Our first few weeks in SLC

ok....Trying to catch up! Here we go! The photo above is of my friend Nicole and her beautiful family. From Left to Right: Aaron, London, Tyler and Nicole. Nicole and I went to High school together and haven't seen each other in about 24 years or so. We re-connected on Facebook just one week before Salt Lake City was even on our minds. And guess where she lives! So back in November when we took a road trip to SLC to figure things out we met up with Nicole and her family. I tried my best to snap a family portrait - but guess what. The only person in focus is Tyler and his soccer ball. hmmmm. I am out of practice!
Tyler and Max playing together back in November.
Once we made the move to SLC I re-connected with some mom's who have kids with Ds. I was invited to join a playgroup the first week in town. Here are all the kids. Max is in the front crying. He actually made it through 2 hours of playgroup without having a hard time with all the noise. That's a first I think. But at the very end when we tried to take this photo.....melting. I just loved meeting everyone in this playgroup and all of their kids. I joined their yahoo group and it's such a supportive, friendly fabulous group! I feel so relieved to find them and to introduce Max to a bunch of new friends right off the bat.
Here is an iphone photo of Max with his friend Max! yep and they are the same age. I think they are going to spend a lot of time together. Max's mom Kristin is the one who introduced me to the group and I am so grateful to her!
I think I mentioned in the last post that we are subletting a condo in the Lower Avenues. When you walk out of our place and you look to the right you see the Mormon temple. It's been snowing and then melting and bright and sunny and then snowing again. So I ran out at 6am to take photos after an all night snowfall.
When you look to the left you see the Catholic Church.
Across the street are these beautiful trees.


Yes - this is REALLY what it looks like the day AFTER it snows and everything melts. Gorgeous. This was the view while driving around looking at houses for sale.
yes I was driving on the freeway and blown away by the mountains. I tried to take a shot as I drove. Don't worry mom, I wasn't looking through the viewfinder - I had my eyes on the road!
yes another photo while driving. this time with my iphone. Heading to Cottonwood Heights to drive by a bunch of houses that are for sale. I REALLY love the view of the mountains from this part of town. I don't think I'd mind if my backyard faced this view! They are so close to the mountains it just feels amazing.
Another snow day looking across the street from our condo. I LOVE that tree.

At Cafe Shambala which we seem to frequent these days since it's very close to the condo and tasty!
We got a membership from family members to a place called the Discovery Center. I think I've taken Max there 5 times already! It's a great place for him to play and walk walk walk walk which makes him squeal with delight. He loves to play with all the colorful toys, get pushed around in the cars, play music and walk up to the parents and wave at them. He seems more interested in the adults than in the kids his age.
playing music with papa
his favorite thing these days.....cars. cars. cars. It must be in the bloodstream or something because we don't really have many car toys at home and don't focus on them when we play. He sees them driving down the street and gets so excited. Anything with wheels. Even other strollers. He wants to follow them down the sidewalk. He loves to touch the wheels and tires. Even at a farm we went to he was more interested in the tractors than the cute bunnies or the sheep.
learning the art of power lounging from papa He just started to be able to get himself up onto the couch by himself.
His new friend Victoria. She is the daughter of Jerry's Sister's friend Peggy. Peggy just happens to also be our Real Estate agent. yes it is a soft focus photo because someone licked the iphone. I wonder who? Max went right over to her and held up his arms so that she could pick him up. He loves her.
And here is Max's first girlfriend in Salt lake City. London. They met back in November and it's been true love ever since. He loves to touch her face and smile at her.
Max and Papa on a tractor at Wheeler Farm
Max meeting a sweet horse
There's Nicole and London looking gorgeous at the farm.
Pretty X 2
Tyler with his Star Wars t-shirt on. Guess what his favorite movie is?
All of us at Wheeler Farm. Nicole, Aaron, London and Tyler took us there. It was great to visit all the animals and guess what, this place is close and FREE. I think Max and I will be spending a lot of time here - especially when it warms up.
One of the many perks of living here is that Max and I have been able to visit Jerry during his lunch break at work and run off to a restaurant for lunch together. This would NEVER happen in Los Angeles. Just getting to Jerry's work in LA took FOREVER. We love seeing him in the middle of the day and how easy it is to get over there.

All of us are really enjoying it here. Yes, you heard right. We like it here! I feel right at home here. I have no idea why that is. But it's been smooth and easy to meet new people, figure out the city and finding my daily comforts - like where to eat - buy groceries - get my hair done - go to 12 step meetings etc.

And - drum roll please - we actually went out on a DATE without Max. Yes. we. Did! Grandma Marty came over and watched Max while we went up the street to Cafe Shambala and had dinner. It felt strange to not have him with us since we don't go anywhere without him. But it was also NICE. Every Tuesday night is DATE NIGHT ! Woo hoooooo! Thank you so much *m.

Much more to say and share but we are off to one of our favorite places to eat, The Oasis Cafe for breakfast. Hope you all have a wonderful Sunday!