well hello from Salt Lake City!

I was looking through my photos to send a post about our move to Salt Lake City. I found so many images that tugged at my heart. So many memories in our home in Los Angeles. It's the first house Jerry and I lived in together, the house I went through my pregnancy, had the baby shower in, the house I brought our son Max home to, The last house my 17 year old cat would share with me, The house that Max learned to sit up, crawl, walk, learn sign language - his first 35 signs, smile for the first time, laugh for the first time, learn to hold his bottle on his own, feed himself finger foods, swing on the blue children's swing we bought for his 1st birthday and put up on the tree out front, ( that tree that I took the year long photo series of ) and met his first therapists: Joe his PT who knew him the longest, Cindi his OT, and Amy his speech therapist. The house I took baths with Max when he was a tiny baby, The house we first started the "family bed", The house I turned 40 in (!), The house Jerry turned 40 in (!), The house with the nice, quiet, respectful neighbors, The house with the pomegranate tree out back. The house I decided to stop photographing weddings and focus on being more authentic with what I wanted to do. The house where Jerry and I celebrated our first and second wedding anniversaries, sang happy birthday to Max for his 1st and 2nd birthday's, The house where I sat in the dining room and started this blog! So many warm and fond memories I could list here. AND so many friends that came through and warmed up our home!



helping Max learn to get past his aversion to the feel of grass - at Huntington Gardens.
Pretty Girl always sat right next to my head purring while Max slept on me in those first few months of Max's life. I told Pretty Girl when I was pregnant that she will always be my first. So this photo is with both of my children.
The view from my car window when I parked in the driveway.
Our last portrait together at the house before we drove off.

Giving that tree out front a hug before we left. I actually got a little choked up thinking about the photo series I did with that tree over a year in my life, and how it held onto Max and his swing - bringing Max so much joy!
The moving Van is bigger than our house!
our cars have shipped, our things are on the moving van and on their way to Salt Lake City, we rented a car and headed to a hotel for 2 nights before we headed to the airport. here I am jumping for joy. Basically my way of saying thank you to that house and moving on to the new adventure.
Max on the plane before we take off for Salt Lake City.
Max and mama on plane.
Our first family portrait in Salt Lake City - at Baggage Claim. Photo taken by a nice local gal.
Looks like Max has his legs in the air like he just don't care!

We are subletting a condo in the "lower Avenues".
Here is a video of the place

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge39SOazqnc

We love it. We will be here for 3 - 4 months while we look for our new house.
It's been snowing overnight here and is very pretty! If I walked outside into the street and looked down the street to the right I would be staring at the Mormon temple. If I looked to the left I would be looking at the Catholic Church. Both are very pretty and majestic with all the snow. I'll take some photos today or sometime this weekend to share with you.

Yesterday Max's Grandma Marty came over with a huge pot of homemade soup, and played with max for a few hours. He was so happy to see her! We've never lived this close to family before. I think Max will get a kick out of it! And my parents plan to visit often so it feels like our family life just expanded by 200%.

I've signed up with a yahoo group that's for parents with children who have Ds in Salt Lake City and they have playgroups every other week. I'm planning on going to one on Tuesday. I already met a few of the mom's and their kids and look forward to reconnecting with them and getting Max out there with other kids his age.

Still trying to figure out how to get him his services ( therapies ) and what part of town has the best school system for Max - and believes in Inclusion, and has a good outlook and philosophy about people who have disabilities or challenges or learn differently. This part is difficult for me. Los Angeles was very easy - they ( the regional center )actually came to us and told us they were there to help Max and give him services. That isn't going to happen here. Mainly because Max wasn't born here so there isn't a record of Max and his diagnosis going to the places that might be of service to him.

On another note........Before we moved we had a birthday party for Max. our friend Kerry took a lot of great photos of the party so I'm sharing the link to his photo album here. Take a peek! And YES Jerry dressed up as DJ Lance Rock from the only Tv show that Max watches called Yo Gabba Gabba. Ok he watches other shows on tv, but he doesn't love them compared to this one. He's a little obsessed!

http://gallery.me.com/kerrynorman2#100062


Max LOVES cars. LOVES them. Here he is with Papa at the birthday party being pushed around in one of the many cars he tried out.


Here is the birthday cake in the shape of Brobee which is another character on Yo Gabba Gabba. And that's Niko looking lovingly at the cake.
A little snuggle in between riding cars, sliding down the slide, running around the playground and seeing his friends.



Here he is a few weeks before the move at his best friend Brady's 2nd birthday party. There they are together. Juli and I met at Club 21 when our babies were so small and young. They are 3 weeks apart and so we decided they were best friends.
I will miss seeing them so much. And so many other friends out in LA. I hope to keep in touch with all of them and watch their kids grow up! Hopefully we will visit and attend the annual conference at Club 21 and gather up some friends.

I'm lucky to already have friends here in Salt Lake. Some new and some I've known for over 25 years! Hope this transition keeps on going as smoothly as it already has so far.....quick knock on wood everyone!

xoxoxoxo
*c

p.s. here is a photo I took this morning from the dining room window.
I'll take more of the views here and post soon!


I'm looking forward to a new list of memories that we start in this new city! The first one will be Max's introduction to ....SNOW!!!