Family Trip #2: Moving to Madison, Wisconsin via Los Alamos, New Mexico, Summer 1990

We brought David home in the evening of the day of his birth. Here is our humble apartment.

Scott blessed David in this outfit shortly after he was born

 A few weeks before our first anniversary and the end of our last year at BYU, a sweet little baby boy was born to our family whom we named David. After the semester ended, we planned to move to Los Alamos again for the summer. Scott had one final class to finish up for his degree which he planned to do through Independent Study. Then we found out that Scott would earn a much better hourly rate at his summer job if he was completely done with all his graduation requirements. So he decided to do his Advanced Writing and Biology courses through Independent Study in a speedy 3 weeks plus continuing to work at his BYU job working for some physics professors. 

When he was done, about halfway through May 1990, we moved to Los Alamos, New Mexico. We didn't have a place to stay yet but a couple we had met the summer before in the Los Alamos ward let us stay with them. We remember the Spencers with fondness. I still remember seeing a picture of them on their wedding day--she was much thinner and younger. I commented on what a nice picture it was and she said, Oh, I'm so glad you recognized me! Some people say, Is this picture from your husband's first marriage?

We found a place to stay in the upstairs half of a house. We shared the kitchen with the owner and her daughter who stayed in the basement but they almost never used the kitchen except for Sunday morning breakfasts when we traded off cooking.

We visited Bandalier National Monument with a friend named Hans Pew

David asleep in our stroller--our only stroller

Mary Ann Kelly and her daughter and cat--the woman we rented from. Mary Ann had an old Blazer that Scott wanted to buy from her but we really didn't need or could afford another car.

Right before we left, Scott's father and his wife came for a visit. We visited an old mission in Santa Fe called the San Miguel mission--the oldest church in the U.S., built in 1610. Scott grew a beard that summer and then shaved it off right before we went back to Provo for graduation.

In the middle of August, we packed up our stuff and moved back to Provo for graduation before moving on to Wisconsin for graduate school.

David met his new aunt Liesl for the first time

In Provo, the big question was what was the cheapest way to move all our stuff? Since we only owned one piece of furniture--a rocking chair given to us by Scott's mother--we decided to ship everything else in boxes through Amtrak and ship the rocking chair through the mail since Amtrak didn't ship furniture. 

Near the end of August, the three of us started out for Madison in our little Toyota. The trip went reasonably well although the car was pretty crowded with all the stuff we could cram into it. The strongest memory I have of the trip is when Scott really wanted to stop and get something to eat in Iowa at a drive-through. But 4-month-old David was asleep and I really wanted him to stay asleep long enough that he would be willing to nurse when he woke up. David was becoming more and more reluctant to nurse which was very frustrating to me. So I told Scott not to stop but Scott listened to his stomach and David woke up. He wouldn't nurse but would only cry. And then I started crying out of frustration. And Scott felt very guilty as he ate his burger and fries. As well he should!

We didn't have a place to stay in Madison yet so we stayed in a cheap motel and found an apartment as quickly as possible. We rented a truck to go pick up our stuff in Milwaukee that we had shipped. And we bought a kitchen table, a bed for us and a crib for David. And a really ugly used couch made of black Naugahyde with a rip in the seat. And a stereo--our splurge.

Our apartment was in a less desirable part of town, right next to the Kmart. The Kmart was very convenient though. The main problem was that we lived far away from the rest of the married students in our ward so it was somewhat isolating. Fortunately, we were able to move into the married student housing the following June.