Since the Spring

Okay, I have to get at least a handful of consistent blogs before I can safely say "I have a blog!" So here goes another try at blogging...entry number three.

I am happy to say that life with Team Staley is never dull. Since this spring we have traveled to Costa Rica - leaving Piper at home with Grandma Alice, bought a four-plex in Scottsdale, AZ, got pregnant, and bought a brand new house for ourselves to live in.

The trip to Costa Rica was thanks to my boss Tom, who so generously invited us along on the company trip to a fancy resort. Having the time to be just the two of us again was so refreshing and fun to be free of eating, napping & bedtime schedules. We were so excited to just be outside at night! We were able to check email and hear that Piper was doing great and having fun. Just knowing that she was okay and happy getting spoiled by Grandma, let us relax and enjoy our time on vacation.

While in Costa Rica, we remembered how much we loved to travel and had fun reminiscing about all the crazy adventures we had traveling before we settled in Bend. These conversations sparked an idea we are super excited about. We made a goal for the year 2020 to take our kids out of school for a year and TRAVEL the world! What an amazing time and opportunity for our family to experience together. This decision feels so us and feels so good, we are excited.

This is where the properties in Arizona come into play. Unfortunately for some, but fortunately for us, the real estate market has taken such a fall that we are able to make good buys now and plan to use this as our vacation fund to fuel this goal of traveling with our kids in the future.

Speaking of kid(s) plural...we do indeed have another one on the way. This little one is 15 weeks along and plans to arrive the middle of January. This still seems so far away, but I know time will fly and we will be holding our new bundle in a blink of the eye. We are so excited to see Piper interact with the new baby and be the big sister.

Piper has been such an amazing kid to watch grow and develop. She is talking non-stop and always baffling me with the concepts she understands and talks about. This is such a fun age. It will be fun to start over with a new baby and go through the wonder of this new little one growing and becoming their own little self. I feel so thankful for the opportunity to be a mom and have this intimate view of discovering life from the eyes of a child. So cool.

And finally, our new house! Ever since we sold our Choctaw house two years ago, we have been renting in downtown Bend. We love the neighborhood and lifestyle it allows to own just one car, walk or bike to parks, restaurants, the post office, and especially Newport market for last minute items or the best meat or fish in town. We weren't even planning on buying a house for another year or so. But one night were were browsing online the houses for sale, just to get an idea of what was out there. For the area we like it was mostly tiny old houses for more than we would want to spend. But then we came across the one we bought, a foreclosure, brand new, never been lived in, three blocks from the rental we were currently in. We looked at the house on Saturday, then again on Sunday, made the decision that night and submitted our offer Monday morning. It all happened so fast, but we are so happy and love our new place. Best of all, we have room for visitors!

Family Fun in the snow

Here is another practice run...am I really going to keep up this blog? As you can see the last one was this fall after our annual Droullard Family Cannon Beach trip. That was 5 months ago!!! Wow does time fly. We are so amazed at how evident the passage of time is now that we have Piper. Before five or six months could go by without much change or anything really to account for. Now, we can see so much change and development with the growth of our sweet little one. Just five short months ago, Piper was just crawling and could make a pretty convincing elephant sound. Now...she is walking, actually running, and has so much to say. The other night we took the time to write down all the words Piper says and we came up with 40 words! Her favorite word of course is Mango!

Here are a few fun pictures from last weekend when my parents visited to get a quick Piper fix! We had fun lots of fun playing in the snow and sledding at Wanogo Snow park.

Begin Blogging

I have finally decided to join the world of blogging. We will see how it goes... I am sure this will be a fun space to document the cute, crazy, funny and interesting things that Piper is up to. We will start with pictures of the 2nd annual Droullard family Cannon Beach trip. We just got back from the coast last night, and I can safely say the trip was a success. We had an amazing house right on the beach, complete with a hot tub. Oh man, do we miss our hot tub - it felt so nice to soak and listen to the waves crash. We had a great time eating good food, playing card games, and just hanging out. Kevin and David carved out some impressively professional sand castles. Cousin Garret is such a sweet kid, it was so fun to watch him and Piper interact and play together. And of course Mango has a puppy hang over from all the fun puppy crazies on the beach. So fun - Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for starting this tradition. A few more fun shots from the week... Mommy and Daddy Love you Piper