Just a quick Disclaimer...

If you notice the lack of pictures on my posts or the poor quality its due to this little guy!

when we arrived in New Jersey i realized my camera battery was dead and we had forgotten the charger and all they had at Target was a waterproof camera with no flash! AH! oh well.

New Jersey

As I mentioned we were so excited about moving to New Jersey and felt like everything was really working out in our favor until we received the news that there might not be a position open for us after all at the studio. However, we already had our travel arrangements lined up and it was too late to back out now, so off we went. We arrived at laguardia around 7 PM on Wednesday August 18th where we were met my Bro. Bridges (the father of the wonderfully generous family). It was so comforting arriving at Laguardia knowing that someone was there to help us find our way to Fairfield.

When we arrived at the Bridges' home we called Gary just to get an idea of when our lesson's were scheduled and also to get an idea of our schedule for the weekend. During the phone call Gary proceeded to tell us that we no longer needed to look at the other studio because he for sure had a position avaible for both of us (such a relief), then he proceeded to tell us that for our lessons we would receive the employee discount (another relief which saved us about $60) and also that we were free to use the studio to practice as much as we wanted while we were there (another relief since usually there is a floor fee per hour you use the studio so we saved some more $$). Needless to say we slep really well that night!!

The next day we went to the studio where we were able to practice for about 5 hours (which felt so good since we haven't practiced all summer we have been so busy with work) after practicing we went and looked at an apartment in Lincoln Park called Beaver Brook. It is really nice place with a pool and your own garage and we really liked what we saw. The only thing we weren't crazy about is that rent is $1100 a month plus you have to pay for the electric. However, by this point we were resigned to the fact that that was a good price. so we took an application and told them we would be faxing our information to them. That night we went bowling with some friends from the studio (BYU alumnists) it was so fun and nice to just relax and not worry about working. It was also really great to catch up with Natalie and Dawid and just spend some time with them before they move.

Friday was also a great day. we went to the studio and practiced for a few hours and then had a lesson with Gary followed by one with Diana. Both of which were extremely helpful and we are excited to begin working with them on a regular basis, they are really great coaches! That night the studio had a social, which was fun to just go chill and see how the studio works a little bit. After the social we went out to dinner with our friends. During dinner we were lamenting about housing prices etc when Dawid proceeded to tell us about how he lives in the basement apartment of a home owned by the studio owners and what a great place it is. He suggested we move into the apartment after he moves out. After dinner we drove to West Orange to check out the home and decided we would ask Gary if that would be available for us to move into.

Saturday was another great day. we had another lesson with Diana (we are now half way through our new foxtrot, which is SO much better than our old one). After our lesson we spoke with Gary about the West Orange house. He said it would be available and he would charge us $800 a month (which by now you can tell is a steal!). The great thing about moving into this home is we don't have to sign a year lease, $800 includes all utilities, and we don't have to pay a security deposit (which saves us around $2000 up front).

After our meeting with Gary we went back to the Bridge's home to say goodbye before we headed to NYC for the evening (more to come). All in all it was such a perfect weekend and we are so excited to move to new jersey now that we have all the foreseen kinks worked out and we are going to be able to keep our expenses much lower than anticipated. I CAN'T WAIT!!!

Bro. Bridges dropping us off at the Bus Stop before we left for NYC for the night. What a great person!! we can not say thank you enough to this family! (can't you see how excited travis is about everything)

Housing

During our preparations to move to New Jersey we were looking into apartments in the area and it seemed we couldn't find anything for less than $1200 a month unless it was located in a very shady area. Well, I don't know about the rest of you but I was devastated by this bit of information. $1200 for a one bedroom tiny apartment. AH! Well after many hours of searching online and a number of breakdowns (if you can't tell its been a rough couple of months for me) I was at my witts end, so I decided to have Travis call the Bishop over the ward that lives in the area we were goign to be working in.

I can not begin to tell you the overwhelming outpouring of love we istantly felt from the Caldwell ward. Within hours we had e-mails from multiple families offering to help us in our search and wanting to know more about us. We told them our price range and what we were looking for and when we would be in the area to look for apartments before we actually moved and they were instantly on the hunt.

After corresponding with one family in particular they offered us their home, car, GPS, food and hospitality for our weekend trip to New Jersey. I can not begin to tell you how many prayers they answered through every e-mail. What was looking to be a very expensive trip for us suddenly turned into an exciting adventure.

That is until we received the not so great news about the possibility of no longer having a position at the studio.

Background Information

Alright, before I give you all the great news about New Jersey, i'm going to start by giving you the background information of what has taken place the last 9 months; in the hopes that it will make you appreciated the next post.

As most of you know this past year was our last year at BYU and as time passed Travis and I were trying to decide what we wanted to do after we graduated from BYU. Unfortunately Travis had a few student loans from before we were married so we decided to audition to dance on a cruiseline, since they pay really well and you don't have any expenses while you are there (plus free travel). We were so excited about the idea and started preparing to send in audition videos. (extremely exhausting let me tell you). The worst part wasn't even preparing the dances, it was edition the clips to send in, but after many breakdowns (i had taken some editing classes so i decided to do the work myself) the discs were finally ready to be mailed out. We sent our resume, headshots and video of our dancing to Royal Carribean, Princess and Crystal Cruises (we had never head of Crystal Cruises but decided to send it just becuase we had already put the material together). And then the waiting began...

A few weeks after sending in our videos Travis and I were talking about our future plans and the more we talked to more we realized we didn't actually want to dance on a cruise ship since it meant a minimum of 6 months on the boat at a time and we were eager to begin our professional career. Luckily we decided this on our own, because as time passed we never really heard back from any of the cruise lines.

Around the end of February Travis and I decided LA would be a fun area to live so we began contacting studios in the area to see if they were in need of any new teachers. We came in contact with some great people and around April we set up appointments to check out their studios in June. We were feeling really blessed by this point to have everything work out so smoothly, but decided to keep investigating just to see if anything better came our way. We decided to give a fellow BYU tour team alumnist a call since he left BYU about 6 or so years ago and basically has been able to accomplish everything we want to do (his name is Mayo). So we called Mayo and spoke with him and long story short he told us we should consider moving to New Jersey to work at Roger's Dancsport Center (which is where he started teaching after he left BYU) and gave us the contact information for Gary McDonald. Mid May we called Gary and things sounded promising, we set up a meeting with Gary while we were in Blackpool, England at the beginning of June. We met with him in Blackpool, things were great and we decided to prepare to move to New Jersey and set up a preliminary trip in August to check everything out.

During all of their meetings with Gary we received a call from Crystal Cruises. Crystal Cruises offered us a position as a rotating dance instructor on their cruiseline which means that about once a year they will send us on a cruise (all expenses paid) plus pay us to teach on one of their ships. We were elated!! We are now going on a cruise in September to the Mediterranean and couldn't be more excited (more information to follow).

A week before we were scheduled to fly to New Jersey for a visit we called Gary to just iron out a few details of our trip when we received some less than stellar news. He said that he possibly wouldn't have room for us at his studio anymore, but that he would help us get a position at a nearby studio. While we would still be in the area, the main reason we wanted to move to New Jersey was to actually work at Gary's studio. So needless to say we weren't quite as excited for our trip anymore.

Last Weekend

For those of you who are interested, Travis and I went to New Jersey last weekend to check everything out and all i have to say is that the weekend could not have gone better! We are so excited, photos and details to follow.

Travis' time to shine!

As promised... here are some pictures of Travis after winning blackpool. And yes, he is naturally that tan. :)

Buffalo Bill...

Two weeks ago we went to Idaho Falls for my Grandma Ruth's funeral. She is a wonderful woman to whom my family owes much. It was a really wonderful service, not exactly traditional, but still really great. After the funeral my family was just hanging around when my dad took us to see his 5 buffalo, which is not exactly out of the ordinary. Then he suggested we go for a little drive, so we all piled into the little orange pickup and away we went. My dad drove into the field, parked the truck and turned the engine off. After a few minutes this is what happened.
Two years ago my dad roped one of the babies and bottle fed it for a few months. although it was never exactly tame, she does still remember those days and so that is why she was so willing to come so close. If you notice the other four stayed back the whole time. While it probably wasn't the safest or smarted thing to do, it was really cool to be so close to these gigantic creatures.

After we had had our fun we started driving away and all the buffalo began running alongside the truck and you could feel the ground moving as they ran. It is so incredible how big and powerful these creatures are.

My sister and I, glad we made it out alive.