Friday, March 30, 2012

Dear Seattle…Yours Truly, The Guenthers

Dear Seattle,

It took us a little while to fall in love with you and now that we have, we’re leaving. 

Love, Mike & Jessi Guenther

4 years ago we made the decision to move from 33 years of Wisconsin familiarity to a place we’d never even visited.  It was, at the time, the biggest leap of faith we’d ever taken.  In August 2008 we took our final flight from Milwaukee to Seattle after heartfelt goodbyes to family and friends and the first 12 months was the whirlwind we expected it to be with some unexpected events (3 different houses!) to make it more interesting, i.e. stressful.  We had a hard time meeting people that year; at least meeting people we felt connected to.  I often wanted to “just go home”. We were together in our resolve, thank God, or we never would have stayed.

Fast (really fast)-forward almost 4 years and we are saying some heartfelt goodbyes once again to friends and “family” who filled the holes that were created when we moved; who filled holes we didn’t even know we had.  To our amazing friends the Johnsons who are kindred spirits in every sense; like-minds and a loving relationship with the added bonus of 2 amazing kids who, like their parents, wrote the book on what it means to be a true friend. We had the pleasure of spending our last few days with them and I couldn’t think of a more perfect way to close out our time in the neighborhood.

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Happy Birthday, Angie!

We said goodbye to the Pinskis and Herreras who have the shared belief that most adventures are better with friends.  To the Betos, Nichols, Shumakers and Reeds whose 3, then 4, then 5 year-old boys taught Greyson the power of friendship, sharing, Star Wars and Superheroes.   The Loves (is there a better name for our retired neighbors?) introduced our boys to their backyard in the summer and movie nights in the winter; Easter Egg hunts and bubbles bigger than balloons, homemade applesauce, salsa from their garden vegetables and whoopie pies. 

We will also miss:

Pike Place Market.  What more can we say?  It will not be possible to get better fish where we’re going. It’s a big deal.

Mt. Rainier. Majestic. Breathtaking. Unparalleled. (Honorable mention goes to the Olympic and Cascade mountain ranges)

Lake Washington. Our family had so much fun on this lake last summer. The River Thames won’t provide the same level of entertainment but there will be scenery worth photographing.

Downhill skiing. We’ll have to go to France and although it’s not difficult to get to France, a season pass and weekly visits will not be possible. We hope to make it once or twice a year.

Shopping. From groceries to clothes and shoes, shopping here is easy, the selection is great and believe it or not, MUCH cheaper than what we’re about to pay (and Seattle ‘aint cheap).

Appliances. We are going smaller, we are cooking in Celsius and our oven, range and refrigerator will require manuals that will be consulted on a daily basis until we have them memorized. The washer/dryer is small and inefficient and sits in the garage.

Our Church. We found a family at Eastlake and it will be very difficult to replace (especially in a secular England).

What we will gain is yet to be named but we know for sure that we will gain because our first adventure gave us the confidence to know that we can do it again.  We’re looking forward to making a new list.  But we will miss our friends…

So long, Seattle

March 2012 129

PS. We sent change of address cards this week but if yours doesn’t make it, our new contact info is below ~

47 St. David’s Drive

Wentworth Gate

Englefield Green, Surrey TW20 0BA

Mike’s new cell: +44 (0) 7798 671643

Jessi’s new cell:  +44 (0) 7798 657463

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Maui-licious

What would you do if you were moving to the UK in 10 days?  You go to Maui.

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Our nephew Jake (on the right) turned 14 on March 16th.  Greyson (2nd from the left) turned 6 on March 21st and Mike’s dad Lee (see below on the left) turned 60 TODAY!  I can’t think of a better way to celebrate a handful of March birthdays than with a trip to Maui.  Mike’s parents made it their mission to ensure our time was amazing and “thank you” just isn’t enough.  It was perfect (and so was the weather).

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Mike and I spent our mornings with a cup of coffee on the lanai watching the humpback whales and their babies play. I’ve never seen so many whales for such long periods of time. At 5am in the morning with the Pacific like glass it was by far the best part of each day.  Greyson chose to go whale watching on his actual birthday so he’s now an expert on all things humpback (and Orca, of course) and informed me that when they pop their heads out of the water it’s called a “Spy Hop”.
GREY*isms*
G: (on our way home from dinner) “I’m still hungry”
Mike: “We can heat up the pizza from dinner”
G: “You stole all of it?”
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Have you ever seen sea turtles mating? It lasted more than 2 hours. They put on quite a show…

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  carmbria

We obviously had a wonderful time. Carmen and Bria look more and more alike every day, Uncle Brian was Graham’s hero but best of all our families got to spend hours and hours laughing and relaxing.  Happy Birthday to the Guenther/Letarski boys. Happy Birthday indeed. Aloha, Maui. Until next time…

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