We started with the two boys (Jacob is hers), very close in age, but have certainly expanded our group since those early days! Thank goodness we have many ways to keep up with each other's family as they grow up.
Leida is another dear friend I met through the stroller bootcamp class. She is so generous and kind! Everest and Owen were born just a couple of weeks apart and were fast friends since they could walk.
And how cute are these BFFs? Nothing like a buddy just 4 doors down - you can walk to school together, walk home together, and make plans for when you can go to each other's house later that day on the walk home. So cute when they FaceTime each other!
A tough one for the kids was to say good-bye to their favorite babysitter of all time, Meg. They used to beg me to make a date so that they could have Meg over. She would indulge their imaginations and expand their pretend games with them like no other!
Our sweet friends threw us a good-bye party at the local brewery, complete with baby-sitters and a taco truck! It meant so much that they insisted on doing this for us and they gave beautiful toasts in our honor. I promised I wouldn't cry... We will so dearly miss the wonderful friends we have made here.
They even secretly collected pictures and surprised us with an inch-thick "Idaho adventures" book, which looked back at our last 8 years there through the eyes of our friends with personal letters, too. Pretty special. The kids love flipping through it. (I have to mention that both kids' teachers had their classes create surprise books for them too. Each page is a creation from a classmate reminiscing about the kids with a hand-drawn picture, as well as some pictures the teacher took. We love them!)
As we were packing up everything in our house, it struck me how blessed we were with this house. More space than we needed, everything was/is in great shape, and there was no significant work to do moving in or out (other than the hail storm repairs this year and the furnace repair the first winter!). Most importantly, it's the first and only house the kids remember, so I asked them what their favorite parts of the house were and documented them with photos to remember it forever. Owen's immediate answer was the vent in his room that he used to call down to me when I was in my basement office. I had to laugh that that was the first thing he thought of!
His other answers were a bit more traditional: reading by the fire (which attracts cats!), and the big screen downstairs. We'll all miss that one!!
Hadley loved her room and the cubby under the stairs, complete with mini-window.
As we were packing up and paring down our belongings, the kids watched a lot of their old toys and clothes go out the door to be donated or sold. They were totally on board with most of the things that had to go, but the one thing that made Hadley cry was selling her skis. I was a little surprised by her reaction, but I told her that we would ski again! She just would probably be a little bigger by then and therefore need bigger skis. This seemed to placate her, but she requested a picture with her skis nonetheless.
We packed pretty much for two weeks straight, outside of work and school. It's a strange thing to see your life quantified by and confined to a pile boxes.
Finally, it was moving day! We sold several pieces of furniture and had a ton of donations so that we could fit onto the back half of this truck from Idaho at a bit of a deal. For a while, it looked like we were not going to fit (what was Plan B?!?), but it was a Christmas miracle that they could shut the door with no room to spare!
Kids were interested in the movers for about 20 minutes and then ready to do something fun not in the 20-degree, doors open wide, drafty house. Since it was Owen's birthday, I took them to Barnes & Noble (once it opened) and Jimmy John's (their request!) for lunch. Then they played at their friends' house, while we finished up the move and started the cleaning phase.
Another weird feeling is to look at the house so filled with memories as it is empty and ready to receive its next residents. I hope it brings them as much joy as it did to us!
Just one more night in Idaho Falls. Our lovely friends, the Trudells, of Adam and Ella fame, put us up for the night. It worked out great, since we could leave the cats at the house, kids could have a sleepover with their best buddies, and we could walk over to the house in the morning to finish cleaning before we hit the road. As a small token of our thanks, we took them out for dinner at Owen's favorite place, Fuji, for teppanyaki and sushi.
Again, it was Owen's 9th birthday, so I will leave you with this stunning display of flossing (it's a dance move, for those that don't know) while the restaurant staff sing happy birthday to him.
No comments:
Post a Comment