10 Things to Tell You: #3

10 Things to Tell You: Where Do You Live?

Why do you live there? What do you love about it, or don't? How has it changed you (or not)?

Yes! A lighter and less gloomy writing prompt. I live in Spokane, WA and I love it...most of the time. I am NOT a fan of the cold and snow and right now we are inundated with several feet of snow and I am HATING it. I cannot take all of this winteriness. I am most definitely a summer person!

Why do we live in Spokane?

Reason #1

My great-great grandparents, great-grandparents, and grandparents are all from around here...the Eastern WA and Northern Idaho area. My mom and her siblings were raised in a small town about 2 hours away. My great-grandparents purchased a piece of property on a lake in Northern Idaho in the early 1900s and started a resort called Echo Beach. The lake, which is approximately a half an hour from our house, has been a gathering place and summer vacation destination for five generations now. It is a place and area that I love.

I grew up for most of my life in Utah and loved the craggy mountains and canyons there. (I have also lived in Kansas City and Houston.) I attended college at BYU and Tyler and I lived in Utah for the first five years of our marriage. But there was always something that called for us to move up North. One summer when I was a newlywed and up at the lake for vacation I went on a walk with my Aunt Marji. I asked her to give me her best marriage advice. She told me first and foremost to, "Move where you want to live!" She told me that she wished that she and my Uncle Dennis had done that right away after they got married because once you have kids and get established in an area it is really hard to move and relocate. Her advice stuck with me. Tyler and I always hated the drive back to Utah after leaving the lake and would constantly ask ourselves, "Why do we live in Utah?! We don't we live up here?!" We talked about it all the time and talked about what my Aunt Marji had said but moving just never seemed like a real possibility.

When I was pregnant with Kameron, Tyler was working for the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the 2002 Olympics. As the Olympics approached and his work began to dwindle SLOC sent in headhunters to help their employees find new jobs... even around the country if that was their wish. I remember Tyler and I joking around and saying,  "We should see if there is anything in Spokane!" I didn't really take it seriously but Tyler did and a position was found in Spokane. He applied, interviewed, and got the job. We were so excited!!

I loved the Utah of my youth and, of course, I love and adore Springdell but coming back to Utah for college (although I loved Provo and BYU) and definitely after... it no longer felt like home to me. Tyler and I never thought that we would stay in Utah forever or raise our family there. Tyler and I really hated the Utah Mormon Culture AND the Utah Anti-Mormon Counter Culture. We still do. It is such a hostile environment. It feels like being permanently trapped in an election year with constant attacks and counter attacks from both sides. Who wants to live like that? Utah Mormons and ex-Mormons are constantly at each other's throats. We loathed it. We couldn't wait to move away. Tyler and I both have lived in other states and have experienced the church outside of Utah. Those experiences had a big influence on us. The church culture is so much more accepting and peaceful outside of Utah as is what ever happens to be the counter culture. There is just so much anger and rage in Utah. People who leave the church cannot leave the church alone. It becomes weirdly part of their identity to constantly *rebel* against the church and their members and beliefs. I find this so odd. When people leave the Catholic church or the Protestant church or whatever...they just leave. There isn't this need to fight against everything their previous church stands for. On the other side, there are many members of the church in Utah that have this bizarre superiority complex and that grated on us too. We had to get out. It was the best decision that we have made. For our family and for our spirituality.

One of my very favorite sights!

All of that to say, that I really do love where we live. We might not have towering craggy mountains but we have gorgeous pine covered mountains that are just as beautiful. We have water! Lakes, rivers, creeks, streams, and waterfalls all over the place. I love it when I am on a road trip and I start getting closer to home and I can smell the pine trees again. There is no better smell to me than pine and water. The most heavenly smell in the world is pulling up to the lake house. Make that a perfume and I will buy it!

Reason #2

I love the beauty of our area. I love how close we are to nature. Want to go hiking? A trail is 10 minutes away and the trail head isn't crowded and packed...unlike Utah. Plus, when I am hiking I want to see water and water is everywhere here. There are 76 lakes near the Spokane area. 76! I googled it. I am lake girl through and through. I love the water...boating, swimming, kayaking, paddleboarding. This area is heaven for me. There are gorgeous biking trails and if you are into camping, fishing, and skiing this area cannot be beat.

Reason #3

I love that Spokane is the perfect size. Not too small and not too big. It's around the same size as Boise but it feels smaller and less sprawling. I love our downtown. I love the Spokane River that flows through it. I love the gorgeous parks we have. I feel like Spokane is a hidden gem. The cost of living here is cheap. There is so much to do. There is culture and the arts. The shopping and restaurant scenes are really taking off. Our traffic and commute times are so much better than most other places of a similar size. We have good schools here and the Gonzaga University scene. There is a temple here and a large LDS population. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the second largest religion in Spokane with Catholicism being the first. I love the connection to history that I feel here and to my own personal family history. Also, the architecture has a timeless quality that I love. There are great people and the summers are AMAZING!!

Reason #4

It feels like home. We have loved living here for the past 17 years. It's been a great place to raise our family. Sometimes we get the itch to move to another area. Tyler and I love Texas, Tyler loves North Carolina, and we both love Portland. We often long to get out of the snow and move somewhere warmer. We want to be snowbirds in our retirement! But we both really love living here and it can't be too bad because Reilly moved back and she doesn't seem to have any interest in moving anywhere else. Yay! Now if we could get all of our kids to do the same! :) Most of my family lives here now and the rest aren't too far away in Utah. I think that Spokane is a wonderful well kept secret in the Pacific Northwest. Plus, I love that it is close to Seattle, Portland, and Canada.

There are a few things that I DISLIKE about living here:

1.) It starts to get dark at 3:30 pm in the winter.

2.) Winters...they are super long, gray, and gloomy.

3.) Summer is short...but oh so sweet.

4.) No good Mexican food.

5.) No good Chinese food ...or Chinese delivery! How have I lived here for so long without Chinese delivery? That was our weekly staple/splurge when we lived in Utah. Although with things like Ubereats that is starting to change.

6.) Sunny days are never the norm. They are a surprise and a delight! I always notice and appreciate them! Although we usually get a pretty good run of sunny days July through mid-September. I am glad that we get more sun than the west side of the state! Seattle typically has 152 days of sun out of 365. Portland has 144/365. Spokane has 171/365.

We love living here for many more reasons than I can name in this post and we are so happy that we moved here from Salt Lake over 17 years ago!