Oregon Trip

In October we made a trip to Portland, Oregon to be there for Merrick’s sister Taryn’s wedding to Brian Butterfield. You may not know that Oregon is home to both Merrick and me! I was born in Portland and lived in the area until I was 12 (then we moved to Cleveland, Ohio). Merrick’s family moved there when he was 6 and they lived in Lake Oswego and Sherwood areas until he was 16 (then they moved to Bountiful, Utah). So we both had old homes to go see while we were there.

We arrived several days before the wedding so we had fun getting to know Brian and his family. The first day we were there we went to a local pumpkin patch to go on a hayride and pick out some pumpkins.

We also had some fun going to an indoor play area one day, watching Brian’s brother play football for the Oregon Ducks, and of course the wedding. Taryn and Brian were married in the Portland Temple, which has always been my favorite.

It rained off and on that day but we still had some nice dry spells for pictures.

The happy couple-

We had some time before the wedding dinner that night so we drove around and saw some familiar sights. This is the house Merrick lived in when they lived in Lake Oswego.

And I had to go see Oak Hills, my old neighborhood in Beaverton. Same sign!

This is the house in Oak Hills. I have so many childhood memories from here!

I went to Oak Hills Elementary school in Kindergarten and 5th grade.

One of my favorite parts of this area was the Greenbelt. Tons of paved trails where we rode bikes, took walks with my grandpa, rode the Roller racer, etc.

That night we had a nice wedding dinner at a restaurant.

My girls enjoying themselves with Brian’s niece.

One of the things I love about weddings is that you get to know a whole new family. I have enjoyed that part of all of my siblings weddings because it’s fun to see the new family your sibling will be a part of. Brian’s family was very welcoming and we had fun staying in their motor home. We had a great trip and we wish Taryn and Brian the best in the beginning of their lives together!

Nashville…

It has been such a busy past few months I have gotten behind on this blog. I thought I’d start with the biggest news and then hopefully I’ll find some time to backtrack and update you on our Halloween, trip to Iowa, trip to Oregon, and everything else we’ve been up to in the past couple months.

So what’s this about Nashville? Well we are moving there in about 10 days! It has been a whirlwind of a couple months. Merrick got a new job at Genesco in their SureGrip/Licensed Brands division. He is very excited. He started the interview process in September and flew down there a couple times. We accepted an offer mid October and he finished up his last day at Kohl’s on November 2nd. He starts his new job tomorrow morning! I am staying here in Wisconsin for another week to get things wrapped up and we will be driving down there the day before Thanksgiving.

Here is a picture of his new office at Genesco. (By the way, Genesco owns a few stores you may have heard of - Journeys, Johnston & Murphy, Lids, etc.)

We are sad to leave our friends here in Milwaukee and we are so grateful to Kohl’s for bringing us here for the past almost 5 years. We have truly loved it here. Now it is time for the next chapter of our lives. We really feel that we have been guided and inspired by our Father in Heaven to make this decision to move to Nashville. He has aware of us and we both feel strongly that this is the right place for us. After Merrick’s second day of interviewing at Genesco he felt so excited and happy and then he got into his rental car to drive around and see the area a little bit and this song came on the radio. It just added to Merrick’s joy and ever since has become our theme song for this move.

Home

“Hold on, to me as we go
As we roll down this unfamiliar road
And although this wave is stringing us along
Just know you’re not alone
Cause I’m going to make this place your home
Settle down, it'll all be clear
Don't pay no mind to the demons
They fill you with fear
The trouble it might drag you down
If you get lost, you can always be found
Just know you’re not alone
Cause I’m going to make this place your home”

Merrick and I had the chance to go house hunting last weekend. It was my very first time in Nashville. I really liked the area. There are a lot of trees and tons of rolling hills. The weather is going to be much more temperate than Wisconsin, which I’m excited about. We decided to look for homes in Franklin, TN. Which is about 30 minutes from Merrick’s work. But it has the best school district – Williamson County Schools. I’m excited about that. There’s also a mini temple in Franklin right next to the church building that we will go to, which will be amazing.

We also contracted on our first home, which is very exciting to us! It is currently being built in a really nice community called Ladd Park. It will be done at the end of December so we will live in some corporate housing until we close on it.

This is similar to what it will look like when it is completed-

Here is a picture of some of the community we will live in. Very pretty area.

While we were there we had dinner with two of Merrick’s bosses and their wives. It was very fun to get to know them and to hear more about the area from them. I think it especially helped me become more excited about moving there. It sounds like everyone really loves it there and it’s going to be such a great place to raise our family.

Plus we’ll only be 20 minutes away from downtown where we can get outfitted with some cowboy boots, stop in at some honky tonks to hear some up and coming country music acts, try some amazing BBQ, etc. It will be an adventure to get to know a totally new city again!

And of course we’d love to have visitors so come stay with us in Nashville and we can get to know the city together!