The Starting of the Journey

So when Rusty got this internship we were really excited! I had never even been to Seattle before and he couldn't wait to get back here after his mission. We left our house in Provo on May 10 to drive to Ogden where we stayed in a cabin for the night. It was nice to be able to relax and not do anything for the first time in weeks! The next day we met my parents for lunch up the canyon at this cute little cafe. We sat outside because the weather was so nice and the scenery was beautiful! I just love those canyons in Utah. There was this crazy peacock running around on the outside of the fence that provided some entertainment as well. :) We ate lunch (which was delicious) but the best part was the desserts! We were going to take a picture of them but uh... they didn't last long.

So after lunch Rusty and I drove to Boise to stay at my parents' house. We didn't plan that out very well because they were up in Utah staying at a cabin in Park City, but I was just glad that we got to see them before we left. It had been a while! The drive to Boise was pretty uneventful, but when we got there we had a real shocker. I had packed a couple outfits and pajamas and things in an overnight bag for our trip to Seattle, but Rusty decided that he wanted a different pair of jeans or something so we brought his suitcase in the house so he could switch them out. To our absolute horror, we realized that I had grabbed the wrong suitcase! Let me back up. On our last day, we ran into some major plumbing problems in the basement. So while Rusty was fixing that, I packed all of his stuff for the summer. He has two suitcases that look almost identical: in one I put all of the things he needed for the summer, and in the other I put the junk we wouldn't need until we got home. In my stress of the day, I grabbed the wrong one. Rusty was really nice about it and told me that he didn't mind, and that one day we would even look back on it and laugh. I think that we are at that point now haha, but earlier there was nothing funny to me about it. At all. This is the blasted suitcase.

Anyways, we carried on! We picked some things out of that suitcase that would still work and then decided we would just ask Jessica to mail us some of the other things. Our drive to Seattle was beautiful and green, and exciting because I never drive in that direction! It seems like I only go to Utah from Boise so it was a nice change. When we were driving I was freezing cold and didn't bring a blanket, and Rusty was burning up. We improvised the best that we could and this is what happened...

 Yep. It was Rusty's BRILLIANT idea to give me towels and pillow cases to keep me warm. And to... roll up his pant legs and make that face to help him cool off.

 This is just one of the beautiful views we saw on our drive. After a while, I stopped trying to take pictures because they weren't doing it justice.

This is view of the Puget Sound from our house. It is absolutely breathtaking. That island right there is Whidbey Island and the mountains in the back are on the peninsula on the other side of the Sound.

We are now official.... HOME OWNERS!

I'm going to be working back in time a little bit to get everything caught up. A few months ago Rusty and I started looking for a house to buy. I know it sounds crazy, and many people have told us that we are too young to do it; and if I had been on my own I would have completely agreed with them. But Rusty just seems to have a knack for this stuff and so we started our search. It was really hard at first because we kept finding these wonderful houses that we absolutely loved, but then they would be gone. The prices and interest rates were so low that everyone was trying to do the same thing that we were, and with school and work we weren't able to jump up and go look at them as quickly as others.

Then after all of this, it all stopped. It seemed like no good houses were on the market anymore at all, and the interest rates started to rise. We considered just buying a single one-story house instead of the house with a basement apartment we were looking for, and then we considered not buying at all. But we kept looking, and just as we were about to give up a house popped up. I was at work when Rusty called, but he was so excited about it he had called off work and was going to go see the house right then. It had only been on the market a couple of hours, but he knew that we had to get there that day or it would be gone like the others. He sent me videos of the house and then, without even seeing it, I agreed to put in an offer. We were hoping to hear back about our offer fairly soon, but it just so happened to be a three day weekend so the banks were closed, leaving other buyers extra days to look at the house. We held our breath and waited.

By some miracle, our offer was accepted. As Rusty and I walked through the house, we both had an overwhelming understanding of why the other houses didn't work out: this house was supposed to be our house. It just felt right. Those feelings have only grown stronger the longer that we have had our house and met our neighbors and learned about the faults of the house. There have been many problems, but nothing seemed completely out of our control. This house was a literal answer to our prayers.

It hasn't been easy though, in fact it has been the hardest thing I've ever done in my whole life. Trying to do finals, work, pack up, clean and move from our first apartment into this house where we wouldn't be living until August while keeping the things that we would need for Seattle in another separate pile, and working on the house proved to be challenging. The house needed a lot of work, everything from painting, tiling and rewiring the dryer to a new roof. Luckily Rusty has had a lot of hands on experience from previous jobs, and was willing to work patiently with a girl who was pretty clueless as to what was going on. :) Thanks to some help from friends, a ton of help from Rusty's family who came out for the week, and my wonderful sister Jessica who was there almost every day for weeks, the upstairs apartment somehow got done and rented out to a lovely young married couple. Once again, a miracle answered our prayers.

 This is our house! It has the new roof on it, the porch railings are painted and the door is painted black. Isn't it beautiful!?!?! :)

 This was our first day that we had our keys... our first day as official home owners. It was a weird feeling!

 Not sure we are really mature enough for this responsibility....

 Bedroom number 1. We painted the floor boards, walls, windows, doors, and closets, shampooed the carpets, and bought and installed the blinds.

 Bedroom number 2. Same stuff.

 This is the view from the family room into the kitchen.

 This is the family room. Love the hardwood floors. Painted the walls, windows, and baseboards. Did the blinds in here too.

 This is the new kitchen! Rusty laid the tile with the help of one of Jessica's friends, and then taught me how to grout it. Those cabinets were the death of me. They were so difficult to get to fit back on after we painted them. Good thing Rusty's friend came over and sanded them down for me! Washer and dryer in here until we fix the hook-ups in the basement. Then a dishwasher will go there.

This is the bathroom! We painted in here as well, cabinets and walls. 

The basement still has a long way to go, but again thanks to Jess it is still underway even though Rusty and I are in Seattle. She has taken this project head on and I am so proud and grateful for her. We hope to have the basement looking as good as the upstairs by the end of the year. It has been a difficult project, but there is no feeling quite as rewarding as seeing all of the progress that has happened from your hard work. We love our new house and are excited to get back to Provo to live in it!

Rusty + Boeing = Love

As many of you know, Rusty got an internship with Boeing for the summer! Woo hoo! We live so close to campus (about a mile and a half away) that our landlord Diane drops him off with his bike on her way to work and he bikes home after work. Some narrow and packed highway lanes make it pretty dangerous for him to ride in the mornings- plus it's uphill! Yuck. He is on a planning committee working on new architectural structures that will appeal to younger clients' eye and pocket. Rusty, as the youngest guy on the team, has become the spokesperson for that. Pretty exciting! People have already been impressed with his work and believe that he will accomplish great things. I have also been very impressed with his determination and dedication to do his best even though all of this is very new to him. Although he works at the largest building in the world (volume wise) he is finding his own little niche there.