Saying Goodbye to Colorado | Sunshine Lady Photography

After four years of making friends, establishing roots, and building a very successful photography business, I can admit that I am really going to miss our lives in Colorado. When we first arrives to Fort Collins, sight unseen, I immediately noticed that people are incredibly friendly, the infrastructure for families is incredible, and Old Town is unbelievably cute. While I also found that I am not a fan of rattlesnakes, loooooong winters, and the incredibly dry air, I was pleasantly surprised to have dropped into a town that checked so many of my boxes.

Our decision to leave Colorado didn’t come lightly, but in the end, my husband’s frequent travel away from us to San Francisco, the extra long winters, and the distance from the ocean (I belong near the ocean), made us realize that the time had come to return to the Bay Area. While I am super excited to be near the ocean again and rekindle friendships and client relationships, I’m pretty sure a day didn’t go by since we made our decision that I didn’t cry about how this move would affect my kids. We made an effort to enjoy our Colorado summer as best as we could while we could. From visits to our favorite breweries, hanging out with friends at our neighborhood pool, enjoy the last weeks of preschool and nature camp, to getting in sessions with some of my favorite clients, we felt like Colorado was luring us to stay.

We chose to rent out our house while renting in Petaluma so we have space to figure out what we want long-term. I LOVE my house (and garden) and am pretty devastated to leave it, but I’m glad we have the option to return should we so choose! As I always tell my husband, “There’s no “real world,” and our lives can be whatever we want them to be. So let’s try all the new things.” But man, the overly nostalgic sentimentalist in my can’t help but tear up looking at these photos I took of our last few weeks in Colorado of our garden and my children’s friends. Goodbye, Colorado- we will miss you!