So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye.

This was meant to be posted at the end of May, but I didn't get all the pictures uploaded, so its a bit late.  Enjoy!

We said good bye to half the family this week. First, to Nick and Hayley, as they drove away to start their new life in St. George on Saturday, then on Monday, Kirsten and Skyler went back to Washington, and then on Tuesday, we said good bye to Mom and Dad. So hopefully, you all can enjoy the pictures and we will continue to update this regularly.
Even though some of you were here for some of these events, I opted to still post a few pictures.
First is Hayley's Shower. It was lovely to see everyone that came and to visit. The food and company were wonderful and Hayley and Nick go a great start with things.

Then we had Nick and Hayley's Beautiful Wedding...

I have a few more pictures from their day, but I thought I would save it for a later post after all the editing is done.

We packed up Mom and Dad. I was going to take a picture of the two of them, but I forgot. Mom was supposed to send me a picture of the two of them, but hasn't yet, so I don't know if she will post in her blog.

While we were packing, we found an old Girls Camp pillow case. Mom wanted to keep it, I said no. We compromised and took a picture of it and threw it away, so Mom, here is your precious memory of Girls camp 1999.

James graduated from Kindergarten and all the kids celebrated the last day of school. What better way, then to finally pull the pool out!

Dylan also graduated from 6th Grade.

And we had two Dance recitals. Ayana and Taylee. Ayana had two clogging routines, and competed in the Solo Freestyle. She took home a third place trophy that she was very proud of, as were we.

Before Taylee's Recital, we ran over to Whitney's Wedding. It was beautiful and she was beautiful and I meant to take a picture with her, and forgot.

And then went and saw Taylee in her recital. Doing her Hip Hop Routine.

We love you Mom and Dad, and I will get Nick's Wedding Pics up soon.

DATC Fashion Show

Natalie was finishing up her career at the DATC with a bang. She helped organize a fund raising fashion, which Taylee got to participate in. We were out of town last year, so I was glad to be able to attend this year.  They did a great job pulling it all together.

 It's dark, but that Taylee coming down the runway.

They surprised Natalie with a going away "Nat-Dog" Crown, a giant poster and flowers.

The Clearfield Basement

Andrew wanted me to post a few pictures from the basement as it has evolved. We decided in December, before we knew for sure that we were moving, to finish the basement. We figured, if we are moving into Mom and Dad's house, it will rent better, and if we stay, we will have twice the house. It was a win-win. For several reasons, different things were delayed and then the renter wanted to be in sooner, and what was intially slated to be finished at the end of February, is still a work in progress, but something we are proud of. It has been challenging, but everyone has worked hard to get it done. 

We had a wall down the middle of the basement that had a about a 10 foot opening. Rather than have a long skinny family room, we opted to cut the wall back all the way to the hall and have the family room the full width of the basement. That wall, however, was a load-bearing wall, so we had to replace the existing 10 ft beam with a 14 foot beam. Andrew had to build up a false wall replace the beam and tear the false wall down. It took a few people.

Andrew cutting the existing beam away.

Putting the new beam in 

Another phase of the project was to move the sump pump. We had a sump pump that was put in by the original builders and sat in a cut off 5 gallon bucket in the middle of the bathroom area. The pump actually only sat a few inches below the foundation of the house and we always had high water in the spring and sometimes in the fall, too. So Andrew bought a jack hammer and the kids helped to dig out a nice BIG hole for a new sump bucket and pump. 

 This is after we had finished framing and electrical.

 The we did all the insulation and finished up odds and ends to prepare for drywall

With Plumbing done.

 

The drywall truck got there right when the kids were leaving for school. James wanted to watch the truck, so he walked backwards all the way down the street. We recorded a video of them craning the drywall into the basement.

With the drywall finished, it started looking like live-able space. Even more so after we painted (I forgot to get pictures post-drywall and pre-paint)

Next was carpet.

And bathroom tile

Hopefully, we will be able to finish the rest over the next few weeks.We still have some work to do, but it's been challenging and even fun at times.