Weekend Trip to Virginia+An Announcement

This weekend we had a special opportunity to visit the campus of Southern Virginia University which is in, ya know, Virginia. We flew out on Thursday night, stayed over in the King of all Shady hotels in Roanoke (like holes in the wall, leaky faucet shady) and then proceeded on the next day to a little college town called Buena Vista.

The campus looks incredible. Like stop and stare adorable. On our tour we learned that it was built to be a luxurious hotel in the 1890s, but when it became apparent that there was no money to be made it was sold and passed along as an institute of academics until it became SVU in 1992.

This was my first time in Virginia, and my goodness what a lovely place. Rolling hills, tall trees, green everywhere. And the houses. Oh my.

Isn't that the most perfect structure you've ever seen?! SO. MUCH. CUTE.

Bottom line is, my sweet baseball pitcher of a husband is badly wanted there. And Tayler so loves playing baseball. And I'm over here like uhhhhh....A move to Virginia is a huge thing, so before we agreed to anything we wanted to check the place out for ourselves, see what the classes were like, investigate the town, look at housing options, etc.

The tour was a grand affair, we were taken out to lunch, met the president, and we got free donuts so I was pretty much sold. The biggest game change for me is that I would be able to return to school to start on my Bachelor's. Which sounds so much better than working full time! :)

A decision needed to be made quickly, because the new semester starts January 11th and a lot of things need to be taken care of before then: applications, transcripts, letters of recommendation, blah blah, all the glories of transferring. So the whole time we were there we'd shoot glances at each other with raised eyebrows like, is this really happening??

 Even with this hefty decision weighing over us, we still managed to have a good time. The weather was in the 60s there, which was a welcome relief from the Utah cold. We saw a light parade in nearby Lexington, and we went out to dinner with a cute young couple who attends SVU so we could bombard them with our questions:)

Also, we got our Christmas card pics done! We went with the lumberjack look because I'm convinced that ugly sweaters are now the most coveted commodity of all and can't be found in thrift stores anymore. After searching for hours in a random Goodwill our GPS guided us to, we gave up and hit the flannel section. Which still worked.

 

Lucky for us, they were giving out free Christmas trees at the lot we went too. Phew. Free is the only price we can afford:)

After some late night discussions, pro and cons list, and prayers we decided that...drum roll... it's an opportunity we are going to take. Our little Peterson family is packing up and moving to Virginia! In less than 30 days. ahhhhh. (But an excited scream.)

I'm a little frightened. I have lived in Utah my entire life, and I love it here in Utah Valley. The mountains, the seasons, the family, the friends. WAFFLELUV:'( Virginia is pretty far away. The town is truthfully a little on the isolated/forsaken side, and I don't know what it will be like actually living there. I have my doubts and worries.

 But on the bright side, this is 2015. I have FaceTime for my mom, online shopping for my needs, and blogging for my friends. I'll get to watch Tayler play his favorite sport and get to know all the other baseball wives. I'll meet new people, call a different state home and learn how to navigate 50mph highways with left and right exits (what the heck Virginia?!).  Best of all, I'll get to be in a place totally new with my Best Friend, where the only thing we know is each other. I'm sure it'll be a huge growing opportunity for us as a couple.

And I'm excited for that most of all.

also, we experimented with our first video blog with a few highlights from our trip. I don't even think they qualify as highlights, more like us being our weird natural selves caught on camera. watch the >2 min clip if you feel like it:)