An Ode to Michigan

We moved to the lovely state of Michigan in the summer of 2003 to begin our "grown-up adult lives" after graduating college. We packed our tiny car, a Uhaul trailer and headed east across the Mississippi to a whole new frontier.

I went to grad school, Zack got a terrific job within his degree, we bought a house, found the perfect dog (we still think he's perfect...at least in the canine world), had three perfect babies, made some amazing life-long friendships, set down roots, then ... had our mid-life crises, respectively.

We decided we weren't getting any younger and it would be much easier to re-locate now while our kiddos were young. We've always had this obsession with the Rockies and felt they were calling to us. Plus, we would be closer to family (both Zack's and mine) and our kids would be able to know their cousins, aunts and uncles, etc. and live within 2 hours of Moab, Telluride, Gunnison, and 3 hours from Durango. Hmmmm... which would you choose? Needless to say we packed up, said our good-byes, shed a few tears, left our home in the good hands of a property manager (the housing market was/IS crap so we decided to rent rather than take a huge loss trying to sell it), and headed west.

We finally made it to CO after 4 LONG days of driving. We stopped off at Zack's parents' house for a family get-to-gether and some real food. Amidst all of the packing, cleaning, and traveling I completely forgot that Dax's birthday was a little over a week away. Luckily my amazing in-laws bailed me out and had a cake for the Dude.

We said our good-byes (but this time only briefly since we would now be living at least in the same state) and continued our journey west over I-70 doing a max speed of 45 in a Uhaul truck. That. Was. Interesting.

We arrived in Cedaredge to occupy Zack's grandparents' old house. We are truly blessed to live in such a beautiful area and are grateful for this opportunity for Zack and I to live our mid-live crises. Here's to our big Colorado adventure... :)