Pendletopia - The Journey Begins

My husband Peter and I have been talking about starting a blog about our transition to living in Pendleton, Oregon.  This is the beginning of that journey.

Pendleton, Oregon.  This is rather an unflattering picture of it, and I suspect it was taken in the 1980's, but there it is.

Peter and I both grew up in that idyllic town in Eastern Oregon, where we met in junior high and where we got married when I was just 19 and he was 20.  We moved away to the Willamette Valley as soon as we could, feeling like we were escaping some sort of black hole of parental oppression, backwards rural thinking, and dead-end economics.  We went to college at Western Oregon University and after graduating we moved to Salem a bought a house (which is now for sale, in case you know anyone who's interested).

Now, ten years and two kids later, it is our heart's desire to return to the town we were once so eager to leave.

Our reasons for going back are many, and if you ask me they're pretty darn good reasons.  First of all, it's one of the best places in Oregon to raise kids.  If you don't believe me, read this.  See?  Also, both our parents still live there.  That's both sets of grandparents for our kids, in the same town.  Free babysitting, anyone?

Hey Grandma and Grandpa, can you watch us while Mommy and Daddy go on a date?

Pendleton also has a shockingly active music and arts community.  They have two symphony orchestras based there, for crying out loud.  That's pretty good for a rural farming community with a population of about 17,000.

And have I mentioned that it is GORGEOUS out there?  Goodbye, endless rainy Willamette Valley winters.

But for us, it's not just about what we can get out of living there that attracts us.  It's what we can put back in to the community.  We feel like Pendleton is a place where we can engage with our community, get involved, and really make a difference. 

Remember those grandparents I mentioned?  Well, they're not getting any younger (sorry, Mom and Dad, but it's the truth).  Peter and I want to be near them, to mow their lawns, to help them with house projects, to drive them to the doctor, and to care for them in their dotage (to borrow a phrase from my mother-in-law). 

We want our kids to have a close relationship with their grandparents and not just know them as people who we visit occasionally.  That's a luxury neither Peter nor I got to have when we were kids, but we always wished we could have had.

My goal with this blog is to chronicle both our journey getting to Pendleton and our new life as it unfolds there.  I'll write about our plans, our challenges, our failures and triumphs, and the things we'll learn as we go. 

I'll also write about the town of Pendleton itself as we re-discover it as adults and as parents.  And I'll write about our families as we learn to adjust to living together once again.

And yes, I'll write about the rodeo.  There's really no way to escape it.

It's as inevitable as spinal trauma is for this cowboy.

Peter and I have joked about the way we've idealized Pendleton in our minds as we've planned for the last two years to move there.  We've taken to calling it "Pendletopia."  That tongue-in-cheek name reminds us to keep our expectations balanced as our plans finally come to fruition.

Thank you for joining us as we move into our new life.  Let the journey begin!