Saying Good Bye

As I sit here ready to write the next post about our journey back across country, I have stumbled upon lots of pictures from our trip and have become teary eyed and choked up.  Mostly because of the happiness and love I feel as I look at how little the girls were when we started two years ago and how much they have grown since.  But also because of the sadness to leave this part of the country, for now and for how quick life goes by, even when you TRY to slow it down.  These are tears of accomplishment for having done such a trip and it actually being successful.  Tears of knowing that there is not one bit of regret for having taken this break in our lives.  And tears of knowing we learned that happiness can not be found in a place, but has always been there, we just needed to realize that.  

All packed up! AGAIN!  It was definitely easier this time around to pack up everything, since most of our stuff was still in boxes and since we had already gave away most of our things before we had left the first time.  Thankfully we also didn't accumulate anything extra while in Bend. 

  Saying good bye to the wondrous scenery was much easier than saying good bye to all our new friends.  

Here is the only picture I had taken of us saying good bye to people.  I really am not fond of saying good bye.  It's too final.  It means things are coming to a close and that's not how I wanted to leave Bend.  I wanted to keep that door open forever.  We always said that we moved to Bend because of the people first, and the outdoors and scenery second.  And it held true the entire time we lived there.  The people here are unlike any other place we have lived.  So welcoming and open hearted.  Thank you to everyone who was a part of our lives while we lived in Bend.  You made Bend so special and hard to leave.