the 'ham

12 years ago I was barely 18 years old and moved up to Bellingham to go to WWU.  Who would have thought I'd still be here today? As we pack up the house and get ready to leave Matt and I have created our B'ham Bucket List...basically all the places we want to go before we leave.  On the list, of course, was Western.  It's where we went to college, met some of our closest friends, grew up, discovered who we were, had some really fun times and discovered our love of Bellingham. 

So, we took the kids there the other day.  And, why haven't I taken Carter to campus more often?  It's miles of room to run, explore, discover and play! 

Like Father, like son.

Carter wanted to jump in the fountain SO much! 

Exploring the famous sculpture.  Hmmm....

The most gorgeous view.  I think I took this for granted every day when I would be eating at the dining hall.  I was even lucky enough to have the same view my last 3 years of college from our house.  So beautiful!

Climbing the stairs.

It was fun to go back and visit.  Even though we live in Bellingham, we hadn't been to the campus is over 3 years! 
Other fun things I'll miss about Bellingham:

The local food.  Oh gosh, do I even start a list?  Okay, sure, why not!
Bounday Bay, Mallards, LaFiamma, D'Annas, On Rice, Pure Bliss, Taco Lobo, Boomers, Skylarks, Guisseppi's, Grace Cafe, Bagelry, Avellinos, Harris Ave, LaFeens, Rocket Donuts, Farmer's Market, Rudys.  Okay, I'll stop there.

The parks - favorites are Boulevard, Cornwall, Marine, Fairhaven, Tot Lot, Elizabeth, Lake Padden, BloDel Donovan, Whatcom Falls and SO many more

The people - those friends who have known you for so long and still love you, drop anything to help you, and laugh with you.  I'm really going to miss our "group" and watching our kids all grow up together.  We'll be sure to come up for a few Wagner summer BBQ's each year!

The culture - the laid-back, wear jeans and a hoodie to "fancy" restaurants, appreciate the greatness of this city, friendly, happy people of Bellingham.

What I won't miss:  crazy Canadians.

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home sweet home.

In case anyone missed the big Facebook announcement, we are officially moving.  Matt was offered a new position at Salal Credit Union in Seattle and we'll be leaving Bellingham at the end of the month.  

To prepare we spent 7 hours today packing up boxes while the kids played at our nanny's house. Thank goodness we had the smarts to think ahead and get the kids out of the house!

Because of the craziness of life I haven't had a lot of time to just sit and refect on this move.  Today I knew we had a tight schedule and I wanted to get as much stuff packed before the kids came home so I never really sat and took in the memories.  Instead, I hurriedly loaded things up, marked the box and moved on to the next room.  But, as I sit here in a quiet house I realize just how hard it's going to be to leave this house.  Looking at the bare walls, empty bookshelves and cleaned off counters makes me very sad. 

For the first 6 months of our marriage we lived in a tiny 2 bedroom house about 2 blocks away from where we live now (obviously we loved the neighborhood enough to buy right down the street!).  Being naive young people we quickly house hunted and convinced ourselves a fixer-upper was the way to go.  After 2 long months of remodeling we finally moved in.  This house was awful when we bought it.  Green floral wallpaper covered the kitchen, glittered popcorn ceilings littered the entire house and a random built in ironing board stuck out of the wall in what is now Carter's room leaving quite the eye sore.  The bathroom needed to be gutted, hardwood floors redone, closets ripped out and pieced back together and new light fixtures needed to be hung.  It was a TON of work, but we (well, let's say Matt and his Dad) did it and made it our home. 

In the past 4 1/2 years we have built so many memories.  6 months after we bought the house we became even more naive and got a puppy.  A crazy, wild, loving, cuddly dog.  Our "practice" before having kids.  We thought it we could take care of a puppy, kids would be simple.  Little did we know!

We brought 2 babies to this home.

We spent countless hours fixing up not one, but 2 nurseries all the while imagining what life would be like with a baby.

We watched our big boy grow up.  He took his first steps right in front of the built-in bookshelf one night right after dinner.  And then, he did it again.  And then, never slowed down.

I'm probably making this much sappier than it really needs to be.  But, it's not really the structural house that I'll miss, it's the memories.  This house has issues.  Some I will not miss. Like when Matt had to go underneath the house dozens of times during the winter months to check on the sump pump in the middle of the night.  Like how it gets super hot in the summer and crazy cold in the winter.  How the hardwood floors creak in the just the wrong spots to wake up a sleeping baby.  The horrible lighting in the kitchen.  The tiny bathroom. 

But, it has memories.  Good ones.  Many that I hope to not forget.  So, just as a reminder for me to look back on years from now, here are some pictures of our house, just the way it always was (dirty floors and all!)

The kitchen.

Living room.

Carter's room.

Lucy's room (that she never even slept in other than a few naps!)

Our bedroom.

Bathroom.

Bathroom.

And our old gross backyard that the previous owners thought they could convert to some sort of garden.  As you can see, they didn't succeed.

Matt's hard work to make it so much better!

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sweet potatoes and monkeys.

Kind of a strange title for a post, but it's really what I'm going to talk about.  Let's start with sweet potatoes.  Yes, we started Lucy on solids and no, she doesn't like sweet potatoes. 

I'm not sure if it was a taste or a texture thing but after 4 days of trying, she still wasn't convinced.  So, we moved on.  Lucky for us (and her!) she is loving avocados, bananas and oatmeal.  We are doing baby-led weaning this time which just means no purees, moving straight to soft, whole foods and letting her feed herself.  It's super easy prep work for me and Lucy loves having the freedom to feed herself.  She has already mastered a spoon and even though it's a bit messier, it's so fun to watch her explore new tastes!

She finally fits in the backpack!  Now we just need to find a time to go hiking.  And...figure out what to do with a toddler who takes 10 minutes to walk from the front door to the driveway.  I'm not sure if we'd ever actually finish a hike with him walking next to us.

On to the monkeys (well, giraffes too).  Last year we took Carter to Point Defiance Zoo for Matt's 30th birthday family day.  So, this year we decided to visit Woodland Park Zoo for my 30th birthday family day.  I know it probably sounds a bit lame to visit a zoo for your 30th birthday but we all had fun, which is really all that matters.
We quickly found the giraffe, my favorite animal!

Carter loved petting the goats.  But, then he was a little confused why he couldn't pet every animal!

He could have stayed on this tractor all day.  Who needs an enormous zoo full of wild animals when you can drive a tractor?

Oh yes, and the carousel too.  Rode it 4 times in a row.

Patiently waiting for Carter to finish riding the carousel.

Finally, we found the monkeys.  Carter's favorite animal.  Funny thing is I think the monkeys liked him too. Each time he went up the glass the monkey (or orangoutang or gorilla) would walk over to him and just stare.  Other little kids would come by but the monkey would only focus on Carter.  So fun!

Uncle Adam spent the day with us too.  Carter was in heaven having his grandma and grandpa AND Uncle Adam to play with.

Such a fun day!  

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