Where We Live Now

So we are all unpacked and the paintings are hung and we are officially settled in.  The kids have been in school for a week and a half and we have been to our new ward twice.  So here's the verdict.  Awesome ward.  School seems good and the kids seem to be making friends.  The house is good although it needs some updating and a little help on the functionality scale (weird spaces, and lack of storage/guest space have forced us to be creative).  But the best part is the yard.  Seriously awesome.  The kids have played outside more in the last two weeks than they did in a year and a half in Virginia.  There was no yard, no place to play, not much by way of good weather, and lots of mean pit bulls.  The only dogs that come around here seem to be pretty friendly. So this yard is a dream.  There is just so much yard space.

This is a view of the back of the house with the patio.  We don't go back there much:

 This is a view from the front yard looking up the driveway (parking lot?) and huge side yard (maybe it is the front yard?  Again I'm kind of murky on what to call different spaces in this house).  Can you see how this is a skating/scootering/biking dream driveway?:

 This is the view if you take about five steps from the spot where the picture above was taken and turn towards the back.  Plenty of parking and room for the kids to go wild on wheeled toys.  And you may also understand why Rob went and bought a snow blower.  I love to shovel snow (I really do) but this would take me weeks to clear with a shovel:

 Stepping back to the edge of the driveway and looking back at the house.  Yes, the river rock is pretty ugly, but you can't have it all, at least when you are renting.  Overall, if we end up purchasing this house, it wouldn't be so hard to transform it into something a little more to our liking:

 From the front porch, we have beautiful views of the city and of Mount Rose.  Love it.  Love, love, love, the view.  Oh yeah, and that is the front yard.  More space.  And another bonus is the tons of birds that like to hang out here.  Quails, blue jays, sparrows, and hawks.  Yes we have a hawk drop by pretty regularly.  Very cool.  We gotta hurry and find the bird feeder so we can really attract the birds through the winter:

Below is the other side yard or back yard or whatever it should be called.  It is a huge patch of dirt with a big shed, enclosed by a black iron fence.  It seems to me to be the perfect space to put the pool if we end up buying :)

  And beyond all that...a huge field of sagebrush just waiting to be explored.  So that is the tour of the outside.  More of the inside later.  (And thanks to my Dad.  I stole most of the pictures from him).