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!