Checking out Vancouver

Last weekend the family headed down to Vancouver, WA to finally see for ourselves what many of our friends have said would be an excellent place for us to settle. Why Vancouver?

- schools that are ranked 10 out of 10 according to greatschools.com

- strong, large wards

- a high school that has release time seminary

- still get beautiful views of mountains (Adams, Helen and Hood)

- Still have lots of water (lakes, rivers, and the Columbia river)

-20 minutes form the Portland Airport

- across the bridge from Portland (no sales tax when you shop but still no state tax while in Washington)

- new developments in Camas a suburb of Vancouver

- homes with land!!!!!

So we went to check it out. It was a little frustrating to go without much of a plan. I think we need to contact a real estate agent who can help us know where to look to find what we want. But we did find several neighborhoods that looked good. We visited the Lacamas Creek Ward on Sunday and were really impressed. The youth in that ward made me want to move there. Every young man was wearing a suit and they were so clean cut. Chase had the wildest hair in the ward. We were helped in the hall by two very nice young women while trying to find the primary room. Such great looking youth. I know it's a total judgement on appearance but at least that was awesome. Their youth were liking missionaries in training and there were a lot of them. On top of that we had a handful of people come up and introduce themselves. One offered to send emails and phone numbers of local dentists to contact and another actually had us follow his family home to show us his neighborhood. So we are off to a good start in our search for a neighborhood. The kids mostly enjoyed the pool at the hotel and are begging to move into one home that we checked out on a three acre lot. It was beautiful land too. Only problem was that my would be neighbors are working on quite a junk yard on their own land. Can't do.