's laps (huge blessing!)
Since then we've just been working like crazy, celebrating our birthday's and anniversary and feeling happy that things are finally working out for us!
We took some stretching/cleaning up major diaper blow-out/learning how to drive breaks!
We drove another 8 hours to a city called Tucumcari, New Mexico. Nothing special there... just a random place I decided to book a hotel! haha :)
And then on our third day of traveling we finally made it to Waco, Texas!!
We were so excited when we started seeing texas flags and waco signs!
We ended up staying in a hotel for quite a while when we got there! I think it was about 3 weeks! We became professional "Hotel Occupants" as we got accustomed to elevators, pools and moving our belongings :)
While we were at the hotel Blake figured out the walking thing and it was so much fun to watch him take little chances and how he was so proud of himself!!
Right away we Started noticing things about the place that we lived that were different then what we were used to and different than we expected!! The most obvious was the hot humidity! Oh boy were we warm! But then we noticed how it was green and full of trees! I was totally expecting a desert! So that was a fun little surprise! And on a random note we started noticing cars like these...
All over the place! Don't know what was up with that? haha but we kind of made a game of trying to take as many pictures of them as we could :)
Blake got to go on his first swim!
Then before we knew it is was May!
And we were still in our hotel...
But we made the best of it!
Spencer started working, and I figured out how to haul groceries with a luggage carrier and a baby :)
We met some great friends! and Blake had a little baby who was just his age! We had so much fun together!
Then It was finally time to move into our new apartment! yay!
We ended up living in Killeen Texas just an hour away from Waco.
Me and Blake played while we waited for spencer at work.
We hung out by the pool
played with friends
went on some fun trips to the outlet mall
Spencer worked really hard everyday going door to door
and I got into running!
Spencer Took a trip back to Idaho for Becca's Graduation!
and then He flew back into San Antonio
and when I went to pick him up there was a huge storm and flash floods!
It was crazy to see how much water there was everywhere and especially on the streets!
We made a date out of it and enjoyed some time together while Blake was Staying with friends :)
Then June Rolled around and we decided that we should probably sell and move out of our apartment back in Rexburg so that we wouldn't have to be paying for two apartments at the same time!
So me and Blake flew back to Boise to pack up!
and Holy cow flying with a baby is tough stuff!
The Next week consisted of a lot of traveling, packing, selling things on craigslist and moving!
It was a very exhausting week physically and emotionally and I was so thankful to have the help of my mom and sister while I packed up and sold a lot of our things and put the rest in a storage unit!
Good bye Hyde Park Rexburg Home!
Then me and Blake hopped back on a plane back to Texas and we were so excited to make it back just in time to spend Fathers day with Spencer!
Only a few days later we had some issues with our Office in Texas and decided to make the move to Modesto California to join another office of the same company.
So I came home from packing just in time to do some more packing and traveling!
I'm telling you, this has been a crazy summer!
So we packed and packed as fast as we could, said bye to some great friends and hit the road again for another 23 hour drive!!
The first part of our trip was in the craziest lightening storm! I wish I had some pictures!
And then when we got further along our drive we came to a part where we drove really close to the Mexican Border. It was such a humbling experience to be in the middle of a huge american city with lots of wealth, and then to be able to see the fence and the divider and see the poverty that was on the other side. I am so grateful to have the blessings that I enjoy everyday.
Then we made it to California and thought that it would be fun to stop in Riverside (where Spencer grew up!) and visit some of his friends.
We also got Blake's first hair cut which was really fun!
We made some fun memories in Modesto too! lots more swimming!
And Blake's first 4th of July! We had lots of fun at a company BBQ!
After about three weeks in Modesto and not as many sales as we would have liked, and a bank account approaching the red line, we realized it was time for us to be done with our Vivint summer.
We learned SO many lessons on our traveling adventure...
We learned that we can live with just the things we can fit in our car! which is kind of a nice things to know that you can live and make do with just a few things!
We learned that we actually love Idaho, and miss Rexburg!
We realized that sometimes, despite hard work and a positive outlook, some things just don't work out for one reason or another.
We learned that it is okay to admit defeat and start over.
A HUGE humbling experience for the both of us.
We learned that it is important to listen to promptings from the Spirit, because it is by doing those things that we end up closer to being the people that we were meant to become.
So we packed up our apartment yet AGAIN, and headed towards Caldwell to live with our parents, find jobs and save up so that we could get back to Rexburg, and buy back furniture and things that we sold.
On our way back we decided to take a detour and see San Francisco! We had a lot of fun sight seeing and driving around those crazy streets!
and then straight from there we drove home!
As soon as we got home we celebrated Blake's Birthday,
Helped my parents move, and then jobs quickly fell into both me and Spencer's laps (huge blessing!)
Wow, Brittney! That sounds exactly like us our first year of marriage back in 2011. Our friends had convinced Jonathan and I to go out to Omaha Nebraska so he could sell alarm systems for Pinnacle (which is now Vivint I guess). That was when I was 7-8 months pregnant with Lydia. We packed up everything in our car and went out there and ALSO stayed in a hotel for a month and a half!! But I don't think I handled it as well as you did. I hope your experience was better than mine :) Since then we've vowed never to do alarm system selling/selling anything for commissions since it wasn't a pleasant experience. And we realized we love Rexburg too!
ReplyDeleteWe had to quit selling too since it didn't work out and move up to Alaska to live with my parents to save money and that's where Lydia was born, as well. Anyway, moral of this comment.. I definitely know how you feel! We traveled at least 7 times in our first year of marriage haha. Which is exactly why we've stayed in the same apt here in Rexburg for almost 2 years haha.