Alaska, How We Miss You

If you have been using our blog to keep up with our family's goings on lately, you are probably pretty confused where we are right now.  Normally I keep the posts current on what is happening with the family that week or the week before.  But our world got a little busy for about six weeks and I got behind.  The last several posts have been playing catch up, and let me catch you up the rest of the way -

 We no longer live in cool, mountainous Alaska...

but have moved back to warm, sunny Texas!

It was a hard decision, made with very mixed emotions, to choose to leave a state that we love so much.    But an opportunity came Aaron's way that seemed the best path to take to meet both Aaron's career goals and our family's long term goals.  We couldn't pass it up, just to stay in our treasured Alaska another year or two (because we always knew we weren't going to be there forever...).

Once the decision was made and official, we didn't have long to say our goodbyes and get the long move coordinated.  Luckily, after the Houston/Seattle trip, we had a few down days to see friends and hit up few of our favorite hiking and biking trails before the movers came and packed us up.  

It was hard to say goodbye to the families and friends that have been such a big part of our lives here.  Over the last two and a half years, watching the kids of friends grow right along with Ethan, we have come to love them as if they were ours.  The hardest part of leaving is knowing these kids are going to keep growing and changing, and we won't be there to see it!  

We also soaked up as much time as possible in our gorgeous yard and the house we loved so much.  Our backyard was our private little slice of Alaska paradise that we cherished.

So many fantastic memories were made in the house - it's where we brought our babies home from the hospital, where we learned to be parents, and where we became the family we are today. 

It is a very special place for our family and it makes me sad today, thinking about how much I miss it.  

Alaska was not just a place where we had a lot of fun, but it taught Aaron and I a lot about how we want to live our lives.  In Alaska:

We found a better work/life balance then we knew before; 

We realized how happy it makes us to have nature apart of our everyday lives and not just where we go on vacation; 

We found sports we never imagined we would fall in love with; 

We learned to embrace the local culture we live in and incorporate it in our lives.  

All of these lessons not only made us as individuals better, but made us better parents.  Now that we have left Alaska, we strive to continue to raise our kids in the lifestyle that we came to love living there.   

I'll be honest, the first two weeks of being in Houston, I had a very hard time not crying every time I thought about what we left in Alaska...all the family adventures and the lifestyle we had.

Then one day I had the cheesy realization that, we didn't leave all that behind.  It was one of the those great moments in life when you look up and realize you have everything you need right in front of you, and feeling so content - my wonderful husband and adorable kids playing together, our dogs running around, and all of us laughing, enjoying the summer sun.   We will have fantastic family moments where ever we are, and that is what makes our lives so good.

We miss all that we came to love about living in Alaska, but we are also very excited about all the adventure and fun we will create on this new chapter in Texas!