Best birthday ever!

Next year is the big one…five-oh! So this year I completely expected to fly under the radar and have a quiet, relaxing weekend with family. Mike is always so good at planning fun things for me to celebrate my birthday. After knowing me for over 25 years he’s learned that my lack of hints on what I want to do is not indicative of what I want to do. I admit I like to feel special and my birthday is no exception. His hints were subtle, “I have plans for us this weekend so maybe run the Roomba if you have a chance.” What? My sister invited me to a paint night at a local art studio and we met Mike and Derrick at a bar after. In the middle of a stupid story I was telling about how Mike has been snoring lately I hear familiar voices, “Hi!”. Two of my closest friends, Jen and Katie, flew up from San Diego and surprised me. I was so surprised and so happy it took a minute for me to realize what was happening. Once I gave a million hugs I started crying because I was so blown away by their thoughtfulness and it hit me how much I missed them. We spent the weekend sharing stories, having girl time, shopping, hiking, and eating great food. It was a perfect weekend and I was so happy to share all of my favorite things with them. I hope they got a chance to see what a special place this is and maybe understand why we moved our family up here. I was so sad to see them go and so happy that I will be back in San Diego in December and February to visit them and the rest of my friends. Love you guys!!!

Kendall has been busy the last few months rehearsing for her play, “Peter and the Starcatcher” with her high school theater group. It was an adaptation of Peter Pan and I was blown away by their talent. It was a fantastic show with amazing acting. Kendall played a pirate and donned a beard so it was hard to recognize except for her booming voice. She has a future in acting and I’m so glad she found her “people” here. Despite a rough start once we moved here I heard her admit that she likes it better here. What? It takes time to get settled but I think she’s getting there.

Alex is doing well at Boulder and has even signed a lease for a house for next year so I guess he’s officially moving out after summer. I’m so happy for him and Boulder is an amazing place to live. He’s currently home for Thanksgiving break and it’s so nice to see him again!

Mike is enjoying the mountain biking here and has invested in warmer gear so he can battle the low temps while riding. He made a good time on his last ride until he looked up his stats and saw that ‘Out of Shape Fat Guy’ beat his time. Haha!

I have been enjoying the tennis scene up here and have been playing a few times a week with my new team. The women are all very nice and I feel right at home. I like playing indoor and am getting used to not wearing a visor or sunscreen. Also, since it’s cold we wear pants and I’ve discovered leggings with side pockets hold the tennis balls well. It’s a good thing because I’m not exactly tan anymore.

Mike and I are exploring fun restaurants and spend fun times with our next-door neighbors, Jen and Chello. Bonus, they have a boat and invited me and my sister for a spectacular tour on the Columbia river and happy hour at a dock in Portland. I can’t wait until summer for more fun times with them.

My sister, mom, and I went to several holiday fairs last weekend and got a taste of local artisans and their talents. My favorite was a young couple that owns a farm in Washougal and make wood and metal signs with a CNC machine. They had their holiday signs on display in their quaint barn with a potbelly stove, music, and fresh coffee cart. It gave me big dreams of relaunching my crafting business once we’re settled. I already added my craft studio to our new home design!

Speaking of home design, we are well on our way to getting our new house plans created. After a few versions, we decided to take a machete to it and start over. It’s not easy when you want so many things and then realize you’re looking at a huge home to fit everything but that’s not what we want either. The reality is, by the time our home is completed we will likely be empty nesters so we don’t want to have a large house to maintain. We also want a space for them to come to visit and bring their own families when they’re older so we need to find a balance. Designing a home is a lot of fun but it’s also a lot more difficult than I expected. We’re getting there and I will share our plans once we get close to decision time.

The weather has been so beautiful lately and I’ve heard many locals say it’s one of the nicest Novembers they remember. It’s sunny and 60 most of the time and I’m loving it. As I’m writing this it’s in the ’30s and snow flurries are expected so I guess Winter is here? I’m getting ready for it and will share my puffer jacket collection soon. I go to Costco and find a cute puffer jacket for $20 and it ends up in my cart every time. It’s the little things that make the weather bearable, right?

Sending all of you wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving!

xoxo!
Michelle

Settling in nicely

Fall is exploding here! This time of year is possibly the biggest reason I was excited to move here. The trees are so beautiful, the air is crisp, and I can wear a sweater and not feel suffocated. Mount Hood is covered in snow and makes a perfect white peak backdrop to the Columbia river gorge and orange/red trees. My iPhone doesn't do it justice! My dad and I found a hiking trail less than 10 minutes away with a bridge over lacamas creek. We explored for 2 hours with the dogs and found a few waterfalls and got lost. We ended up at the back of an elementary school. Crazy to think the school backs up to some of the most beautiful waterfalls, lake, and creek. While Kendall is at school and Mike is working I've been exploring with my parents. It's been fun to spend time with them, and the dogs too of course. We hired a builder and an architect and are on our way to building our new home. We have determined the budget, approx. size, style, and a rough layout. In our next meeting, we get to see the designer's interpretation of our wish list. I'm working on a separate account to share home building details for everyone that's interested to follow along. Stay tuned and I'll share the link.

We visited Alex in Boulder for family weekend and I'm happy to report that he's doing well. He loves it there and has been enjoying the social part of college. He got mono if that's any indication. TMI? Sorry.

Kendall is enjoying her theater group and spent a few days on an overnight field trip to Ashland, Oregon for the Shakespeare Festival. She was voted student of the week (I shared earlier) and that made me so happy to know that she is supported and accepted here. A friend from LCC stayed with us last weekend and it was so nice to see her laughing and smiling being her normal silly self.

Mike is busy working and traveling but on the weekends he's been enjoying sampling the local breweries and loving the mountain biking up here (when it's not raining). He's also meticulously documenting every penny we spend and deducting it from the new home budget so I have to stop buying sweaters and boots and hats and jackets or else I won't get my dream pantry.

I joined the local tennis team and am actually starting to feel "normal" here. I no longer feel like I'm in a dream/nightmare half the time and wondering why or what the heck? Thank you to everyone for all of your texts and check-ins. It means so much to me to know that I'm still connected to you. Be careful if you call though because we might be on the phone for 2 hours (right Katie Gessner Winship?). When designing our new home I considered adding a workout room, but chose a craft room instead. But seriously, there are so many active options outside the last thing I want is a room that makes me feel guilty every time I walk by it.

We will be in San Diego between Christmas until after New Year's Day. We'll be at the beach so let's do some stuff!

I think I'm gonna like it here...

Fall is here! It’s been chilly and rainy and I wore a sweater that I haven’t worn since I visited Seattle 6 years ago. Mike and I had a great visit with SD friends and a fun trip to Valle de Guadalupe in Mexico. The wine was very good but the highlight was definitely the food and restaurants. If you get a chance, I highly recommend it! Since we returned I have to admit I’ve been missing my friends a lot. I’m so lucky that I have my family here to share new things with but I can’t help wish I had some of my best friends to share new adventures with too. In the last few weeks I managed to connect with a new hairstylist, a new vet for Sadie, a doggy haircut place, a doctor, a dentist, etc. It’s a lot of work to get re-established but each place has been great and I’m so grateful for the friendly interactions with everyone. Today, I visited the nearest tennis center and signed up for some clinics. I’m excited to see how the tennis scene is up here and what it’s like to play indoors. We are currently meeting with home builders and toured the Parade of Homes and got a lot of ideas. The process will be long but it’s important that we consider all of our options. I’m happy to report that Kendall joined the theater group at her high school and will be in a Peter Pan production in November. This gives her a chance to meet new friends and get out of the house! Alex is doing very well at Boulder and we’re looking forward to Family Weekend next month. He’s rushing fraternities right now and had to buy a new suit. He ubered to the Nordstrom Rack and managed it all on his own. He only called me so that I could pay him back. Mike has been traveling a lot for work but as soon as he’s home he’s on ‘honey do’ duty. Thank goodness for Sadie! Most days it’s just the two of us and I’m one of those crazy ladies that wants to take their dog everywhere in a baby bjorn. Is that bad? Right now I’m 1/2 missing SD and wondering what the heck? And 1/2 loving it up here and wanting to share every beautiful thing with everyone. It’s not all perfect, of course, but it is really cool. I’m working hard at staying positive and pushing myself to enjoy the process. There are helpers everywhere and this weekend when I was feeling a little sad I ran into a lady at Lowe’s that stopped me and started a conversation. Her words of wisdom were “They skies might be grey but if you really look there are such beautiful shades of grey.” It made me smile and then I started thinking about 50 shades of grey and shuddered. Xoxo💕

Growing Pains

We spent the week in Boulder moving Alex into his dorm at University of Colorado. He is already having a blast and has somehow become the social director of the hall. He was beyond ready even though I wanted to hold on to every last second. Today was the first day of classes and he actually called me to report that all was good and his classes are close by. He and his roommate both have 9AM classes so they got up together and ate breakfast. His first class of the day is a seminar class for Humanities about the Vietnam war. It might be a nice break from his engineering based classes. Now that we’re home the focus is solely on Kendall and getting her ready to start her new high school tomorrow. We attended back to school orientation today and she definitely got a taste of small town high school. The school spirit is really apparent and everyone was really nice. It was different touring an indoor school with hallways and stairs. She was grateful to be inside since it was 90 degrees today. The most interesting difference was the theme for the day was all the students signed a vinyl banner with their commitment to graduate from high school. The focus wasn’t on college but graduating on time and finding a path that you’re interested in. The school not only caters to college but also vocational skills and offers classes in fire fighting, dentistry, woodworking, metals, car repair, etc. I find that to be very refreshing. Kendall is taking a metals class so she’s excited to learn how to weld. She also discovered that schools here have 9th graders take Physics and Juniors take Chemistry. She’s kind of bummed that she’ll have to take a physics class with all freshman. I’d also like to say how proud I am of her for being so brave. We sent her to San Diego to spend time with friends this weekend and she came back feeling extra sad but ready to meet new people and make friends. Fingers crossed that she has a good first day tomorrow! Oh, and she decided to bleach half of her hair. She gets a lot of compliments on it. I just want her to be happy. 💕

New Town

Our first week here is in the books. We managed to find a good balance of fun stuff and “have to” stuff. Some of the highlights...Mike and Alex went mountain biking at Lacamas Lake and enjoyed riding the hills in the shade under all the trees and next to waterfalls. They had to watch out for tree roots instead of the rattlesnakes at La Costa. Kendall and I got our ears pierced (second) and picked out fun jewelry. I went to a local farm with my sister and Eva and we picked blueberries ($1/pound). Alex and I went hiking and picked wild blackberries. The kids and I went to Cottonwood beach (5 minutes from our house) on the Columbia River and almost didn’t miss the ocean. It’s been warm here (mid 80’s) so it was a perfect day for the beach. The whole family went to Dougan Falls (30 minutes away). It was one of the most beautiful places I’ve seen. There was a swimming hole and a lot to explore and only a few other people were there. We also went on a speed boat on the Willamette River in Portland then walked around downtown in the rain. I’m sure it will be tough in the winter but for now, I’m loving the brief periods of rain and thunder. Alex has been helping with household projects and acting all grown up...dangit. We went to the dmv and got our licenses changed. No appointment necessary and the wait was 5 minutes. Yep! Sadie has been coming with us everywhere because dogs are allowed in all parks and beaches. Today we drove to a mall in Portland (no sales tax!) to go back to school shopping. Alex leaves for college this weekend and I’m really enjoying all this time we are spending together. Kendall has another week 1/2 before she starts high school here and will attend new student orientation and meet all of her teachers. She’s nervous and excited. She’s going to do something funky with her hair on Friday so I’ll post pictures. Some observations...pretty much everyone here drives the speed limit. No one is in a hurry. Every cashier makes conversation like they do in SD at Trader Joe’s. They all ask if you have any fun plans for the day/weekend/evening. Everyone is SO nice it’s contagious. Even Kendall, who doesn’t like small talk, is enjoying it and has commented several times how nice people are.

The Big Move

We drove for two days (sat and sun) and arrived Sunday night. 7 cars, 11 people, 3 dogs. On day 2 it was cool to see the trees start to get bigger and more dense as we drove north. Yesterday was a full day of unpacking and setting up this temporary house to feel like a home. Kendall and I went to the post office and she asked if it was closed since there weren’t any cars in the parking lot. It was nice to walk in and be greeted by 3 workers at the counter eager to help. Across the street is the local hardware store right out of a movie. It had everything and an older guy that owns it was so sweet and helpful. A high school girl worked the register. Sadie has discovered that there are no lizards up here to chase but there are spiders that are bigger than lizards and run really fast. Ewwwww! Alex has been having fun with exploring but his mind is definitely on college and I’m in denial that he’ll be gone in two weeks. Kendall is feeling the pain of leaving her friends in SD and isn’t so sure she made the right decision on moving. At least she has her cousins to hang out with. Mike has always been happy to move and hasn’t complained once except when I took most of the closet space and drawers in the bathroom. As for me, I am so in love with the beauty up here. So many trees and the air feels so fresh. All the unpacking has kept my mind off of the difficulty of leaving my friends that I love so much and the sad last day we had when a family lost their loved ones on the beach behind our rental. I’m choosing to focus on the next time we visit again on Labor Day and my plan to stay in touch with everyone as much as possible. Tonight we celebrate my cousin’s birthday and our whole clan will get together for the first time. There will be 8 of them plus the 16 of us that now live here. We’re only missing my cousin Katie who will join us soon. That’s a big group of SD transplants!