Leaving the ocean.

We have five more days in Santa Cruz. I'm getting so excited for our new adventure, but at the same time I feel a deep sense of mourning for the life here we are leaving behind.

We've been doing our best to really take advantage of the beach while we are still here. The surf here has been woefully nonexistent for the past month or more, so my poor husband has not been able to get out and enjoy surfing at all. But we've been trying to go down to the beach almost every evening, to dig in the sand, run around and/or splash in the waves. Leo and Matt like to splash, I like to watch (that water is crazy cold and I don't have a wetsuit).

The beach has been a huge part of our family life since Matt and my pregnant self moved to the little apartment 1/2 block from Hermosa Beach over four years ago. I spent Leo's infant days walking the strand, patting his back and praying for a nap.

But strangely, it wasn't until we moved here that I truly, profoundly fell in love with the ocean. The beaches up north here are different - they are wilder, craggier, cliffier, windier, chillier, with more tidepools, sea otters, foggy mornings and humbling sunsets. I can't believe how lucky I feel that we have gotten to live next to this breathtaking beach for six months. It has been incredible.

Here are some of my favorites from our time in the Black's Beach 'hood:

















Goodbye, Pacific Ocean. We won't be neighbors anymore, but my heart will never stop running to you and these memories you gave me.

So much, so much...

We are moving. Again.

I guess it's been SEVEN MONTHS since I have posted anything on here. Yikes. So much has happened that I don't even know what I should start typing about first.

We moved across town around the turn of the new year and lived in the coolest. house. ever. which was just a block up from the coolest. beach. ever. We've had this huge backyard, a big front yard, a little creek, lemon trees, lots of space and even a crazy outdoor bathtub for post-beach sand removal. I rented one of our rooms as a vacation rental and met a lot of cool people and made some money (first job since becoming a mom!). It has been so fun.

Leo started preschool at the most wonderful place - Rocking Horse Ranch. They have chickens, goats, geese, a llama, fruit trees, a garden, a mud pit, bikes, tall dangerous things to climb...he came home every day filthy, covered in mud and paint, and so happy. Their philosophy is all about creating a confident, independent and caring child, as well as letting children have freedom to explore in a setting that is not completely sterile and not over-protective. Leo learned about fire, dangerous plants, cutting with sharp tools and climbing very tall trees. Their inclusive and empathy-based discipline policy is incredible, all of the kids really want to be good to each other. It has been so incredibly good for him.

But somewhere in the midst of this we started questioning our life here - should we be spending so much money to live in this state, even though it's wonderful and awesome and dreamy? Should Matt stay in his job, even though there are probably better jobs for him? Should we be spending less to live and saving more money in the hopes of buying a house of our own (something that is nearly impossible, we have learned, for young families to do in Santa Cruz on their own)? And just as we were starting to ask ourselves these questions, Matt got a surprise phone call from a friend in Arizona - with an incredible job offer. It took us several weeks and a visit to make the choice, but we finally decided to go for it.

So in two weeks, we will drive off with our life packed up into a huge Uhaul, a pickup truck and our trusty, embarrassingly-bright-blue Toyota Highlander and start our next adventure in Prescott, Arizona!

Prescott is a gorgeous, old-West kind of small town. It has beautiful mountains and buttes, huge state forests with endless trails, an adorable town square and no less than four parades at Christmastime. We will be 1-2 hours in various directions from the Grand Canyon, Flagstaff, Sedona and Phoenix. Matt's job sounds very promising, with lots of young, happy docs with young kids, all very close-knit. When he becomes a partner in a couple of years, he will have a MONTH of vacation every year!

This will be our sixth city and fourth state together in thirteen years. We are sad to leave Santa Cruz, we wish we could have stayed here longer. But we truly enjoyed it as much as we could, we traveled and road-tripped all over northern California (as far north as Mendocino!) and explored San Francisco, and every beach on Highway 1 on the way to that amazing city. We fully exploited our Monterey Aquarium memberships, hiked in Big Sur and ate fried artichokes. Matt surfed as much as he could and Leo explored so, so many tidepools. I'm sad to leave the ocean. I'm nervous about moving to another new state/town with my little boy. But after so many years and so many new adventures, I just don't believe in "wrong choices" anymore. Each new place we have lived has presented us with endless new paths and experiences, friends, adventures. This will be the same.

And I'll end with a Leo quote. "Sometimes my fart is a bubble, and my butt pops it."