NOLA with the huntings

on sunday we ventured back down to new orleans with our friends josh & candice.  the main purpose of this visit was to drive through the worst of the katrina damage: the ninth ward. the dark and rainy weather actually helped set the mood for it.  while some of the houses are occupied again, most of them are totally empty- no doors or windows even. the thing that shocked us most and made the whole experience more real were the x's spray painted on the front of the houses. the numbers in the X tell the date, unit doing the investigation, and number of dead found in the house. some of the x's were hard to see, but once we looked hard enough almost every single house had one.  

the worst damage was a couple streets right by the levee.  at one point the levee broke and 200 people were killed by a single wave of water. it was all very sad, and i couldn't stop thinking about what it would have been like almost 6 years ago. pure chaos and fear. the three pictures below are just normal places we go every time we visit new orleans, and what they were like right after the hurricane.

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how scary would this have been...literally trying to beat the rising water on foot. 

This is where our driving tour began... 

part of brad pitt's "make it right" homes

Visiting the ninth ward was definitely memorable. Eddie has actually knocked into a few people who lived in new orleans during katrina, and were given money to restore their homes as part of the "the road home" program. some people were given up to $30,000, and have made their homes quite nice he said.

 Then it was on to cafe du monde for beignets and chocolate milk.  That's the secret to a good beignet- chocolate milk! 

figuring out our game plan

engagements round 2

 I'm going to go ahead right now and vote this best picture i have ever/ will ever take

walking around the most charming streets- the restaurant was in an old house in this neighborhood.  and it had the best.food.ever. both josh & eddie got "chicken under a brick" and it was to die for. candice got ribs and i got scallops.  i couldn't believe how good it all was. 

This is it!

ladies luau

Amy & Lyn planned an amazing luau last weekend.  Lyn, from hawaii, even got her family to ship some real hawaiian treats & ingredients.  They had delicious ham & chicken, rice, salad & tons of fruit.  They got all the girls leis & grass skirts.  We played tons of games too, it was a lot of fun. 

Holladay

We found an apartment! 

And all it took were these two (of 17) pictures taken by Jenna to seal the deal. 

We sent in our application this morning, and we're perfect renters so there's no reason they should deny us. This has been one of our biggest stressors over the past month.  Every morning we'd scour KSL and craigslist, hoping for a hidden treasure and we finally found it. I hate finding housing. What I hate even more is trying to find housing in Utah while living in Kansas or Louisiana! I've been texting allison everyday asking about different parts of SLC, what's OK and what to avoid. Once we finally found one, jenna went over to do a walk-through and take some pictures.  It's so nice to have help back in utah. Paige and jesse did this for us last year- thanks friends! 

Anyways, it's in holladay, which I'm very excited about.  That's where my dad grew up and I think it will be cool to spend a year in the same place.  It's closer to family on both my mom and dad's side. Plus, eddie and i have lived in provo for 7 years! We love provo, but we are ready for a change of scenery.  I'll still commute down to provo for school, but with a bus pass and my friend karla to commute with it won't be a big deal. The good news is it's only 20 min from eddie's school... which is especially convenient for someone who will be spending 8 hours+ on campus everyday.

The biggest bonus of all is it has 2 bedrooms! i can't believe we lived with only 1 for an entire year. you would think that's all one couple needs, but 500 sq feet is pretty tiny.

anyways, all this for under $700! see you soon salt lake city~

the pool

this was hands down one of my favorite days of the summer! 

the kid i work with texted me on wednesday and said there wasn't much to do in the office, so i headed to the pool with all the wives.  it was the first day it hadn't stormed in over a week, so the pool was definitely calling our names. 

all the girls have these pool floats and we pretty much fill up the whole pool when we all get in at the same time

jenny, brittany, me

whitney, jenny, candice 

mae! she has the best imagination.  whitney, mae and i were playing with the "dolphins" in the pool

kate & candice 

then we came up with the bright idea to race in teams on the floats

whitney & me

brittany & justine

there was a relay of sorts involved

justine, ashley, emily

candice, brittany, kate & jenny 

*jewels! somehow you escaped every pic. i wish you were in this one

the wives in this office are for sure one of the highlights of the summer.  

thanks for a fun day girls!

amusement park

Another fun day at Blue Bayou... 

This time it was overcast and drizzly most of the day 

so we spent the majority of our time on the dry rides. 

Turns out the best kind of day to visit a theme park is when it looks like its going to rain! 

Rides still run and there are zero lines. 

i hope the day never comes when i tell our kids i'm too old to ride rides with them, but if it does- here's proof i loved it at one point! 

dead battery

i jumped in the car after work yesterday and my car wouldn't start! first time that's ever happened to me.  so these three angels came to the rescue and jump-started it for me. 

kate, candice & whitney

& this angel is the handiest of all handy-men.