Quick trip

Friday, we had an appointment at our builder's home gallery to make the interior selections for our home. So Thursday night after Matt got home, we jetted off to Arizona. We made it there in record time, 5 hours! Guess who was driving? Yep, ME!! :) I really hate driving at night because I feel like I can't see anything around me. But it was nice that the kids slept the whole time after they watched a movie. We slept at Matt's parent's house. Matt had a breakfast meeting that morning with an OD and then he came to pick us all up. We took the kids to my mom's house, where they'd stay for the day. We were late to our appointment- OOPS!

I didn't think it'd take nearly as long as the first time we were there (6 hours!) since we'd basically been through all the options already. Most of the things we were planning on keeping the same and there were a few differences that were specific to this new house that we had questions on. We got rolling and found that we preferred different colors for cabinets and countertops this time. When we came to the laundry room, we were looking for the option to add a sink since we'd already pre-plumbed for it. Guess what? There's no option! Matt called our saleslady and she says, "Oh, it's in the garage, not the laundry room." GRRRR! I NEED a sink in my laundry room!!!!!!! Oh, well. We'll see what we can do. And then the saleslady informs Matt that our house price has just dropped $15,000!! WOOOHOOO! As soon as Matt hung up, he says, "We're going for granite countertops!!" We took about 4 hours this time, including a lunch break, so not bad!! We were really happy that we could splurge on a few extra upgrades and not feel bad about it. With the previous, bigger house, we felt so restrained because we absolutely could not go above a certain dollar amount or we couldn't afford the house. Much better feelings this time around!

Here are the things we upgraded:

• Appliances ~
• Cooks kitchen (one step up from standard), black
• Front loading washer & dryer, white
• Cabinets ~
• Maple, flat square panel
• Cherry color
• 42 in. w/ 3 in. crown molding
• Lazy susan in lower corner
• Rollout middle shelves in all lower cabinets
• Raised vanity at master bath
• Uppers at desk
• NO upper cabinets in laundry room - Boo hoo!!! :(
• Carpet ~
• Upgraded carpet pad
• Countertops ~
• Upgraded laminate in laundry and at desk
• Granite in kitchen!
• Interior Trim ~
• 3 1/4 baseboards throughout
• Plumbing ~
• Stainless kitchen sink
• Upgraded kitchen faucet
• Structured Wiring ~
• Upgraded all bedrooms with telephone, cable and internet connection
• Added telephone and internet connection at desk
• Satellite prewire

You could EASILY go hog wild with upgrades at the home gallery, but I think we did good at keeping it under control!! So many little, tiny things that you don't even think about beforehand that can really add up! I am, however, looking forward to doing projects around the house already! Painting, adding hardware to the cabinets, changing light fixtures and just plain 'ole decorating my OWN place!! I especially can't wait to do the kids' rooms! :)

Friday evening, we had dinner with my family. My mom made her famous chimichangas! :) After dinner, we just chatted a bit and my dad and I messed around with our cameras. We had lots of fun taking pictures of each other taking pictures! LOL! I am my father's daughter afterall!

We hung out until we decided it was time to make the trip back to California. Got everyone loaded up and off we went! It took a little longer getting back, 6 hours this time, which is normal for us. Guess who drove? Yep, MATT!!! Haha! I was drifting in and out of consciousness the entire time since I was so freakin' tired!! Matt got a nice little nap earlier in the afternoon, which was good, otherwise we may not have made it home in one piece!!

Here's some more pics I snapped while we were home-

Gavin giving Aunt "Mit-ney" a smooch!

Gavin sharing a cookie with Aunt "Mit-ney." Can you tell he loves his Aunt "Mit-ney?"

Grandma (my mom) and Gavin making one of his crazy faces