January 15th
2011
written by Alonna

Occasionally in life, things just fall into place. That’s how I feel about our recent move from Idaho to Colorado, and I couldn’t be happier with how everything has turned out.  Here are the highlights:

Colorado!

  • A new job : After 3 months of searching, I accepted a position with Seagate in Longmont, Colorado.  The new job has gotten off to a great start.  I’m excited about the work (ASIC Verification for SSD drives), I like my boss and coworkers, I’m happy with the pay and benefits, and the location is perfect.  And an added bonus: part of my team works in Shakopee, MN only 20 minutes from my parents’ house.  This means I can occasionally work remotely from that site while visiting family and friends.
  • A new home : At the last minute, we found a rental condo in a NE Boulder community called “Gunbarrel”.  We are loving this area – we have easy access to both Boulder and my job in Longmont, yet are surrounded by farms, open space hiking and biking trails, and great mountain views.  While the rental is only temporary, we’re thinking about sticking to this area when we search for a new place.
  • Boise House – SOLD! After only 3 days on the market, we accepted a full-price offer on our house in Boise.  We credit this to the perfect combination of a nice house in a great location, setting the right price, a lot of preparation, presentation and staging, and a good dose of luck.
  • Enjoying the Rockies : With a little bit of summer left when we arrived, we were able to get in some mountain biking and hiking.  With winter is in full swing, we’ve been hitting the slopes, and Colorado snow has not disappointed us!
  • Family Time : We spent Christmas here with Ben’s Mom and sisters Kim & Beth.  We had a blast – snowshoeing, snowmobiling, sledding, and snowboarding.  I’ve also been able to see my family a lot this fall and winter.  Mom & Dad visited in October, I spent Thanksgiving, New Year’s and my birthday in Minnesota.
  • Every day life, with a view : I hope this never wears off – every day I am impressed by the beautiful scenery here.  Just driving to and from work puts a smile on my face.  We always knew there was something special about Colorado, and we were right.  Plain and simple – this place just feels like home to us, and I don’t expect to ever leave.
  • Article on Briefcase to Backpack : Read about my feelings upon returning from our trip around the world.
  • Travel Photo Book : Check out this photo book I made of our world travels.

Here is a collection of photos from the past few months.  I hope everyone is in as good of place as us and enjoying your life to the fullest.  Here’s to a happy 2011 & beyond!

8 Comments

  1. Annie Miebs
    01/17/2011

    i get the feeling that you are happy 🙂 great pictures. love the autumn to winter transition. looks like christmas was fun with family and being outdoors. and, what a great article on the B to B website.

  2. 01/17/2011

    Thanks Annie! Yes, “happy” would describe it well 🙂

  3. Hi guys, just came across your blog today. I found that many of what you said resonate with our current situation. Both my husband and I are engineers (he’s also into mountain biking and snowboarding), we’re about to embark on a RTW trip (this April to Colombia) and we’re sorta thinking of settling on a place in Colorado afterwards.

    Anyway, I thought it’s kinda cool 🙂 Just dropping by to say hi and I’m going to poke around ur site for a little bit more now.

  4. 01/23/2011

    @Jill – definitely cool! Love your website… I will definitely be spending more time poking around there as well 🙂 Also it will be really fun to follow your RTW trip from the beginning.

    Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment – please email me alonna@gmail.com if you have any questions or want to chat. And if you’re passing through Colorado or end up here eventually, let us know!

  5. 01/23/2011

    NOTE: From now on, if you comment on this post, don’t break the trend – include a smiley face! 😉

  6. 01/24/2011

    I think this is my first smiley face on a computer. 🙂 Looks like things are really coming together for you, congratulations.

  7. Clay A
    02/01/2011

    Nice pictures. Glad you are loving Colorado!

  8. 02/21/2011

    Alonna,

    I stumbled on your website today while looking for travel collages. Nicely done.
    The crazy thing, is that the two of you are uncanny like the two of us! Check out our little website and travel adventures, mtn biking, skiing, climbing around the globe, working in Africa etc etc
    Its kinda crazy. Also I am looking into taking a job in Longmont, CO, (I practice medicine and we are in Portland, OR now).
    If you have time, you should email me, I would love to ask questions about the area.. I really think its too funny about our travels 🙂
    Cheers,
    Darlene
    http://elephantcloud.net