First Post From Seattle

Whew...So we made it. We're here in Newcastle, a suburb on the eastside of Seattle, and we're slowly settling in to our life here. Here's a satellite view of our house.

Here's a VERY brief update of our week:

Sunday - after a very crazy morning, we managed to leave Eugene only 45 minutes late. It would've been a whole lot later without some great help packing and cleaning from our friends the Wallaces. Thanks Ben and Lisa! With an extremely full trailer and two cars, we headed north. We stopped in Portland to have lunch at Fuddrucker's with some friends and family. After lunch, we visited with grandparents at my parent's house, and then continued north. After a stop in Vancouver to see my sister and brother-in-law, we continued into Washington. We finally made it to the house around 8:30PM. The kid's picked out their rooms while Missi picked up Mexican takeout for dinner.

Monday - Missi got the kids registered in their respective schools while I did a few things around the house and went for a run. There wasn't a lot to do as we didn't have the majority of our things. It was definitely nice to be able to come into a house that was very clean!

Tuesday - the moving truck arrived! As stuff was off-loaded, I kept on thinking to myself, "Where are we going to put all this stuff?" Even though this house is much larger than our Eugene house, it has alot less storage. We're going to need to get creative! Thankfully nothing was broken in transit and the moving crew we had was great. They were finished up by noon. Drew went to school for his first day and he seemed to enjoy it.

Wednesday - Sam got to attend her first day of school! I'll do a separate post on this, but needless to say, it was a big event. Missi and I spent the free afternoon doing some shopping and trying to get acquainted with the area.

Thursday - We all had lunch with Drew at school and continued to unpack the house. Missi, Sam and I all went for a run together and after Drew got home from school we went to the local library and got library cards and checked out a bunch of stuff. After the library, Missi headed out to Portland for her girl's weekend.

Friday - I spent the morning running a few errands with Sam and then got her off to school. I went for a run while she was in school and after Drew got home, they all played with their new neighbor friend. All was well until Sam got "bonked" and we had to come inside for some "downtime." After dinner, we all went to the local grocery store to get stocked up on some of the staples we had been missing.

Some observations from the first week here:

- The weather feels alot different. With the marine air, I almost feel like I'm at the Oregon Coast. It is definitely "sweatshirt" weather.

- Drew's school is going to be great. The school is only 3 years old, so the building is beautiful and has an amazing view of Lake Washington. His teacher seems really nice and he seems to be adjusting well. There is a really involved and committed parent support organization, which I think is a hallmark of a successful school.

- Our neighborhood is incredible. In 5 days here I've met more neighbors than I met in 3 years of living in Eugene and we're all looking forward to the neighborhood "Crime Watch" BBQ that will be Sunday afternoon on the street in front of our house. One neighbor even brought over flowers and everyone has been SO welcoming. Our next-door neighbor knocked on our door this morning around 7:45AM to let us know that Zeke had escaped our yard and then he went to help me find him.

- It's very hilly around here. I was used to running along the river in Eugene, where it was very flat and easy on my legs. Around here, even the flattest sections of roads are "rolling" at best. I ran along Lake Washington today and even that terrain had a lot of hills.

- Either we've been lucky (my hunch) or Seattle's notorious traffic has been taking a "vacation" to welcome us to the city. We haven't had hit any real gridlock during our first week.

- Zeke absolutely loves our new yard. It's fun to see him romp around in the backyard. There are also lots of dogs in the neighborhood and he's been having fun "getting to know them."