Catching Everyone Up : Boise Move, Snowshoeing, Helena Visitors, & a New Year!

So there is a lot to talk about in this post. We have finally got our feet underneath us and we have been incredibly blessed by this season of life. Our move was hard and we had some problems with our property managers, but God knew just what He was doing when He pushed us towards this house.

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This move has been something out of a novel. We had the help of about a dozen of our college friends right out of the gates. We were so thankful to the people around us who stepped up to help us unload the Uhaul. It was a long week packing everything up and driving it from Montana to Meridian, so we were thankful for the help.

Once we got moved in, I started work on November 4 and Jon started exactly a week later. We both have fallen in love with our jobs over here and are so excited to see what we can learn in our respective roles. He got to unpack our house while I was at work the first week and so it wasn't hard getting comfortable. We did have to buy some new furniture - as we had to get rid of some to fit in our storage spot while we travelled - but we found the things we needed and got everything situated in our home.

We have already made a few friends since being here and have met back up with friends from college! We try to have weekly game nights at our house, but the holidays made it a little harder than normal. We will get back into the habit once it settles down a little bit. We have also spent a lot of time with Jon's coworkers. He works alongside a bunch of people that we both have grown pretty fond of (including some NNU students that we graduated with and after).

For Christmas (and Thanksgiving) this year, we flew back to Seattle to be with my family. We had two days there full of laughter, yummy Christmas desserts, and lots of family time. It was such a blessing to be with family for both of those holidays. While home for Christmas, we brought a friend with us who joined us all sleeping in the living room of my parents house. There were 7 of us this year sleeping in the living room!

After Christmas Jon and I decided we wanted to learn how to snowshoe. So we bought ourselves some snowshoes and drove up to Midvale. We spent all of Saturday morning after Christmas trekking around in the snowy mountains near Council, Idaho. we knew that there was a hot springs at the end of the journey, so we both were motivated to snowshoe more than a few miles each way.

Once we got to the hot springs, we enjoyed soaking in them without anyone else around at all. While we are all for developed hot springs (we love listening to music at Broadwater in Helena) there is nothing that beats having a hot springs all to yourself. If anyone else is curious about this trail, let us know! It's a little tricky to find directions to in the winter, but we have it all documented.

After we got done snowshoeing, we drove out to McCall and ate at a restaurant on the lake. We both were so thankful for the wood stove they had burning next to our table.

We made it back to Meridian on Sunday and took the day to get ready for our next adventure. Monday night we had friends from Helena drop through Boise and stay with us for a night on their way home from Oregon. While we lived in Helena, we never went more than a week and a half without seeing Ben & Caitlyn, so these last two months of being apart have been incredibly weird. So when they told us that them, Cailtyn's parents and siblings were dropping by unexpected, we made a trip to Fred Meyer for some extra pillows.

They got in at around 7 pm and we spent the rest of the night catching up and chit chatting. Jon might have gone to bed a little later then we would have liked, but we could always catch up on sleep later. The next morning we said goodbye to them and sent them back to Helena.

Last but not least, our New Year's Eve was quiet. It consisted of our last fall candles, cute teapots full of almond vanilla tea, and blanket forts. Honestly there is no way that I would have rather spent it.

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As we go into 2020, we are both so thankful for the opportunities that we had to travel and experience God's creation. We are also so thankful that we made such deep friendships with the people around us wherever we were.

2019 brought a lot of uncertainty and change. We weren't quite sure what to expect when we felt God calling us towards Idaho, but we knew that it was going to be good. He is so faithful when He calls us. Even just being in Boise for a few months, we know that God has big plans for us here.

2020 is going to be an even bigger year. We might not be going on so many airplanes this year, but we know that we are going to be in for even more adventure. So here's to the new year and to everyone who is still interested in what our lives consist of!

Love you all!