Haleigh, Gavin, and Henry: Our New Chapter in Champaign

I hesitate to start up this blog again because of the huge lapse since I’ve recorded anything, and over the past 3 years, some of the most momentous events of my life have taken place! Graduating with my Masters Degree in French, taking Gavin to France, England and Italy, giving birth to Henry, Henry’s first 18 months, just to name a few. I have taken pictures, but I still plan to retroactively post about these moments. In the meantime, however, I will continue in the present and start afresh with our new adventure here in Champaign, Illinois. That way, our family, friends, and loved ones can see Henry grow and still feel close to us even though we feel so far away.

Although we never pictured ourselves living in the Midwest, we are happy to be here and are looking forward to these next two years. Earlier this spring, when our dental school plans weren’t coming to fruition, we decided we had better shift to plan B. Gavin loved his business minor at BYU and did very well in its classes, so he thought an MBA would be a great choice for him. So, for the following weeks, he studied like crazy for the GMAT and long story short, did exceptionally well! We had originally hoped that just one school would take us, but following his GMAT submission, the interviews came quickly and soon we had several to choose from! We narrowed it down to four: University of Utah (close to home, comfortable, and a 75% scholarship, but not as highly ranked); Hult (great location in Boston, exciting program, and highly acclaimed worldwide for international business but not as highly ranked in all areas as a whole); Tulane (ranked highly, great reputation, awesome job placement, but a little tougher of a location and culture); and finally, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (highly ranked and still climbing-#35 in the nation-, great reputation, incredible job placement-almost 90%-, family-friendly location, $18,000 scholarship, and when we toured the campus we loved it).

Before finally deciding on U of I, we came out for a quick visit. We were amazed at the beautiful and enormous campus. It goes on for blocks and blocks and the architecture is exceptional: classic red brick and stone buildings, statues lining the libraries (yes, plural), corners, and neat wooden halls, green grass in abundance, a smoke-free environment, and a great “feel” that adds to its charm.

Gavin and Dallin left in our nearly-full 26-foot Penske moving truck last Wednesday morning and Jim and Janell drove our car out shortly after. They made it to Lincoln, Nebraska, spent the night, and drove the rest of the way just in time to pick Henry and me up from the Champaign airport at 6 PM Thursday evening. Wow, what a long drive! We are so grateful to them for helping us out here. We spent a couple of our last nights at Burgons and enjoyed getting to play with them and Uncle Garrett and Dallin. Nanny took us to the best new restaurant called Black Sheep Café in Provo, and we all loved it! She and Henry chased a grasshopper around the outside of the restaurant for quite awhile beforehand and he was laughing so hard. Before our flight, Henry and I said an awfully sad goodbye to Granny and Grandpa. We had a fun time with them the days prior to leaving; we went to Snowbird to visit GG and Aunt Kathie, had mom’s yummy minestrone soup, got to visit the home ward and hear dad teach, had a Koller family barbecue, watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and sleep in Hilly’s comfy bed. We also got to spend some precious last time with Stephanie, as well as our dear friends Bryan and Cali. Steph (or “step” as Henry says) and he played with a jumping dog stuffed animal, went exploring for treats in her purse, took pictures, spun around in a rocking chair, and had fun visiting. We adore her. Bryan and Cali treated us to a yummy pizza dinner at a new place called Lucy’s where you can get doubly thick crust, and ice cream at Baskin Robins, and then a fun chat back at their house. Every time we get together, it seems like we pick right back up where we left off. We just love them.

Back to the flight, Henry did better than I had anticipated. He had been congested in the morning that whole week, but with the help of some Benadryl his ears didn’t seem to hurt him at all and he slept about 1½ hours. The rest of the time he played with me and didn’t seem to bother anyone too much. Once we got to Chicago, we got some Garrett’s popcorn and an overpriced but really yummy brie/green apple/turkey sandwich. Then, we hopped on our plane to Champaign which only took thirty minutes. Nanny and Papa picked us up and took us to our new apartment. When we arrived, a whole crew of ward members were already there and unloading the moving truck. Four missionaries also came to help out. With so many hands, it took under an hour!

One fun coincidence that we discovered was that Peter Wright, a friend of ours from Orem, is working on his PhD here. He came to help unload and is having us over to dinner tonight. Besides him, we didn’t know a soul. However, the ward was immediately welcoming. A nice woman named Candy came with her husband and chatted with us, and one of the men relayed from his wife an invitation to dinner the following day.

We spent the next day and a half unpacking the sea of boxes! Dallin built us some more white wire shelving in the pantry/laundry room so we could store our nicer dishes and other items we use less frequently. Jim set up Henry’s room and organized everything so well. Janell shopped for groceries, wrangled Henry, cleaned a bunch, and did about a hundred other things simultaneously. Gavin and I ran around in circles trying to help and figure out where to put things. We can't thank the trio of worker-bee Burgons enough for their help.

Now, about two weeks later, we’re down to the last few boxes and hanging pictures. Hopefully soon it will start to feel like home. It’s easy to think of all the hard aspects of a big change like this, but I’m giving a talk on diligence on Sunday and so every time I start thinking that way, I try to come up with a positive thought to replace it with. For example, the humidity is uncomfortable since we grew up in the west, but I’m grateful that we have A/C in both our car and our apartment, and we have a nice fan in the living room. Plus, the complex has a swimming pool if it gets too bad! Because of the humidity, everywhere tends to smell musty, even if it’s clean. So, I’m trying to counteract that by burning candles and cooking yummy food. It’s lonely without family and friends around, but I’m getting involved in all the fun things available. So far, that includes ward aerobics on Mondays and Fridays, a weekly ward potluck, book group, relief society, and inviting the missionaries and another girl over for dinner.

Other things I really like are: 1. The open space Henry now has to run and play, and all the dogs around that he is just tickled with. 2. How kind people are here. We’ve had nothing but welcoming experiences so far in the Midwest. Especially from the ward. I think we’re really going to like it. 3. The parks! There are over 60 parks in Champaign/Urbana and many have great playgrounds, statues, ponds, splash pads, etc… 4. The campus. I just love driving and walking near it. Today we drove by the arboretum where they have a Japanese house and garden and something they call an “idea garden”. I’m anxious to go back and walk around; it was full of all colors and types of flowers and paths. The list goes on, but I’d better move on.

Yesterday, Henry finally had some success with nursery! We were overjoyed. We were nervous (okay, maybe just me), and really wanted him to make friends and learn to share and sing like the other kids and last week he hated it. We had to stay the whole time and he kept looking back to make sure we were there. Plus, he was stealing treats from the other kids at snack time, he wouldn’t stay sitting on his chair, and he wouldn’t follow anything going on. But yesterday was a huge improvement! He cried going in, but a sweet leader Sister Carlson just scooped him up and took him to play with the toy kitchen and he was distracted enough that we left. We checked on him twice after that and both times he was fine! When I peeked in, they were singing “Here we are together” and saying all the kids’ names and as they were pointing around to each other, Henry was engaged and poking the girl next to him to the beat of the song. She didn’t seem to mind :). He was sitting in his chair and doing what all the other kids were doing. They have the best time; they switch activities every ten minutes and plan it out so well. A fun lady comes in to do music time and brings scarves, puppets, feather, and all sorts of props to use. Sister Carlson and the other leaders make healthy snacks like banana bread muffins, cucumber slices, mandarin orange pieces, etc…There are about a dozen kids and they all love it; I am so excited that Henry gets to be there too.

Well, I could go on and on, but I’ve stopped and started this post several times over the past few days, so I guess I’d better just get it posted. I’ll try and keep updates on here often and post pictures here and to Instagram/Facebook as often as possible. Until next time…