(I don't know if anyone calls Pittsburgh the Burgh, but whatever).
A lot has happened lately! Jeremy's parents came to visit on Sunday, April 10th. We were very happy they were able to come and spend time with us. They were sooo helpful cooking meals, taking shifts in the night with Connor, burping Connor (he struggles with that and it takes forEVer), playing with Eli, etc., etc. Eli had a blast going on walks with Papa and trips to the store (he loved Cabela's especially - he's still talking about it).
The Thursday after they got here, Jeremy, Connor and I hopped on a plane at 11:45pm and flew all night to Pittsburgh. Sounds like fun, right? Haha. We got there about 9:30am, picked up our rental car, drove to the hotel, showered and got ready for our busy weekend! The school Jeremy's going to be attending - Carnegie Mellon University - had a Welcome Weekend on Friday and Saturday. It started with a lunch on Friday at noon and was jam-packed full until Saturday night. Connor and I stayed in the hotel for some of the festivities, but we were able to attend quite a bit. They had some sessions on Friday (icebreakers and stuff), a fancy event at Heinz Field Friday night (where the Steelers play), and lots of information sessions/panels on Saturday. It was fun getting to meet a bunch of the current and future students and start to get a feel for what the school is like.
We met a few LDS students and their wives and they were very helpful answering all sorts of questions for us. There are 2 second year LDS students and 5 first years. It's really nice to feel that instant connection with people through the church. Most of them also had kids, so that will be fun once we get there. On Saturday they had a Partners Club meeting for partners (obviously) at the school which was also really nice. I guess they get together pretty often and have social events and stuff. So it was really fun to be at the school and learn more about everything. Jeremy had a great time and is getting even more excited to go.
Sunday and Monday was spent looking for housing - not nearly as fun. Oh boy. We had a rough time. Pittsburgh is a very old city and most of the houses we looked at were completely disgusting. Some reeked of animals, others of mothballs, others of alcohol. We had talked to several people about where to look, but we just couldn't really find anything in those areas. We finally found one possibility on Sunday afternoon. It's a little further away than we'd like to be, but it's light years ahead of everything else, so we're going to try to get it. The couple that lives there now is LDS, so we met them at church on Sunday and then we went over and looked at it. We liked it because it had a basement with laundry hookups and it was well taken care of, unlike all the other gross places we looked at.
Sunday night, we got invited over for dinner, which was really fun. I guess four of the LDS first years get together every Sunday for dinner (switching off at each other's houses) and so they invited us. It was really fun and it was nice to relax for once that weekend! We'd been running around like crazy, so it was fun to just chat and have a good time. Monday morning we drove around for hours looking for housing again (but not finding anything) and then we headed back to the airport and came home!
It was so nice to get home and we were so grateful for Jeremy's parents for watching Eli. The trip would have been a lot harder with him - not because he's hard, but because he would have been bored out of his mind driving around for hours and attending the Welcome Weekend. He had a blast with Grammy and Papa and was so sad when they left Tuesday morning! He cried and told me he wanted me to go on another trip. Thanks kid. I see how it is. :)
Connor was really good on our trip. I don't think it made any difference to him where we were, so that was nice. He's also one month old today! Crazy. It's gone by really fast. He still seems like a total newborn - maybe since he was up pretty much every hour last night, but he's definitely growing.
Here are some random pictures from the past couple weeks. Jeremy's parents took some pictures while we were gone too, so that was nice. I know this is long, but that's what happens when I don't blog very often!
Eli at Cabela's
Sleeping in the swing
Someone else sleeping in the swing
Big-eyed boy
Eli helping Papa fix our door. George can't come without fixing something. :) This was his project while we were gone. We appreciate it!
Ready for church!
Making brownies with Grammy - these awaited us when we got home Monday night. Thank you!
Eli's new favorite spot to hang out. :)
Cute one-month-old boy.
4 comments:
Great pictures. It's fun to hear about your trip, though I'm sorry the house-hunting didn't go so well. Hopefully you'll get the one place.
I can't believe how big Connor is getting. It was so fun to hear about all of your adventures in Pittsburgh. I love all the pictures of Eli and Connor.
your kids are so cute!
Good luck with your big move. Your mom has been keeping me updated, and it sounds like you have some exciting times ahead. I know what you mean about finding a decent place to live. Old cities, like where we lived in Baltimore, are full of old (and mostly run-down) houses. But as long as you are living close to some good LDS buddies who can be your support group, I'm sure that you will do fine.
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