At the beginning of June,  with most of our house packed up and ready to move, it was finally time to say goodbye to our beloved neighborhood. We threw a block party complete with an Italian Soda Bar and a taco/burrito bar, and had one last hang-out with our neighborhood friends that we’ve grown so close with over the past six years. We ended up calling it a “Farewell, but Not Farewell Party” since we were only moving ten minutes away and planned on hanging out with everyone regularly. Still, there’s nothing that can replace living right next door to some of the kindest, most helpful, and fun people on the planet, people I know I can text for a can of diced tomatoes, a diaper or last-minute babysitting and have a bunch of people ready to help on a moment’s notice. Not having to drive anywhere to hang out at the pool, the park or our friends’ houses was huge and we will miss that so much! With all the stress of the move itself, leaving our neighborhood was definitely the hardest part.

In particular, we couldn’t have asked for better immediate next-door neighbors in the Abbotts and the Wheatleys. The Abbotts are the neighborhood organizers, having movie nights in front of their house for the kids and the annual Halloween bbq and block party. They have also been Bandit’s official dog sitters when we are away and love to take him to the beach, to Starbucks, and to the dog park. In short, they treat him better than we do!  We will miss Joyce bringing over crafts for the girls and the kids giving Bandit a nice scratch on the back every day when they return home from school. Likewise, Barbara, Gary, and CJ always have a bone waiting for Bandit in their garage or on our porch when we are out and have been kind enough to bring over play doh  and treats for the girls. They’ve been very understanding about all the random balls and pinecones that get thrown over into their yard from the girls over the years, not to mention the noise! We already miss them so much, and Bandit is absolutely heartbroken!

We have deep affection for the other families in our neighborhood, and especially all the preschoolers and babies on our immediate street and the surrounding blocks. Our girls have grown up from 0-4 with these kids and I never took for granted the fact that we could walk outside anytime and there would always be other moms out with whom to get through those long afternoon hours. Our kids spent their first few years taking stroller rides around the neighborhood, collecting rocks on the trail out back, having Easter egg hunts with the neighborhood kids, hunting for snails at the little park around the bend, picking up mail and chatting with the cute, old mailman who knows them by name (I get so sad thinking about him dropping packages off on our old porch and realizing we’ve moved!) , splashing in the neighborhood pool with their giant Nemo floatie and all their friends, and riding plasma cars around the alley at many a 4th of July, Halloween and Christmas block party. Jake will definitely NOT miss being on the Board and all the HOA drama, but we will definitely miss having repairs done extra quickly because of him being on the Board.

We WILL miss the entire neighborhood being decked out for holidays, the old couples who remark, “My, they are getting so big!” every time we pass them, and all the flowers that the girls pick and arrange into bouquets every afternoon on our walks.  The twins started out strolling around in their double stroller, then walking, then scootering, then balance biking and finally, real pedal biking around this neighborhood, with all their friends growing up with them. There was never a dearth of other people’s houses to play in when we were too tired to get in the car and go somewhere. It was one of the best things about living in such a tight-knit community. We have priceless memories of hanging out with the neighbors, kids scootering outside or running around the house, and all the moms lounging around on patio chairs. We absolutely struck gold with this neighborhood and truly feel like it was one of our greatest blessings when we originally moved there.

It had been a bittersweet ride selling our house and getting ready to move, but it didn’t feel quite real until our “Farewell” party. It was very emotional for us, but we at least got to publicly express our gratitude for all our neighbors’ friendship and kindness over the years and will never forget the wonderful years we spent here. Thank you, friends!

Meredith gets in the way of Chelsea and Olivia. Meredith will miss all the “big kids” who’ve known her since she was in my tummy!

Addison shows off her bike and recently lost teeth.

Amelia takes advantage of the lack of parental supervision to help herself to refills of Italian Soda syrup (without much sparkling water).

Little Owen.

Sweet Kennedy and Quincy.

The always happy London.

After decorating bikes and scooters, the kids rode them in a parade around the neighborhood.

Owen and Jenny helped push Meredith in the parade.

I’m so sad Meredith will be too young to remember our old neighborhood!

Our last week in the house, we tried to soak it all in amidst all the packing and chaos everywhere, and also tried to empty out our fridge and freezer for the big move.

If you’ve ever spilled quinoa on the floor, you know what a nightmare it is to clean up! Meredith was NOT helping with the packing or cleaning situation!

Before taking everything down, we took one last look at our home. After all the work that went into this house, it was heart-wrenching leaving it all behind, especially the rooms to which we brought our babies home.

The new owners said they are keeping Meredith’s room as-is since their girl just loves it! Sadly, the owl room that Jake’s mom painted will be repainted for their boy. A moment of silence for all of Grandma Celeste’s hard work…

Even though we have more/larger bathrooms in our new house, we remember vividly all the work that went into our old upstairs bathrooms, and we really miss them!

So many memories of Jake laying down floor, pipe leaks and having to redo the flooring and kitchen, and what seemed like years of picking out flooring, baseboards, paint, crown moulding, shelving, vanities, countertops, shutters, windows and doors… it was hard to leave all that hard work behind! I remember specifically when the twins were potty training and made a huge #2 accident on the carpet upstairs… we decided right then and there to redo the entire upstairs flooring and the stairs. I remember coming home from a Utah trip and the stairs had been done and I was so happy to see the dark wood instead of the carpet. I totally appreciated those stairs every trip up and down. We also really miss the beautiful view and all of the sunrises, sunsets and walks/runs out on our favorite trail. We even miss the fat chipmunk who crawled up our back patio fence and into our garden, attempting to eat our vegetables every day, and the sound of all the obnoxious frogs croaking in our fountain!

The girls got involved by packing the toys and their clothes from their room.

Moving Day! Fortunately, the girls had a field trip to go strawberry picking at Tanaka Farms with their preschool, so they were out of the house for the morning a little longer than usual. My friend, Jodi, graciously watched Meredith while the movers were here in the morning, and they were able to get a lot done. Crystal watched all three for me the next day while we finished a few things up at our old house before the new people moved in. And then it was goodbye!

So sad to say goodbye!

It was hard to explain to the girls that when they got back from preschool that day, they wouldn’t be coming back to this house!

While the moving company did a meticulous job of packing everything in the moving truck safely, it was slow-going and took most of the day just for them to load everything. Getting everything unloaded in our new house went quickly, but even though I had color-coded and clearly labeled every box, as well as put giant posters up in each room to denote Bedroom #1, Bathroom #1, etc., so the movers would know to where to put everything, we still had a good number of boxes end up random places. Unpacking took forever and the girls were no help. It was like Christmas for them seeing half unpacked boxes and toys they hadn’t seen in a while! I was so frustrated with the unpacking process that I vowed next time, we will send them to Utah for a week so we can actually get something done! In short, the moving process was horrible! So. Many. Boxes. I feel like I’m going to have nightmares for years over all the moving stress.

Even after most of the unpacking was done, the organizing became the next huge project and I don’t know if it will ever be done! The first week, even after organizing the kitchen, we were still getting used to everything and felt like it took an hour just to remember where the bowls were. We couldn’t find anything! The girls were getting lost upstairs, not knowing where their bedroom was, and we still haven’t internalized which light switches turn on which lights!

Now that we’ve been here a month, it’s a little more reflexive, but we still have a lot of work to do. We still have one room downstairs that is basically a holding spot for pictures, decor, Amazon packages and everything we don’t know what to do with yet. Even though this house is bigger, the previous owners did not put in a lot of shelving and organization into their closets or in the garage, and after doing all of our closets at our last house and putting in tons of racks and cabinets in our old garage, it feels like we’re starting from ground zero!

The first few weeks with bare walls, boxes everywhere and not knowing the neighbors, our house felt strange, like it wasn’t even our house, but now that we’re a little more settled in, the house is starting to feel more home-like. However, the girls still talk about our old house all the time and we always wave to our neighborhood whenever we pass it! I’ve accidentally turned onto our old street more than a few times and have still not reset Google Maps with our new address as “home.” Still, a sad realization came the other day when we were visiting an old neighbor’s lemonade stand, and I had completely forgotten the code to get in the gate. It truly is our “old house” now!

A few memories from our old house:

Lots of love,