If you’ve been following our journey over the last year, you know we’ve been in the process of moving across the country. Well this January, we finally had the time and resources to make our move possible. This means we packed up our home in Wisconsin and are official residents of Washington!

You may remember that Matt started working his new job for the Seattle Seahawks in March of 2020. But with the pandemic, it meant we couldn’t relocate right away. He worked for them from our home while still living in Green Bay. The rest of the year felt like one big waiting game. We didn’t know when it would be safe to move or what would make the most sense. We didn’t know if we would rent or buy a home, we had no idea what was even available. In October, we made one trip to look at apartments and houses and to get a better idea of the area. But it wasn’t until we were back in Wisconsin that we put an offer in on a home after only viewing it virtually!

Thankfully, it worked out and our home is beautiful. We closed on it at the beginning of December and just had to decide when we wanted to make the big move. Our house in Green Bay would already be rented out in 2021 so the decision was up to us. We chose to move in January, allowing us to have one more holiday season in our beautiful, historic Green Bay home.

January came and with it came the moving truck! We rented one large container and filled it full with our most precious items. It’s an emotional feeling to see your life packed into the back of one semi. It’s even more weird to watch it then drive away without you. I definitely had a few bad dreams of it falling over a bridge or crashing into a mountain. Thankfully, it made it to Seattle safe and sound.

After packing up our home, we then packed the rest of our belongings, our cats, and ourselves into the car. As excited as we were for this new adventure, it still meant we had to leave life as we knew it behind. I cried like a baby that morning we left Green Bay as I said goodbye to our home. This house had been so good to me over the last five years. Yes, it was time to move on to the next phase of our destiny but I definitely felt sad leaving the home we had filled with so many memories. It was the first house I bought and I loved it in so many ways. I’m glad we didn’t sell it and can rent it out so we still feel like it’s a part of us.

We drove 30 hours across the country and finally made it to our new home. The car ride ended up better than we ever had expected. It took us three days to complete our journey. I was most worried about our cats being in the car for so long but they did great. They loved soaking up the sunshine and getting lots of snuggles in the hotels when we would rest for the night.

We’ve now been in our new Washington home for exactly four weeks today! Most boxes are unpacked, the house projects continue every weekend, and we’ve done a little bit of exploring around our new city. I think we both have moments where we stop and catch ourselves thinking, “Wow, we actually did it. We live here now.” It’s usually when we are driving around and notice the mountains in the distance. Or when we take an afternoon walk outdoors because the weather is so nice out (something you really can’t do in February in Wisconsin.)

I know our journey here is just beginning but I cannot believe we finally made it. I’m so excited to see where this year will take us. Here’s hoping 2021 is our best year yet!