White Rock, Canada

I can feel a little tingling in my bones whispering, "It's time. It's time." It's time to move! This feels different than any of our other moves in the past. It feels like this time we are moving to an expansive support system of loved ones and old friends and cousins for our kids. To family dinners and family holidays. Lunch dates with my Grandma. Playdates with my high school bestie. Parks galore. Great schools for our kids. The potential to drop my kids off to play with grandma and grandpa or cousins if I am drowning or in an emergency. (I have never had this support before and I hope my parents aren't too burned out from helping out with all the other grandkids for the past several years! We are so grateful we've had Jared's parents in Washington as a great starter support system. Living an hour away from them has been great for support when we can plan ahead a bit. Tougher when we need help on the fly or for just an hour or two.) 

The kids and I were originally planning to drive to Utah yesterday so we could be away from the stress of home showings. But fortunately/unfortunately, we have had exactly ZERO home showings since our home was listed nearly two weeks ago. Yikes. The silver lining is that we aren't being kicked out at a moment's notice with the requirement of leaving a perfectly undisturbed home behind. Because of this, we decided to stay one more week. One more football game for Jack, one more week to help with the packing, one more week for Jack to enjoy his classmates and school teacher he's really loved. We might even make it to the ward cabin-or-treat at Cascade Park this weekend before we move. 

There have been two weekends of open houses for our home, during which time we've received a small smattering of curious lookie-loos. Only one seemed to be a "serious" buyer. He and his wife loved our house (they are big fans of the corner lot and our fireplace built-ins) but unfortunately their employer is Boeing, and if you know anything about the goings-on with Boeing these days, you know it's probably not the most secure time to be buying a home if you work for them. So. That buyer is loosely on the radar and that's about it. We may have to drop our home price at some point, but it'll be ok. We've got a little wiggle room. 

I am so excited to find out what life in Utah is going to look like on the other side of this move. This move has felt really stressful for a long time, but now we are so close to the other side and we are excited. Jack is excited. Jared is excited. Alice would probably be excited if she could understand. As it is, we might have a rough Alice transition ahead of us, but nothing we can't handle (famous last words). Ok then, till next week, when I'll be posting live from Utah!

Here are some pictures, starting with our trip just across the border into Canada to the most adorable town called White Rock. Jack's top request of what he wanted to do before we moved was visit Canada. On the drive up we realized that we would be there on Canadian Thanksgiving! Luckily the ice cream shops and pier were still open. 

^^Looking like two kids in an ice cream shop.

^^The town of White Rock, Canada is VERY magical. They have done a great job with their beachy Canadian charm. All the trees along the beach are strung with warm lights. They are home to the longest pier in all of Canada. The streets are lined with ice cream shops and fish n' chips dives. And these are the sound views:

^^We spent quite a while looking for (and finding) otters in the water during sunset. The pier was so long that we didn't make it to the end, but we had a sunset view the entire walk down and back.

^^More of the charming, lit trees. You can also see the town's namesake enormous White Rock on the beach in the background of this picture. It was carried to the beach by a glacier several thousand years ago. I believe it was originally white because it was always covered in seagull poop. Now the town paints it white twice a year.

^^We finished our evening off playing on the beach around the white rock, and then we drove an hour and a half back home. It was the perfect final family exploration from Washington. Lest you think we ever have a perfect family travel day, Jack spent most of the drive home screaming about how it was the "worst trip ever" and how he hated White Rock. Bewildered because he seemed happy the whole time we were there, I challenged him on his ongoing complaints during bedtime and he revealed that the reason it was the worst trip ever is because he wished we had been able to stay longer. Neat. There is apparently no way to win at a family outing in our family, because even on the rare occasion that everything goes beautifully, Jack will be uncontrollably filled with rage on the drive home at the inability to make the nice moments last forever😅 Luckily the next day he was back on team, "White Rock was the best!" More moments from our week:

^^We have banned all markers during our move because Alice WILL find them and defile our house. We immediately throw them away when we find them. She found a loophole in my makeup drawer. Until she defiled our house with it and makeup became banned as well.

^^DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TO KEEP OUR HOME PERFECTLY SHOWING READY AT ALL TIMES WITH A TODDLER LIVING HERE ALL DAY??!! Sorry for yelling. She is cute here in her quest to throw all the pumpkins and books over the ledge.

^^Puddle jumping at football practice. "No. Stop. Don't." Willy Wonka parenting at its finest.

^^We found a Halloween rice krispie treat kit from Jared's mom and it was the perfect festive family activity in a season when most of our evenings are filled with stress, tv, and panic packing/cleaning.

^^Alice found Jack's old Halloween costumes in a box ready to be taped up in the garage and she was so filled with glee, that this dragon costume became un-packed and now we have a dragon making us eggs most mornings (with supervision, on the lowest heat). The best part of waking up, is dragon eggs sunny-side-up!