Pictures from before and now... Choices

      Our family has spent the last eight years in our own home. We loved our neighbors and our privacy and our autonomy. This decision to sell what we own and change our lives so completely was not easily made. However, when we researched this part of the country, Cheyenne was not on our radar. So, we chose to rent at first and will wait to consider buying a new home until we are more familiar with the area.

We grew by one person in this home.

My lovely husband built this fire pit.

Sometimes we laughed our heads off

and hugged up on each other.

We played in the snow

and the leaves

planted gardens

and had family visits

as often as we could

and we laughed some more

In case you weren't sure, we had a good life.

      Apparently the rental market is booming in Cheyenne. Plenty of properties available at a wide variety of prices had us feeling optimistic. As the answer to whether or not pets were allowed kept coming back no over and over, we started remembering some of the very best things about owning our own home as we had for the better part of the last decade. As we drove through several shady neighborhoods our sliding scale of suitability was based on two questions, “Does this property fit the budget we are trying to maintain?” and “Do we think we will die in this neighborhood?” After several owners told us they had just listed and rented their properties within a week and that they had waiting lists of up to two pages if the lease they had fell through, it was obvious this was a quickly moving market. One woman called us as we waited outside a home for our appointment to see her listing to tell us it had just been rented to the people who were scheduled to see it before us. Finally, it became apparent that we might have to adjust our budget to get into a home we were comfortable with where we could keep our family dog in our home.  Our plan of living debt free and saving for property of our own again remains important but we may have to figure out a way to bring more in rather than living so inexpensively. Cheyenne is shaping up to be more expensive than our time in Idaho was. 

Some more memories from MD.

Camping on the beach

Fishing at the beach

Monkeying around with friends

and having back yard battles with cousins

Hiking barefoot, of course

One of the Sandman's friends...

A random visit from a neighbor a few doors down. 

Cat's friend clearly making an important point.

A few friends from our time in Idaho...

     While we were in Idaho we were reminded of just how important friends and a sense of community are to our family. It is not places we will miss but the faces of the people we leave behind.

     So we move on from our temporary place of refuge and all the beloved people we came to know there.

     And we move forward to a new place. On our drive in to Wyoming I happened to glance at the map and see Daniel, Wyoming with the location of the first Mass in Wyoming just as we approached the exit to that very spot. Believing in His ability to lead us we made that our first stop on this leg of the journey. 

Our home for this year

Day 1 in Wyoming

     We are settling in at the new home and the kids are looking forward to a very white winter with our first morning in the house finding the back  yard covered in snow.