Family Commuting Period

We ended up at my aunt's house outside of Salt Lake City for a whole month while we looked for a place to rent.  It was longer than we thought it would be - we didn't think finding a house near the kids' school would be that hard - and we are so very thankful that my aunt let us stay at her house for so long.

This is how the kids slept every night.  There was a couch that one or two of them
could have slept on, but they all preferred to stay together in this area.

Cleaning up.

My aunt's house is 35 minutes from the kids' school and Ben's work, so instead of driving back and forth 4 times a day (#1 - taking Cat to school and Ben to work around 8:15, #2 - taking Jack to Kindergarten at 12:15, #3 - picking Jack and Cat up at school at 3:15, #4 - picking Ben up from work after 5:00) we would only go once or twice a day and spend a lot of time hanging around in Provo/Orem.  This meant spending our days at playgrounds, the library, and some friends' houses.  The big kids handled this very well, and got used to doing homework on a picnic table at a park or at the library, spending lots of time playing outside (yeah for beautiful end-of-summer weather!!), and eating out of a cooler.  Luke did okay with eating - I nursed him in so many places I'm sure I don't remember them all - but sleeping didn't go so well.  His naps were shorter and inconsistent.  Sometimes he slept outside on a blanket, sometimes he'd sleep in my arms, and on a good day we'd go to a friends' house and let the big kids play while Luke slept in an actual bed.

Reading at the park.
Colors courtesy of the psychedelic camera on my phone.

Eliza got to sit in the driver's seat of a cool all-terrain
Jeep after we got the oil changed in the car one afternoon.

Tandem Swing.

The kids got to watch movies in the car sometimes, too, during the drive back
and forth or while I nursed Luke or while we waited to pick somebody up.

Outside of the Provo Library:

I remember one afternoon Luke was fussy and sleepy and I was sure he would fall
right asleep if he could just lie down.  So I pulled into the parking lot at Target and let
Eliza watch a movie (so that she'd be happy and quiet) and put Luke down on a pallet
on the floor of the car, hoping we'd all get a little quiet time.

He decided he wasn't so sleepy after all.  :-)

On Friday afternoons, the kids' school gets out 2 hours early, so one day I took

the kids to the new splash pad at Pioneer Park in Provo to let them play for a while

before we picked up Ben.  It was a hit!

It was interesting to try to live a normal life with normal routines, but without our usual home base.  I admit that it had its perks - a lot more time outside, and a lot less cleaning because we weren't at the house as much.  But after living as gypsies for almost 2 months, this experience further intensified my appreciation for Home, and it made the move into our current house that much more gratifying.