Everyone has said, and I've come to know, that when you don't get a house that you've offered on, it's for a reason. I have to admit, I thought it was pretty cliche, but now I'm a BIG believer. Over the last six to eight months we've been looking for a more permanent place. We've made a fair number of offers, all of which have fallen through. I know that some people go through that awful roller coaster cycle for sometimes years while hunting for a place. It's times like these, upon reflection, that I come to know with even more a surety that we are IMMENSELY blessed.
Ironically, we made an offer on a town home in the exact same neighborhood as the one we are now buying about 4 months ago. It was bank owned, meaning that it was more of an auction style sale, and they wanted the largest offer. We immediately fell in love with the design of the town home as well as the location. I was sure that this was where we were supposed to be. Unfortunately, we only offered what the bank was asking, and that lost us the bid. This was the second huge blow to my optimism in two months. I got pretty angry, and quite discouraged. Ever since, we've been scouring the daily real estate listings, looking for another town home in that area. We even got very close to building a home in southwest Springville. It seems that after we both finally let go and stopped caring so much about getting out of our apartment, an even better option stumbled right into our laps.
My first day back to work after our vacation, on my lunch break, I got an itch to look on the KSL home listings... And here we are today!
This town home is even better than the one we had wanted so badly. It has 3 bedrooms, and 2 1/2 baths. It has more of a house feel than a town home feel. The main level ceiling is open all the way to the second level. It has many upgrades that the builders later discontinued. Even better, the people who currently own it are very OCD and keep it sparkling clean. We also love the fact that it has a two car garage. No more dents on my car from trashcans blowing over! There isn't a thing we don't love about this place. And the best part is- It's ours! We're waiting for the bank's appraisal to be finished, and for all the document processing to be done so we can close. Moving day should be near the end of August or beginning of September. We are anxiously counting the days!
And now for the details of our wonderful and much needed vacation! Here's part one:
We planned to fly to California, and our flight was bright'n'early in the morning, which led to us booking a stay in The Anniversary Inn. We stayed there the night of our wedding too, so what better way to start our 1 year anniversary? It was great. I absolutely adore big jet tubs and the thought of a cozy bubble bath. The themed rooms are also really fun to discover. I would say that they have the BEST breakfast ever. They have huge raspberry danishes that are simply divine!! They also come with fruit and yogurt parfaits and fresh squeezed orange juice all served to you on a cute little tray to your individual rooms. Wonderful!
The next morning we flew to Long Beach Airport, which is very small compared to SLC International. You exit the airplane right onto the tarmac! It's pretty cool to stand right below the airplane you just flew in. Here's Craig outside of ours:
After we got situated with our rental car, we drove over to Newport Beach to see the temple and the ocean. It was pretty comical trying to get used to our newly acquired GPS. I think we spent an hour and drove ten miles out of the way trying to get on the road we were supposed to be on. Thanks to my mom for looking up the address of the temple for us, or we would've never got there! It was totally worth all of trouble to get there though. It is a beautiful temple! It has a different design than your typical temple spires. We wouldn't have known it was a temple except for the angel Moroni on top.
This gorgeous sculpture is above the entrance.
Unfortunately, Craig and I were unaware that pretty much anywhere outside of Utah, the only way they allow endowed members to do baptisms is if you have your own names to do. We were bummed. We would've done a session had we not woken up at 4:00 AM in Utah that day. We didn't want to risk falling asleep!
After the temple, we headed off to see the beach.
At this point, we were both feeling the major fatigue catching up with us. All we wanted to do was find our hotel in San Diego and take a nap. Unfortunately we still had about an hour long drive to get there. We got to have our first experiences with toll roads... Let me tell you, I think toll roads are ridiculous! We did pretty good with the first one or two. We were coming up on the next one, Craig and I were talking and we ended up totally blowing past the pay booth! Being from out of town, we didn't really know what to do or how to go back and pay it. I guess we'll hear from the rental car company if they get a ticket... :(
Well that's all I have time for at the moment. Stay tuned for part two of our vacation!! :)
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