Dear Washington,
You have taught us and brought us so many new things in these last 2 years. Before living here, we had never experienced all 4 seasons… in one day! You forced us to learn how to strap chains on our tires and skis on our feet. Without a doubt you have taught me that I am solar-powered! I remember how I used to hate seeing the sun on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, or Christmas in Arizona. While I still prefer the holidays to feel wintery and cozy, I NEED the sun aside from those 3 days! You have taught us both how to appreciate the outdoors so much more and how our kids love adventure! You have brought us AMAZING new friendships and taught us that even in our late 20’s and early 30’s it’s not too late to make lifelong friends.
You brought us a beautiful home that had a three car garage that Jon always wanted and a large walk-in pantry that I was dying to have. It was in that third bay of our garage that we hosted Monday night workouts with friends that got us prepped for the first Spartan race that we ran together! It was in that house that we knelt by Brody’s bed and prayed with him as he wanted to ask Jesus to come and live in his heart. (By now, my tears are flowing.) It was also in that house where we sat with friends, talked and laughed and cried with friends, and grew in our faith with friends. You gave us a safe living room where Jon and I sat on the couch night after night talking about and praying about our dream.
Our DREAM that we are now pioneering after.
When I was weak Jon was strong and when he was weak I was strong. You have helped us realize how driven we are and how determined we are in continuing to build this business that God has blessed us with. For far too long we felt like we had just settled and gotten stuck in the same daily grind. Even when we have been discontent we “just keep swimming”. We are still swimming, but we are swimming in a new direction that feels incredibly FREEING!
You have given us an entirely new meaning to the color green! You have also taught us exactly how the many shades of green come to be. If you mixed in just about 99% more sunshine into that equation then we’d be on the same page.
And…
…wait for it…
…wait for it…
you have taught us that Starbucks is NOT the only coffee out there. You have some of the best coffee shops that have given us a whole new meaning to good coffee! You have also given me a whole new boldness to myself that I never knew or thought I had. I’m an introvert, but since we have been here I have blindly reached out to so many other creatives and business owners which has resulted in new connections and in AMAZING creative results that we can share more on in the near(ish) future!!
So, Washington, this is our “see you soon!”
We have family and too good of friends up here for it to be a “goodbye”. We will be back to visit (in the summers!), but thank you. Thank you for the beautiful home you have given us for the past two years. You have heard me complain one or two or 1,058 times about the gloom and grey, but when you’re pretty, you’re fairytale pretty!! Thank you for the fun new memories we have made with our family that we will cherish forever. Thank you for the lifelong friends you gave us and for all the laughter they bring us. (The kind of laughter that gives us an ab workout every single time!) And thank you for being the place where we made one of the biggest decisions in our lives to close the door on all we’ve ever known for the last 8 years so that we can go full-time in pursuing our DREAM together!
Moving to Washington was one of the best things we have ever done. Ever.
It wasn’t always easy and it’s still not very easy now to be leaving. But being in the PNW allowed us to clear our minds, reevaluate, motivate each other and then jump ALL in to our photography business.
Here’s to the next season of life, and the next chapter in our story!
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