The BrehiThomas Family Blog: July 2020

Lovell Ranch

We had gone to the ranch a few times in college during the winter and it was always something to look forward to. In fact, the first time I ever strapped on a snowboard was on one of these hills (the one by the massive slide). Dreamy. Perfect. These two words describe this place perfectly.

The Lovell family (all of them) invited us to join them at the ranch. We went up for the two days we were there. The ranch in the winter is fun, in the summer it is perfect. We played on the zipline, water slide, woods, slide, 4 wheelers, played crossy-ball, freebee golf, corn hole, went shooting, and spent all of our waking hours outside. We ate so much good food and took a herd of kids out to ice cream. We drove around Rexburg and ate at the Hickory.

Maverick took a bit to warm up the zipline--Lincoln was fearless and didn't have any issues. Both of them didn't have a problem hopping on the water slide. Linc was brave enough to go on the metal slide (with Lehi) but Maverick said, "maybe next time." :) Pictures are the best way to summarize how perfect this family trip was.

Cousin Time

Before we could leave Idaho, we had to visit the Lloyd family. It also happened to be the morning of the 4th of July, so they are all rocking their cute outfits. The kids pretty much played their hearts out while we lounged around. It was a super short visit, but our boys were begging to see their cousins.

Pioneer Day

Since we crashed the Lovells and Lloyd, we thought it would only be appropriate to accept the Clauson's invitation to crash their Pioneer Day party. There was so much delicious food and family (Bill, Gina, and Matt were there, too). And Rob blew up a watermelon, which did not disappoint. The Clauson's also had some amazing fireworks--one of the kid's favorite was one that blew up into army men that fell down in parachutes. They spent awhile collecting them all! We felt so welcome and the boys warmed right up to Rob. Maverick told us a few days later, "Let's go to Rob's. He told us we were welcome anytime!" (...I was terrible at taking pictures, but it was Brielle's first day of pigtails!)

BBQ Discovery

We hit up the Farmer's Market again and decided to try out the BBQ truck parked there. The owner was from Texas and started his truck because he couldn't find any good brisket in Utah. It was soooo good. The sides were nothing exciting, but the man knows his brisket. Maverick was as excited as Lehi was. We also let the boys ride the horses there.

Jungle Trail

I researched a hike that was kid friendly for us to do and found one that had good "reviews". We Zoomed in for Parker's baptism on the way there, which was a pretty awesome thing to do! So proud of that kid.

We may have gone to the wrong trail head, but it didn't take too long for us to decide we were not in the right spot. Eventually we found it and started our adventure. The boys had a lot of fun--but I decided if we go on another hike, I need to get a carrier for Brielle. Lehi and I took turns holding her our hips and that girl is getting heavy after you carry her for awhile. ;)

That's a Wrap

Lincoln played his last soccer game of the season. He turned out to be such a good goalie, other kids started taking his turf in the goal. 😆

Aunt Bekah, Uncle Nile, Beckett, Gigi and Poppy were all able to come watch. It has been so fun to see him put himself out there, try something new, and get so much better. He even kicked the ball a lot during the game! No goal yet, but I am sure it will be in the cards next season.

We celebrated by getting shakes at JCWs.

Signed a House!

We closed on a house! The kids were a little crazy during all of the paperwork, but they all made it out alive ;) Honestly, I didn't want to buy a house this soon, but it marked off all our major checkmarks for a house and was a good (Utah) price. We did a few walk-thoughs of other houses, met with a builder, but nothing seems right. We had this house on our list for awhile, but the pictures were so terrible, we almost didn't walk through it. We had driven to it, parked outside, looked at pictures and said, "naw." We won't schedule a walk through. It just happened to pop up with an "open house" notification about 2 weeks later when we were looking at other homes, so we decided to give it a go. We loved the layout and the potential. I called Ronnie when we got home and told her "this open house closes in 30 minutes, come with me and tell me what to think." She agreed it was a great house and was a steal if we could get it for the price we were considering offering.

We called Rob that night and said we wanted to put in a offer (about $25,000 below asking, they had already dropped it an additional $10,000). Rob told us later than they asked for more, he said he would call us (didn't, called back a few minutes later) and said, "they said no." Then they said, "Ok, let's do it." I was totally shocked when they accepted and then the big purchase butterflies hit along with the "oh crap, we are getting the house" thoughts.

Closing took forever! Our offer was contingent on us closing in 30 days or less. We hauled through paperwork, got inspectors schedules, appraisals, etc. With COVID, things were a bit slower towards the end, there was some paperwork issues, so our move in date kept getting pushed back, which made things tricky because I had sold our townhome contract and had to move back THEIR move in date.

Long story short, we closed, the house was ours, but we still didn't have keys. I had a moving truck rented and packed (I literally loaded 99% thing solo because Lehi was working) and a clean inspection the next day. Rob said, "Well, it is your house now, I would go try a few windows and see if you can get in." Lehi and the Lovell brothers headed over to break into our new house. Luckily, the perfect storm hit with a unlocked bathroom window and a thin Austin. We could move in! We had so much help from family and friends, we were able to get everything unloaded in a couple of hours.