westward, ho!!

you guys. the rumors are true.
this little crew is moving out west. to UTAH. (WHAT?! but, caity! you said you'd never---)
I KNOW WHAT I SAID!
but when your husband gets offered the job of his *dreams* that also happens to be just skip and a hop from your mama's house.... YOU GO!

here's the scoop:
brad works in video games, right? so there's this thing (let me see if i get this right) called "AAA" which is basically the select few big-league video game companies, where if you break into them, your career in video games is made. Ooo i just looked it up on wikipedia ok here is what it means:

"In the video game industry, AAA (pronounced "triple A") is a classification term used for games with the highest development budgets and levels of promotion. A title considered to be AAA is therefore expected to be a high quality game and to be among the year's bestsellers." -- wikipedia 

basically, if you're in games, AAA is where you wanna be! so, we discovered a AAA opportunity that happened to be in the salt lake area that was waaaay too good to pass up. perfect company, perfect position, perfect team. so he went for it and got it! we are beyond thrilled for him, this is such a big step in his career and we couldn't be more excited.

also...did i mention it's only an hour from each of our parents?!?!?!
and did i mention we would be cutting our rent, living expenses, and basically all of our costs almost in half by leaving the east coast?
it's basically a win win. win win win.
will i miss the beauty and culture of the east coast? yes.
will i miss all the people i love dearly out here? very yes.
will i miss the exorbitant cost of living? no, no and no. bye felicia.
will i miss brad's commute and long work hours? no.

oh and i bet you're also thinking "but like aren't you having a baby in like a week?" well no, i'm having a baby in FIVE weeks. which means my time left where i'm actually able to fly is limited, so basically.....bea and i are leaving in 10 days. (WHAT?!) we are going to stay with my parents in midway while we find a place to live and then bradley will join us out there the 2nd week of june, at which point *hopefully* we will have a house leased and the movers can bring us all our stuff to said house. we're hoping to be settled somewhere by brad's june 10th start date. a little ambitious, but we've done it before in less time, with less help. the moving package they're offering us is making this all so wonderfully easy, it seems a bit unreal. we are so, so grateful!

this whole opportunity is such a blessing and the answer to many many prayers. we have been thinking of ways to be closer to our families for a while now and this is above and beyond any solution we could have hoped for. we are truly, truly blessed.

being on the east coast has been a wonderful experience for our family, we love so many things about it, and a part of me will always call it home. it's bittersweet that this season of our lives is over. i've loved introducing the east to bradley and loved sharing east coast experiences with bea that i also had when i was her age. i will miss my proximity to the city...it's been a security blanket for me these last 8 years. even if i don't go as often as i could, i've known that i could and that was always comforting to me. it scares me to be far away from new york for some reason. i always feel like a piece of me is missing when i'm too far away; i felt that the 8 years i lived in texas and i'm sure i'll feel it when we make it out to utah. i'm a little nervous about utah culture and fitting in someplace where we don't really fit the mold, but living close to family in an affordable area with bradley at such a great company with a great work/life balance is going to make it all worth it. i really can't wait to get this new chapter started. it's going to be EPIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!