Daley Family Travels

Well, we have some very exciting news:

My husband just accepted a job offer in Washington State!

What started off as a vacation to the United States to visit family will now be a permanent move back to the USA.

We’re very excited about this opportunity, but of course, we’re going to miss living in France and all of our friends there.

We made many wonderful memories while we were in Europe and I’m so incredibly thankful for the time we spent there. Our Adeline has spent most of her life in France and London’s spent just about half of her life there.

Here’s what I’ll miss the most about living in France:

• The people. We made some wonderful friends through Aaron’s MBA program, our community, and through our church and we will sincerely miss everyone.
• Our village. We lived in such an amazing community. The creche and maternelle were both so great for our girls. London had an excellent teacher and made good friends at school who were always so kind to her even as she was trying to learn a new language. The creche director helped both of our girls get involved in the community and we loved the weekly play group Adeline got to participate in this last year. The library had monthly story times. The bakery had the best baguettes around. All this within walking distance of our home. Not to mention the different fun family events throughout the year (Easter egg hunts, meeting Pere Noel, etc.). It was such a special place to live and raise our girls for the last two years.
• The culture. We loved learning more about the French culture and hope to be able to incorporate some of the traditions in our new home (London was insistent that the bells flew over here from France and brought her chocolate for Easter).
• How easy it was to travel to different countries. We knew our time might be limited in France, wo we tried to visit as many other countries (and different regions in France) as possible. We were so lucky to be able to visit places like Rome, the Netherlands, London, Belgium, the south of France, etc. etc. We loved learning about new places, seeing all the amazing history, and exposing our kids to it all. Such a special experience that I’ll never forget.
• The food. Did I mention how amazing our bakery was? Warm baguettes, croissants, pain au chocolat…

Sad to leave France…

…But excited for our next adventure!

That said, I’m trying to be positive about our move to Washington. Here are a few things I’m excited about:

• Visiting a new state and region of the USA. I’ve never been to Washington or any other part of the Pacific Northwest and I’m excited for our family to explore a new part of the world.
• Summer. Everyone has been telling us how amazing Washington is in the summer. We’ll be near the Puget Sound and I’m excited to check out all the little islands during the nice weather. Also, there are supposed to be lavender fields not too far away from June until August so we can still get pretty photos. 😉
• Being near the ocean. We’ll be right next to the Puget Sound, which is an inlet of the Pacific Ocean so that means we’ll see all sorts of wildlife like sea otters, orcas, sea stars, oysters (yum!), sea lions and more. Also, the ocean is our happy place so the more time we can spend by the sea, the happier all of us are. Even if it will be cold most of the year. 🙂
• Spring Flowers. Since it rains all the time in Washington, that means we’ll be getting pretty spring flowers that will hopefully help me miss spring in Paris a little less (my favorite time of year in France).

We hope you’ll continue to follow along with our family as we explore this new part of the world for us!

Also, while I’ve been googling like crazy, if you know anything about living south of Seattle (things to see, good neighborhoods to live in, general advice…) please comment below!