Warmly,
Jennifer and Mike
Saturday, November 01, 2008
I can't believe its already November! Time has seemed to fly by since we moved to Sandpoint at the end of August. I guess time really does fly when you're having fun because we LOVE Sandpoint! The kids are all loving school and have quickly made friends here. They love being outdoors and are enjoying all the freedom that living in the country brings. The horses seem to love it here too. Sandpoint even has a mellowing effect on them! The barn and indoor are progressing rapidly. The barn will be finished next week (yay!!!), and the indoor in about 3 weeks. Luckily the weather has been fabulous so we are able to work the horses in the outdoor ring so they haven't skipped a beat. Fingers crossed the weather holds out another few weeks! Mike and I really feel like we have found home here in Sandpoint. The people are wonderful and we have made some great new friends. It is perhaps the most beautiful place I have ever seen and due to that every day driving is a pleasure. I don't think we'll ever stop being in awe of the beauty here. Life in a small town is much more suitable for our family, and the sense of community here is wonderful. This particular small town is so special as it has multiple terrific restaurants, great skiing, a very good arts, music and theatre environment, and wonderful people! We have a guest room so please come visit anytime :-)
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Well our time in Kirkland is winding down and while we are still really looking forward to our move to Sandpoint we are are going to miss so much about our life here in Kirkland. First and foremost we will miss living close to our family here (my Dad and Step Mom, Mike's parents and siblings, and of course Lauren and Sean). But, Lauren and Sean are now grown and Sean has moved back east to continue to work with horses there. Lauren is also headed into a career in horses, but she has not decided where she will head next. We look forward to their visits to Sandpoint. My father is now retired and spends very little time in Kirkland, so we are counting on him visiting us in Sandpoint, and the same goes for Mike's parents and siblings. Of course we will head back this way to visit too. We will also dearly miss our wonderful friends here. Great friends are hard to come by in life, and we have some amazing friends here who we dread saying goodbye too! I hope everyone remembers that we have a guest apartment in Sandpoint that we hope to fill regularly with visiting friends and family. You all will love Sandpoint, so please DO come visit often!!!! As I have learned, long distance friendships can be just as wonderful as closer proximity friendships so I look forward to the future of these relationships.
I just posted a bunch of pic's from our summer so far. As usual, we are on the go regularly as you'll see below! All the children are doing super well and enjoying their summer holidays. We've spent about 5 weeks at competitions in Canada and been on some great day trips during those shows. We loved the weeks in Calgary with all 9 kids, it was a very special time for Mike and I to have the whole gang together. We don't get to spend as much time as we'd like with Lauren and Sean due to their busy schedule and we cherish the time we have with them. They have both grown into amazing young adults who we are very proud of! We also loved having Granny "O" spend 3 weeks with us in Calgary, she is so much a part of our gang now! And Uncle Jason even popped in for a visit which was really fun. Granny "O" also got her first Grand Prix horse and I am lucky enough to be his rider! His name is S.F. Sadin and he has incredible scope, and a spicy disposition that I adore. Mike and I think he will do great things! I posted a picture of him below. I also posted a picture of a vary talented young mare that I ride owned by a great client. The mare's name is Chablis, and she also has a very bright future in our sport.
Now we're home till Tuesday when we head to Princeton, NJ for a weeks vacation at Granny "O"'s house with family and great friends, we can't wait!!! After the Princeton week we come home for 2 weeks, then are off to competitions again for the first 3 weeks of August, then we come home and move. Time is flying by!!!! I know our time in Kirkland will be over in a snap, and we will miss it very much!
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
We are moving! Many of you already know this, but the time has finally come for us to announce our move to our clients, which means it can now be public knowledge. Mike is a local here having lived in Western Washington his whole life. I have lived here for 16 years. We are both very ready for this move. The last decade has been the best decade in both of our lives, and Mike says he thinks the next ten will be even better! Hope he's correct :-) He usually is though so I have good reason to believe him.
We are making this move for a few different reasons, the first and foremost being for our family. This area (Bellevue/Kirkland) has grown and changed dramatically in the last decade. What used to be a lovely small town area has grown into a city, and the huge economic growth around here has had a major impact on the area, both positive and negative. While our business, like so many, has benefited from the economic growth, the Bellevue society scene has gotten to us. Mike and I also own and operate a huge horse business over here with an 80 client riding school and a couple of different board and training programs. We are both feeling run a little ragged between the business, our own horses, and most importantly our children. We needed to find somewhere to move to where the pace of life can slow down to where we are not running at breakneck speed to get through the day. Well we are happy to say we have found that place!
We also need to be in a place where we have the time and energy to focus on our horses. We plan on making a business out of training and selling young show jumpers as we both enjoy young horses, while really trying to focus on the Grand Prix horse(s). Our travel and horse show life will continue as normal as we hope to build stronger Grand Prix horses with the wonderful new sponsor we have. Mike barely has time to ride at our current stables as he is so busy running the place and teaching. The move will enable Mike to do what he is so gifted at, and loves, working with young horses. Mike will continue to work with and train Samia, a great long term client and owner of Jennifer's young mare Chablis, and we may try to pick up a new client or two in Sandpoint, but we also may chose not too:-) We'll just go with the flow.
We have been looking for a few years now for a place to live where the people have more old fashioned family values, where our children will grow up seeing that you need to give, in order to get back, and where they will have roll models in areas such as work ethic. We have looked for a town where we will know our neighbor, and they will be there to help in a pinch. We in turn will be there for them, all 9 of us :-) A town where the kids can run around outside with their friends building forts (like I did as a kid) and playing outside instead of going to the mall. Where they can blaze around bareback on their ponies and join pony club and just have fun! Sandpoint appears to be that town. We have been going to Sandpoint for years, and the more we go, the longer we want to stay. Finally, last summer, we decided we wanted to stay forever! Sandpoint is also a very out-doorsie town, and that will fit us like a glove. The kids can't wait to spend the weekends skiing at Schweitzer Mountain, and the summers boating on Lake Pend Oreille and hiking and camping. Neither can we! If that sounds good to you too, please come visit us as we are building a guest apartment and really look forward to visits from our friends!
We bought a 37 acre piece of land at a great price (thanks Michael:-) and even became good friends with our real estate agent Michael and his wife Laura (yes they were still our friends after the property closed.....),Hey, we though, a house and some friends, all in one week! Cool! Anyway, the new "Stella Farm" will be in Sandpoint, ID. We are in the process of building our 16 horse barn (downsizing from 60 stalls here), our indoor and outdoor arenas, and some nice pastures. We even get to install a eurociser for the horses which we've wanted forever!
We will make the big move of 7 children (lauren and Sean will always have rooms and be welcome as well), 5 dogs, 1 cat, 1 frog, 16 horses, and a whole lot of stuff, at the end of August. We are feeling very lucky as our wonderful nanny Jennifer and her husband Cameron, and our groom (aka. our extra daughter) Jenna will be moving with us to Sandpoint. Having them make the move with us is wonderful as it will ease the transition for the kids and the horses greatly, not to mention for Mike and I. We found a wonderful school in Sandpoint where all the children have been accepted and are looking forward to attending. As most of you know, Kai and Holly have repaired cleft lip/palates that caused them to have speech difficulties. They both need specialized speech therapy from a speech pathologist who is trained for cleft kids, well the icing on the cake is that Sandpoint has a speech pathologist who is on the national Cleft Palate board and is excellent! Things just keep falling into place for us there!
While we are very ready to move, we are also very sad to leave the people and places we love around here. I'm not going there tonight though as this is my "We're Moving YAY" announcement. Later in the summer will be my "Oh my gosh this is real and I'm getting very sad to leave" message, but that one is for later. Tonight, we are just looking forward to the next decade of our lives in Sandpoint!
Best Wishes for a wonderful summer to you all!
Jennifer and Mike
Catherine, Ciara, Hunter, Ruby, Kai, Sophie, and Holly!
PS.The pictures below are one we have taken in Sandpoint in the last 7 months.
Hunter snowboarding
Our tree house
Jennifer(me) with Ruby and Ciara at the Sandpoint winter festival fireworks in January
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