Our first Utah hockey game!

So Utah finally has their own hockey team! And this was the inaugural season! How fun it was that Purple decided this year's venue for their holiday event would be at a game, club level. And how much more fun it was that Sage was able to join us! 

Countdown to Christmas!

Oh how I love decorating for Christmas.  I don't know if it's a good thing or bad thing that most our Christmas decor is twenty years old but until someone tells me it's really outdated I figure I'll keep using it! This was really our first year enjoying the full holiday season in this home which I was looking forward to! While there is no guarantee of a white Christmas there most certainly is a guarantee of a cold one which will be a new experience for us after living in Florida.

Sage snapping a photo of some of the Christmas lights in the neighborhood as the sun sets.

Some traditions never die whether you want them to or not.  I was certain this would be the year we would get a professional photo taken to use on our Christmas card.  Everyone was living in Utah, photographers are plentiful out here, and we are surrounded by beautiful locations to take them.  But sadly Thanksgiving had just passed and the opportunity to find someone with availability had expired so again I found myself asking someone...enter Ashley... to take a photo of us.  

Clearly taking Christmas photos is exhausting for Ty...

Once in a while the stars align and unexpected good things happen for me. This was one of those times! While I wasn't planning on getting a Santa photo this year as I had promised the kids last year when Sage was a senior that that would be the last year, how happy I was when getting a photo just kind of fell into my lap when we were out doing Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve and decided to stop in Cabella's. Like Bass Pro, they offer photos with Santa but you need to make a reservation in advance. Of course I hadn't done that but when I asked one of the young men if they had a standby line he hesitated and said I could wait but there was no guarantee.  Well within about ten minutes we were getting our photo taken! The family knows how much I appreciate getting this every year so I was happy they entertained me by not complaining!  

The night before Christmas...

Christmas morning with my faves! Favorite gift had to be the canvas Jack had made in the shape of a cassette with lines from favorite songs that reminded him of me.  It was so sweet! 

Later the Knudsen gang made their way up for dinner and games! It was so nice to have everyone minus Teagen who is on his mission. The lesson we learned this year from our white elephant gift exchange?  Don't do it next year! LOL. It's trickier than you think with our current demographic. :)

Another Christmas in the books! And so happy to have spent it with these people. 

Thanksgiving 2024

Now that we live in Utah it's so nice not having to worry about flying kids home or working around school schedules during the holidays. With the kids just being a 40 minute drive away, they can just drive up and spend as much or as little time with us as they would like! It's also so nice knowing my family, aside from Steve who lives in San Jose is all in Utah, making it much easier to get together with them more often.  This Thanksgiving we were able to host my parents, Paul and Camilla, Steve, and Ty's cute girlfriend, Ashley!  Good food and great company!

It happened...

I got a new car!  Anyone that knows me well knows that I'm not a fan of buying brand new cars but at 54 years old Jack finally convinced me to buy my first brand new car. He would tell you the jeep was my first brand new car but since we bought it in Utah after he started working out here and I didn't end up officially moving out here for five years it never felt like my car! Thankfully there were no tearful goodbyes with the Escalade since it's waiting for us in FL (and yes I'll squeeze as many years as I can out of that car) but I'll definitely enjoy a change of style, slightly better gas mileage, and a few more modern conveniences! :)

So much for every 6 weeks!

So the hope was that once we moved to Utah, we would return to Florida every six weeks or so to check on the house and enjoy it! We quickly realized though that summers are NOT the time to leave Utah.  Cool mornings with warm dry days are a far cry from the wet, hot, and humid summers of Florida. Having said that, going months without making sure the air conditioners are still working, the roof is still attached, and the home is still in ok shape is not smart. So when the boys' friend Noah offered to check on the house and bring in a few pieces of outdoor furniture before a hurricane was scheduled to arrive that night, we weren't expecting to hear back with any surprises. Well, what a surprise we got. Sadly as he was walking through the home to flush toilets, he found that Sage's bathroom had experienced a pretty significant roof leak with damage to the ceiling and walls. This just hours BEFORE the big storm had even arrived. Jack then had him place our big recycling trash in the bathroom to catch all the rain that was sure to come in the next few hours and we made plans to catch a flight out the following week since the airport was closing due to the storm.   

What a sad day it was to walk in and see the damage that had not only affected Sage's bathroom but had also worked its way down to our pool bath. Thankfully everything else appeared ok and the jet skis were still on the lift...which after a big storm is always a relief!  

Of course finding an available roofer in Florida after a big storm isn't easy. And the bummer is while the storm was big and did a lot of damage in the Orlando area, the damage to our roof had clearly taken place either during an earlier storm or over the course of some time. It's just unfortunate that we didn't learn about it until we were in the midst of another storm.  So with two weeks in Florida we were off to the races to try to get this taken care of.

Here you can see where Jack cut a hole in the bathroom ceiling so we could try to look into the attic to see where the water was entering in at.  The second photo is of the pool bath mirror.  When Noah did his walk thru he didn't realize the leak had worked its way down the walls and through the vents and fixtures of the pool bath. His quote was "I just thought it was a dirty bathroom mirror..."  lol!  Excuse me this isn't a guys dorm bathroom...

After countless calls to roofers I finally was able to find someone through a recommendation from another roofer who we had been referred to but was unable to make it out.  While it was a relief he could come by to assess the damage I couldn't help but wonder why he wasn't busy like all the other roofers I had called?!?  I couldn't find any reviews for him or even a company website but after some research did find a business license.  My mind was eased though after meeting him at one of his other job sites in downtown Windermere that happened to be a very nice new construction custom home.  I appreciated that he could tell I was a bit concerned that there was next to no information online about his business (unlike all the others that I called) so he drove me by several other homes in the area to see the work he had done.  In the end it was a blessing that our paths crossed and he was able to fix our roof.  Time will tell if the job was done correctly but we are going to assume it is fixed!

After getting that dealt with it was nice to relax in our happy space.  By dealt with I mean just the roof part.  All the drywall and paint repairs would have to wait for our next visit!

We also got to enjoy an amazing meal with our friends (and neighbors) Holly and David at the London House.  It's a private club that they belong to and wow, what an experience and how generous they were to take us there.  The food was so great and it was so nice to spend time with them since we hardly get to see them.  I couldn't help but take a photo of the toilet in the ladies bathroom. 

One thing that did work well in our favor was that BYU was playing UCF in Florida while we were out there so how fun it was to go with our friends the Strouds.  

Fingers crossed the roof is indeed repaired! Now time to start planning a return trip to fix the drywall and paint.

the four seasons...

Next to being close to family, one of the other highlights of living in Utah is being able to experience all the seasons. While we love our Florida lifestyle and all the shades of blue that can be found in the beautiful oceans, lakes, and springs, there is definitely a shortage of seeing yellows, oranges, reds and greens!  Here are just a few photos of the view from our home or the beautiful scenery we get to drive through whenever we head into town (Provo).

I had been looking forward to taking a drive through Guardsman Pass while the colors were changing for years.  Finally,  just before the cool winter weather started to arrive we made a point to get out to see them and they did not disappoint!

Of course we brought Nova along with us!

The Alpine loop is another great place to catch the colors changing so a few days later I was able to grab my parents and take them for a drive.  While my dad's vision is very poor it was still lovely for them to get out and for my mom to at least see the beauty.

We feel so lucky to live here.  It truly is like a slice of heaven here.