St George

We took a little weekend trip to the land of red rocks to see our favorite little Washburn family. The drive down with Thayne was excruciating. Five hours, and Thayne cried/screamed for about half of them. Though watching Jill prance out to our car with a big goofy grin the second we pulled into her driveway made every mile worth it. We talked, ate mini ice cream cakes (made by the afore mentioned excited Jill), and went to bed. The next day we explored a little of St George. We toured the Jacob Hamblin home, hiked to some pretty cool petroglyphs, ate yummy food, swam, and watched a movie. I thought I had charged my camera before we left our house, but apparently I was mistaken. These are the only pictures I captured before the camera died

The Hamblin house is in the background

And then Tev took this picture with his phone at the petroglyphs 

And that is all the documentation we have of our trip. We loved the sunshine and being able to see the Washburns again. They have a nice place down there and seemed very happy in their new home. We headed home Sunday and thoroughly enjoyed the 3 hour trip in which Thayne slept for 2 of those 3 hours. 

The Beginning of a Grand Adventure

We're going to Seattle! Tyler had in-person interviews with Amazon last week and we have been anxiously awaiting their decision. They told Tyler that they would meet this last Tuesday and make their hiring decision. We've both been glued to our phones and Tyler's email the past few days and felt like we would never get an answer. We love our life here with our little house and would be just fine staying here for grad school. At the same time we would love to live closer to our families in Washington and enroll in the University of Washington Computer Science Grad Program. Anxiously waiting is how I would describe the majority of our time this past week.

Then this morning around 5, Thayne woke up with a poopy diaper. He was especially cranky so I decided to pull out the laptop and start a video for him while I changed him (He LOVES The PianoGuys. They're pretty awesome). The screen brightened and Tyler's email account was on the screen. Before opening a new tab I happened to notice a new email from... Amazon. I was hesitant to believe it could be the long awaited response, but giddily I opened it and read,  "So good news, we would like to extend an offer to you..." I felt a surge of excitement, and then looked around our cute, wonderful home and the excitement was momentarily replaced by a sick feeling at leaving the home and friends we have here. After a minute or two, I woke up Tyler and told him I needed help. He is such a good man. He rolled out of bed to come to my aid. I asked him to look at his email for me, and he gave my a funny look for about a split second before he went for the laptop. He read the first line and transformed into a 25 year-old boy who looked like he just won a trip to Disneyland. We just couldn't believe it.

Tyler will be quitting his full-time position at the end of April, to be hired on part-time while he finishes up his classes Spring Term with an over-full-time credit load. He graduates June 14th, and starts working June 25th with Amazon.

Amazon found Tyler through LinkedIn, which is like a professional Facebook. Until they contacted us, we weren't planning on leaving Utah before Ty could finish the Computer Science Master's program through BYU. This is an unexpected turn, but an exciting one. We are especially excited to live near Siri and Chris and be within a weekend-trip distance from our parents. Here's to unexpected events and new adventures!

Books

Thayne loves his books. He'll pull out his book basket and go through them dozens of times. I love watching him look through them on his own, and then having him sit in my lap while I read to him 

Newspapers are almost as interesting

 

This clip was filmed January 10th, and I wish I could have gotten more. We'd been reading Sheep in a Jeep, and he was laughing so hard! This was as much as I could catch on camera:

Feeling Crafty

Just some fun projects I've been working on the past few months:

Throw pillows for the couch

Broken Soap Dispenser turned Vase

Floral Arrangement for the Living Room

Arrangement above the kitchen cabinets made with the extra
stems from the Family Room Arrangement

Valentine's Day wreath made from red felt

A New Trick

"Dad!"

Me: Thayne, can you say, "Dad"?

Thayne: Dad! Da Da 

Me: Thayne can you say, "Mom"? 

Thayne: [mischievous grin] Dad!

He knows who Dad is and what the word means. In the morning Thayne usually comes in bed with me while Tyler gets ready for work and now he says "da!" when Tyler comes in to get things, or when Tyler leaves the room and Thayne wants him to come back. He can tell when Dad is about to head out to the car, and he'll start to cry, hold his arms out, and say, "Da da da dad da!" Thayne loves his Daddy.

Here's just a small glimpse of Thayne's new favorite Dad game: