The Houses That Built Me: Washington
This is the third of my series on The Houses That Built Me.
The first two blogs on this subject are: The House That Built Me: Our Last House With Pete
Pete, the girls, and I lived in Washington from September 2007 to January 2014. We lived in four rentals there. We had some really hard things happen there but we were also blessed with amazing memories and friendships.
Mia insisted on learning how to ride her bike by driving downhill on a new road in Lynden. And she wouldn’t go slowly! We would pick her up at the bottom of the hill and ask her to practice some of the flat section. She would not! She’d get up, climb the big hill, then do it again!
We loved our hikes and drives there. We went to Mount Baker a lot but also spent a lot of time at the beautiful parks and lakes in town. At them, they would jump off a bridge into the lake, we learned how to SUP, we dodged goose poop everywhere, and I would swear that the girls were fish as they would spend so much time in the water and never want to get out. Several years, we watched 4th of July fireworks over another lake while having dinner and s’mores at the fire pit.
I’m pretty sure we frequented every Woods Coffee in town and were invited to several soft openings, which we loved. Our all-time favorite one, though, is Boulevard Park. And not because of the day when people from town would ride their bikes naked.
Three of our houses “were in the country” which meant that we had land between us and the neighbors. Our landlords had pigs and chickens. We rode the neighbor’s horse, named the horses we walked by every day, had a flower garden, built a treehouse, and the kids were able to run around outside among raspberries and wildflowers.
When we moved to Washington, we were burned out on church after ten hard years in ministry so we took a while showing up late then walking out early. We slowly started volunteering and the girls wanted to as well. I got to play upright bass again for the first time since college because the girls’ middle school teacher would let me borrow hers for the weekend. There, I first experienced emotions while playing bass and worshipping God. This was monumental in my faith journey as I grew up being taught that emotions and instruments in worship were not allowed.
Our most precious memories were with the friendships we built there. Sitting by the fire with Pete belly-laughing about sea bass and me with an ax, birthday parties, sleepovers in the tent in the backyard, a frisbee drinking game a friend made us, and how we were able to be ourselves with each other, often with colleagues. Many of those friendships have stayed with us after we moved away and have exponentially blessed us before, after, and since Pete died.
We will forever be grateful for our time in Washington.
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