Our Ultimate Life: Holidays, San Diego, a snowy February, and a new job

Some bullets of this post and then the details.

Christmas break we spent time at the zoo and the musem of flight
Emmett's main Christmas gifts were dinosaurs and Justin and I did a couple's trip to Quinault lodge in the Olympics
we redid our kitchen floors New Year's Eve
Quick trip to Phoenix (just Jusitn and me)
family trip to San Diego & MK Leadership
January Jumpstart with NSDE Jeanie Martin
12 + inches of snow in February
Justin got a new job

Back in December, Justin and Aaron sat down and looked at the numbers of Metric Clothing and determined the return wasn't justifying the monthly overhead, so they decided to close shop. January was Justin's last month working with Aaron and even then, things were incredibly slow. Since December Justin had been on the job hunt. I have been looking for a window of opportunity to leave Seattle for a while now. This last year was the most challenging for our family - with that I started to seriously consider where I want to raise my family. With Emmett getting older and thinking about getting him enrolled in preschool later this year, I just really don't want to raise my family here. So with the changes with Metric Clothing Co, I wanted to see how Justin would feel about making a big change.

Out of the blue, he had a recruiter reach out to him from Vegas. Intriguing, since we'd lived there before. But every time we looked at houses and started thinking about moving back, it just didn't feel right. Especially considering their housing market has exploded and we'd like to upgrade when we move. After two interviews, Justin started to look at more opportunities in the Phoenix area and told the Vegas company no, thank you.

We actually took a quick trip to Phoenix in January to check it out and I was totally in love. Rachel Haymore lives in San Tan Valley which is 15 minutes from Gilbert and we spent the day in her "village" - tons of Mormons, tons of sun, and there's an airport that flies Allegiant just 20 minutes away (hello Idaho Falls). We did a session in the Gilbert temple while we were there. It was absolutely packed in the middle of the day on a Tuesday. I aboslutely want to live in a place that has that kind of problem. Anytime I think about moving there, in my heart and gut I just feel good about it.

Interestingly, immediately after Justin told the Vegas company thanks but no thanks, we aren't interested in relocating to Vegas, they followed up and said they'd be willing to have him work remotely... so the interview process continued all while Justin began interviewing with a company in Phoenix. Long story - and long waiting - short: the Vegas job gave him an offer we couldn't refuse and the Phoenix company said they were going in a different direction anyway. After lots of time in the temple, praying, and fasting over this, it felt great to have one door clearly open while the other clearly shut. Justin's start date is March 4th.

The beauty of this is when we decide to move, we'll be able to do it on our time frame.

We spent a week in San Diego for Mary Kay Leadership conference (just for sales directors). We stayed at a VRBO downtown just a short drive from all the main attractions. My favorite parts were Coronado Beach, the Zoo, and spending time walking around the temple - oh, and In-n-Out of course!

Logan turns 1 next month. We started potty training last week and Emmett truly has the hang of his newfound skill. We are crazy proud of him - he is a rockstar.