What I've Been Given: It's Been A Year Already (2013)

.. since we moved from Arizona to Washington.
That went by way too fast.

We went from living in the desert to the evergreen state. Seeing nothing but cacti, dirt and scary creatures. Enduring extreme summers but enjoying the monsoon season. I do have to admit though that the sunsets in the desert are quite awesome and if you like to stargaze well, Southern Arizona is the place to do just that.

Even though desert weather especially the summer heat is extremely loathing to me the other three seasons are really not that bad. We took full advantage of the outdoors. We went on many hikes and walks. We visited Tombstone several times and we loved each and every visit. We also enjoyed going to the Old Tucson Studios. Tucson has all of our favorite restaurants {well, except for The Spaghetti Factory which is in Phoenix}. We LOVE Sprouts and AJ's Fine Foods, we miss shopping there. I never thought in a million years that Tucson would find its way into my heart. Driving past it during the time we lived in N Dallas I always remember saying how ugly Tucson was and it never crossed my mind that one day we would end up moving there. And look what happened, we did ... for three years! And even though we've lived in WA for a year now and really a year is not long I find myself missing Tucson from time to time.

When seeing nothing but cacti got too much for us we could always go to our local mountains {Mt. Lemmon} which was about an hour away. Half way up the landscaping changed into nothing but pine trees. It also snows during Winter and we would drive up the mountain whenever we could. We did have the opportunity to go to the Grand Canyon in 2010. The town of Flagstaff gets a lot of snow. This was on our way to the Grand Canyon from Flagstaff. We also saw a herd of deer running across the road. They are such beautiful animals.

Our last holiday in Tucson was Thanksgiving. We left the weekend after it. We spent it with Jacob's parents ... just like we did this Thanksgiving. We hired guys to help us load the trailer. We have so much stuff which made things a bit chaotic and caring for a toddler made things a bit more difficult. Exhausted ... but we did it.

Our trailer was picked up several days before we left Tucson. I remember thinking how ready I was to leave the heat behind. How it wouldn't be possible to miss such a place. It's a bit humorous now, a year later. We miss it.
But boy, this road trip was the second favorite road trip I've taken so far.

I had lived in Southern CA most of my life and not once had I ever been to Northern CA. I never even researched it. It is beautiful!
If you would like to view pictures of our move these are the two posts: Sacramento, CA to Medford, OR & Medford, OR to WA .

Each state we drove through had its cool and awesome points. I was the most excited of all.

We went by the leased house the day after arriving in WA. We left Jacob's car there then we dropped off the tow dolly. Not having to worry about towing was such a relief.

I remember how cold it was. How many days in a row it rained. How days went by without seeing the sun. I.WAS.LOVING.IT! All this was so new to me. The first place we visited was the Pike Place Market. I couldn't believe I was actually there. It was freezing but we were all amazed about how wonderful all this was. Seeing the Seahaws and the Mariners Stadium from the freeway and being able to see downtown from afar was very neat! We spotted the Space Needle, the ferry and of course seeing the Puget Sound was extremely exciting. I have heard of these famous landmarks and must do things in movies and magazine but actually seeing them in person was something else.

Ferry rides and the Puget Sound are my favorite. I love riding on the ferry. Every time we ride on one it feels like I'm riding it for the first time.

We loved loved LOVED that we actually enjoyed summer this time. I hadn't been able to say this for the last thirteen years. We spent a lot of time hanging around the Puget. Since it's such a large body of water you can actually visit from almost anywhere ... even all the way down to Olympia. If I remember correctly we only had about two weeks worth of very warm weather. Some days got into the mid 90's. We were shocked. I was like, NO! it's supposed to be nice and cool here not hot! Thankfully the warm/hot weather didn't last.
I think the part we liked the most during summer was the four weeks where it didn't get dark until 9:50 pm. It was insane! We would be out skipping rocks in W Seattle at 9:30 pm. It was awesome!

Once it stopped raining and Spring time came around I couldn't help but notice how many wonderful parks there are all over the place. I mean, there's lots of awesome playgrounds and not only that. Most of these parks are located right on the Puget or near a lake. This is something Tucson is lacking, jaw dropping playgrounds.

I believe the sunsets in the Pacific to be the most beautiful. Yes, I'm partial because I really believe that they are.

Not only were we blessed with this job posting for Jacob but we were also blessed in buying a house. It happened fast, five months after moving. Thank you God.

We've been to a couple different farmers markets and the one we liked best is the Des Moines farmers market. One key point has got to be the marina and being right off the Puget has made it a favorite Saturday morning destination during the summer months.

During one of our ferry rides to Bainbridge Island. These people have a beautiful view but as pretty as this may be I would be nervous living so close to the water.

The kids have adjusted well. Nathan is now in middle school and is now thirteen years old. I do like being a mother to two teenagers and a toddler. As you can imagine, Riley gets a lot of attention.

Riley likes taking selfies. Me, not so much.

It is known that my favorite season is Fall. Well, when I finally started noticing the change in the leaves I remember texting Jacob about it. Fall is such a beautiful season. Riley and I went on many mid morning walks and he loved jumping on leaves. I would stop walking every time to take a picture.

I love traditions. Starting a new one is just as fun.
Of all the times we've been to U-pick farms in Tucson and Phoenix we never went apple picking. Well, I did research and found a really cool one in Lynden, WA. They had so many different variety of apples, many I had never heard of before. Sydna picked a schoolhouse red apple and I have to say that I had never in my life had such a juicy sweet apple. It was so good that I didn't mind eating it {I'm not an apple fan unless it's a caramel apple}. The kids enjoyed themselves. They loved picking apples and went a little crazy with how many they picked. Riley just liked the fact that he could run all over the orchard without having to be told to hold our hands.

This apple orchard in Lynden also had a pumpkin patch.

But it was this one in Snohomish that we made it our pumpkin patch outing. Bob's Corn and Pumpkin Patch is pretty awesome. They have the sweetest corn we've ever had. We loved it and had a great memorable time here as well.

We continue to go on walks as much as we can but since it's becoming colder and the holidays are upon us we haven't really had much time for walks lately.

We also had about close to two weeks of thick fog and although I love it and I believe it to be beautiful after five days of it one ends up growing tired of it. It is pretty though.

Sydna started college this year too.

We've visited the Woodland Park Zoo countless times. This is on our way there.

We can never leave the zoo without Riley riding the carousel. He loves it!

It was so much fun this Halloween. Here's my little space ranger. He really had a lot of fun walking from door to door and only got scared once. He did so good and looked so cute ... and he was very polite. After saying Trick or Treat he said thank you every time and sometimes he would throw in "to infinity and beyond!", lol. He had the older folks laughing.

And like we've always done everywhere we've lived, we continue to go on drives that have no destination. It has been during these drives that we've come across cool locations and our future favorite restaurants.

The fountain at Seattle Center.

Outside the Seattle Aquarium which sits on Pier 59. The Great Wheel back there is fairly new. It opened in June of 2012. It is one of the largest in the country. There's 42 gondolas and can sit up to eight people. Each gondola is enclosed and has its own a/c unit. Adult price is $13 and youth price is $8.50. We haven't had the courage to ride on it yet. Jacob wouldn't mind but the rest of us are too scared.