Michigan

Our lives have changed drastically but I think we'll be able to handle it :)  I'll admit that it's been hard but I'm living on the saying "with time it will be better."  The hardest part of it is not seeing whoever we want whenever we want.  There is no longer spontaneity with our visits.  Unless we decide to buy a plane ticket on a whim, but I don't think that will be happening.  Were not going to be that rich haha.

So this is how our adventure has gone:

First we said goodbye to our cars.  Good thing extra cars were around so that we could still get around :) Thank you mom and dad!

6/27/13 - Our cars being hauled off to the big truck to move to Michigan

Then the moving company came and packed up the whole apartment and took it away.  We still had a week in Utah before we were leaving so we spent that week at my parents.

6/28/13 - Our stuff all packed and loaded. They started at 9 am and finished at 3:30 pm 

While at my parents my mom was able to get me motivated to start and finish a project that needed to get done.  That project was baby blankets for the twins.  I had promised a blanket for each and hadn't started them until I got to my moms.  We made 2 baby blankets in 2 days!!!  Wowza.  I couldn't have done it without her help!  She was the motivator and believed that we could do and so we did.  

Myles helping me sew

Devan and Paige's blankets. Started them on 7/5 ended 7/7 at 2 am

The next day (6/29/13) we had a going away party.  We wanted to make sure to get in our final goodbyes and this seemed like the best way.  We had family from both sides along with friends that we've made along the way.  I bought 100 hamburgers and 50 hotdogs (we had a lot of meat and buns left over) and let everyone else bring the salads and dessert.  Thank you to everyone who came and contributed to the spread!  It was lovely and the food tasted delicious.  Little did we know that it was going to be so blasted hot.  Good thing we were all sweating so it didn't even matter ;)  I'm just glad that we got to see all that came.

We then had our tearful goodbyes and our we'll see you agains as we left good ole Utah.  Utah you have been dearly missed!  My eyes even watered when the plane turned and wouldn't let me say a final good bye to your beautiful mountains.  So I've decided that I really want a big picture of the mountains to have in my home, along with a picture of Germany.  I'm thinking a wall of the places that we call home :)  Now to the rest of Utah, aka the people, you have been dearly missed as well!  You are what makes Utah and it wouldn't be the same without you :)  So it's a darn good thing that we have technology so that I can talk and see you whenever I want.  I don't think I would be handling the move so well if we didn't have those advantages.  WE LOVE YOU!

SLC airport 7/8/13

Don't mind the random lady ;) I got this picture off of Facebook from the Tour of Utah.
Maybe I can get a picture like this.  I wonder if I could make a special request to great photographer, hum...

The time has come and we finally made it Michigan.  I'm glad our plane didn't crash ;) I even told the pilot thanks for not crashing.  Haha, he chuckled and so did I.  As we got off the plane we were grateful to know that someone was picking us up.  We had never met the couple before but Chase had emailed back and forth with the gentleman.  His name is Gary and his wife is Pat.  Gary noticed something Chase had posted on a Porsche website and that is where their friendship began :)  Anyway Gary and his wife were waiting for us at the baggage claim with an LDS and Porsche sticker in hand so that we would know who they were :)  They took us to their house to see the Porsche's and then got us a bite to eat.  After that they did a little driving tour of the area and then dropped us off at our hotel.  They made that part of the trip so easy on us.  Thank you, thank you! 

Now lets talk humidity.  Everyone talks about how the humidity hits you as soon as you get off the plane.  Well it didn't happen that way for me, it waited until we got to the parking garage.  The air was so sticky and hot that I couldn't stop commenting about it. I've never really experienced it like that.  Apparently Michigan has been having more rain than normal which makes the air really thick and was causing flooding.  Anyway when we walked out of Gary and Pat's house that evening the humidity was so dang thick that I could see it, weirdest thing ever.  Luckily for us it's not always that bad :)

Detroit Airport 7/8/13

That first week of Michigan we ended up just being tourists.  When we bought our plane tickets for the 8th we didn't know that it was going to be so hard to find an apartment, and we surely didn't know that we wouldn't get to move in until the 15th.  Which is why we were tourists for the first week.  We stayed in 3 different hotels so that we could experience different areas.

First we stayed in Dearborn, which is pretty close to the airport.  While we were in Dearborn we shopped at the mall right by our hotel and got Chase some work clothes.  We also got our cars the first real day of being in Michigan.  Which allowed us to get around rather than just going to the mall for entertainment, food and the movie theater.  By the way we saw Despicable Me 2 and it's way cute!  Dearborn is also where Ford is located and since they also have a big museum along with a village we decided to visit even though we were in the competitions territory ;)  We spent 4 or more hours one day at the museum and then decided to visit the Greenfield Village the next day.  Great decision on our part because we spent multiple hours at the village as well.  They were both cool, but my favorite part was watching 3 men make a glass cup!  It was awesome.

Our first hotel

I was dying over this little cottage.  This was my favorite house in the village. 

Making the the glass cup below

Our 2nd hotel was in downtown Detroit.  We stayed at the Greek Casino Hotel which meant Greek food for dinner.  Chase was the brave one and tried something new while I got a gyro.  I was excited for my plate but in the end was wishing I had ordered Chase's plate.  It was something yummy wrapped up in grape leafs I think.  The next day, which was our one day we had to spend downtown got off to a rough start.  It was a Friday and we decided that since we hadn't heard from the moving company yet that we were going to call them.  Smart move on our part!  We found out that our stuff hadn't shipped yet and it was still in Utah.  We freaked because Chase started his job on Tuesday and he needed his birth certificate or passport in order to even start.  I had thought about bringing our important documents with us but decided against it because I didn't want to worry about traveling with it.  I guess I should've listened to "my gut" in the first place.  Anyway we ended up getting my mom's help with it since Kathy was at girls camp.  Luckily my mom wasn't busy that morning and was able to go up the Salt Lake to get a copy of Chase's birth certificate.  It took many phone calls and a nice willing person at the office to allow us to do it this way.  My mom then mailed it to us, so that it would get here in time for Chase to start his job.  Yay!  But then it brought us to the fact that we wouldn't have any of our stuff to live in the apartment except for our 1 weeks worth of clothes in our suitcase.  So it's a darn good thing we had bought Chase a few work clothes when we first got to Michigan.  Little did we know that that was a blessing in disguise :)  After our rough start to the morning we walked down to the GM Renaissance building.  There's not much to do there other than get a tour and look at the cars they have on display.  We missed the tour but we still enjoyed looking at the cars and walking along the river walk and looking at Canada :)  Canada is so close it's crazy!!!

The view from our room

Canada

Which brings us to our last hotel in Bloomfield Hills, which is the neighboring city to Troy, aka our new town.  When driving to our hotel we both noticed something different about a certain area.  I thought I saw a one of our LDS church buildings but what I noticed was a different religions temple.  Chase on the other hand actually noticed the church building.  Surprisingly we both didn't notice the Temple that was right next to both of those buildings.  When we realized it was right by our hotel it made me happy and content knowing that we would be living so close to the temple.  Having so many Temple's around is definitely something that I miss about Utah.  On Saturday we drove around the area finding our apartment, Chase's work and other things that we wanted to see.  It was nice to just drive around and get to see the area we will be living in.  Which by the way I love this part of Michigan much more than the first areas we were in.  It feels more like home up this way.  What I mean by that is that it feels more welcoming, there are a lot more trees, and it just all around feels more peaceful.  So we choose to have a hotel up this way because being in this part of Michigan made it easier for us to make it to church. The church has made a whole world of a difference in not being too Utah sick.  After having gone to church and meeting a bunch of people I don't feel so lonely.  I also can't believe how many people in our ward are from Utah.  It's crazy and way cool.  It seems like our ward consists of a lot of doctors doing their residency and people working for the car companies.  Our ward has a lot of young families and we are the odd balls out because we seem to be the only ones without kids.  I guess it's a good thing we don't mind having friends with kids :)  So on our first day at church I was told about how some of the ladies go to the beach on Tuesday's.  I was so confused because when I hear the word beach I think of the ocean.  It didn't even dawn on me that their just might be a beach at the lakes.  Going to the beach has been a nice way for me to meet more ladies in the ward and enjoy the sun, even though I'm the only one without a kid.  I hope there are many more Tuesday's to be enjoyed at the beach.  Warm weather please stick around!  So going back to our first Sunday at church.  At the end of church Chase and I were talking with this couple and when she found out that we were staying in the hotel she immediately invited us over to her house for dinner.  Even when she didn't know what she was going to be making she still invited us over and that made me feel so welcomed.  She also invited her friend over that I had sat next to in Relief Society.  It was fun to get to know them better.  Both of their husbands are doing their residency out here and went to med school together.  I bet that was nice for them to know that they would have a familiar face in Michigan.

King size beds are SO big.  I don't like them one bit.

The Detroit Temple 

The beach at Stoney Creek

The next day, Monday, we were able to "move" into our apartment.  It was nice being out of hotels but then again it was nice having a bed.  Since we didn't have our stuff we made a trip to the store to buy a few necessities.  Which included cleaning supplies, an air mattress, pillows, sheets, towels, soap, shampoo, plastic dishes and some food.  I didn't mind that we had to buy the air mattress because we planned on buying one when family came to visit, but the things that I knew we already had was a pain.  Hopefully you can never have too many towels, pillows and sheets haha.

Then came the big day and the whole reason why we now reside in Michigan.  Chase had his first day at GM.  It was a good day and he's excited to start working.  Right now they have him in a class to learn a CAD program that he already knows, so far it's just been a nice review and good practice, but were sure he'll learn something new.  On his 2nd day he got to be a fly on the wall at a meeting that his mentor had to be at.  Lucky him because that meant he got access into the design building where they are working on cars for 2018.  He saw a car or a model that had a cover on it and was informed to NEVER look under the cover or he would be fired on the spot.  Apparently very few people are allowed to do anything with whats under the cover.  Crazy and way cool!!!  He's not even allowed to tell me about things that he saw in the studio.  Darn.  To that I'll just say that I'm glad it's not me because sometimes I have a hard time keeping secrets.

Now that you know all that we did in our first days in Michigan I just want to say that we are excited for what this adventure has in store for us and are looking forward to it.  We are also very grateful that Chase has a job and that it's doing something that he wants.  Good thing too because I'd feel bad having him be the provider for us knowing that he was miserable.  So to that I say good job hubby on going after what you want!  I love you and I'm glad that we are on this journey together.  I wonder what's next to come on this journey we call life? :)