Today, we spent most of the day driving around, acquainting ourselves with the area where we'll be living.  We drove by our house, but couldn't do much besides look at it from the car.  Then, we went by each of the kids' schools, going inside and getting a feel for them.  The kids' reactions were as follows:

Luke:  Ecstatic

Adam: Loved all the trophies in the lobby and can't wait to try out for everything.

Pepper:  Overwhelmed and speechless

Jessica:  Her exact words were, "I think I'm going to throw up."

This is going to be a long couple of weeks.

Well, we're here.  After two LONG days of driving, we have arrived in our new hometown.  Since we won't close on our house for a couple of weeks yet, we're living in a hotel for now.

This is what I saw when I rushed into our hotel room bathroom upon arriving and...um...sat down:

I might have prefered a welcome basket of fruit, or even muffins, but I'll take what I can get.

Albuquerque, NM.

This is the view from our hotel room window.  Are you as depressed as I am?

Tonight, Brad and I went to dinner at Tepanyaki with Mark, Zach, and Kim.  It's one of our favorite restaurants, so we couldn't leave UT without going. 

Afterwards, I went upstairs to the room where we've been staying with Brad's folks and had to face the fact that our Utah summer is over.  As I packed a few last-minute things in preparation for our long drive tomorrow, I could hear all the family downstairs watching the Olympics.

Here are the Bitner Family Olympic Fans as seen from the balcony upstairs. 

I surely will miss this view.

A few random shots around the cabin before we packed up to leave this afternoon:

After dragging the whole world down to the beach on Monday, we decided today we'd do Beach Lite. We just grabbed a few chairs and some snacks and spent a couple of hours at Ideal Beach playing frisbee, mini-golfing, and enjoying the playground.  It was probably my favorite day all week.

 

  

Yes, this was definitely my favorite day all week.  We finished off the day with a trip to Pickleville Playhouse again, this time to see "Forever Plaid".

I forced Jess to pose for this picture because during play the dark-haired actor was "flirting" with Jess during a lovey-dovey song.  I'm sure he picks somebody at every performance to wave and make eyes at, but it was so funny to see Jess blush while he wooed her tonight.

Today's big event was the traditional painting of the Bear Lake shirts.

 

I had to get a picture of poor little Erik.  He was happily painting his shirt until somehow something didn't turn out like he wanted.  He had a breakdown, which resulted in his mother sending him down the deck stairs to get himself together.  I went to spy on him, and found him stewing in his juices and mumbling to himself.  I could just imagine him telling himself how bad we'd all feel if he went blind.

 After a little therapy session with his mom and grandma, Erik came to terms with his less-than-perfect shirt, and all was well.

Looking good!