An Unexpected Turn of Events - Summer 2015

Brandon's Side of the Story:
[add later]

Whitney's Side of the Story:  
Sometime during the spring of this year, Brandon started talking to me about the possibility of moving to Utah for work.  I couldn't believe what I was hearing!  Brandon has loved Arizona and I was shocked to hear him suggest that we uproot our family and move to Utah!?  We had built our house in Lehi Crossing in north Mesa less than two years ago and we had moved there with the intention of finding a place/area that I could see us staying long term.  We moved to our new home and instantly fell in love with the neighborhood, ward, schools, etc.  We invested a lot of time and money in our home and were constantly working on home projects/upgrades.  We were convinced that we'd stay there for many years.  I finally found my Arizona niche, and the kids were really loving it too!  Rachel loved her school and her and her best friend, Holly, had been inseparable since the first day of Kindergarten.  Andrew had daily playdates and the best buddies a 4 year old could ask for.  Kendall even found a best friend, Brooklyn (ages 2.5 & 3) and I haven't ever seen two toddlers play as well as these girls do.  Truthfully, I saw my children going to high school with all these friends and being Toros at Mountain View.  I had fully committed to living in Arizona for the long haul.

Brandon started casually looking for jobs while I slowly came around to the idea.  Girls' Camp kept me extremely busy in April/May, so gratefully, I wasn't able to think too much about it.  I could see Brandon was not keen on the idea of billing hours for his entire career and becoming partner seemed stressful and demanding in many ways.  For the first time since moving to Arizona, he seemed slightly unhappy with things at work and the idea of working in-house seemed very appealing to him.
 
Then all of a sudden, Brandon had a promising job interview with Vivint Solar in Lehi, Utah as in-house counsel and I can't think of a time when I have seen him more excited about something!  Then before I could blink, he had a verbal offer (while I was at Girls Camp) and a promise of a job in Utah.  We weren't sure what to expect with the timing, so when I got home from camp, I spent the next few weeks getting the house ready to be put on the market.  In fact, we had the house ready to sell and pictures taken when we left on July 1st for our annual summer vacation to Utah.  But we weren't willing to do anything or tell anyone in Arizona until we had an offer letter in hand.  After weeks of stalling and putting us off, we finally figured out that something bigger was at play at Vivint Solar.  After seven weeks of ups and downs and uncertainty, they finally announced that they were being acquired by SunEdison and our hearts sank, not knowing what the future held.  But then, just a few hours later, the legal team called and explained that they had not been able to do or say anything until the acquisition had been announced.  They were more than ready to proceed with the offer and got Brandon an official offer letter the next day.

We attended the Allred family reunion and then made our way back to Arizona while we contemplated the many life changes that this job would mean for our family.  After many weeks of prayer, fasting and going to the temple, everything felt good and we accepted the offer in Utah!!  We had successfully kept this information from the kids for all those weeks because we didn't want them to get their hearts set on anything.  We told them that night that daddy got a new job and that we all would be moving to Utah in 2 and a half weeks.  Rachel's reaction was epic - it was pure elation for a few minutes and shouting that her "dream had finally come true!" and then she got very quiet and began to think of all the things and people she'd miss in Arizona and the tears began to flow.  I was also happy/sad/nervous/excited, all at the same time!!  It was a whirlwind two weeks full of goodbyes, putting up our house for sale, finding new schools for the kids, and packing only what we could fit in our two cars since we wanted to leave the house staged with all of our furniture and decor.

We successfully arrived in Utah on August 14 and planned to live in our parents' basement until our house was sold.  Brandon started work at his new job on the 17th and Rachel started school at Sego Lily Elementary in Lehi on the 19th.  I felt that we all coped with the changes in our different ways, but we all supported each other and were very excited for the new adventures ahead!

New Job Timeline:
- May 26:  Brandon flies to UT for an interview with Vivint Solar & is so excited for the opportunity
- June 4:  Brandon gets a verbal offer with a promise for an official offer letter the following week
- JUNE:  Lots of waiting and contemplating; Vivint Solar seemed to be stalling and kept putting us off for a week or two, but everything still felt promising
- July 1:  Head to Utah for the month with the kids
- JULY:  Full of ups and downs with very little information, but we get the idea that something big is about to happen and we were unsure how it might affect us and the new job
- July 20:  Vivint Solar announces that they are being acquired by Sun Edison for $2.2 billion and Brandon receives a phone call from their legal department just a couple hours later
- July 21:  Brandon receives an official offer letter!
- July 26:  Return to Arizona
- July 28:  We make the decision to take the job and move our family to Utah
- July 31:  Put the house up for sale
- Aug 13:  Pack our two cars with whatever we could fit and move to Utah (leaving the rest of our belongings in the house in Arizona)
- Aug 17:  Brandon's first day at Vivint Solar
- Aug 19:  Rachel's first day at a new school