Vancouver, I am liking you so far....

I love driving to work everyday because in the short ride I have, I go through what seems like a forest. It is full of all kinds of beautiful trees. Green is EVERYWHERE and it gives me the happiest feeling to be surrounded by so much greenery and nature. There is something that gives me the warm and fuzzies when I am surrounded by mother nature, God's beautiful creation. I feel so at peace with everything, even when my life is full of craziness. At my lunch break I have to sit in my car to pump (one of the many joys of being a full time working mom) and the best thing about it is my view. I lookout into a scenery of trees all sorts of shapes, sizes and colors and a marsh is in my view that is said to have blue herons visit. I look out my window at my office and just am surrounded by nature.

Downtown Vancouver is nothing to write home about. However, we are just a hop, skip and a jump away from downtown Portland and they have plenty to do there. We have already visited Saturday market twice, walked around aimlessly, played in a few different water "fountains, visited some fun stores and ate some yummy food. Portland is so big, eclectic and fun! The vibe is so different than San Diego. 

Chloe playing in the water in Portland.

There are so many family friendly places here! The brand new library is awesome. James takes the girls there every Wednesday for story time and to play in their super cute, modern indoor playground. We have been to historic Fort Vancouver a few times with beautiful victorian houses and cool history and a big open field for Chloe to run in. There are tons of fun, nice playgrounds everywhere up here! I have been told that within the last 2 years Vancouver has really been trying to become more family friendly. I definitely agree there is tons to do here with our little ones and I have to say that I like it very much.

Checkout how big that jungle gym is behind Chloe.
And that was only half of the size!

We are attending City Bible Church in Vancouver. Our SD home church was an extension of the church up here. So I feel like we already understand the principals and main mission of our new church and we fit right in. The kids church is awesome! Chloe loves her two year old class and is making friends fast.  They even have a nursery for newborns and a nursing room with a tv that plays the video from inside the sanctuary so you can still watch the sermon while you nurse. It is so nice because Emery seems to always be hungry at church and I would always miss out on a good chunk of the service.  We are starting to get to know people, we start attending a small group for young families next Sunday and I am so excited. It will be nice to have people to connect to here other than our family.

Speaking of family, James sister will be moving in literally next door to us. It will be awesome to have her so close to just stop by and hang out for a few since she is so busy with work and school. It is nice to have family so close to play with the girls. James mom just moved to Portland and is now only 20 minutes away from us vs the hour they were. They have been coming over often to help James take care of the girls during the day while I am at work.We are blessed to have family so close and available to help us.

We have made some new friends thanks to Instagram/blog world. We met with Alicia from upside down umbrella. Their little family is so cute and we already have lots in common. We have tons of fun things planned and I can't wait to hang out more. It is nice to meet people who are in the same life stage as you. Especially when you have little ones because things can come up unexpectedly and things are so unpredictable, so to have friends that understand is great. And Emery and her baby Chloe are close in age so I can't wait for them to play together! Thank you Instagram for connecting me to people whom I otherwise would have never met. Who knew, right? If any of you other bloggers who live here in Portland or Vancouver want to get together and meet up (play dates encouraged, Chloe needs friends!) just email me at shesaidblog{at}ymail{dot}com

I will do a post soon on an update of the girl soon, especially for you Mom! 

And since I posted pictures of Chloe, here is one of my happy Emery Rose just for good measure.