the great salt lake

leaving salt lake was somehow harder and at the same time easier than i thought it would be. 

one morning in january this year, we woke up to inches of snow and a bashed in window on matt's car. for some reason the combination of the icy commute combined with handling vandalism that morning forced us to make a deal: "this is our last winter in salt lake." i know vandalism occurs everywhere, and i'm sure we will deal with snow in many other places we live, even though this texas girl really doesn't like driving in it, but i think we just looked at each other and realized we were ready to go. one big thing conspired to make that deal come true, namely matt got into medical school in another state, but in a way i am glad we made that half-serious pact back in january. it gave us six months to say goodbye to this city we had grown to really and truly love. 

matt and i became so comfortable in salt lake. it was our city. we knew downtown so well, we had our favorite spots, we loved our jobs, and above all we loved our neighborhood. we lived just a block or two away from the salt lake city temple, and were around the corner from a beautiful park with my favorite running trail that goes past the capitol building. we loved living in the middle of the city. once everything was packed up the morning of our departure with my caramel apple from rocky mountain chocolate factory waiting for me in the u-haul, we said a quick prayer before we started our trip to washington. all the moments of small good-byes over the last six months came over me and i felt this surge of gratitude for our opportunity to live there, and for the many opportunities which lay in wait in washington. our route out of town took us right past the temple, the road we took every day, and then alongside the capitol building north to the highway. it was the perfect ending to our time there, though i'm sure we'll be back for visits! 

there were many days in salt lake when i would mourn the loss of feeling "at home." i struggled a lot with making friends, and adjusting to the culture, especially in the beginning. i felt like i would never feel as comfortable as i had in l.a., or austin. but at some point, i learned that i can never go home again, at least not really. not to the place i missed. i learned to take all the hardest parts and the best parts of my past and my present and just build again. it's this infinite cycle i think we all experience as we relocate or adjust or just grow up. i spent years thinking i could never go home, and one day i looked around and realized i was already there. 

my sad empty desk at work!

lots of these were written in our final days

i think i took a picture almost every day that last month of work - i love this building!

our view of the capitol from our front door

also the view from our front door

sorry, i have tons of these. 

we had just started packing here and i realized i probably have zero normal pictures of our apartment.

my angel parents came and helped us pack and move - we could not have done it without them! literally. i can't emphasize that enough. just standing in my kitchen with boxes overwhelmed me. 

i loved our kitchen so much!

ready to roll 

our empty bedroom on our last night!

 if you know me, you know that of course i made time the day before we left for one last shellac manicure from the greatest manicurist to ever live. one day i will write an entire post about my love for zugi.

he's the cutest.