Alabama Family Reunion and MOVING!!!

For the Fourth of July Brent's family has an annual family reunion at his grandparents' house (mother's side), which is located in Centre, AL. If you have never heard of Centre, join the club. Alabama is beautiful, green, and full of bugs, especially since the house is smack-dab next to a lake. All of Brent's family, us included, stayed at a rental home, which sometimes felt like the opening scene of Home Alone, but we all in all had a great time.

Here are some of my favorite pictures:

cute cousins!

Make the world your canvas. Or your sister. 

Love those little piggies!!

A GoPro was too expensive. At least he fits in with the local population, right?

Happy little traveler!

No Alabama trip is complete without a few rounds of "Redneck Shuffleboard!"

Nothing like getting your hick on. 

In other news, we are moving! Not out of Provo, which won't be happening for another four years, but out of our basement apartment, which is still exciting! When we got back from 'Bama our landlady, who lives above us, informed us that she and her kids would be getting indoor DOGS. 

DOGS.

I like animals. But I do not love them. 

And, call me crazy, I especially do not love to hear them barking. 

This prompted us to say, "Hey, why don't we just look online and just see what's out there." I don't love living in a basement (I thrive off of light), and while our apartment is wonderful in many other regards, I just didn't know if I could handle the constant sound of animals upstairs. 

After some days of looking, and not liking much of what we saw within our budget, the PERFECT little rental house popped up on ksl.com. We jumped on it and called the owner, who let us come by the next day. We were definitely not the first prospective tenants who were interested. We were later told that the landlord received at least 60 phone calls over the next two days of interested people. When we e-mailed our application, we told him that we would even be willing to do a longer contract if that's what it would take.

I just knew we wouldn't get it. I knew the Lord wanted us to stay where we were, where it was economically more practical, closer to campus, and in a great ward. That little house was just too perfect, and Brent and I knew we shouldn't get our hopes up. But I prayed anyway. A lot. 

And to our absolute shock, we got it. Which goes to show that I don't always know what God knows.

I still can't believe it. We our moving out of our basement apartment into a house. I could cry. 

We can move into the new place in 2.5 weeks, and we have a 2-year lease, and hopefully we will stay there for the two remaining years afterward. We are so excited. SO EXCITED.

Here's to the end of our gopher days living underground!