Monday, July 15, 2013

The Photographs Are In!

Wed
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The Hopemans!

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Whirlwind

What a difference a month can make! This past month has been jam-packed and our lives are on a much different track than they were the last time we posted. Thus, my hope is that this entry will serve as an update of everything Caitlin & Riley.

On June 16th, I graduated from IslandWood! It was a wonderful celebration of my ten month program made all the sweeter by having my folks and Caitlin's folks in attendance. I will sure miss my colleagues, professors, faculty, and students but feel much more empowered as an educator than ever before.

IW Graduation

Four days later I awoke feeling like I was making an enormous mistake. I didn't want to spend the first year of our marriage across the country from my soon-to-be wife. I didn't want to attend the University of Washington. I didn't want to live in Seattle. I quickly realized that I wouldn't be as happy as I wanted to be. Fortunately, Caitlin was incredibly supportive and understanding.

For the entire morning, I scoured the internet looking for Master of Education programs in the vicinity of where Caitlin will be doing her medical school. I'd missed the application deadline for most. Many schools didn't offer an Elementary Education focus. I sent out a slew of e-mails and the first to respond came from a woman at Antioch University New England. She was incredibly kind, offering to hear me out and answering my countless questions. The more I spoke with her, the more incredible Antioch sounded. This was exciting! I was never this excited about the University of Washington...

So, I applied and waited for my paperwork to make its way across the country via USPS.

On June 23rd, we drove to Idaho to finalize our wedding preparations.

On June 24th, I had a wonderful interview with an Antioch faculty member that I thought went really well.

June 27, June 28, June 29, June 30 - Wedding, Wedding, Wedding! We got married. It was incredible! We cannot stop talking about how amazing it all was and how fortunate we were and are. It deserves its own blog and we will definitely take the time to post some photographs as soon as we have those.

Wedding!

Since our wedding it's been go, go, go... After all we are moving across the country!

Oh, and on June 3rd, I was accepted to Antioch University New England!

Otherwise, we've packed up our apartment and carted everything over to Caitlin's folks' home in Seattle.

Pre

We had two UHaul "U-Boxes" dropped at Caitlin's folks' driveway.

During

We filled them to the gills!

Post

They picked them up and they're on the way to New Hampshire!

Lift

And now?

We have a couple more days in the Seattle area before we are road-tripping our way across the country in a honeymoon-eqsue, mountain-biking-theme-esque, see-loved-ones-along-the-way-esque, take-in-the-sights-esque, enjoy-our-wonderful-lives-esque manner.

We hit the road Sunday bound for Hampsha! Touch base with us if you are en route and feel so inclined! Our navigational beacon is bound for adventure!

Riley