Really we got a new car...

How weird that I was joking about getting a new car last post and now we actually had to get one.
So on Thursday July 29th I had just finished getting ready for the day and was about to start the last part of packing for the move to Chicago. My family was driving across country to help with the move and were going to arrive that night. Brett had left for his rotation about 20 minutes earlier and the phone rang.... it was pretty early so I wondered what was up. Brett just said KELL..... my heart sank, the way he said it I knew something was wrong. Well a lady had the sun in her eyes and made a crazy left handed turn into on coming traffic which happened to be Brett.

He wasn't hurt to bad. He had burns and blisters on his arms from the airbags but other than that he was ok.  So Brandon our friend was so nice to pick me up and we went to find Brett. The car was really crushed on the passenger side corner. The ladies car looked worse than ours. The big bummer was that we had been working hard to pay the car off and we were about a payment away from our goal.

 We found out that day that the car was totaled and we would need to buy another car. The ladies' insurance paid for our rental and that is what we drove to Chicago in. Later I mean way later that night my family made it safely to our place. I was SO SO happy to see them. Family just makes everything better!  It was good to get hugs and kisses from them!  We all went to bed.  The next day we packed the Uhaul and then had some fun in Atlanta. We went to the aquarium and then the national museum of patriotism. We had dinner at Steak and shake, one of our favorites in Atlanta.  
 It was a long day   and we hit the sack early because we woke up at 2:30 in order to get on the road at 3:00 am. We met the Hobels at a gas station near the freeway and the trek began.

We made it to Chicago by about 4:00.  We had lots of help moving in because we had the Westbrooke and the Adamow couples waiting for us. Krista made a delicious lasagna that everyone loved and it was so nice to have a yummy dinner after the long day of driving. My family stayed in Chicago with us only for a day and then they had to make their way back to Utah.  I was so sad to see them go!

the next day we test drove some of the cars we had been researching online. We knew more about the cars than the dealer... we had studied the car fax and compared prices from a lot of places. one car had hit a deer and the sales guy had no idea until we showed him the grill and explained why it was cracked... funny.   I am grateful for my education and this day it really came in handy. Because of my contract and negotiations class I was able to get the dealer down about 3,500.00  on the price of the car we wanted. I wouldn't have known what to do with out taking that class.

We drove our 2010 Hyundai Elantra off the lot that night. Because we had our other car almost paid off we were able to put a good chunk of money down on this one and because we did well negotiating the price and warranty we basically stole the car...   Also because we are from Utah they used Utah's sales tax instead of the almost 10% here in Chicago. One of the guys working with us looked up the details and told us they only made a couple hundred off the car. that made me happy!!!

The car is AWESOME!!! lots of room, nice interior, ipod hookups, shiny and new!!!

Chicago has been so fun so far!
We have tons of trails and parks by our house. We live one block from Lake Michigan and have beaches all over the place. Our ward is good, lots of people like us there. The university of Chicago is close by so there are quit a bit of student families.

Brett says the thing he likes most about Chicago is everything and I have to agree. We are happy here... Don't quote me but I can see us staying here a while....

We will see...