Forever & A Day: Moved!

Hello! We are back after not posting for three weeks. Sorry! We have a couple of good excuses though. The week of July 9th, we were doing finals, graduating, packing, deep cleaning, and moving! Phew. We are so glad to have all that craziness over now.

Lindsey graduated on July 13th with her Bachelors in Healthcare Administration. It was an incredible experience for all of us. Graduation was held in the BYU-Idaho Center Auditorium, which is the second largest free-standing balconied auditorium in the world. It has 15,000 seats. You can imagine how awestruck we were to attend graduation here!

It was slightly stressful for us all because poor Baby Westley didn't get to eat for several hours and he was very sad about it. Luckily he calmed down just in time for Daddy to see her walk and get her diploma. He snapped a quick picture from the doorway where he'd been standing for most of the ceremonies. It kind of looks like "Where's Waldo?". :)

Lindsey's favorite part was at the beginning of the Processional before the graduates entered the ceremony, the professors and other faculty all lined up in double lines along the hallways, to make a pathway for them to pass through. The professors were all clapping and cheering, adding a wonderful celebratory element. Dennis Tolman, Lindsey's advisor and instructor for the past two and a half years, was among them (he's a white-haired, jolly grandpa-type of person) and she surprised him with a grateful hug. It was such a happy day.

The next couple days were a hectic whirlwind. We packed and cleaned like crazy for the next couple days. Leaving the little house we had called "home" for almost two years was a sad thing, but we were excited to have new experiences. We stuffed as much as we could into our great little car and put the rest in storage and headed out for Iowa.

We took a beautiful scenic route through the Teton mountains and Jackson Hole, WY. Here is a picture similar to what we saw. And the picture below captures an incredible sight we were privileged to see. The morning mists rose from the lower parts of the mountain, meeting a thick blanket of clouds that completely covered the valley. We descended from the top of the peak into this whimsical sea of clouds and into a still and peaceful fog. It was utterly breathtaking!

The drive was pretty uneventful after we got out of western Wyoming. Westley was so well behaved in the car and hardly cried (even though we drove over 15 hours that day!). We arrived at our hotel in Lexington, Nebraska for a much need sleep around 11pm. The local pioneer history was printed in our hotel welcome brochure. We enjoyed stopping at little towns as we chugged across Nebraska and Iowa, immediately feeling the difference in the Midwest. People at gas stations and food places would ask where we were heading in a friendly way, fuss over the baby, and wish us a good day. It felt so good to be back in the Midwest!

We drove three hours to Omaha, NE, and met up with Margie, a dear friend of Lindsey's. We thoroughly enjoyed visiting with her and her two little ones. The breather was just the thing we needed to give us enough "umpf" to finish the trip. We rolled into Ankeny about 6:30 that evening. We stayed with Lindsey's mom the rest of the week because Dad and most of the boys were in Colorado, hiking Mt. Elbert (one of the 14 highest mountains in the U.S. and the highest in the state of Colorado!) for a Scouting High Adventure. Only 4 boys in the scout troop made it to the top (it was a 12+ hour climb) and three of them were Hadden boys. Here is what the peak looks like in the wintertime... And next is a picture of Joshua and Tyler at the top, showing their Troop number, with their friend Granite. We were sure proud of them!

So now we are settled in at our own place. We are renting a room and bathroom from a sweet family friend, Fay Carmichael. She has made us very comfortable and we love our new home. It very cozy. We feel blessed for all of the help we received from kind and wonderful people on both ends of our move. We also were incredibly surprised and grateful that Chris got a job the first week upon our arrival. He interviewed with a professional temp agency in Des Moines and now works for Equifax, a loan processing company that works is owned by Wells Fargo Mortgage. He is working full-time and loves his job. We are super happy to have a change from school. Lindsey is enjoying being a stay-at-home mom and taking care of the little guy. Westley is much happier to have her around instead of rushing off to school every day! He's been pretty adorable lately, and growing like a weed (a cute one though!).