Pittsburgh - How we love thee...most of thee anyway. Posted by the Mrs.

Well, we've made the move from Pittsburgh to Salt Lake and thought a recap of the adventure for old times sake was a great way to close that chapter.

I thought I would start out with the things we weren't going to miss so we can end on a happy note!

We will not be missing these:

Stink bugs

They don't die very easily and when you finally give a good centered smack with a shoe - they crunch most disturbingly.

They are everywhere somehow.

This guy managed to find his way in-between the glass and the digital screen of the gas pump.

Squirrels.

I never thought much of them until we moved to Pittsburgh and we started growing them in the roof of our porch! Seen here are 3 of the 4 members of the growing family.

Unfortunately, they had to go.

In addition, when we got back from our Mexico/Utah-Wedding travels we found that RACOONS had taken over our entire attic and started digging a 2 inch whole through our bathroom ceiling.

Needless to say, it was hard to sleep that night.

Our sunken home.

Before Duncan was able to crawl, we could place him in the center of the main floor, hand him a bunch of racketballs and though they would roll and bounce away they would always come rolling back for more.

That was the only benefit of our crooked house.

What isn't pictured here is the time the city turned off our water in the middle of the day (keep in mind my sister, her husband, and their 2 kids were living with our three person family) because our Landlady hadn't paid the water bill for 4 months.

We almost went without water for 24 hours.

Thank goodness for water storage!

Also not pictured, our first night in Pittsburgh. We had just traveled four days on the road to a completely new and strange place. Left all of our family and friends to live and go to school in this new place. All night we tried to sleep but the intense humidity was making it extremely difficult and the open windows weren't making a bit of difference. Around 2 AM, for 30 minutes we heard loud banging on our duplex neighbor's front door followed by demands for them to come out.

Talk about wondering if we had made the right decision!

For a long time we didn't really know who lived next door because they kept to themselves, the blinds were always pulled down, and they mostly came out at night.

It also didn't help that they wore different color and length wigs every day with sunglasses.

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Here is where the tables turn and Pittsburgh becomes dearly missed.

Pittsburgh has the best (and most) thunder, lightning, and rain storms of anywhere I know.

This was one of the more amazing and exceptional storms where the hail was slightly dangerous but so exciting to view from the front door!

(p.s. that's a QUARTER!)

How I will miss those bridges and the vast amount of water that surrounded the city.

Our place we called home.

1001 Mirror Street

We will miss spending time with the Cramers a lot! We have fond memories of sharing the same roof and playing games, eating what we like to call Cramer Cookie Dough, and watching Wipeout!

We hope to live near them again someday! *Wink Wink, Nudge Nudge*

Pretty much the only way out of Pittsburgh is by tunnel...or river.

Towards the end of our stay in the Burgh, Duncan began to recognize and love the tunnel time.

Did I mention the love for bridges?!

OK, just making sure.

Oh Pamela's. Great Breakfast food.

Friends.

Our friends became a part of our family.

We had Co-op dinner exchanges, fun at the parks, thrifting every Wednesday, and lots of babysitting exchanges.

How we hate to say good-bye to good friends with every change and move we make.

(Gavin and Duncan - Brothers from other mothers)

Rialtos - Specialty Pizza.

Steak and Ranch

Invention of Awesomeness

The owner said he would fax me the recipe when I told him we were moving and how much we love this pizza and that we would be out of delivery range.

I'm hoping he meant it.

We had so many adventures during our main adventure.

I wish we could have done more but we loved all that we were able to do.

A behind the scenes tour at the Pentagon (which isn't round by the way), The Sacred Grove and Hill Cumorah Pageant, Niagara Falls, and the National Mall are just some of the highlights of our roadtrips out East.

Last but not least, we LOVED having friends and family come visit us!

It gave us an excuse to do and see more, share our home, and enjoy personal time with each visitor. We hope that wherever we end up that we will have lots of visitors again!

What a grand adventure Pittsburgh turned out to be.