Second Half of 2020

I haven't blogged since June, but thought I'd just do a "brief" overview of the rest of our 2020 year here to catch up, since I already compiled all of my photos/journal into our 2020 Fegles Five blurb book. ☺

One of my favorite spots in our house is the blurb book shelf. ;)

I'd say the biggest event of 2020 for our family was that we sold our home and rental house on acreage and bought a home in a neighborhood. We moved very end of July, beginning of August. 

I want to share a quick back story on our new to us home... Josh and I went to a garage sale at a house two doors up the street, about 17 years ago! Something about the people at that house made an impression on us and we said, "let's live in a neighborhood like that when we get to be about that age." And then last fall we were casually looking at homes, and we drove through this neighborhood and the fall leaves were so beautiful that I asked Josh to pull over. He snapped a pic of me with some leaves... and a few months later the house we ended up buying was right next to me in this photo. In fact the owner of the house had been walking by in the background of the photo, but I photoshopped him out for privacy sake. :)

This home is very much what we'd been praying for, for this next season of life.

We were really happy with how our two properties turned out after we remodeled them and partitioned them. (Photo below: showing my Grandparents the work we did, on the property they sold us.)

We feel really thankful to have had that opportunity (thank you Grandma and Papa for selling us that property), and loved the whole process of remodeling homes, and partitioning land, even if it was years of work. It was a great learning experience for us and our kids, too. 

We are casually on the look out for another property to work on, but on the side. We plan to stay in this home for a long time.

(Ben, dressed as a detective, posing for a movie the kids were making.)

There are many things we love about our new home, but we especially love the front and back porch (that we spend a lot of time on!), the walking trails around us, the neighborhood pool and gym, and most of all the biking that surrounds us. We are very grateful to have so much we can get out and do, right from our front door.

(I got an electric bike that is a lot of fun when it comes to hills!) ;) We love biking to OSU campus.

Walking trails lead to the neighborhood park, which is where Josh often says, "I didn't have to mow this!" ;)

Our chickens joined us on this move and have liked our fenced backyard. We only have a few chickens, and they'll be our last, but they've been great pets!

Josh has been working from home full time since March and I don't see that changing anytime soon. We're enjoying the family routines we have with school and work, and are so grateful for the time together.

In August we went with our friends, the Colemans, to Crater Lake. It was a first visit for all of us and we loved it!

We hiked down and swam in the lake and had a great time! 

The hike back up was steep, but memorable!

We camped just up the road from this gorgeous view of the Rouge River. I snapped this with my iphone! (Every photo in this post is iphone, which is pretty normal for me anymore, I guess!)

On our way home we drove through Wild Life Safari, which was a first for us as well! The kids loved seeing all of the baby cheetahs. I loved seeing all of the grazing buffalo. It reminded me of Yellowstone.

In September we closed on the sale of our rental house. It was bittersweet, because I felt a slight attachment to that cute little place after all of the work we'd done on it. But it was on two acres and just too much upkeep for a rental that we no longer lived next door to. But Josh and I snapped a selfie to remember that day, because it felt significant to remember the accomplishment.

In September we started back up with school. It felt good to be back into our routine, and these crazies do make school fun... and sometimes not fun. ;)  (Ben wearing Josh's halloween costume wig...)

Biking with Matt, Gina and Nora! We love how often we get to hang out.

One day Dad stopped by and brought me pears and flowers from the farm that he and Janet had grown! What a thoughtful surprise!

My cousin Ian and his family came to visit and we loved having them here. Ian was helping my dad with some work at the family farm. Unfortunately it rained most every day they were here, and due to covid there were no indoor activities we could go do, but on one of the last days we got sunshine, so Kaylene and I took the kids to the pool and we had the place to ourselves.

We sure love their family!

One sad part about September was that our state had several wildfires. We felt so bad for all of the people who were displaced due to the fires. The smoke settled into the valley here, and oh man, we had such hazardous air for a couple weeks! Ash was on everything!! I spent an afternoon washing outdoor furniture and railings, trying to scrub the ash away. So many people were praying for rain. The view from our bedroom window looked like this:

When we're use to it looking like this:

After two weeks of smoke-darkness, and not being able to go outside due to hazardous air quality, I started to feel like the walls were closing in. One day at 5pm I saw that the air quality at the beach was safe and I asked Josh how he felt about spontaneously eating dinner at the beach. He was game and I was overjoyed! It felt amazing to see blue sky, sun, and breath in fresh air! The next day we got rain at our house and many neighbors stepped outside of their homes cheering! I'd never felt so thankful for rain before! Thank you Lord!

Good friends of ours evacuated their home/city due to the fires getting within a mile or two of their house. They stayed with us for a couple days until it was safe for them to return home. These kids had fun being together and we were glad their home was safe.

Later in the month we got to meet my mom's new horse, Pistol. He has the sweetest temperament! Selah loves him.

She also loves dear Pia.

In October we watched all the leaves around us change. It was one of the most vibrant falls I can remember!! We got lots of bike rides in. One night we biked to dinner on campus and biked home under the stars. On one ride, a bee collided with my lip and stung me! Ouch. Jude loves to be in the lead wherever we bike.

That month we also visited the Painted Hills with our friends, the Colemans. What a beautiful part of Oregon! Almost other worldly in that one spot.

I snapped some pics of their family there.

The boardwalk at the Painted Hills... Marisa has a special way of bringing out the best in Josh and me. ;)

We also hiked at Smith Rock...

...and visited a 5,000 acre cattle farm.

End of that month we celebrated my Grandma's 84th birthday with cake, gifts and horse back riding! I love that she requested that for her birthday.

My mom got the kids on horses at the same time.

For Halloween we had Princess Buttercup, Kylo Ren, and Marty McFly. I loved their costumes this year. We had a great time walking the neighborhood with friends and family.

In November we enjoyed Thanksgiving traditions at Dad & Janet's, like Grandma Gayle's rolls, yum! 

Thank you Dad and Janet for hosting, and Matt and Gina for snapping our pic on the beautiful river there!

A couple days later we got our Christmas tree up and had cinnamon rolls.

I really enjoyed the Christmas season in our new home.

We had cousins over to decorate ginger bread houses, like we've done the past couple years.

And celebrated Papa's birthday...

And Ben's 10th birthday! Double digits!

Christmas was special with family! And this year we got the kids all some form of scooter or go-kart.

Two days after Christmas we stayed in Sisters so that we could play in the snow for a couple days. We had a great time sledding and walking the beautiful trails. We took our snow shoes, but the trails were so compact that it was easy to just walk them in our snow boots, no problem! We were really grateful for the beautiful weather!

(Photo above: this man is such a selfless, loving father and husband! He packs and unpacks our gear, makes sure everyone has what they need, and makes life enjoyable. I'm thankful for all the ways he lavishes us with love.)

Looking back over 2020, I can't help but thank God for His mercy and goodness. It was a unique year, but we were given the gift of more family time, and loved spending much more time outdoors in God's incredible creation, which brought a lot of joy. We appreciated calmer day to day routines, because life was less rushed. And I felt like I learned a lot about myself and I enjoyed more time to think about life in general. I've appreciated God's Word more than ever, and I'm thankful that no matter what life brings, He is always with us!

xo,

Bethany