keeping up with our crew

Because so much is new in our world and because I'm just so horrible at keeping in touch with everyone (I blame the time zone + a general lack of free time), I thought this would be an easier way to keep everyone up-to-date with what's new with our crew.

We moved to Seattle at the end of June. Two daycares (for the kids), two jobs (for me), and one 1977 Apache camper later, it finally feels like we're settling in.

So, about Seattle:

Hiking Mt. Rainier

The view from the Seattle Aquarium | Wilder and a huge leaf

It's beautiful. We're really feeling lucky to be someplace where we see the mountains and the water on regular, run-of-the-mill drives. There's so much here for us to do and we feel like we're getting outside so much more. As a bonus, so far the weather has been excellent. Summer was warm (but not hot) and now we're in the throes of fall, which is crisp and - mostly - clear. The leaves have changed and are still on the trees, which makes everything so beautiful.

I'm secretly excited for when the leaves fall and we will still have so much green around us. Evergreen trees that stay green year-round are something I've really missed after spending 12+ years in places where the trees are just brown sticks for 8 months out of the year.

It feels so healthy here. It seems like everyone has healthy habits and they're rubbing off on us. I think we're a reasonably healthy bunch anyway, but being surrounded by people who get out and move regularly and who cook fresh, healthy meals is really inspiring.

We really like our jobs, Wilder really loves her preschool, and the babies seem to really love their teacher. This is about as lucky as you can get after making a life-altering cross-country move with not much of a plan.

On the flip side, Wilder misses Louisville and talks about it a lot. She tells me that she wants to live in our old house and wants to play with her cousins. She tells us she "doesn't like Seattle" because there are "too many lights". I think she knows that we want to know if she likes Seattle and knows to say that she doesn't to get a response of some sort. I'm not sure that she doesn't like Seattle, but I AM sure she misses Louisville.

We're all having trouble with finding a group/tribe/community (aka FRIENDS). Between minimal free time and how difficult it is to make friends in general, we've just been hanging out with ourselves a whole lot lately. That's not a bad thing, but we're definitely accepting friendship applications.

Overall, we feel like we made the right choice for our family and are really loving our time here. Stay tuned for more (when I get around to it)!

halloween 2019: a league of their own

The girls were the Rockford Peaches from A League of Their Own for Halloween, and it was a huge hit (primarily with adults, but still). I will be sad when our girls have major opinions about their costumes and will no longer match; until then, we will keep up with these matching costumes.

This was one of the more affordable costumes we've ever done:
- Dresses from Old Navy: $7 each (on sale, as everything almost always is at Old Navy)
- Red socks: $12.75 for 4 pairs
- Buttons: $6.94 for way more than we'll ever need
- Ribbon "belt" - $7.99 with plenty more for Christmas!
- Hats - $8.98 each
- Baseball Mitts (not pictured or used, but still purchased) - $2 each, thrifted
- Baseball Bat - Already owned
- Rockford Peach logos - Free, printed online and printed on sticky paper

In total, 3 kids in costume with mostly reusable items (dresses, hats, socks specifically) came to just under $82!

There's no crying in baseball!