Murray Family Fun: A Recap of 2013

I thought it would be good to do a little recap of 2013. Unfortunately I lost my phone that had most of my pictures on it so I only have a few pictures from the first few months of the year. January started off as not my favorite month even though we were had lots of fun with activities at the kids school and Bryn's basketball games. Brady was having to travel to Utah every week that month after having to do it every other week the previous few months. It had already gotten old and we were all tired of it! Brady loved the job he had and the people he worked with but we knew we needed something to change. Brynlee and Nash were having an especially had a hard time with Dad travelling so much. We weren't sure what we could change, but at the beginning of February Brady heard about a job opening up in Salt Lake that sounded like his dream job. At first we were a little hesitant but as we began discussing the possibilities, praying about it and finding out more about the opportunity we became very excited. It felt like a long shot but Brady contacted the company and they agreed to fly him back to their head quarters in Massachusetts for an interview on February 14th. He felt like the interview went well but they had other candidates that they were still interviewing so we didn't hear anything for a week or two. After what felt like forever Mass invited Brady to make a business plan and come back to their office on the last day of February to present it. Now if you know Brady you know he is passionate about planning! Lucky for us Brady had been working on his business plan for years! He has always wanted to be a general agent since entering the management side of financial planning and had been creating and using all kinds of ideas and strategies for building a better business for his entire career in the financial industry. I knew this would be a moment for him to shine and get to share his passion for the work he does. Once again he felt like the presentation went well but they had several other plans that needed to be presented before they could get back to him. On the 13th of March Mass contacted Brady to let him know they wanted to extend him an offer. They wanted to have one last conference call the next day. Fifteen minutes before that call that we had been anticipating for so long was going to happen Brady's dad Read called to let us know he was being taken to a hospital in SLC with life threatening blood clots in his lungs. Excited emotions to devastating emotions. We quickly packed our bags and I ran to get the kids from school while Brady had his phone call. Despite the shock from his dad's phone call, the call with Mass went well and they told him they would send him a formal offer/contract by the next week. I'm getting way to long winded for a blog, but after a couple of months everything finally worked out. Brady got the job as GA for MassMutual in Salt Lake and after a couple of scary weeks in the hospital Read was able to recover enough to return home!

Some days are like that!

So that pretty much sums up January, February and March!

They were busy months full of the usual ups and downs

plus a quite a bit more than usual but we came through smiling!

And then it turned into April which is always a glorious month!

Sunshine, warmth, and new growth!

On April 2nd Brady was introduced to the SLC office of Mass Mutual as their new GA. He moved into an apartment close by the office that they provided for him until we could sell our house and move down there. At first we thought we would take our time looking for a place, selling the house and letting the kids finish school in Meridian but those plans quickly changed!

The first weendend in April the kids and I drove to Utah to be with Brady and our extended family.

The children had so much fun being with cousins!

We had a hard time leaving and driving back home to Idaho without Brady after such a wonderful weekend. At least we could see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Brady found a house for us in Alpine UT and we decided to close on it and move as soon as we could and once we decided that things happened quickly!

We tried to be prepared for the move but with all the craziness of moving it felt like we didn't get to do all of the things in Meridian that we would have loved to do one last time before moving. Before we knew it movers where packing up our house and it was time to go! What a whirlwind!

Brynlee's sweet friends kidnapped her out of bed one morning for a good-bye party!

She loved it and ate up all the love and attention they gave her.

It really helped her be ready for the move, even though she knew she would miss these beautiful girls it helped to know she had all these wonderful friends supporting her.