Forward!

We are moving to Madison! Remember when we took a trip there for Tygan's interview?

Selfies on a plane

Yep. Tygan will be doing software development at Epic, a medical software company. Although it will be far away from family (and from anyone we know, really) and, as everyone keeps reminding us, it will be cold, we really like the company and the area seems nice. Epic has taken really good care of us so far and has great benefits and pay. Even if we don't stay there forever, I think working there will keep a lot of doors open for Tygan in the future too. Besides the cold and humidity, Wisconsin seems like a very friendly place and Madison is a great city for raising a family (and it apparently has the most playgrounds per capita), if we end up really settling down there.

It's taken me a while to adjust to the idea of moving halfway across the country, but here are some of the awesome things about moving that we came up with:

• Fewer hills to drive our stick-shift car on!
• Summers won't be too hot
• More missionary opportunities
• More humidity = less dry, cracked hands and lips
• Likely a bigger apartment with a washer, dryer, and dishwasher
• Probably covered parking too!
• Pretty lakes and such
• Amusement parks

Currently we are in the researching-apartments-online stage; after we narrow it down a bit, we'll set up tours with them and fly out in March to see them and maybe even sign a contract! We're hoping to end up with a place that's very close to where Tygan will be working and has covered parking (and is within our budget). We actually found our potential bishop's contact info on lds.org (there's only one ward for the area we're most interested in) and are getting a lot of recommendations from the ward. We got added to their ward Facebook group, so I feel like we already kind of have an idea of what they're like. It seems like it's a relatively young and social ward; they always seem to be having cool activities and helping each other out. Oh, and our temple will be the Chicago temple, so that'll be fun!

Anyway, this is definitely going to be another big adventure. It will be bittersweet to leave BYU, but the Wisconsin state motto is "FORWARD." Appropriate, no?