Rockin' The Suburbs

We've been enjoying suburban life. It's been 4 or 5 weeks since we moved into our new home in Kingwood. We've been keeping a low profile and plan to do much more of it, after all of the excitement we had during the first half of the year. Our weekends have been filled with to-do's, including shopping for things we've needed for the house, painting rooms, and slowly unpacking boxes...amazingly & wonderfully uneventful.

Jet and Kimber have enjoyed the change in pace as well. Their weekends used to be filled with globe-trotting. Now, it seems as if they're finally enjoying just being kids.
Jet's taught himself how to ride a 2-wheel bike (we have no idea how, we just removed the training wheels and off he went) at the age of 3. He cries when it's time to go inside at night, and comes in hot and sweaty.

Kimber is enjoying being able to be a little girl, as the street is full of little girls who want to play with her all of the time. They now have their own rooms, so Kimber doesn't have to share Jet's space anymore. Here's a picture of Jet doing his thing, and another of Kimber Elle and the neighborhood girls in a Barbie Car.

The Road Home

The road home was long.

Jason's surgery took place on June 17th. Two days before, June arrived in Salt Lake City and we had Kimber's belated birthday party at the gym, complete with swimming, waterslides, cake, and pizza. It was a blast.

Jason was in the hospital for five days, having the surgery on a Tuesday and being released the following Saturday. Thursday, June 19th (two days after Jason's surgery), Mariah had to fly to Houston for business. Mariah's mother, Laura, flew in on Saturday, June 21st to take over for the next week & June left on Sunday, June 22nd. The entire next week while Laura was here, Mariah packed up the house in SLC. We closed on our home, cleaned, had friend after friend assist us, and then Mariah's dad flew into SLC to help Mariah and the kids drive to Houston while Jason flew home (his doctor wouldn't release him to drive).

Two thousand miles, two kids, a cranky Uhaul (no power steering, cruise control, or a CD player), and a break-in in Albuquerque later, we arrived in Houston. Mariah's dad drove the Uhaul, and Jet opt'ed to go in the "big truck" the majority of the trip. We stopped in El Paso for a long-awaited and badly-needed break half-way through the trip and let the kids swim for a few days.

We're now living in a home at the end of a cul-de-sac street in Kingwood TX - a heavily wooded, beautiful suburb about 30 miles north of downtown Houston. Mariah's working for American Express in downtown and rides the bus in to town each day for the commute.

The list of people to thank for all of their help goes around the block, it's so long. We were blessed with so many friends and family members that helped us out during this huge transition in our lives. Here are some pictures from our El Paso stint on our road home.