Normally this time of the year I'm working on my NYC anniversary post, but this year is a little bit different. Life sure has a funny way of throwing you curveballs doesn't it?! They joke you're not a real New Yorker until you've lived in the city for 7 years so I guess I justtt missed that cut-off. So instead of hitting that milestone this week, I'm celebrating a different anniversary.. my first full month of being a Washington resident again! 👈🏻 Woh, that still feels weird to say! 

So how's it going?! Now that I've gotten through some of the logistics of the move -- like sorting out health insurance, figuring out how to buy a car, and actually getting all of my stuff to the west coast.. all of that fun stuff -- I'm starting to adjust to my new normal. You can't get much further apart on the spectrum moving from New York back to my little hometown so I was a little worried about that, but for the most part, it's felt pretty great to get back to my roots. So what have been some of the biggest adjustments?! A lot! I like to joke that living in the city was like living on another planet and in a lot of ways it's true. There have certainly been a lot of changes on the flip side. Driving, having full sized appliances and a wholeee lot more space, less humidity, whole aisles of ice cream at the grocery store (I'm ok with this change), seeing sunsets, super-friendly people, allll of the outdoors... Some have been easier to adjust to (like the ice cream haha) and others that have been a little tougher like changing my work schedule! I think it's going to take a bit longer to adjust to that 5 a.m. wake-up time. 🙈

Generally, I'm someone who enjoys some downtime, but that is the one thing I haven't had much of this summer since being back. This girl has been busyyyyy. Like, can I have a free weekend to stay in my pjs all weekend soon?! I think staying busy has actually been one of the best things for getting adjusted, but I'm not going to lie it has been kind of exhausting. My life here is pretty different than my life in NYC though so it has kept me moving forward. So what have I been up to? Here are some of the major things!

Reconnecting with Fam & Friends

This has been the single best thing about being home again! Of course, now I'm missing all of my NYC friends, but it has been so great to reconnect with everyone here. I've been lucky to have been able to spend a lot more time home over the last year, but really being home is a totally different experience. When you live cross-country most of the time you see your family it's for an occasion, so it's great to be able to just hang out without any agenda. Being able to meet up with my Dad for an afternoon hike or spend an evening with my Mom has been so nice. It's little things like that, that you totally take for granted when you live near your parents so I've been trying to make up for the last 10 years of living out of state!

Getting My Outdoors On

This summer has been beau-ti-ful!!! Seattle broke a record from 1951 this year for 52 days without rain and boy have I been enjoying it. I've spent a lot of time this summer taking advantage of all of the outdoors Washington has to offer. In the mountains.. time at the lake.. walking along the beaches.. #Gimmealloftheoutdoors. While I'm staying back in my hometown, I've also taken up a hiking at a local spot during the week. There's something kind of therapeutic about getting your butt kicked climbing a mountain when you're starting over too.

Something I have also really come to appreciate about Washington since being back is the diversity of activities the state has. While I grew up here, I left the state when I was 18 so I never really fully appreciated that. You can go hiking one day, to the beach the next, and kayaking the next. I can. not. get. enough! I know there was a million things to do in NYC too, but it's been nice having a different set of options and a lot more that involve getting some fresh air. There's just something about being able to hop in your own car (more on that later) that is so freeing and I've been loving that.

Squeezing in some City Time

Along with spending a lotttt of times outdoors, I've also been getting my city fix in! I've always had such a love affair with Seattle, even though truthfully I know very little about it, so I have been loving the city adventures I've had so far. I've made it to two Mariners games this summer, enjoyed some time at Alki Beach, and also went to my first Seafair party and watched the Blue Angels!

It's interesting being back too because, in NYC, that's really the hub on the city side... Back here though, we also have a lot of smaller cities where there's still a ton of things to check out even if you're not in Seattle. Needless to say I have a lotttt of adventuring left to do. With more cities, my brain has kind of exploded for thinking about where I want to move next too. So many options... That decision can wait for another day though. For now I'm just enjoying checking out different things and fun events going on around the state.

Doing all of the Driving

Driving.. Guys, I bought a car and I'm not going to lie.. I'm kind of obsessed with it. I was lucky enough to have the best car buying partner EVER too! We walked into our first dealership to take a look at some of the options and I ended up driving out a brand new car right out of the showroom and I am in LOVE! Well maybe not with having a car payment, but the car... I LOVE!

HOLY MOLY! Let me tell you, cars are definitely a little more high tech than the last time I owned one.. I mean the last time I was driving my car still had a cassette player in it.. 🙈 If I'm being honest, it's going to take a bit for me to really figure it all out haha. 3 backup cams (kind of essential after my incident earlier this summer), lane departure warning, automatic braking.. the car can almost drive itself and those are just the ones I've kind of figured out so far. 

So needless to say it has been quite the month! There are definitely a lot of things about NYC I miss already, but it has been such an awesome start to this new chapter so far and I can't wait to see what comes next!

Alas, after 9 years (yikes 😳) I have made my return to Washington for a proper PNW fall! Giving credit where credit is due, I owe this trip back to my high school bestie Ang! Because when your friend from New Zealand lets you know she's coming home and you work for yourself you get on a plane and get your butt to the west coast!

Thanks to technology we get to chat a bit in between her trips to America every two years but danggg the years just keep flying by so I am so thankful I got to make it home to visit with her and meet her hubby (outside of Skype!) We may live on absolute opposite ends of the Earth (literally) but every time we're together it's like no time has passed. 

We totally lucked out and had a beautiful day in Seattle to play tourists. I've been to Pike Place more times than I can count, but I never quite tire of it and I'm pretty sure if I lived there I would totally buy myself one of their bouquets every week. 

After a really fun day of exploring together they headed off to their next adventure and I caught up with another one of my favorite people, Lindsey! With some impending storms in the forecast for the weekend, she suggested we spend a little time outdoors (good call!) So we headed over to Green Lake to walk the lake and take in some fall colors and boy was that a treat.. OMG 😍. 

I always joke with Lindsey that Seattle is so intimidating to me.. I know, I know I live in NYC, but Seattle just has so much variety and different neighborhoods that frankly I know very little about., plus there's that driving thing. So it is always such a treat for me every time we get together and when I get to explore new areas like a local. Ah, I just love it! Seattle you're dreamy.

I know I've already said it but I am SO very thankful for this time home -- and I still have over a week to go! Getting to visit with Angie and Lindsey was such a fun way to kick off my trip and I'm already itching for another day trip up to Seattle. So, so, SO happy this is real life and that I'm getting to spend more time at home. It's such a change of pace that really makes my heart full and I can't wait for the other memories to come from this trip!

If you caught my last blog post I've had some exciting changes in my life as of recent. Even better, I got to kick off my new life adventure with nearly a month on my favorite coast! It was so wonderful to be home to relax and regroup a little, all without having my departure looming over my head. Somehow the month still flewwww by but I did get some quality family time in, which I SO needed! Here are some of the highlights of my trip!

Portland

I kicked off my west coast tour in one of my favorite cities with some of my absolute favorite people -- the PERFECT combo!

It's always so much fun visiting Portland! I may have only lived there for a year, but it always brings back great memories.

Little Duck and I put our walking shoes on and had such a fun adventure! It's probably good we walked a lot too because we followed our amazing breakfast with donuts and cupcakes. #NoShame. Okay, well we saved the donuts for later, but hey, when in Portland enjoy the food!

After an awesome day. We united with our other lovely ladies and enjoyed a fun night out! We checked out a delicious little Italian spot in the Pearl District that was dishing up some seriously good bites and then we headed to the Nutcracker! The last time I had seen the Nutcracker, Little Duck probably wasn't even up to my shoulder in height, so you know it has been a LONG time! It was such a nice holiday treat and I'm so thankful that the Hardersens invited me to join them! 

For our last day in the city, we visited my all-time favorite Portland spot, Pine State Biscuits! Nom, nom, nom! Followed by some shopping at some seriously cool home stores including City Home -- LOVED this place!

Enumclaw

After our amazing trip in Portland, we headed back north! My mom recently moved back to my hometown so it was so wonderful to break in the new digs! We hosted the whole fam for Christmas and it was a great time catching up with everyone!

We even got a little bit of a *White Christmas*! Barely, but enough to say we did ;-) After Christmas I worked quite a bit, which doesn't make for that exciting of blog posts buttt I did capture this work-from-home day with my dad! We have matching hats because we're cool like that.

Fast forward a little bit and Chris headed west for a visit. Almost as soon as he arrived, we headed up north to Vancouver B.C. for a little getaway.

Vancouver, B.C.

I've been wanting to visit Vancouver B.C. for awhile so we decided to finally make it happen! Surprisingly, even though it's only about 3 hours away, I'd never been so it was some new scenery for the both of us.

Normally I'd do a lot of research on visiting a new city, but for this trip we kind of winged it by just booking a hotel and some great suggestions from a friend.

If there's two takeaways I have from our visit.. it is that Vancouver people are some of the friendliest I've ever met and man is the city beautiful! 

Seattle

Following our Vancouver trip, we also made a trip up to Seattle. Aww, love this city so much.

It may have been a little chilly, but the day was gorgeous so we hit up Alki Beach. I just love the views over there.. oh and the donuts weren't bad either!

We also checked out an Oregon Ducks bar for our bowl game. The bar was a lot of fun and it was awesome to see so many Ducks fans in Seattle. The game ended up being an epic bust though sooo we'll just skim over that fact!

And Back to Enumclaw!!

For the rest of my trip I mostly stayed local for some more family time and a few Seahawks games! Plus I got to be home for my mom's birthday (the first one since I was 18) soooo that was really nice too! 

It was such a great trip, although still somehow not long enough! I think being home so long almost threw me off in a weird way! If plans had to get pushed around I was thinking, "oh no problem, we'll get together later" and then poof! Suddenly there wasn't time for later. So to those I didn't see, or see enough of. I'll be home again soon! :)