White Family San Francisco Adventure

So, here we are, in August of 2014, and I just realized that I had not posted on here is quite some time, and, thought it was definitely overdue for an update. Since May of 2013: we have grown from a family of 3, to a family of 4. Jaydon is the best big brother I could have asked for, for Emmalee. We have moved from Taylorsville, Utah to the Bay Area of Northern California. Before this move, I had only been to Southern California and only for brief visits. Let me tell you what a difference this move has been. My whole world feels like it has been turned upside down. Especially where the closest family members live around 8-10 hours away. We have our house in Utah rented out, with a Property Manager that has seriously been a life saver for us! We left our 4 bedroom/3 bathroom house for a little 1 bedroom/1 bathroom "Manufactured Home" in Concord, California. Yes it is small, yes my children do not have a lot of room, yes I have a countertop dishwasher that only gets used here and there because it is easier most of the time to just handwash what I need cleaned; but somehow, things are working out so so much better than I ever thought they would. The thing that everyone keeps asking us though, is WHY we are living in a trailer, when we make as much as we do; with a combined household income like ours. Well, the trailer we are in, costs about as much as our house back home; and until April of 2014, we were paying not only rent/mortgage on the trailer out here, but also for the mortgage back in Utah. I honestly don't know how we made it work. I still work from home, for Western Governors University (thank heavens!! it is SO expensive in this area of California!!) and I watch both of my kids during the day as well. Justin's car is out of commission currently, so we are sharing my CRV, which I really feel like has been a blessing in disguise. Justin's Malibu is a tank and guzzles gas like no other, my CRV is much more efficient on gas; which is what Justin needs right now where he has to drive into the City every day for work. The Bay Area is so beautiful, and it is so crazy that in the city that we live in, it can be 85 degrees and in the City (The City is what locals call San Francisco) it can be 10-15 degrees lower just because of it being on the coast. I guess that is what I get to learn the hard way because of being born and raised in Salt Lake City haha It is so funny to hear what Californians consider mountains, coming from Utah LOL makes me giggle almost every time I hear someone say it Mom and Pop shops are BIG out here, which is cool, I do have to say that I did not realize how sick I was of restaraunt chains until we moved out here. Everyone asks me what it is like to live in the Bay Area, well, I will tell you a little about this: We live in what they consider the East Bay, which is one of the warmest parts of the Bay Area. The city we live in, is Concord, which is the biggest city in Contra Costa County. In this area, it is VERY common for you to drive 2 hoursto get to where you are wanting to go, not only because of the traffic out here (which is seriously ridiculous) but because all of the really cool fun things to do, are that far away! My mom and sister, Candace were recently here for a visit in July, and we took them into the City, down Lombard Street, to Ghirardelli Square (mmmm Chocolate!!), on a Bay Tour because the Alcatraz Tours were all sold out, to Coit Tower, down to Santa Cruz to walk the boardwalk down there, to Monterey Bay Aquarium, to Stinson Beach, over the Golden Gate Bridge and of course, showed them around Concord a bit. Almost every place we went, except for the City, was about 2 hours each way... We did have a lot of fun going and doing the site seeing, especially since we haven't been able to do much of that since we have been here. We really are here to work, pay bills off and for Justin to hopefully get his Mechanics Card before we move back home to Utah. We are determined though, to pay off almost all of the debts that we have currently, and we are doing a really great job of working towards this goal. We have paid off one of the loans we came out here with already, and are working on others. With all this said, we cannot wait until the day comes that we are able to move back to Utah and be back in our old neighborhood, home, etc... and we are really shooting for moving back the summer of 2016, as long as things continue to work out as they have been. Now, of course, if the opportunity presents itself to move back sooner because things have worked out better than we orginally anticipated, we will definitely take that chance. However, as it sits right now, we are looking at July of 2016 as our anticipated move back to Utah date. We miss all of our family and friends back home!! I need to get some dinner cooking, so I will post some pics soon!! <3