A l a b a m a

As I briefly mentioned in my previous post, we took a quick trip to Alabama a couple weeks back. Jason received a job offer from Boeing for a financial analyst level two position and he only had so much time to accept. I certainly wasn't going to let him take the job without seeing the area first soooo off we went! We owe a huge thank you to Ryan and Karlie for letting us use their miles to fly out last minute. Those next-day tickets are not cheap! Thanks to them we were able to fly our little family out for less than $200 round trip. Emmett handled his first flight... okaaaay. He didn't sleep hardly at all, watched too many little baby bum episodes, had a few small melt downs, snacked on some puffs, and squirmed a lot - especially when I tried to nurse him. It was an exhausting couple of flights for mom and dad. I told Jason I'd rather take the 24 hour road trip in the future lol.

I'm 1000000% obsessed with him.

I'm realizing I took more pictures at the airport than I did of our actual Alabama trip, oops!

Uncle Ryan and Aunt Karlie were so excited to meet Emmett for the first time! They live in Madison, a city right outside of Huntsville, and they absolutely love it there. If we were to move, there's a good chance we'd end up living in that same area and be in their ward. We visited the ward the Sunday we were there and it was filled with some of the most genuine and kind people I've ever met. Southern hospitality is a real thing!!! Everyone was so, so welcoming. Ryan and Karlie made sure to show us all the good stuff and I'll admit I was a bit won over. The scenery there is b e a u t i f u l. Plus cost of living is cheap, the school district is top in the state & ranked high in the nation, we could build a new house, we'd live close to Ryan and Karlie, it's only a four hour drive to white sanded beaches, and the job experience for Jason would set him up nicely for the future. Ugh. There's so many perks and only one downside... MOVING SO FAR AWAY. My whole family is either in Utah or Colorado, so the thought of moving across the country brings me to tears.

Before I get myself sad, let me summarize the rest of our visit! We toured a couple neighborhoods and walked through some homes to get an idea of the kind of house we can afford. There is a new construction neighborhood less than fifteen minutes from Boeing, the airport, and Ry & Kar that we are highly considering if we make the move.

^^ Here's an aerial view of the neighborhood. I pretty much fell in love as soon as we pulled up. IF we go this route, we will likely build one of these models.

Emmett didn't care much for the house hunting haha. That was my favorite part! That, and the hike we did before heading back to good ol' Utah. The south is sooooooo green. I hate that I liked it so much.

It was a good and productive spur-of-the-moment trip. Ryan and Karlie are some of the funnest people to be around and I know we'd have some good times living so close to them! A lot of prayer has gone into this decision and here's where we're at currently. Jason did accept Boeing's offer and we made the decision that we are going to move. However, just a day or two after accepting the offer, Jason was contacted by two different companies here in Utah for an interview {one of which he applied for months and months ago}. I thought the timing was strange, possibly even a sign that moving isn't the best choice for us right now. Since his start date with Boeing isn't until November 30th, we decided it'd be best to see if something could come of these interviews. He's already had the phone interviews {they both went good!} and now we are waiting to hear back. So there's still a  s l i v e r  of hope that he will be extended an offer within the next month that will get us to stay. Because of that, we haven't started the process of listing, packing, or moving quite yet. Jason told me not to get my hopes up, but I hate to admit that my hopes are high in the sky! We'll be sure to keep everyone updated as soon as we know.

One last picture from our trip before I hit publish! Oh how I want the best of the best for this boy.