Finishing Up Our Nebraska Summer

Knowing we were moving for several months has often made us tired of waiting around for things to fall into place. As they usually do, they worked out with great timing and I feel really good about how we wrapped things up here before heading on our next chapter.

It may seem silly, but sometimes I get attached to things I really don't want anymore. There is just something sentimental about them. That was the case with our blue chairs. Brad and I were determined to fit into one moving truck and have been in purge mode over the last 1 1/2 years or so. One of our last items to go were the blue chairs. These were gifted to us from Brad's parents, so he remembers his sister sitting in them with labor pains with Hannah. Hannah, Karter, Lorelei and Makin were all rocked to sleep as babies in these chairs. So, had to get a picture of my not-so-little babies in a blue chair one more time.

Its hard to see, but in the background are two milk trucks. Almost every Tuesday morning Makin and I would see those milk trucks in the parking lot of Walmart before we shopped. They are transferring milk for some reason or another. When we pulled up we thought, this is the last time we will see the milk trucks! (Yes I know, something I never thought I would care about, and maybe I shouldn't care about!) So we took a picture. :)











Friends

After watching Drue for over a year and a half, it was hard to think of not seeing her two days a week! Watching her was such a great fit for our family. She was a great playmate for Makin, especially when he had to adjust to his big sister going to school. We loved that we could teach her and get her ready for her first year of preschool this fall too. Makin had a really hard time on her last day. They have great memories together and we are so thankful for her and her family. She will be missed!

Magna Tile Rockets and Lego Fun

Enjoying lunch on the patio, Hullabaloo (one of their fav games to play), and sandbox time.

On her last day we wanted to do something special, so went to the putt putt golf course. We have a tradition of taking pictures if the kids get a hole-in-one, and L got one, M got two! :) We had gorgeous weather to enjoy while playing.

Best Buds

The other advantage to having lots of time to move, is to plan fun things.

We enjoyed Sunday lunch and swim at the Becks.

Lorelei and Ellorie in the Beck's lake, literally in their backyard.

Bible Study group swim party at Jodi's house. (She also watched the kids on her own a few hours to help me out another day and they got to swim again!)

And a couple of last play dates, Lorelei went to her friend Anna's house and Makin and I met up with a couple of friends from storytime at the park.

These girls really love each other! There is already a paper waiting of a picture Lorelei drew to mail to Anna. They had lots of fun together in Kindergarten and are both equally excited about life. :)

Makin, Calan and Lily

Michelle P took the kiddos for an entire afternoon (a much-needed break the week Brad was gone!) and I got through all my school stuff that had been piling up and it was such a relief. The kids had a blast with McDonald's for lunch, a trip to the lake, and visiting her house where they could play with her dog.

Michelle S took the kids for the afternoon while our carpets were getting cleaned and I was finishing up the last minute errands I needed to accomplish before we left. She took the kids to HyVee (to get me the biggest Starbucks ever), McDonalds for lunch, home for rest and then to Pawnee Plunge to swim. Somewhere in all that they also loved playing with her dog and Evan's Nurf guns. :) Then she also fed us all a yummy supper. It was the prefect way to spend our last night in Columbus.

It took hours and hours of discussions between Brad and I and months of deliberating to make the decision to move. There is something special about Columbus that makes me feel very at-home there. We will miss our friends and so many things that make Nebraska special to us. We are thankful we have Brad's family in Nebraska so we get to go back! :)

Got this in an email. Thought it was a good fit.

“We change, but always at a cost: to win this you lose that.”

- Geoffrey Wolff, A Day at the Beach, “Apprentice”

We are sad but also excited for our next chapter. More to come on that soon enough. ;)
(Well, maybe not so soon...if you saw the boxes you would understand!)