Any Washington State M.'s Out There?

We just moved back from a town called Sammamish, WA. The people there were awesome. Very family centered. The cost of living in WA is high but not as bad as we thought it would be. I would look into to Sammamish it was a great place to live!

Sorry I don't know about WA, but I use a great forum site for checking out other states and towns; City-Data.com. I'm sure you will get lots of info just looking at other's posts, and you can also post your own questions. You can also research the stats on specific areas; housing costs, schools, crime etc.. It's a great site. Good luck!
http://www.city-data.com/forum/ (relocation forum)
http://www.city-data.com/ (stats on cities)

I live in Washington. Spokane to be exact. Many different schools in the area and 4 main hospitals within city limits. Depending on the part of Spokane you are in there are a range of grocery stores from Safeway, Walmart to Albertsons to name a few. There are at least 5 movie theaters in the area as well as a sports arena, and opera house. There are 2 shopping malls. There are parks and areas to go camping in the outlying areas and a half a dozen or more ski resorts within a 100 mile radius and lakes a plenty. Spokane is one of the 3 lowest priced housing markets for large cities in the state of Washington. Median cost for a 4 bedroom house is under $200,000 as of 2 weeks ago in the local paper. Hope this helps. I would be happy to answer any other questions you may have that I am able to answer for you and your family.

Hello. Well we just moved to Seattle in Feb. from the suburbs of NYC. So far I really like it. It took some getting used to for sure because it feels very small town compared to where we were living. But that is a GOOD thing! If you come in Aug. I would assume you will fall completely in love. When it is a nice day here - it's the nicest day I've ever seen. But when it's not...its gray and rain. That has been hard to get used to. I feel like there is a lot to do with kids around here. Tons of parks and activities that are free (that doesn't exsist in NY). My son is 2 but apparently the schools here (we live just outside seattle in the highline school district) are pretty bad. But there are good schools if you live in the right areas..and of course private schools. Lots of people here homeschool too which I was pretty surprised about. The grocery stores are really nice but the food is quite a bit more expensive than where I'm coming from - meat in particular. But I think that's cause we live in fish country. Couldn't tell you about night life really....The cost of living is way cheaper than where we were living. But I think I have a skewed view from living in such an expensive place. We pay $800 a month for a very small, not updated apt. but that is a good deal from where we were living! As far as dr.'s we have Group Health insurance which is a WA state insurance through my husbands employer I have pretty limited experience, but have to say it has been pretty good so far. It's a very unique program - not even quite sure how it works.Overall I think it was a good move for our family. NY was too expensive and I feel there is more opportunity here for a more "normal" and "balanced" lifestyle. I DO have to get used to the slow driving though...:)

I grew up here in Wa and love it. I live in Lake Stevens(pop. 28,000) around 30miles north of Seattle. Here is my typical morning drive. I start out with the sun rise coming over the cascades beautiful I have seen numerous sunrises and I think ours are the best here. Then I drive to Everett about 5 miles east over farm land and a couple rivers. Then up and over to West Everett and there is Possession Sound. Just fabulous. Then reverse the the evenings. But you have the sun setting over the Olympic mountain range. Just fantastic. If you chose to come on the West side of Washington you have a lot to chose from. There is so much to do here for jobs. I grew up in Marysville and enjoyed it there. I'm only 27 years old and I wouldn't move back. It has changed and a lot of traffic now due to development of businesses but not of the roads. Anyway, Lake Stevens and Snohomish(pop.9,000) have great school districts and both excel in sports.
Now on to camping. Washington state just passed a law saying if you visit a state park you need to buy a day pass or season pass. I think day pass was something like 30 bucks and season I can't remember so if you come in Aug just remember there is a pass to purchase. My family and I personally camp in E.Wa. There are numerous places to came anywhere in the state. We just enjoy getting away from the hectic life style the West side can come with. Its like you drive over the pass and you leave everything at home that was bothering you and just get away. My family and I don't camp in state parks. We usually do lakes that just are maintained by the fish and wildlife. There are parks everywhere that you can just hang out or go kayaking in or paddling.
The price of living really differs on where you want to live. Seattle and suburbs are going to run you quite a bit more than where I live. My brother and his family live in Shoreline about 5 miles north of Seattle and they have a 3 bed 1 bath 1 car garage with yards and they pay $1600 a month not including utilities. In Lake Stevens depending on what part that type of house will run you 1100 maybe 1200 and sometimes you can find landlords that will pay for the utilities.
Night life would be Seattle. I don't go out much but I do its usually do a show in Seattle. Numerous sporting events to attend to. We have Mariners, Seahawks, Sounders, Storm, and two whl hockey teams( seattle and Everett) then one whl team in Tri cities.
Oh I could just go on and on. I love it here. Everyone gripes about the rain but we wouldn't have the fabulous colors we have here without it. We have all 4 seasons. Winters aren't horrible and summers aren't extreme either.
I hope this helped.

I am from Eastern WA, very close to Idaho border. My brother and sister both live on the WA coast and I went to college in Bellingham. What area of WA are you considering? It would help me to be able to give you some input if I knew a general area.

I am a former Washington State M. (we lived there for three years before moving to southern California) and it's been my favorite place to live out of all the places we've been (I grew up in Oklahoma and we lived in Dallas for a few years before moving to Washington). There is quite a bit of variety between the different areas of the state, so it really depends on where you move and whether you want to live in the city or the suburbs or even in a more rural area. We lived in the Seattle area (Bellevue to be exact), and we paid $1000 a month for a very small apartment. But it was in a great location and it only took me ten minutes to drive to work every day, so that was why we stayed there. The further away from Seattle (either north or south) you are, the cheaper the cost of housing is. I really loved it there and miss it a lot.

The only thing that took some getting used to was how cloudy it is all the time. It does rain or is cloudy a lot, and during the winter the sun goes down at about 4:30 in the afternoon. I remember one year we almost set the record for longest period of time where it rained every day (I think it was 30 or 31 days straight of rain). Not torrential downpours, but there was a lot of sprinkling or light rain. Once we got used to that, though, we loved it. It is so beautiful and there are tons of places to camp and explore. Fall was my favorite season because of all the trees that are everywhere.

My advice would be to try and narrow down where in Washington State you'd want to live and go from there. I loved being near Seattle, but the suburbs and more rural areas are nice, too. Good luck!

I live in South-WEstern Washington. It's beautiful for the most part here. I grew up in a small town called Mossyrock. It's nice quiet town. Good school. Has a nice little grocery store which my mom manages and my dad is a Mechanic that everybody loves. I have also lived in Chehalis which is 30 mins away from mossyrock and is alot bigger. Many schools, but has the bigger grocery stores, Walmart, Safeway, lots of restaurants and parks. Has 2 theathers and some small shopping outlets. I now live in Tacoma(fort lewis(army base)) and it is way way way bigger then Mossyrock and Chehalis. We have lots of shopping, malls, parks, schools(not sure how they are only because my kids aren't in school yet(3 and 5 months)). You might get more responses if you know about where you would be moving too. As for the cost of living it really depends on if you are wanting an apartment or house and where you live. The places I have lived for a smaller house you are looking at about 1000-1500 a month and that may or may not include utilities. I hope this helps.

Take me with you M. b!! I wish I was a washington state mom :(

Just posted about our wonderful state the other day! Eastern Washington is more desert like, has distinct seasons (ie lots of snow, 100 degree summers), Western Washington is the more urban side, trees, water, mountains on either side of Puget Sound, milder seasons.

School research can be done on www.greatschools.net, cost of living is better than the other US big city areas, housing is still a bit expensive compared to other cities the same size. Healthcare is pretty good here, Doctors here have great scopes of license compared to other states, and our freedoms seem better to choose what types of healthcare we want. Good alternative health options too!

I grew up in West Seattle, and now live just 20 minutes north in Edmonds. We like the small town feel, on the water, just over a bridge or road to downtown Seattle. I would also live on the eastside (bothell, kirkland, sammamish, redmond, issaquah), or in mukilteo. We rent a three bedroom smallish house and it's $1200/month, which is a really good deal for any house this close to Seattle.

People here are very friendly, and in the right community it's pretty easy to find friends that become like family. We did co-op preschool and met a ton of our best friends that way, it was easy to get to know other moms that way for me too.