Alaska is a long ways from the lower 48 and life there is obviously very different! Our goal, originally was to stay there for a minimum of three years and it had now been five. As you can tell by now, we made a lifetime worth of memories and have many tales to tell. But it was time to move back closer to family. Getting back home was a waiting game with Rose's employer, Target. Rose had been promoted to a store manager position and was waiting on a position to open in the Oregon Region. She was presented with an opportunity in Kelso, Washington and at first we said to each other, no, we don't want to live in Washington. But then we began to consider the pros and decided that we should go for it. After saying yes to becoming Washingtonian's we had about a month to find a house to live in and complete our move.
We were lucky enough to be able to fly home for Christmas and spend it with family, the first time in five years! Then we had a quick return trip back to Anchorage for our big move. The movers showed up and packed all our things in 2 days, our cars were picked up and we were left with nothing but to fly home for good.
After we arrived in Portland, we then drove to Kelso where we had a hotel reserved for the near future. Our plan was to begin looking for a home to purchase and quickly found a realtor who was great. We spent the next month looking for a home and looked at close to two dozen before finding one that we liked. After seven weeks in the hotel, we were moving into our new home. I can't tell you how excited Rose, Ella, and I were to be out of that hotel and into a home of our own!
Not long after we moved in we were able to host a big family get together for Ella's first birthday.
The following couple months were filled with family, exploring what we hadn't seen in 5 years and enjoying our new life in Woodland, WA.
Rose and I spent our first 5 years of marriage alone in Alaska with nothing but each other to depend upon. I think it definitely made us stronger and we developed a lot of memories just the two of us. It was incredibly sad saying goodbye to such a fun and exciting lifestyle. However, it was time to start another chapter in our lives, and a good one at that!
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