Home Sweet Colorado

I was thinking back recently to the good (2), the bad (2), and the ugly of picking up and moving your family most of the way across the country. It was such a surreal time in our life. If you had asked me 10 years ago, even 5 years ago, if anywhere other then Pennsylvania would ever be home, truly home, I probably would have said no. I couldn't picture it, couldn't imagine ever loving a state as much as I did my home state.

I've always loved travel; visiting and learning about new places, exploring and experiencing areas that are different then my own is one of my favorite things in the world (just check out the travel tag to see that!). But having a home base is so important to me, and for 33 years that was PA.

It was only a few month ago, when we were on our Annual East Coast trip, when I realized that somewhere along the line, sometime during the past 1,000 days, Colorado had become more then just where we were living... it had become our home. A place that I loved just as fully, though differently, then my birth state of Pennsylvania. I love the mix of people from different places, the mix of cultures, love the outdoorsiness, the mountains, the altitude, and the weather. Most of all, I love the life that Colorado allowed us to build: the friends, the framily, the concerts and travel, the careers that we adore. This beautiful state is so much more then we could have known three years ago, when we packed up our house of 10 years and drove 1700 miles.

Two weeks ago we had a Framily dinner and I sat on the floor with my two besties, as we laughed about something (surely completely inappropriate 😈), and I was washed over with feels of such complete gratitude. I remember what it was like to feel stuck in my job, stuck in my life; and while life isn't perfect (no such thing!), this life that we've cultivated is so completely fulfilling and downright amazing.

Being a Native is a huge thing here, they have the bumper stickers to prove it. But I've seen another version recently that sums things up nicely: Not a Native, But I Got Here As Soon As I Could. Thanks for welcoming us home, Colorado.