Oh, What Can Happen In Two Months!

So our last post was on January 10. Today is March 13 and basically everything has changed since January. Let's see, where to start...

I guess the changes really started happening in the middle of January. As you know, Ben lost his job at Avant back in October. As soon as that happened he adopted an action plan entitled "All of the Above", meaning he applied for jobs all over the country, applied for a PhD program, and worked his tail off to make a full-time gig of his freelancing career. In January he was offered a job with a small company in Portland called Sensory. We prayed and fasted about it and felt that taking the job was the best choice to make. He was doing great as a freelancer, but the constant hustle to get and keep contracts was exhausting. We had four weeks from the time he accepted the job to pack up our lives and relocate to Portland.

As you can imagine, this was incredibly bittersweet. We were so grateful to have a job, but it was so difficult to leave our lives in Arizona. We had a beautiful house, amazing weather, and incredible friends to leave behind. The following four weeks were a whirlwind as we packed up all our belongings, searched for a place to live in Portland, put our house up for sale, put our car up for sale, soaked up as much sunshine as possible, and said goodbye to beloved friends who have become like family.

On February 12 we all flew up to Salt Lake to spend a few days with my family while our stuff was en route to Portland via ABF. Ben only stayed a couple of days and then flew to Portland to unload the trailer, get settled, and start his new job. The kids and I stayed in Salt Lake for another week and had a wonderful time. Things had been so stressful the past few weeks in Phoenix that it was absolutely necessary for us to rest and decompress. We had a great time just hanging out with family and not thinking about moving.

We arrived in Portland on February 23. It was so surreal to fly into this strange place with the thought constantly running through my head, "This is my new home." I knew nothing about the city or the area where we decided to live. I only knew it felt right to come and that God was blessing us for doing so.

We have absolutely fallen in love with Portland! We have a wonderful ward who has been so good to us. We have friendly neighbors. The weather has been unusually mild, with the sun coming out frequently. As I mentioned above, we sold our car in Phoenix because we were certain it would leave us stranded along some lonely stretch of highway if we attempted to drive it to Portland. This means that for now we have no car, which has been a wonderful adventure. In a short time we have became adept at navigating public transit, riding our bikes, and taking advantage of car sharing programs like Getaround. We enjoy not having the stress of car ownership so much we may keep it this way! Ben is enjoying his job and he likes the people he works with. Even though it was hard to change everything, we are so grateful for the opportunities the Lord has blessed us with. We still have our house to sell and some other things to get in order, but we are confident things will work out just as they should. Tommy and Lily have adjusted well also. In the short time we have been here we have eaten at two food trucks, visited the Children's Museum, obtained a gym membership, attended story time at the local library, and explored the forest. We love the culture and embrace the weirdness that is Portland :)

Here is the story of the past two months told in pictures, mostly of our two cute kiddos.

Enjoying the zoo and our backyard in Phoenix:

Moving: 

This was Moving Day. We had 10 men show up at 6:00 am on a Monday to help us move. By the time breakfast rolled around we had nothing left in the house, so we had a doughnut picnic.

Goodbye, beautiful house! Sell quickly and make someone else happy!

Portland:

New parks with green grass and trees! And we have to wear shoes and socks and coats!

Food trucks in downtown Portland.

Gettin' around Portland style.

Fun at the Children's Museum.

Fun at home. (Lily has learned how to smile big for the camera. Also, she is still not walking, for anyone who is interested.)

This little man is riding a big bike with training wheels and he is so proud of himself! (Also this day he was wearing three long-sleeved shirts for some reason...with shorts.  Go figure.)

We biked up to a nature park and then locked up the bike and walked around for the afternoon. It's amazing how fast civilization yields to pure forest here.