Well, we are here! We made it. We left on a Monday morning and drove most of the way. We had to stay in a hotel that night anyways since we were not able to meet with our property managers until this next day. We stayed in a little town outside of Portland. Cal was a rockstar on the drive! He did not make one sound the whole way. Mae cried on and off. We stopped in some cute towns, listened to a good book on tape, and had a fun drive together.
I was pretty dang nervous the last 15 minutes of the drive because we committed to living in this house for a year without seeing it in person first! We were pleasantly surprised and actually love the neighborhood and house. It has a lot of space and there are great running trails all around our neighborhood. Cal was a tornado of craziness while we did the walkthrough with our property manager because he had 13 hours of built up energy.
Turns out we couldn't have the moving truck deliver our stuff until TEN days after we got there! I was a little annoyed because Dal had a week before he had to start work and I thought we could get everything settled, but it ended up being fun because we could do fun things instead of unpacking with his time off. It ended up only taking a couple of days to unload our stuff, and we had to indoor camp for a little over a week with no furniture.
Dal's parents were suuuuuper nice and drove Dal's car up for us so that we could all ride in one car up here. They stayed for the weekend and we had a lot of fun with them going to the Olympia farmer's market, walking at Priest Point Park, catching crabs by the ocean, seeing Jurassic Park (which cal loved), and exploring Seattle (even though it was pretty crowded that day). We were sad to see them leave.
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| He held a crab! |
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| gum wall |
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| Swimming in his clothes |
We drove to Snowqualmie Falls one day with Dallin's cousins while they were in town. I went there last year, but Dal had never been. It is a nice hike, and the falls are beautiful! It was so fun to spend time with Josh and Jenessa + their cute kids, too.
I feel really blessed that we have been able to feel settled so quickly here. Everyone has been so nice and welcoming. We love our ward and have made some friends with fellow residents and their families. I joined a gym with a kids care... Cal loves it (Mae tolerates it...), and it is nice for me to be able to have an hour to work out without pushing a stroller. Also, everywhere we go is beautiful. We miss our family, but I think we will love our year (+?) here.
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| We bought a new couch! |
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| a park right by our house |
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| a trip to Ikea... Cal had an accident in the ball pit!! It was bad, but he hasn't had one since then and it was a month ago! Woo! |
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| Running trail 1/2 mile from my house |
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| official |
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| She finally likes food! |
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| The day we spent all day unpacking and Cal ate ice cream out of the carton in our bedroom wearing no clothes. Not my best parenting day. |
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| Move-in day |
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| Most depressing day at the grocery store... had to spend sooo much money since our fridge and pantry were completely empty. |
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| Chick Fil-A in Tacoma |
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| Making jam with strawberries from the farmer's market. Making jam in bulk is much more fun with my friends in Vegas than by myself. |
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| Bass Pro shops getting Dal a fishing pole for Father's day |
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| Every morning. He kind of drives her nuts. |
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| She laughs her head off the second she gets in the swing. |
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| I really love my baby girl. This is a Father's day selfie since Dallin had to go to a dumb training and we had to go to church by ourselves |
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| standing! |
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| Father's day shenanigans |
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| Our neighborhood |
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| Hanging out with his friend Scout after walking on a pretty trail to get to the Puget sound |
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| Mae's new friend from our ward that is one day younger than her and twice her size |
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| Story time at the library by our house. Cal loved it! |
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| An evening an Nisqually state park. We saw a beaver! |
