I haven’t written from a while because my little family has been driving across the country to move from the familiar Utah to brand new Atlanta. We took four and a half days and drove a mini van packed full with our belongings across the varied landscapes of Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama and finally into Georgia.

I moved from snow-capped mountains, to deserts, than boring flatlands that turned into red-soiled hills. Than came more and more trees (“woods” don’t really exist in the west without mountains involved). My favorite part of the drive was the Ozarks/River bottoms in Arkansas where we spent a night, a small walk, and an interesting game of disk golf.

At every landscape change I thought about gardening there. I wonder if the red clay soil would be as difficult to work with as it looks, how it would be to garden in a swamp, and the advantage of actually having natural growing trees in an area rather than having to plant them all.

I can no longer identify all the common landscape plants. The trees aren’t leaved out and herbaceous plants are dormant, but even ignoring them there is a lot I don’t know. There’s actually broad leaf evergreen trees out here. No such thing grows in Utah.

It’s the start of a new year and it will be a different one. Right now I’m excited for it all.

I’m catching up, now that we have internet in our new place. I wrote the next three posts some time ago, but now you actually get to read them. 

Christmas this years wasn’t that grand. Peter was out of sorts with continued interruption to routine and a lack of sleep. He did enjoy opening and playing with presents. He received a couple of new car toys and a couple of bored games which are some of his favorite toys.  It was also fun to visit with all of our family before we left.

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We started this year in Springville which we enjoyed. In the summer, we moved in with Liz’s grandparents in Pleasant Grove. As a family, we were able to hike 100 miles, camped at Zion’s, and took a trip to visit Joe’s brother in California. We are expecting another boy in March. Right after Christmas, we are moving to Atlanta for a year, where Joe will finish up his last year of school.

Joe–Joe worked hard in his second year of physical therapy school. He worked the first half of the year at Vivant, and later quit to make more time for school and family. In the fall, he worked an eight week clinical at Aspen Ridge Rehabilitation Center that he enjoyed.

Liz–Liz spent most of he time running after a growing toddler. At the beginning of the year, she took an online irrigation design class. She also progressed on her gardening buisness, doing mainly design and consulting but also installing several landscapes, and did maintenance for the condo HOA where we lived in Springville. Liz also ran he first ever 5K, but then pregnancy progressed and she gave up running.

Peter–Peter turned two. He is growing, running, and talking tons. His favortie things this year included playing outside, toddler gym at the local rec center, storytime, and learning to navigate on the computer.

Merry Christmas!

The winter inversions in Utah can be horrid: poor air quality, no snow, and freezing temperatures. But sometimes the horrid weather also results in freezing fog that makes  for a beautiful type of winter wonderland, even if it is devoid of snow.

This December has actually been extremely dissapointing weather wise. Almost no snow…and we need it now, because we aren’t going to get much in Atlanta. But at least we had a little snow on Tuesday. Before it melted, Peter and I went out and played in it. He liked the sled, but was as much interested in going in Grandma’s playhouse.

Last night, Peter suddenly popped out with “Kangaroo Zoo,” and wanted to go. It’s a local bounce house type play place that we went to early last month. Apparently he remembered, and seeing no reason not to go that evening (they charge less for 2 and under, and I had a coupon), we went. Bringing Daddy along was a great idea. Last time, after about a half hour he was done and he didn’t try any of the bigger slides. This time he went on all but the biggest slide and we were there for over an hour. Pete certainly got a good work-out, he was running around crazy the entire time.

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We went up to Temple Square on a cold night last week and enjoyed all the Christmas lights and a bit of choir music. Always a fun place to go for Christmas.

Last night we made gingerbread houses. You can look at the houses below and guess which one is who’s. My husband, Peter, my grandma and I all made one.

Okay Peter’s was pretty easy. Mine is the one with a mulched landscape. I cared more about my landscape then the actual house, and I think I’m the only one ever who put “organic mulch” down around a gingerbread house. Joe’s is the most architecturally interesting and detailed. His took a while, but turned out awesome. (He’s quite a good artist.) Grandma struggled a bit with hers, but it turned out pretty cool. It was a fun activity to do together.

So there is still lots of packing to do. I really haven’t started and I’m moving in less than 3 weeks. I’m excited. But I really need to start packing.

This Saturday we bundled up and went on another hike. With another 2.5 miles, this makes 101 miles for the season. I reached my goal, with a few weeks left. (With busy weeks ahead though, this might be it). We started at Dry Canyon trailhead in Orem and hiked on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail over to the Battle Creek trailhead. It was a nice, easy hike with great views. There was lots of company too-we saw bikers, runners, horses and dogs. It was a cold day, but we stayed warm all nice and bundled. Peter walked quite a bit, although he is a little slower and curious then his parents might like. He was also content to be on daddy’s shoulders (and luckily daddy is okay to have him up there). It snowed a little bit that morning, which was lots of fun. We probably aren’t getting much snow this year so we have to enjoy the little we get now. Now for pictures, which mostly feature one adorable little boy. He’s actually starting to pose.

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