Goodbye 2012, Hello 2013

First of all, let me apologize for my lack of blogging in the past couple of months. This happens to be one of my resolutions, so hopefully I'll get better in 2013. 

Since it is New Year's Eve, I thought this would be a perfect time to reflect on what an amazing year 2012 was for the Clayton's.

2012 was an exciting year to live in Indianapolis - the host city for Super Bowl XLVI. Although the committee planned this event for years, the final touches on plans and prepping the Circle City were in full force in January. Kudos to the committee for hosting one of the most successful Super Bowls in history and putting Indianapolis on the map for large-scale events. We had the pleasure of experiencing Super Bowl Village numerous times throughout the week. Our favorite part... the Zipline! I'm thankful I did my research and pre-purchased tickets - they were sold out everyday. 

After the excitement of the Super Bowl died down, we were putting the final touches on the next big event of the year (well, at least to us!) - our wedding! After a year and a half of planning every little detail, it was finally time to say I Do. From the bridal showers and bachelor/bachelorette parties to the ceremony and reception, we loved every minute of this time and feel extremely blessed for the special people we have in our lives. April 28th, 2012 was perfect. 

With all of the excitement of a wedding, there's also a ton of stress. What better place to relieve that stress than Jamaica? I can't think of a better place. We started our journey to Ocho Rios, Jamaica at the break of dawn on Monday after our wedding. (P.S. anyone getting married and planning a honeymoon, don't plan to leave on Sunday - you're WAY too exhausted.) After two planes and a bus ride, we finally made it to our fabulous resort. We adopted the country's motto, "No Worries," for the week and had the best time on the beautiful island. We didn't want to leave and can't wait to plan another trip back. 

After the honeymoon, our lives seemed to settle down and get back to our routine. In July, Ryan received a call that would end up taking our lives in a completely different direction. He was offered a job in Houston, TX and a month later we packed up our entire lives and moved across the country. It's been an exciting journey and we love our new home. We had the opportunity to travel back to Indiana for the holidays and it was very special to see familiar faces. A little too much snow for our liking since we've been spoiled with tropical temperatures, but it was a beautiful holiday. While driving back into Houston, Ryan and I both felt a sense of home. It's funny how somewhere you've only lived for a few months just feels right. 

2013 will be full of new experiences for the Clayton's and we couldn't be more excited. I have accepted a full-time marketing position at an energy company and will be starting in January. I'm thankful for the opportunity and ready to get back to work. 

Happy New Year!

Much Love,
The Clayton's

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Dinner And a Movie

How many dinner and a movie dates have you been on? Probably dozens. Waiting 30 minutes to an hour for a table because you forgot to make reservations, then an hour for dinner, then two hours at the movies, then it's so late that you end up going straight home. Well, Ryan planned date night last weekend and took me to Studio Movie Grill @ CityCentre - where you sit at a small table, instead of being cramped without any arm or leg room, with a full-service dinner and drink menu and waiter. I know these exist in other cities, but this was the first time for both of us. Not to mention CityCentre is a modern outdoor district with plenty of shopping and dining - a popular weekend hangout. 

We sipped cocktails and ordered appetizers while we watched Taken 2. Even though the movie isn't getting rave reviews, I really liked it. Maybe because I have a slight crush on Liam Neeson, but hey, who else in the world has his particular set of skills? ;) It was what you'd expect for a sequel, not quite as exciting as the first, but it was still a good action-packed movie that kept you on the edge of your seat. At least it had the same cast. 

As far as Studio Movie Grill, it gets two thumbs up from the Clayton's. I think movie theaters are overpriced and usually don't go unless I absolutely have to see the movie (which hasn't happened often in the past couple years.. ask Ryan), but this set up seems much more worth your $10 movie ticket. The food and drinks were good, we had much more room than an average theater and after the movie we still had time to walk and shop around CityCentre. 

Fun date night courtesy of my hubby! I'm excited for the next new experience.

Much love,
The Clayton's

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Home Sweet Home

 

After a few crazy weeks, we finally feel settled and our apartment feels like home. The final items left of the list to become Texas residents included getting our Texas driver's licenses and registering our vehicle. We knew we were in for a different DMV experience when we pulled up and the line outside was wrapped around the entire building. And that was just to get your number. Sigh. Three hours later, we walked out of the DMV with Texas licenses in hand.

Registering your vehicle is much more complicated in Texas than in Indiana. Texas requires your vehicles to be inspected each year, then you must file for license plates at the Tax Assessor's office. I mean, of course they can't make your life any easier by doing everything in the same place, right? We took our inspection form and all other required documents to the courthouse only to find another wrap-around line. You know, like the lines at Cedar Point or King's Island. Except, instead of a thrill ride at the end of the line, you get to sign your name, pay a bill and come home with stickers, plates and a lot of paperwork.

After a long day, we survived and are officially Texans... even though in our hearts, we will always be Hoosiers. 

In other news, Ryan is still loving his job - he's learning a lot and even teaching me some things about how his profession relates to every day life. I started coaching at a cheer gym a few nights a week. It feels great to get back in the gym and I'm excited to experience Texas-style cheer. For anyone who doesn't know, cheer was basically founded in Texas.

The "fall" weather here feels like the beginning of summer back in the midwest. Temperatures are in the mid-to-high-80s during the day and low 60s overnight. A "cool down" is heading our way with highs in the 70s, haha. Maybe it will feel cool to us by Christmas.

We can hardly believe that we've been here for a month already, but life is really starting to feel "normal" again. Except for the fact that we aren't spending our fall tailgating at our alma mater. Sigh. Go Hoosiers!!

Much love,
The Clayton's

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Happy Wednesday!

We've been anticipating today all week. We finally get our stuff today! It's sad that it feels like Christmas and that we are most excited about cooking a real meal, watching TV on the couch and sleeping in a real bed! I guess once you go almost three (yep, I said three) weeks without nearly everything you own, you really appreciate the little things that we take for granted everyday. 

As dreadful as unpacking can be, we're excited to really get settled in and make this feel like home. (Let's get serious though, we all know my OCD-self is pumped to unpack and organize!)

Much love,
The Clayton's

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Galveston Island

We're doing our best to "settle in" here in Houston. Since our apartment still consists of an air mattress, pillows, a laptop and dog toys, it's been a little tricky. But, all of our stuff should be arriving this week (please pray that it does for our sanity), which will finally make us feel at home!

In the last couple of weeks, we've explored our area of the city and discovered that we are close to everything! Shopping, restaurants, you name it. And Ryan is ecstatic that we are literally one block away from Chipotle. :) We've also discovered Houston's obsession with Texans football. Since we don't have our TV yet, we searched high and low the first Sunday of football season to catch the Colts game. Well, little did we know that the Texans played at the same time and every bar was filled with crazy fans. We were lucky enough to find a Buffalo Wild Wings equipped with 50+ TVs showing every game possible. And this is where we've been at noon sharp the past two Sundays.

Since our list of sites to see is growing each week, we decided this would be the perfect opportunity to take a little road trip to Galveston Island. It's pretty cool to say that we live less than an hour from the Gulf. With the forecast for the first day of fall was Sunny skies and high of 90 degrees, what a great day to head to the beach! Galveston is a quaint coastal city with plenty of tourist attractions and historical sites to see. For anyone planning a vacation soon, check out their Tourism site here: Galveston Island. (and reminder, we are less than an hour from here!)

We walked the beach, checked out Pleasure Pier and had lunch at the infamous Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. It was a nice, relaxing day away from the hustle and bustle of the city. We're excited for our next trip to explore more of what Galveston has to offer. And of course, take Rosco and Marley to the beach for the first time (yes, they of course have a pet-friendly beach).

This is where I would share all of the great photos that I took while we were there, but unfortunately, when I updated my iPhone last night, I lost all of my media since the last time I backed it up, which was the week of our wedding in April. I was/am still not a happy camper about this, but you live and you learn. And I will be backing up my phone on a daily basis now. 

Here's our ongoing list of attractions that we hope to visit soon: 

• Houston Zoo 
• Johnson Space Center
• Discovery Green
• Museum District
• Downtown Aquarium

As much as we loved being at the beach on the first day of fall, we are missing the sweatshirts, tailgating and bonfires back in Indiana!

Much love,
The Clayton's

 

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Hello, Houston

The Clayton's have arrived safely in Houston. We arrived Friday morning, picked up our keys and headed straight to our new apartment. Since we had actually never looked at our exact apartment, we were excited (and a bit nervous) to open the door. But, it's great and we know we will make this place feel like home. It is on the third floor which isn't a big deal, but I do know that we will strategically plan trips to make sure we don't have to make hundreds of trips up and down those 38 steps. And hey, we're young. It's good for us.

Now let's talk about the road trip. The 17 hour road trip. Yawn. It was tiring, but we did it. With the help of five-hour energy, coffee and XM radio, we survived with very little complaints. I shared the trip through my social networks, but here are some pictures from the trip.

The SUV was packed to the limit.. leaving just enough room for Ryan and me in the front and Rosco and Marley in the very back.

I saved the second half of this book to read on the trip -- ended up being a really great read by Emily Giffin.

My turn to drive - southern Illinois, Missouri and a little of Arkansas.

Ryan drove the hardest leg across Arkansas from midnight til almost 5 a.m. Then it was my turn again once we crossed into Texas.



We technically arrived in Houston around 9 a.m. but it takes some time to travel around the country's fourth largest city and actually used to be at the top of the list of cities with the worst traffic. More importantly, Forbes just recognized Houston as the "coolest" city in America in this article. The local newspapers' blog also just mentioned that the city is among the top cities for moves. So, we are not the only newbies here.

Houston may be big and have a lot of traffic, but it is beautiful! And it has palm trees. We are beyond excited to get settled in and explore everything this city has to offer.

The first adventure, of course, was to find a dog park. Since Rosco and Marley had slept for almost two entire days (18 hours in the car + the 14 hours we slept after the trip), they were FULL of energy. After doing a little research, we discovered that Houston has more than 20, that's right TWENTY, dog parks across the city. So, we randomly picked one sort of close to our place to check out today - Millie Bush Bark Park. Wow, fifteen acres for the pups to run with two ponds, picnic tables, dog showers, the works. Rosco and Marley each gave it their "paw" of approval. They both swam in the pond for the very first time. Someone threw a ball into the middle of the pond and without thought, they both jumped into the water with the rest of the pack and started swimming after it. Except for Marley. After following for a split second, she realized she was in the water and didn't like it. She busted a U-turn real quick and swam back. Let's just say she didn't fall for that trick again, and never returned to the water. Unfortunately no, I didn't catch it on video, but it was definitely AFV prize worthy. Rosco swam almost the whole time chasing ball after ball. Both are now curled up asleep, where I imagine they will be for the rest of the day!

Here's a few shots from the park today:

Much love,
The Clayton's

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Moving Day

Moving day has arrived! The movers came yesterday morning, which ended up being a not-so-pleasant experience, but we all survived and our house is empty (except for everything we plan to stuff in the Santa Fe!).

Rosco and Marley still aren't quite sure what's going on, despite the fact that they love all of the extra room they have in the house now to run around like crazy puppies. However, when it came time for bed last night, Marley was distraught when the couch didn't magically appear back in the living room for her to sleep on. After about an hour of pacing through the house, she finally curled up next to Rosco. A little spoiled, huh? 

All that's left is to pack up the car, drop off the cable boxes and hit the road. It's still a little surreal. I'm sure reality will kick in about 10 hours into this little road trip. Even though I wasn't a huge fan of road trips as a kid, this is the first for our family. And through states we've never been. We can't wait to experience more of this beautiful country and create new memories. Houston or bust! 

Just a few of our piles of boxes..

And one last photo to leave you with... I think our pups are ready to be settled in the new place!

Much love,
The Clayton's

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Goodbye Escape! :(

Yesterday, we checked off the final item on our "must-do" list before we move to Houston - sell my SUV, the first major purchase in my adult life filled with five years of memories from college and the first few years after. "Ella," or at least that's what Ryan and I call her, made countless commutes from Bloomington to Huntington for school breaks, family visits and holidays. It's also been a part of four moves (three different places in Bloomington and our house in Indy... yeah, we move a lot). Ella even brought Ryan home to meet my family four short years ago. And we never imagined this is where would be today. Bittersweet.

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From Indy to Houston!

It's very exciting for us to officially announce our big news -- we're relocating to Houston, Texas! Ryan landed a new job and actually started working in August. We'd be lying if we said we made this decision easily. But after hours of deep conversations, comparisons, and even tears, we know in our hearts that this opportunity was given to us for a reason. The great news is that piece by piece, everything is falling into place. We closed on our house yesterday... whew! What a huge relief. In this down economy, we're extremely thankful this happened, especially so quickly. Day by day, box by box, we prepare to move 18 hours away from the state we've called home our entire lives. It's exciting, sad and a bit scary, all at the same time, but we are ready!

We're thrilled to start a new chapter in our lives together and share our journey with our loved ones. Check back for updates as we begin our road trip later this week and explore the south. Thank you for everyone's kind words and support as we embark on this new opportunity! 

Much love,

The Clayton's

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