The Pittsburgh Adventure!

WARNING: This maybe one of the longest blogs ever, but it is the first and had a lot of catching up to do, I promise to keep them shorter in the future. :)

Well it feels like a whirlwind has come and changed our lives completely. There were a few things that happened before we left for the grand ole' Pittsburgh, thus the reason for the long blog, I will catch everyone up.

Before we left we blessed lil' Abby on August 2nd. It was a great last full day in Utah before we headed out. Thanks to everyone who came and supported the birth of our new baby girl.

Sarah had a fun time playing with her cousins one last time and saying goodbye to

friends and family. Here are a cute photos from the event.

If you'll notice in this picture practically every girl is dressed in black. It was like we were dying or something and they were attending our funeral! NOT SO!

We are still alive here in Pittsburgh!!!! Don't forget us!

Cousin Hallie & Aunt Em Cousin Eleanor & Sarah Uncle Pat, Aunt Deb & June

Ryan, Girls & Grandpa Keith Uncle Erich & Girlfriend Jen Sarah & Cousin Wimmie

I was really bad about taking pictures at this event. These are some of the only ones that I got. Sorry I missed so many of you! It was a great shin-dig though. :)

The next day was what felt like the longest day ever! Ryan and I stayed up until 3 or 4 the night before and then got up at six that morning (crazy, I know!). Ryan headed off to meet the moving truck at our storage unit while I stayed home to finish the laundry, cleaning and packing of the minivan (which by the way is still nameless, any suggestions?) At around

3 o'clock we were all packed up and said our goodbyes and was on the road by four.

Yes one of the tightest packed vans in the history of man! And after a final sweep of the house we found half of our bed frame was still in the basement and had to squeeze it in! How we did it I don't know. I think we had the help of Mary Poppin's magic on this feat!

We then set off on our incredibly long, what seemed never ending journey across country. Our first stop was in Erie, CO with Ryan's Uncle Jared and his wife Natalie. They actually have two kids that are the same ages as ours. Very fun. Here are some pictures of the cuties!

Sarah and Brayden Climbing the stairs, naughty! Reagan and Abigail

The next day we traveled about twelve hours to Des Moines, Iowa to stay with my good friend Lisa Nance and her family. I felt bad we didn't get in until close to midnight. We were thinking we'd make if for dinner, but the estimate that google maps gave us was about two hours off and we visited a little bit before we left Colorado. Oh well, we were too tired to think and so I didn't get any cute pictures while I was there. Lisa and Zach have two adorable girls, Ashlyn and Oakley (who sadly left for day camp before we got up) and Beckham who is just about Sarah's age and they had so much fun chasing each other around that morning.

It was another very long day on the road because we decided to make the last fifteen hour stretch all at once. So we took lots of pit-stops along the way. Here are some pictures of Sarah.

Sarah face planted it in the dirt and had an awesome dirt goatee! We thought it was pretty funny. The other picture is right before we entered Pennsylvania. Since we decided to just drive the rest of the way we ended up driving through the night while the girls slept. This picture was taken at about four in the morning and the sun was coming up through the hills. It was beautiful! It was also a misty, foggy morning and so it made it feel extremely surreal that we were finally in PA!

We finally made it to our house early on Thursday morning, August 6th!

1007 Flemmington Street, Pittsbrugh, PA!

Take that down, you are all invited to come and visit.

We'd love to show everyone this beautiful city.

We absolutely love our new home. For those of you who don't know this is actually my sister's house and we are renting it from her. My sister and her husband lived in Pittsburgh for seven years while her husband did the MD, PhD program at Pitt, so it is really ironic that Ryan and I are going to the same school for Ryan to get his MD.

Our house is located in the township of Greenfield. A cozy neighborhood of Pittsburgh. We live just down the road from the rec center and are looking forward to taking full advantage of the swimming pool next summer (there is not a chance that anyone is getting me in a swimsuit right after having a baby, HA!)

Our furniture didn't arrive until Monday the 1oth so we were with out furniture the entire weekend. We were exhausted to say the least. these are a couple of pictures of our sleeping arrangements.

On August 9th was the big White Coat Ceremony! Ryan was really excited and nervous to be there. The girls barely made it through the ceremony alive but it was great to be there and watch Ryan get his infamous white coat and take the hippocratic oath. We are so proud of him!

I just want to share a couple of fun stories from our first week here and some pictures and then this forever long post will be complete.

After our stuff arrived and we were beginning to get settled in I was trying to put Sarah down for a nap. I was holding Abby in my room and Sarah was of course supposed to be laying down in her room. She kept trying to sneak past me and down the stairs and I kept having to ask her to go and lay backdown. The next thing I know I see an upside down garbage can with Sarah's legs poking out the bottom. (Don't worry, it was a clean, empty can that we had just bought). She tip-toed past me and crept down the stairs. She had been so cleaver that I let her think that she had gotten away with it.

In another attempt to get Sarah to take a nap I decided to close the child gate at the top of the stairs. I was trying to get things done downstairs and realized I needed the tool box that we left in one of the rooms up stairs. I started up the stairs to find Sarah standing by the child gate with a small screwdriver in hand trying to take apart the gate so she could come downstairs. What a smart little cookie we have!

We have been trying to get Sarah off of her "plug" and the floors were pretty dirty so I didn't want her carrying her white blankie around getting it all dirty so we kept asking her to leave her blankie and her plug up on her "bed." This is how I found her bed one morning.

She tucked in her "Ali Gator" and everything. Very cute!

Okay, here is the fun part. Just some pictures for everyone to look at. I hope you enjoy!