Happy Anniversary
Happy One Year Pootahversary!
Yesterday (Saturday, August 20) marks one year since we left home. We’ve come a long way in a year. It definitely hasn’t been easy, but we’ve done some pretty cool things in the last year (see any blog post for examples).
According to my Apple Watch, in the last year we’ve hiked 300 miles (296.83, but we’re rounding up) and walked (on a paved trail/sidewalk) 350 miles (351.34 to be exact).
Not counting coworkers, I’ve made three whole friends and reconnected with one I already had who also happens to live here. Ian’s gotten a lot closer to the friend he knew from back home who lives here too, and we’re both friends with the couple who moved away that used to live next door.
We had our first wedding anniversary out here, and celebrated two birthdays away from home for the first time.
Ian started a new job and got a mini promotion. I came here unemployed, started and quit a job I hated (stupid horse place), and am coming up on 9 months at my current job, which I actually like.
Ian’s read six books, and I’ve read 14.
We’ve seen four moose (two just last week).
We’ve camped, hiked, walked, and driven our way to a ton of cool places in the last year. If I think about it too much, homesickness can definitely still rear its ugly head. A year into this, as much as it sucks being away from almost everyone I know and love, I don’t have any regrets about moving out here. We definitely don’t have any plans to stay here permanently, but we’ve done so much crazy stuff in this last rollercoaster of a year and we can’t wait to see what the next year has in store for us.
Thank you to everyone for sticking with us through the good times and the bad, for listening to me complain about how horrible it is out here while also appreciating what a beautiful place it is (if you don’t think too hard about the politics ;) For the record, I don’t think it’s quite so horrible anymore, but I think the name “Pootah” has stuck as this point. It will always be inferior to home if for no other reason than it’s not home, so it will forever be Pootah in my heart (I say now endearingly rather than bitterly).
Okay, that’s enough about feelings for one day. Please enjoy some photos of some odd ducks we saw walking the other day.
Thank you for reading. We have some exciting trips coming up later this year (not the least of which is our trip back home to get married again). It means so much to me that you’re invested in us and our adventures. Oops, I started talking about feelings again. Here are the ducks. Happy one year Pootahversary!
Have you ever seen an all black duck?
Look at the feet on this thing.
This one has big freaky feet too.
Take a look at the big tan duck in the middle.
The sheer number of waterfowl here is astounding.
A tan duck, a duck with a blue spot, an oreo duck, and a boring normal duck all walk into a bar…
Green bean tree?
There’s no escaping the wildflowers on this blog ;)
Can you spot the moose?
