Real REAL life begins and another goodbye to Provo

So, it's been awhile....about 3 months even.
And life is AMAZING.
Where do I begin?

We've moved.  Andrew has graduated.  We have a new house (apartment still, but I always seem to call my home a house even when it was just a dorm room), a new ward, a new library, new walks, new grocery stores, new furniture, some new toys, some new clothes, some new books, and some new stories.  And most importantly to me we have about a thousand new PICTURES!  First off...one of the biggest and most anticipated events in our lives- GRADUATION!

CIVIL ENGINEERS!!!

while waiting for graduation to start hannah was getting restless so she and i went walking around and found where the graduates were getting ready...so we snuck back and looked for andrew and met a bunch of his friends!

WE. ARE. DONE.

Andrew started his new job on May 2nd at 8am as a real live graduated EIT (Engineer In Training- he won't be a professional engineer until he takes the big test for it and has a certain number of years experience).  And he's really enjoying it!  He has been enjoying some great new relationships with his co-workers and has impressed his supervisors with his knowledge of some engineer computer programs.  (He even helped one of his bosses learn how to do something on one of those programs!  He's not one to 'toot his own horn' at all, but just because he won't brag doesn't mean I won't!)  He was able to get a lot of extra experience and learning opportunities that other civil engineering students don't get- all because of his job with BYU's engineering department for 3 or 4 years while he was in school.  I've slowly realized what a blessing that job was for our family.  It seriously gave him a leg up when it came to interviewing and I think it's a big part of why he had job opportunities before he even graduated.  And it seems to me that it could also possibly contribute to him advancing quickly in the company because of his knowledge of the computer programs and his hands on experience working on real engineer projects not just the hypothetical ones in his homework assignments.  Needless to say...I am a very proud wife!
We've gone to see his office and we've brought pictures to decorate his desk.  I should have him take a picture of it for me to post on here.  We just feel so grown up!  For Father's Day I had the girls make popsicle stick frames specifically for him to put up at work and he loved them!  Audrey and Hannah both adore their Daddy.  As soon we hear a key in the lock at the end of the day they both stop whatever their doing and yell, "Daaadddyy!" and run for the door.  I love that so much partly because it's such a cute part of their relationship with him but also because it reminds of when my Dad would come home at the end of the day.  It was the best as soon as he pulled up outside the window or when we'd hear his big Dad footsteps coming up the stairs.  Seriously- Dad coming home is just the GREATEST JOY of LIFE at that age and I love that I am reminded of that amazingness every time Andrew walks through the door.

Our new home is two bedroom townhouse/4-plex with a garage and a fenced-in backyard that we share with other apartments.  Our living room and kitchen are both pretty small (but nothing could ever be as small as our little Provo 8-plex so we're feeling like it's a ton of space) but our upstairs bedrooms are quite spacious (again, to us).  I'm still working on decorating...I'm the kind of person that takes a loooooong time to decide where to put things because I know that once something is up on the wall we're probably not going to move it...possibly ever.  Our last Provo place we kept pretty simple because it was our 4th move in 4 years and it just wasn't worth the effort any more.  But we're projecting to be here about 3 to 5 years so I want to really settle in as much as we can.  But some of my decorating plans are on hold because I need to remember that although Andrew has a nice job now we still need to be just as frugal as always because of the lovely load of debt we're coming out of school with.  Recently we've treated ourselves to some new furniture and we know its time to reign ourselves in a bit so our frugal mindsets don't change too much....but it might already to be too late for me!  No real worries though...it's just really fun to have a new space to make all our own and I think in my imagination I start to take 'playing house' a little too far.  I have a bunch of new ideas I want to do...but they're all going to be long term plans instead of all at once like I wanted.  Anyone else ever feel this way when you move to a new place?  It's my new little home and I just wish so badly that I could hug it so tight and say "I'll take care of you while you take care of us and I'll make you beautiful and happy and fill you with laughter and family and love forever and ever and ever!"

Here are a lot of pictures of our last few days/weeks in Provo- from Easter to camping to moving day:

easter with uncle hyrum

audrey loved feeding hannah.  hannah wasn't sure how she felt about it....

a day or two before we moved, enjoying our little balcony one of the last times

also enjoying our melody one of the last times before she left for her adventure in oregon!

i think collectively as a family what we miss most about provo is mariah and ross!

andrew and his good friend caleb at the fancy schmancy senior banquet!  our first date night out in awhile....

here are some (very few actually) very belated camping pictures from our trip to lions national park with our hanaike family.  first off, samantha hiding in the water bottles at walmart!

waiting out the rain in the car...not the least bit discouraged!

hannalah girl modeling her lovely winter coat

audrey loved having the umbrella all to herself

so did luke!

it was so hard for hannah to leave her boyfriend james behind in provo.  oh well.  they're moving soon anyway.  we'll just have to meet up again in 20 years so they can get married.

we moved out of our apartment and then came back and did the cleaning another day.  we had one box left behind, so audrey took her last nap there in that box in her room!  she loved it....and she didn't really sleep at all of course

provo city center temple date night!

hanging out outside for one of the last times

our home for the last 3 years

i love when she falls asleep on me

little edible teacup from RS activity 

easter egg dying

we found out about a free little festival a few blocks from us celebrating Provo's birthday!  we had to go because provo is now a part of our family's history and we wanted to celebrate it too...plus did i mention it was free?

there was a petting zoo (which audrey was obviously indifferent about)

pigs- audrey's favorite animal

audrey's little friend emma with this gigantic bunny...seriously this thing was HUGE

camels

cake balls

a bounce house

free pony rides

balloon animals

an ambulance you could climb in.  we talked all about uncle lester with this one

and a great big firetruck!

it was a super good time!  happy birthday provo!  we love you!

this just kind of happened so i had to take a picture. we love aunt brittney and lynny and hazel

i have no idea why audrey had her shirt off.....

and our amazing library story time girls who made fridays our favorite day of the week!  seriously we looked forward to it more than anything else.  tori (on the left next to audrey) knew and loved audrey very personally because audrey adored everything about her.  we love them and will miss them and the library more than a lot of other things....it was hard to leave our last day.

We loved you Provo.  Thanks for this crazy good start to our life.

We're ready for our next adventure here in North Salt Lake!!!