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.

we looked like giants

in honor of the world series, i thought i should post the pictures from that time we got to see the giants play... in july. i'm only a little behind. 

this was my first major league baseball game - ever! i really loved it, and it was so magical being at at&t park. we had seats with our backs against the water, so when pablo sandoval hit a homerun, they sprayed water on the crowd in our section. so fun. also, i don't know how other ballparks will compare now because they literally had people going up and down the aisles selling ghirardelli hot chocolate. it doesn't get much better than hand delivered hot chocolate.

i've never really had a "favorite" mlb team. my senior year in college, i took a spanish level 3 class because it was required to graduate. i took it pass/fail even though my professor tried to change my mind multiple times throughout the semester. probably should have listened to her, but i enjoyed not having the pressure for my last semester in college. i made friends with a freshman in the class from san francisco who spoke spanish fluently, and was also taking the class pass/fail, so we spent most of class time watching giants games on his computer. the giants won the world series that year, so i like to think that i helped with that a little bit. 

anyway, we got to see lincecum pitch and a giants win - and did i mention the hot chocolate?

freedom hangs like heaven over everyone

bright and early on the fourth of july, we loaded our carry-on's into my friend's car after two hours of sleep (for me) and were on our way to san francisco! i feel like i'm letting everyone in on this amazing secret here, but... no one was at the airport. i was prepared for crowds, but it was like an unspoken rule that no one wanted to travel on this day. it was awesome. we made it into san francisco by 8:55 that morning, and spent the rest of the day exploring and enjoying that beautifully foggy city. and okay, i took a nap. because i'm just not twenty-years-old anymore. 

preparing for take off - i'm a sucker for plane selfies

matt's mom picked us up from the airport and needing some breakfast, we randomly drove to haight and ashbury, as directed by yelp, for crepes. ha! the weather was foggy and chilly, and we met matt's dad and his brother tyler at the legion of honor museum for a few hours of exhibit exploring. it was amazing!
after lunch in little italy and everyone had time to nap at our hotel in union square, we were off to crissy field to watch fireworks. it was a perfect spot, right next to the golden gate bridge, away from all the crowds downtown and at pier 39. we had a great view of pier 39 as well as sausalito, so we got to enjoy both of their big shows! the weather remained foggy, which made for some pretty cool fireworks as the fog was lit up different colors, but overall it did not hinder our firework watching. in true san francisco night fashion, it was cold! i wore a sweatshirt, boots, scarf, and matt's mom's marshmallow jacket, while the boys bundled up in heavy blankets!

golden gate behind us, shrouded in fog

the san francisco cold is no joke.

it was a great day in one of our all-time favorite cities on one of my favorite holidays.

i've been reading david mccullough's book on john adams this year. i've probably attempted to read this book about ten times. it is amazing, but i'm not a fast enough reader to finish his incredibly detailed account of the second president's life before other things take up too much of my life. i'm definitely further in the book than i've ever been at this point, and let's just say that john and abigail adams are definitely my patron saints. they always have been, really. i dressed up as abigail adams for halloween as a kid. i was a huge nerd.

that's me on the left, with my cooler siblings.

on his way to philadelphia for the continental congress in february 1776, mr. adams wrote a "to do" list of sorts, or items he wanted to see accomplished. his tasks included, "an alliance to be formed with france and spain"; "government to be assumed by every colony"; "powder mills to be built in every colony and fresh efforts to make saltpetre [for the making of gunpowder]." and also, "declaration of independency."
i had to laugh at that paragraph, only because of the enormity of those tasks! my to-do list each day can be long, but compared to that one, my tasks seem very elementary. still, i'm sure he would have thought my tasks of working, studying, laundry, cleaning the house, and putting food on the table very noble, because john adams is just kind of awesome. at that point in history, independence was talked about privately and sometimes alluded to in letters, but rarely spoken of publicly or in print. i love and admire his commitment and passion for liberty, justice and independence. reading the book fills me with amazement that all of these people existed - and all at the same time! how lucky we were, and are, to have forbears who sacrificed so much for us. i have loved learning about them.

"posterity! you will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom! i hope you will make a good use of it."   - john adams

super much

As a bonus to our Tahoe trip, Matt's sister Kristin and her family stayed with us for a night in Salt Lake on their way home to Colorado. It was our last time to host in Salt Lake and as usual, we stayed up way too late talking after the kids went to bed, walked to Kneader's at City Creek in the morning, Temple Square in the afternoon, and took a short tour of the Conference Center. We didn't get to do everything on the bucket list, but we had a blast being together one last time while we were still within driving distance of Colorado. Thanks for always being such gracious guests in our tiny apartment!

racing up the stairs by our apartment

at the disney store - how can anyone say no to that face??

at the joseph smith memorial building

baby roman fell asleep on dan as we walked back home!

the girls always write us the sweetest notes

see you in tahoe!

This summer, we attended the much anticipated Lininger Reunion at Lake Tahoe. Matt's mom, Karla, is one of four girls and they all have big families. Each of the four girls rented a house for their own families, and we all met each day to play at the beach, take pictures, and eat great food, of course.
Matt's grandparents are celebrating their 65th wedding anniversary this year -- can you believe it?? They are the sweetest, most genuine couple and I love getting to spend time with them. Matt's cousin made an amazing slideshow with pictures from their early marriage all the way down to the newest great-grandchild (I think they currently have about 44 great-grandchildren!). It was sweet watching the slideshow together and seeing how the love of two people created such an enormous, loving family. I am so grateful for Matt's grandparents and their example.
We had no cell service at our big, beautiful house that we rented, so I barely took any pictures at all. It was so nice to unplug.

imagine this without snow = dream!

Our room had a tiny television with a built-in VCR, which just happened to have an old Disney movie in it, so naturally this occurred in the mornings while the adults got ready. It was so funny seeing their confusion with that VHS player!

we loved the hot tub too! again, imagine no snow.

Gpa Bob and Matt - love those baby blues!

loving Eaquinto brothers and their children

notice anyone missing from the last picture...? sofia fell off the wall! 

gma joan, gpa bob, vincenzo, and karla

gimme your best cheeeez smile! 

karla and matt

dan and sof

sweetest nieces sleeping after a fun day in the sun

 Matt and I left with a lot of good laughs, great memories, and best of all - no sunburns! One of my favorite memories was probably running into Matt's parents at the grocery store while we were with Aaron and Ada. Aaron kept trying to get their attention by saying their names, but they never looked over. Finally, Matt said, "Just let them be," as they walked on with their cart. I could not stop laughing!!