Goodbye Elkford

It has been a long time since my last entry and with all that time there has been a lot of change.
  I have written lots before about my desire to move on from the little town of Elkford. Since having my girls I have felt that Elkford just isn't a good fit for me and us anymore. It has been just over a year since first discussing my desire to move with Erick and after many a long talks we decided that we would set a 1-2 year goal of moving our little family. I knew that it wasn't going to be an easy move in many more ways than just one. We have a lot of deep connections to Elkford. I get asked the question quite often why I want to leave Elkford or what part of Elkford don't I like. The easiest answer I have for that is that I am bored in Elkford I want more opportunity for my children. I don't want to be stranded in my driveway or the town when the snow hits anymore. I want to be able to have an evening to myself at the coffee shop, book store, craft store....or yoga studio (past 6pm). I want my daughters to do dance, ballet, hip hop or any sports their heart desires that isn't limited by lack of coaching. I do not mean to offend the people that love Elkford and choose to raise their families there. We are all different we all have different desires. So anyways after Luka was born the itch emerged again marking the sixth month ish mark after we had agreed that we should try and move on from Elkford. I definitely was getting antsy, I am sure the never ending winters and the two busy babies had something to do with it all but needless to say I had an itch that needing scratching. We didn't really know where to start with the whole process and most everyone would probably agree that putting our house up for sale was doing things a little backwards....I would have to say I agree but looking back I don't really know how we could have done things any different.
  So the house went up for sale and the questions from friends and family and our little town began..."where are you guys moving, what are you guys doing"? I loved the reactions we got when we replied - "I don't know". Rest assured my friends I know it may have seemed as though we were walking a little bit blindly but there was a bit of a plan some where in there. Poor Erick who is definitely a planner in more ways than one did have some anxiety with this process, but we made it through.  Of course this whole journey we were on lead Erick and I to have many conversations about where we were going to go and what we were going to do and we bonked heads a lot! But than all of a sudden our house sold!!! Holy crap holy crap....now its decision making time. The way everything happened was all sort of crazy Erick and I will both tell you that it is all unreal how the next few months unfolded. We were visiting Kamloops when we got word that the house sold...."its a sign". I have always wanted to move back to Kamloops and it was one of the main places that we both liked and I was job shopping on line here for Erick since the day we planned on moving. While we were still on our trip in Kamloops we got word that there was a job opening here at the Teck owned mine. "Another sign". Of course as soon as we got home I revamped Erick's resume and sent it off......So after my realization that it was important to Erick to stay working with Teck the company that he has worked for for the last 15 years our plan became apparent to us. We will move to Kamloops if Erick gets this job or we will move to Cranbrook if he does not get the job either way Erick remains with Teck and his years of hard work and service will remain in tact and we will be moving out of Elkford. Ohh....the waiting....luckily it wasn't too long. Oh and did I mention the people that bought our house didn't want in it for 2.5 months. This gave us time to organize our lives...
    I could go on about the details and the process in which we got here but lets just say that we were extremely blessed. Erick got an amazing job opportunity that was pretty hard to turn down. We are here in Kamloops! We miss our families and friends in a bad way.....but the adventures that the 4 of us have already been on since we left Elkford have been pretty great. I don't think any of our friends or family who are sad to see us leave would ask us to give up any of these great family memories that we now have.
I will say this though...these words have been in my heart since the moment I knew that it was time for me to leave Elkford....
  Elkford is a part of who we are...in no way are we walking away and never turning back. We will be back (at christmas of course) and we will be back often. We are the small town people. We love the wilderness, the community and the sense that each person we know there is a part of the story of our lives in some way or another. We thank you Elkford for everything that you have given us...be it education, jobs, memories both happy and sad.....we are who we are today because we were raised in Elkford....for that we are greatly and forever thankful. We will forever have small town hearts we just have big city dreams......