In case you missed our big announcement about a month ago, we are moving back to Texas here in the next few weeks! (See the blog post here). We were originally supposed to be moving Jan 29 but the closing date on our house has been pushed back so…the move date is still TBD right now. Hopefully around mid-February but I’ll keep you guys posted on that! Anyway! If you read my blog post about the move announcement, you probably know the crazy mixed feelings I have about this move. We are SO excited to be close to family again once we move back to Dallas. But we have also fallen in love with Colorado in the last 3 years and will be so sad to leave this place! So today I wanted to share the top 5 things I’m going to miss about living in Colorado! (So hard to narrow it down to 5, but I’m trying to not make this post 48 pages long haha).
#1: The Mountains
This is such an obvious statement but I couldn’t do this blog post without talking about how much we will miss the mountains. When we first moved to Colorado I thought “do people who live here just get USED to seeing the mountains all the time?!” My mind was blown! We’ve only lived here 3 years but I am still blown away by the beauty of the mountains every single day – even just driving to Trader Joe’s or walking out of a workout class with the mountains right in front of me…still amazes me. Even if we’re not hiking or skiing that day, just being able to see the mountains everyday is so calming to me. It’s always a reminder of how big God is and that He is always in control.
We’ll also miss the mountains because hiking and skiing has become such a regular part of our lives and we LOVE that! In Boulder we live minutes away from SO many beautiful hikes, and just a short drive to the mountains to go skiing. Once we’re back in Dallas I bet we’ll still go skiing once or twice a year (Michael’s parents have a place in Montana!), and go for a hiking vacation here and there but it definitely won’t be the same as having access to these activities everyday!
#2: The Weather
I can’t believe I’m saying that I will miss the weather lol. Before we moved to Colorado I thought “I don’t think I can live in CO – I’m SUCH a WIMP with cold weather!” And y’all I still am a wimp with the cold but I had no idea how amazing the weather was in Boulder!! We actually have 4 real seasons! Texas pretty much has “hot” and “not quite as hot” lol. There are a few months out of the year that I don’t love the weather here – from March to May it stays pretty cold, and at that point I get tired of the cold haha…but other than that time period, the weather here is amazing year round. We have the most beautiful falls, and winter is not that bad at all! The sun is almost always out. It rarely snows and when it does…it might snow for a few hours or a day and then it stops and the sun comes back out! And I actually like having snow and winters to dress for haha. The altitude and dryness took some time for me to adjust to, but TBH I’d probably take that any day over the heat and humidity of Dallas! That will take some time for me to adjust back to for sure haha.
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#3: The Lifestyle
The Boulder lifestyle is quite different than Dallas, in almost every way haha. The jobs + work situations here, how people dress, what they do, etc…it’s very different. Michael always tells people he dropped 20lbs when we first moved to Boulder because of how much more active he became! The lifestyle here is SO active – people ride their bikes everywhere, they’re in running groups, always going for hikes or walks etc. I remember when we first moved here and started making friends…and one of my girlfriends texted and said “want to go for a hike and catch up?”…and my mind was blown lol I feel like in Dallas I was so used to “catching up” over coffee or happy hour. Another one of my girlfriends and I always meet up for a pilates or orange theory class when we get together, before going to grab smoothies! I love how the lifestyle here is so active and how everyone prioritizes being outside and moving their bodies!
The lifestyle here is also so laid back. There are a lot of entrepreneurs / self-employed peeps in Boulder who all work really hard…but it looks different than an 8-5 cubicle job downtown, you know? I feel like a lot of people here prioritize working hard but also really value being outdoors, relationships, and being active and I love that.
Also, like I mentioned, people in Boulder dress way different than people in Dallas haha. It took some getting used to when we first moved here but now I LOVE IT! Even if you go to a nice restaurant here, you can get away with wearing nice jeans almost ANYWHERE! (And that’s considered dressy lol). Most places you can wear lululemon leggings and sneakers and fit RIGHT in and I’ve come to absolutely love that. People don’t really wear a lot of make up here and I feel like in Dallas…I felt like I needed to have at least a little bit of makeup on anytime I left the house! Now, I almost never wear makeup unless we are going on a date night or shooting outfits or going to church haha. [Having said that, I am looking forward to being in a city again that really values fashion + has tons of great shopping. But, the laid back lifestyle / way of dressing here in Boulder has been really refreshing!]
I could go on for days about how different the lifestyle here is in Boulder vs Dallas haha but I won’t. I’ll just say – I will miss the laid back, active lifestyle that Boulder has!
#4: Small town feel
Right now Michael and I live in “north Boulder” technically…but it’s about an 8 minute drive to downtown Boulder. Boulder is such a small town – we can get anywhere we need to go within less than 10 minutes for sure! When I go to Whole Foods, I see girls who were in my Orange Theory class that morning. When we’re at 29th street mall, we see friends from church. When we’re walking around downtown, we’ve run into our pastor. Boulder feels like such a small town and I love that! Now when I go back to Dallas to visit…it feels SO big – the traffic, the highways, lots of people, a million different neighborhoods / suburbs that are all still “Dallas”. Dallas is where I grew up so it’s all I’d ever known, but I’ve really come to love what a small town Boulder is and will miss that for sure!
#5: Our life
Okay this is such a generic thing to say I’m going to miss haha but that is the best way I know how to sum it up. I absolutely love our life here. When Michael and I moved to Colorado, we were starting from square 1, together. We didn’t know a single person, we’d never lived outside of Texas…and we had to figure all of that out together. We made friends here together, we learned how to live apart from our families and be each other’s family + best friend. We explored Colorado together, hosted friends and family who came to visit us, etc. I think moving here was one of the best things we could’ve done for our marriage. We’ve grown so much closer as a couple since moving here and I’m really thankful.
Beyond that though – we really like our lives here in Boulder. We love our church, the friends we’ve made, I love the hospital where Shiloh was delivered and the midwives there, I love all of the local restaurants, stores, hotels, and companies I’ve been partnering with over the last 3 years, the photographer I shoot with. We love our house and how we’ve fixed it up. I love that everything here in Boulder feels like “ours” – not “Michael’s friends” or “Lauren’s family” etc…Boulder feels like “ours” and I will really miss that. If that makes any sense at all.
“Looking ahead”
Like I said, I could go on forever about all the things we will miss about Boulder. (The restaurants here are amazing too. I didn’t even get to that part haha). I remember when Michael and I first drove to Boulder from Texas…with our moving truck and all of our stuff. I drove over the hill on highway 36, coming into Boulder with the most amazing view of the mountains and the song “You make me brave” by Bethel came on in my car. I felt so nervous about leaving my family, living states away, in a new place, new job situation etc. I really felt God speaking to me and reminding me “I will make you brave. I will go with you into this new season and I have prepared a life for you and Michael here.” And let me tell you…He has been SO good and SO faithful to us over these last 3 years in Boulder! And I KNOW He will be faithful to us in Dallas as well!
I don’t want this post to feel like a “debby downer” post or like an “I hate Dallas” post haha because I don’t at all! I definitely want to do another post soon about all the things I’m excited about for living in Dallas! But…even for my own sake, I wanted to give a small tribute to these last 3 years in Boulder and how amazing they’ve been and how they have far surpassed all of my expectations of living here. This will be a tough place to leave for sure!
God has always been faithful and I know He will continue to be so good and so faithful to us. Can’t wait to see all He has in store for us in Dallas, and my heart is so thankful for his goodness these last 3 years in Boulder.We will miss Colorado greatly!
xo Lauren
