Highlights of our time in PTC

Making a list of what we've loved about living here was much easier than coming up with a list of things we were happy to say goodbye to. On the other hand, writing about all the things we've enjoyed and will miss has made me feel a lot more melancholy than writing about all the things we were ready to say good riddance to. I'm not sure items on this list will warrant as much rationalization to make you understand why they made the list (as opposed to the "lows" list), but we also know that I get...chatty...so I will probably tell too much about things anyway. Once again, they are offered in no particular order:

1. Beach trips. It's lovely to live within a close enough proximity to the beach that we can go every now and again. We wish it were closer (in North Carolina, for example, we could do day trips), but it was at least closer than when we lived in Utah. The kids tried listing every beach that we made it to—they loved every beach trip. Phoebe is still convinced that Grandpa and Darla own the beach house in Panama City and talks about going back at least once a week. We have yet to take a beach trip this summer (but we're about to go live on the coast, so I think we'll survive until then).
2. Road trips. Our mega trip around the US was certainly one for the books! We hit so many national parks! We otherwise didn't take as many road trips as we thought, but the kids loved going on extra road trips (like when he took Rachel and Miriam to DC, and when he and Darla took Benjamin and Zoë to DC). We went to Tennessee a few times...I can't remember what else.
3. Mini-adventures. We tried our best to explore new places around the city, going to museums, visiting different hiking trails. 
4. Back deck sleepovers. Our kids loved setting up hammocks and/or the little pop up tent we have to sleep out in the backyard (typically on the back deck) with neighbourhood friends. 
5. Our cul-de-sac. I don't even know how to say goodbye to this cul-de-sac. Our neighbours are the absolute best. Having our kids grow up alongside these kids has been an absolute privilege. 
6. Grandpa moving here. It was so much fun having him right around the corner and to have him join us on family adventures (and our mega road trip and beach trips). The kids loved getting to spend more time with him.
7. Meeting Darla. If Grandpa hadn't moved here we probably wouldn't have ever met Darla. We are lucky to have her in our lives!
8. Meeting Phoebe. We are also lucky to have Phoebe! She's our only child who has only ever known this place, but she's quite adventurous and is ready to explore the world (as long as she gets to sit by Mommy on the plane).
9. Church friends. Having a small (and struggling) ward was, at times, difficult. But it also made for some pretty close friendships for our kids. From fire nights and game nights to prom and...making a raft out of milk jugs...these kids had some good times!
10. Learning to drive. Both Rachel and Miriam learned how to drive here (even with all the terrible traffic) and thus aren't intimidated by traffic in other places. Rachel even drove from the SLC airport to Provo after dropping Grandpa and Darla off this past week!
11. Master's degree. I've always wanted to go to graduate school! And I did it! And I loved it (even though it was hard at times)! So I went back for more (it's still hard at times). 
12. Rosie moving to Tennessee. We have loved having Rosie be so close! We're almost in the same time zone! We've gone up there a few times, she's come down here a few times. It's been so wonderful to get to see Phoebe interact with little cousins her age (even if they're technically first-cousins-once-removed). 
13. The pool. We love pool season! Will it feel as special once we live in the land of eternal pool season? I don't know. But my kids lived for pool season—they were always counting down to May 1 like it was Christmas morning.
14. Swim team. This is another thing that I'm not sure how to say goodby to, but kind of already have. We've loved being on the Jones Bridge/River Station Rapid Baraccudas swim team. It's a mouthful! We've made so many wonderful friends on that team. And being on a team helped the kids grow in so many ways. 
15. Luna. We got to watch Luna grow up from a tiny puppy into the big, goofy dog that she is. She's helped my children who were afraid of dogs or otherwise might have been afraid of dogs less afraid of dogs (except, perhaps for Miriam). They feel like she is their dog (she's not). She feels like Benjamin is her boy (he might very well be). Those two are going to miss each other for sure! (The kids also didn't mind the $5 payment they'd get for walking her in the middle of the day while Luna's people were at work—they're going to miss that, too). 
16. Trees. I love being surrounded by all these big, green trees. They're so beautiful and their shade is so wonderful. Moving to the desert is going to be a bit of a shock to our eyes. 
17. Homeschooling. I had long been tempted to try it but wasn't ever sure if I'd be able to handle it. But we're doing pretty okay with it. We liked not having to deal with busses or school schedules or bullies and things like that. We loved getting to learn about what we were interested in (rather than following a prescribed curriculum) and trying new things! 
18. Rainstorms. There's nothing quite like stomping in puddles, getting soaked by a downpour, or huddling up to watch a wild electrical storm. The smell of rain is divine. We...are going to miss rain, I think. The kids would probably also add snow here (that didn't make our list, and it rarely snowed here, but when it did it was a lot of fun). 
19. The Big Slow Down. While the COVID days did have many drawbacks, we actually enjoyed getting to slow down and stay home more. We really felt like we really learned to enjoy each other. 
20. Co-op. The kids really enjoyed making friends and learning new things from people other than me—things that I couldn't teach them if I tried because you really can only teach what you know, and it's so good for them to learn from other people's experiences and points of view. I'm sad we didn't get to go this past year, but for my sanity we had to cut something out of our schedule (I tried to squeeze in a little too much this past year and it was a lot so I was glad I didn't have to remember to go to co-op...and prepare lessons for co-op...too).

There are other things we've loved about living here as well, I'm sure. We're really going to miss night games in the cul-de-sac, having our trampoline full to bursting with neighbourhood kids, block parties, temple trips, and so many other wonderful things. It's hard to believe that we're actually saying goodbye to a place that is very much become home.