Leaving Logan

Today was the day we bid farewell to beautiful Cache Valley. We spent all of last week packing and cleaning to get the house ready to move, but Steve had to come and do some training for his summer job in Ephraim this week. We got as much as we could done last week before we came down, so friday when Steve and his dad and Kristen's dad drove back up to Logan to pack the truck, most of the work was already done. We loaded up the truck at 11:00 in the morning, cleaned the house, and were able to leave by 1:00. Not too shabby! It's strange--last time Steve moved down to Snow College, he could fit all of his stuff including a scooter inside a pickup truck. Just goes to show what being married for three years can do. Kristen and baby Josh stayed behind in Monroe so he wouldn't have to have an unneccessary amount of travel time. We all know how that goes....
Steve had to drive to Brigham City this morning to pick up the truck, and it's a good thing we ordered the bigger size, because we have accumulated a lot of stuff since we've been married. On the way there, the canyon was experiencing winter-like driving conditions, but on the way back it was already cleared up. That's Logan's way of telling us to never forget how crazy and unpredictable the weather can be. Friends showed up to help load furniture and boxes and say our goodbyes, but for some reason these goodbyes felt temporary, because the strong bonds of friendships we've made will last through the years and span across distances. The memories we have with our friends will last us for years to come and we will look back on our time there with fondness. Logan has been very good to us, and we would not trade our time and experiences there for anything. But it is on to bigger and better things as life moves on and takes us in different directions.
Sometimes bigger and better doesn't always refer to size, however. We are moving to Ephraim, Utah, a small town with a booming population of 5,000. Steve will be doing his student teaching in the fall at Manti High School, and Kristen will be going back to her work, only at the Ephraim office of Utah State University. We got the married R.A. position at Nuttall hall for Snow College's on-campus housing, which means free rent for a year. (Hallelujah! We'll be able to pay off our car!) The funny thing about this situation is this will be the third time Steve will have been an R.A. at Nuttall Hall--he was a single R.A. the year before his mission and also the year after, which means that his entire experience with Snow College has been spent in the confines of one dorm building as its R.A. We were supposed to move in today, but the couple that moved out this week turned in their keys to the housing director who accidentally put them in her purse before travelling up to Salt Lake for the day. Unfortunately for us, that means we were not able to move our stuff into our apartment today, and our Uhaul is sitting in front of the door locked up. Luckily we get to stay one more night at Kristen's parents, who are wonderful enough to put us up for another night. We will unpack the truck tomorrow and begin our new responsibilities soon after.
Here we stand ready to take the next step into the unknown and we are eagerly awaiting the new adventures that always come with moving.