We’re Moving to Minnesota!!

It’s official! We’re moving to Minnesota!!

I CANNOT believe I am typing those words! I have waited for this day for FAR too long. I seriously lost hope it would ever happen until the boys graduated and we retired. But come July 19th, we will be Minnesota residents!

So much to tell you about, so much to share, and it’s all been a secret I’ve known since January!

Why are we moving?

I’ll back way up to the beginning. When I moved here 15 years ago, Craig and I only planned to stay for about 10 months. I spent that first year we were here, taking more undergraduate classes at UAA (University of Alaska Anchorage) in order to go to grad school for physical therapy. Our plan was to move to wherever I got into grad school. Well, for a few reasons, I decided not to go to grad school, so we ended up staying in Alaska. Plus, it was 2008, and the economy was terrible everywhere in the US except Alaska, so we got jobs in Anchorage and stayed. Over the first few years we were here, Craig kept getting promotions (You’re a big fish in a little pond here in Alaska.), so we started putting roots here, bought a house, and had kids.

I tried to like living in Alaska; I really did. I tried skiing in the winter to help with the long, dark winters. I tried to go camping, fishing, and hiking in the summer. I did my best to meet people, get plugged into a community, and really try to embrace Alaska life, but it never felt like home. I jumped around to a few different jobs trying to find my fit. Eventually I landed at Skinny Raven Sports (the local running store) and finally started to connect with other runners in the community, which definitely helped. During that time we also bought a house, had Cullen, but I pretty much felt stuck here.

As the years went on, I started to accept being here: I had jobs I enjoyed, a house of my own, and I was finally starting to meet other moms now that I had a child of my own. But at the end of the day, my heart still did not want to be here.

During this past trip to Minnesota for Christmas, when we were home visiting my family, my parents brought up the idea of us taking over the family farm. (We had actually entertained the idea a few years ago but decided at that time not to do it.) We hemmed and hawed A LOT about it, prayed about it, talked to a lot of friends and family, and then ultimately decided to do it!

Craig wanted an entire differently line of work, I’ve always wanted to go, so for many reasons, we decided to make it happen and move to Minnesota!

What will be doing there?

We will be farmers! Like legit, driving tractors, planting, and combining farmers! We will be farming about 600 acres of corn and soybeans in Southcentral Minnesota. Growing up, my parents had pigs, corn, and soybeans. Right now my brother raises hogs, but we don’t have plans of owning any livestock. (Craig might want some chickens, but I’ll leave that up to him.)

Will you be selling your house in Anchorage?

Yep! We already sold and closed on it! (The buyer is allowing us to live here until we actually move.) We did a FSBO (for sale by owner), and it was a super simple process.

When do you actually move?

I fly out with Cullen and Bjorn on July 18th. (We have an overnight flight to Minnesota and will arrive on July 19th.) Craig will drive our car plus a small trailer down a few days later through Canada and across the US. We are basically moving across two countries, so it takes some extra planning and definitely some extra money. Initially we were quoted a figure of $20,000 to have movers move all of our things, but that was not worth it to us, so we will be selling/leaving behind most of our things and starting over with new furniture, home decor items, kitchen items, etc. It has been quite the process to get rid of everything, but it will be so worth it and refreshing to start over.

Where will you live?

Right now we are in the process of looking for a home/farm site in the country. We want to be within a couple miles of my parent’s farm and farm site since that is where all of the equipment is stored. These criteria make our options pretty limited, but we’re optimistic that something will work out.

How close will you be to your sister?

After I tell people that we are moving back to Minnesota, this might the most common question I get, and I love that so many of you know how close we are. We will be about 90 minutes away as she lives in the Twin Cities area. Definitely close enough for weekend trips and even day trips if necessary. I look forward to many runs with her, running vacation trips, and more Reels being made together. I also love that despite us being six years apart, our kids are all close in age, so they have each other to play with too.

We are all SO excited to move. I thought for sure I would have to drag Craig out of his home state kicking and screaming, but he is really excited for the new adventure as well. Cullen is excited to move, which we weren’t sure if he would be excited about. Bjorn, of course, doesn’t comprehend what’s going on, but we think he’s going to love living in the country.

All in all, we love the idea of raising the boys in the country and having space of our own. I really value the way I grew up, and I love the idea of raising the boys the same way: in a small community, good down-home values, a really good public educational system, the “niceness” of Minnesota people, the lower cost of living, access to the Lower 48 things, and being able to travel more easily around the US.

While I would have loved to move to a place with a more mild winter for running, I am just excited that I won’t have to wear studded shoes for 6 months, it won’t be so dark when I run, winter will be shorter, and I will get a hot summer!

I’ll be sharing more as we make the transition from Alaska to Minnesota, so make sure you are following along here, and you are following me on Instagram.