Hello, USA!

We Made it!!

...And that was the longest road-trip ever.  

We made the same stops we made when we moved to DC in 2003. Somehow, it felt longer this time. Possibly because we had 5 children in tow, although they actually handled it very well.

They did coloring, we did crosswords and other puzzles, and ate a lot of junk food. The Beatles were our primary audio fare.

With only a few exceptions, this is about as rambunctious as it got.

We planned our trip so that we could see as much family as possible....even going out of our way in some cases.  We also wanted to fit some church history sites in there.  Our plans were ambitious, to say the least. We got off later than we'd hoped. If we'd known how little time we would have in Nauvoo, we probably could have axed that stop altogether. 

We got to see Weston's parents in Grand Junction, my sister Angie in Denver, and every one of Weston's siblings along the way. I see Weston's desire and efforts to stay connected with each of his siblings as distinct and admirable. I hope that will transfer to our kids.

And now for the travel log:

Grand Junction, CO

We didn't get a picture with the grandparents, unfortunately. But here's a bit of nostalgia we were able to foist upon our children in Grand Junction:

I don't think they minded too much.

Denver, CO

Pretty much impossible to describe how much I love this girl. If you want details, check out this post wherein I named my daughter after her. 

Stayed the night and then went to church with these guys. 

These cousins love each other so much, it was decided we must get the kids together at least once a year. 

Colorado Springs, CO

We stayed the night with Ky and Shannon and got to see their new house. Had lots of fun with cousins and, oh....this is where we ditched the trailer.  Sorry, guys!

Independence, MO

We left Colorado Springs much later than we'd planned, arriving at the Liberty Jail visitors center about 15 minutes before they closed. We chose Independence, MO because it is home to several significant historical sites of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. About 20 minutes north of Independence is a historical marker called Liberty Jail.  It's a reconstruction of a jail house where the prophet Joseph Smith and other church leaders spent 4 months in an underground cell where conditions were inhumane, to say the least. While in this jail, Joseph Smith received significant revelations about the Priesthood.  The sister missionaries gave us a brief tour and explained to our children some of the significance of the site. The sisters told us that when President Russell M Nelson, the current prophet of our church visited the site, he remarked:

"The joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives." 

This is just as true for me and my family as it was for Joseph Smith. 

Nauvoo, IL

Our intention was to leave Independence early enough to spend several hours in Nauvoo. However, we chose to linger in Independence to go through the visitors center at the temple site. Little did we know, the visiting hours in Nauvoo had changed for the season only one day prior. So when we arrived in Nauvoo, it was only 10 minutes before the 5:00 closing time. We had already put our second night in Nauvoo on the chopping block so we would have enough time to load the truck without being too stressed out. Sigh.There was still plenty for us to do and see without the aid of the missionaries. But we will plan another trip to Nauvoo when we are not trying to move and remodel all in the same year.

We gave the kids their first glimpse of the Mississippi River. They were mostly impressed with the lily pads. 

We walked through the sculpture garden and down the trail of hope where we learned about some of the early saints who were expelled from Nauvoo and their difficult journey west. 

We stopped at the Nauvoo Temple for a picture.  

As we were walking on the temple grounds, I had the pleasant surprise of bumping into my friend Adrienne, who I haven't seen since we were both violin performance majors at BYU. We had a fun time catching up (how can you really catch up on 20 years in 20 minutes?). Look how bored my children are. Ha ha!

Probably our favorite highlight in Nauvoo was the Airbnb where we stayed.  It was an adorable country cottage, situated on 3 acres. Ideal for family reunions, as they welcome additional guests to set up tents. Wonder what it would take to talk my family into it....

At dusk, the children saw fireflies for the first time. This was a highly-anticipated event and they were not disappointed. Although, the season is winding down so the density of fireflies isn't quite what they will experience next summer.

(Fireflies are visible in this video for about the last 20 seconds.)

Brentwood, TN

We met up with Weston's brother Nathan and his family for a Chick-fil-A picnic in Brentwood, just outside of Nashville. It was good to play in the park and stretch our legs after that painfully long drive. Unbeknownst to any of us, however, we picked up our first tic by way of Adam's foot. Trust me, we are all now on high alert. And apparently that is going to be a necessity where we live now, as our neighborhood is overrun with deer. 

After the picnic, we drove another 90 minutes to our Airbnb in Cookeville, which was behind a boutique storefront right downtown (?). It was cute and nice, but also tricky to find at night with a car full of exhausted children.

In the morning, we sent off some postcards and stopped to pick up some snacks at the grocery store. Once the food and kids were all loaded into the car, I had to run back into the store to grab tweezers and medical supplies for tic removal. I'm just grateful that Adam noticed it early.  

Fredericksburg, VA 

We drove another very long day to get to Ben and Maegan's house in Fredericksburg. As always, we got in way later than we'd hoped. We stayed the night (Thank you!!) and had to get off early again the next morning in order to be at our closing by 11:00am.

Bethesda, MD

We arrived in Bethesda with just enough time to drop our children off at a park near the title company where we closed. My friend Rebecca met us there to be an adult presence for the kids while we went to closing. Along with signing away our foreseeable financial future, we enjoyed chatting with the sellers about the house, neighborhood, schools, and everything we would need to know. Apparently, Mrs Greene, who sold us the house has been crying as much as I have the last few weeks.

She emphasized how wonderful the house is, the neighbors, and all.

L-R: Sellers realtor Ellen, Sellers Mr and Mrs Greene, Newly mortgaged-to-the-hilt W&E Ricks

Our New Home

We Made It!!

Farewell Highland

"Let us not have tears....parting is a natural part of life."

(Points to whoever can name that movie!)

Well, it's a nice sentiment, but it didn't stop me from shedding many tears while saying goodbye to my peeps. The little double two-some pictured above was one of my biggest heartbreaks about moving. They've all handled it well, with promises aplenty of visits and being pen-pals.

I'm not really sure how to express how much I love the people we left behind. So I guess this post is mostly just to share pictures and let you know the farewells happened. We were treated to several different forms of farewell parties. My students and music colleagues put together a farewell BBQ which included dinner and a program with violin performances, slideshow, and parting gifts. It was so wonderful and I have never felt so appreciated. I was enjoying the program so much, I didn't even think about taking pictures! (kicking myself) 

We had a Richards Family farewell dinner hosted by my brother Kirk and his wife Amy at their home in Woodland Hills.

My neighbors put together the best-ever block party in our honor. Made me wonder why we haven't been doing block parties more often.

We had a fun date-night with our friends at Tucano's Grill

My oldest boys were given a farewell swimming party by the youth group and youth leaders from our church.  I don't have pictures, but here is one from the last hurrah for Adam with his friends from Renaissance.

Speaking of last hurrahs, 

we met up with the Randalls for a park day and free slurpees on 7-11.

As you can see, every Ricks child has a Randall counterpart who matches them in age, gender and personality. We are really going to miss you guys!

As we were packing and loading the truck, we had so many friends stop by to say goodbye. They brought gifts and snacks for the road. We really do feel so loved.

Here is one of almost everyone that was on-site in the final hours before our departure. By that time we were feeling so frazzled and just ready to be done. Our neighbors and friends came to the rescue and waved as we pulled away.  I'm getting all teary just thinking about it. 

Friends, I don't know how to thank you enough for loving my family and teaching me so much. I have learned so much about Christ-like love and service from our neighbors and friends in Highland and American Fork. We feel so privileged to know you and hope to sustain our friendships with you despite the distance. We'll see you again soon!

Curb Appeal

"Why would you stucco over your brick?" 

The most frequently asked question from well-intentioned friends when the subject of the exterior of our home comes up. Nowadays, whenever we are asked that question, Weston and I just look at each other and smile a meaningful smile. 

How do YOU define curb appeal? Here's my definition: 

When you see the house from the street, you actually want to go inside. 

This is a relatively low bar, if you ask me. I'm not looking for anything grandiose. I really didn't like the brown brick and felt like anything would be better than what it looked like in 2013 when we moved in.

Most people with a more practical bent (i.e. men, my husband included), view the choice to stucco over brick on the slightly-if-not-completely-crazy-and-possibly-diminishing-the-value-of-the-home side. Hence, the meaningful smile. Emily's smile means: "Thank you for letting us do this crazy thing in order to improve the curb appeal, even a little bit. I think it worked."

Weston's smile means: "Yep, we're a little bit crazy and it's sort of embarrassing. But, whatever makes you happy, babe." 

New stucco and stone-work happened in 2015. There were still improvements to be made, but we didn't think much about them until it was time for us to move out again. While Weston was busy planning and working on changing out all the galvanized plumbing and putting in new bathrooms, I mentioned that the front door really needed to be replaced. This was the lowest thing on his priority list, so I took matters into my own hands. 

I thought the front door was really ugly, and it also had remnants from the frame of a screen door that had been ripped off its hinges before we moved in.

 I wanted the front door to coordinate with the pretty door that Weston installed in the music room in 2013.

I knew it was available as a pre-hung door from Lowes, so I took extra careful measurements to try to determine whether the slab could be swapped out. It wasn't an option to remove the frame and install the entire pre-hung door. After multiple trips and phone calls to Lowes, I figured out that the door would fit, but the hinges would have to be re-routed. 

Enter: My Dad. 

I needed his help to hang the door. He let me borrow his router and taught me what to do. In the process, I learned how to use the router for more hinges than just this one. This is my work, practicing. The router was a little intimidating and I didn't want to screw it up. 

Bonus info: I learned many other things as a result of this remodel, out of sheer necessity. Since I probably won't do another post relating to the remodel, here's the Rosie the Riveter look I got while learning to patch drywall:

My dad is the hero! While I was battling feelings of insecurity, wondering if all the contractors around me were passing judgement about my judgment, my dad showed up and made it known that not only would it be possible to install the door, but that we were going to do it, no matter the cost.

This is the only photo I have with both of us. So....yeah, it looks like he did it all while I sat on my butt. But, I guess that's not too far from the truth, since I couldn't have done it without him. 

After the door was in, I swiftly removed the remnants of the storm door frame that were there.  It was so easy, it really made me kick myself for not doing it 6 years ago. 

So, we were left with a new frame and an old front door. Rather than losing out by discarding everything, Weston re-routed hinges to retro-fit the old door to the new frame and we sold it on KSL. Win!

We worked hard on other improvements to the curb appeal of the house. When all was said and done, we had put in a new cement walkway, fascia and soffit, new front window, and upgraded the landscaping, thanks to help from my friends Heidi and Paula. 

I'm finally so happy with the curb appeal of the house we lived in for 6 years. It's slightly too bad that we made it look so nice just in time to leave. 

Comeback

This blog is due for a comeback. For several reasons. There are also several reasons why blogging has fallen out-of-favor in the grand scheme of my world. All of these reasons have been swimming around in my head, on a sort of loop. So because I can, I will now pontificate in an unforgivably stream-of-consciousness manner. You know, just to get it all out.

I guess we have to start first on the subject of Christmas Cards.  When I was a lot younger and hence, unable to form my own opinions, one of my older siblings pronounced the following distaste for Christmas cards. "Christmas cards (and newsletters) are stupid because anyone who is actually interested in learning that stuff about your family already knows it." Meaning, if they don't already know the updates, they're not close enough to you to care. So, I carried that definition of annual Christmas updates along with me for several years. Until it dawned on me; I don't actually feel that way. In fact, I REALLY don't feel that way. We send out a newsletter almost every year in hopes that our friends will return the favor. Most of the time, this is the only access I have to updates on people I love. Guess what? I actually DO read them. I read every word of Ingrid's letter which is usually about 2-3 pages of small print. I read Kammi's letter which always makes me laugh out loud multiple times. I look forward to Laurel's Smilebox greeting every year. When I don't receive them, I notice. I miss them.

This is the most straightforward example I could put to you to explain how I feel about my blog. Remember back in....oh, 2008, was it? When EVERYONE was blogging? I was mostly just following my friends; young moms like me, to stay up-to-date on what everyone was doing. Along the way I picked up some favorites (more on these later).  Then, Facebook, Insta and Twitter came along and provided a more immediate return on investment for everyone. Why spend an hour or two putting together a cohesive blog post with prose and pictures when you can do the same thing in one sentence and get instant feedback? It's a little bit sad, just in the sense that I don't think any of us ever anticipated that blogging the way we were (to keep everyone updated) would become extinct. Now, after all this time, I have realized that FB isn't really all it's cracked up to be. Most of the time when I've spent too much time there, I come away depressed and require several days to recoup.

I guess what I'm trying to say is this: There is a dichotomy inherent in blogging and social media. It is the desire to stay in touch with friends juxtaposed with ye-ol' narcissism. I really do enjoy writing. For me, it's a release. Every once-in-a-while, I am told that I am a good writer (not to take today's post as a sampling, please). This compliment goes to my head sometimes. That is, until I see it flung about on social media willy-nilly on the content of others that may or may-not be so good, and then question my own gullibility for flattery. (Disgruntled sigh). Sometimes I go back and read my own writing and my stomach churns with the recognition of my own narcissism. "Why do I think anyone would be interested in that?" I question. But pause. Not too long ago, I set my children loose on my blog. I can't remember why, and it doesn't really matter. They were delving deep into the archives and finding stuff like this, and laughing hysterically. I found myself WISHING I hadn't stopped blogging. Wishing for more material they could sift through and learn about themselves when they were younger.  So, I decided that narcissism aside, there is inherent value in just keeping a record. Doesn't matter who else views it besides me and my family, and it doesn't matter what any of them think.

My other main reason for re-instating my blog is primarily in response to those who have expressed interest in keeping tabs on us as we are moving back to DC. My biggest sadness about moving is leaving behind friends, family and students that I love. The idea of keeping in touch eases this sadness, (along with the hope that we'll have lots of visitors). Some have suggested posting lots of updates on facebook. But we've already discussed how I feel about that. So, if they/you are really that interested, just know that you can come here to my blog and find out the latest.  I'll try to keep it entertaining.

Remember those aforementioned favorite bloggers? Turns out, they are still going! Of course, Marilyn is my all-time favorite. I could go on and on about how much I LOVE her style, content, her outlook on life, devotion, and family. I can always mosey on over to light-in-leaves whenever I need a pick-me-up and know that I will come away uplifted. Her style is not in the my-life-is-so-perfect.-Envy-me sort of way, but in more of a life-is-beautiful.-See? sort of way. I think that is what I love about Marilyn's writing so much. She is so genuine and so joyful. Some of my other favorites: Rachel Says So and of course NieNie.

So, with all of those rambling musings out of the way, I will conclude by saying that I'm excited to reclaim this platform. The things I post here will be genuine. My thoughts, my joys and sorrows. There will probably be plenty of funny things said by my kids, maybe some bemoaning of the life and friends we have just left behind, the thrill and challenges of our new life in a more culturally diverse population may be mentioned, also a little TMI from my hysterectomy, if you care to read it, and there will definitely be unapologetic references to and discussions of my faith in Jesus Christ. So now you know what to expect. If you decide to stick around, Welcome! Leave me a comment so I'll know you were here.
-Emily

Disneyland!

Here is the video I made from our amazing trip to Disneyland! Yeah, so it's...ahem...10 minutes long. But I really just made it for myself (who will be watching it repeatedly) and the kids (who may view it every couple years or so) and Weston (who will watch it once if we are lucky). Hope you enjoy!
(Double click to view full screen)

Tiny Miracles

Last Summer we were invited by Timpanogos Hospital to participate in their PR Campaign called Tiny Miracles. I dolled up my two babies and drove down to the hospital where we took pictures (or tried to) and shared our story.  They chose to include Angelyn's picture on their new Wall of Miracles and we were invited to the unveiling.  I'm not sure she fully understood what was happening but one thing is certain.  She felt really special.

Now our video interview has finally been published and I think it turned out pretty nice.  I'm sharing it here for my friends who don't use facebook very often.  Both of you!