In a crazy whirlwind of events we went to Michigan Halloween weekend. We looked at dozens of houses, explored the area and felt good about things. We stopped for a family council and burgers at a place called Nonla Burger and here David whipped out his laptop and signed the acceptance offer from Whirlpool. On our way home we picked a house and put an offer on it, with the contingency that they had to be out in 3 weeks! David had to be back to start work on November 29th. Things happened very quickly!! Which we kind of thought would be the case all along. At least we didn't have a house to pack up. Everything was already in storage pods, except for the very basic necessities we had carried around since July.
This was our official announcement to the world:
Time to Spill The Beans…The Beans have baked in the sun in California. Then we felt whole again when we returned to beautiful green Virginia. And now we’re taking on the Great North with a move to Michigan! We are so excited for this new adventure and can’t wait to fall in love with another location (and hopefully the snow)!
Aliza turned 15! We squeezed in a little celebration between all the final wrapping up of things in Virginia. I didn't have our traditional birthday banner because it was in storage, but found this one in one of the kitchen drawers. I just love this girl. She always just rolls with the punches, she's smart and kind and a great sister.
Part of my mama heart misses that "little Liza" on the left there, but I sure have loved watching her grow into her own person.
The young women's group through a surprise going away party for the girls. I still can't believe we are leaving this amazing ward. It really makes me sad that we won't have all these girls to help influence our own. I have no clue what our new ward is like, but I at least hope there are some good young women there for my girls.
It's a really good thing that things are happening so quickly, because if I had too much time to dwell on it, I would become super sad. One really sad thing is that there is no rowing in Michigan. This seem like such a shame with all their amazing lakes there. So Carmen had one final regatta on her home waters at Beaver Creek. I just love this sport so much and I don't even do it myself. It's so graceful to watch the boats glide across the water, yet still knowing all the hard work and grit that it takes to get that boat to move.
I like that this last regatta was at Beaver Creek because it allowed me to get up close pictures of her in action.
And I was able to capture this stunning picture of the dock. I think this may become a Christmas present of some sort. All the boats lined up and ready to glide across the foggy water in all the glorious Fall gorgeousness.
This was her boat mate, Jillian, for most of the season. They really had to learn to work together. It didn't come easily for Carmen, as Jillian was a novice, but they made it work.
It also didn't help that it was Fall and Virginia was showing off her colors. I sure hope Michigan has beautiful Fall colors like this. This is the view from the bus stop in the morning with Dallin. It's so late in the Fall that we are now standing out here in the pith dark in the morning waiting for the bus. We have to bring a flashlight along. This was just have the sun started to right and the day started to lighten up.
Koda loves to come to the bus stop in the morning!
Charlotte and Dallin chose to have a farewell party with their friends at JUMP. With all the craziness going on our last week in VA, this was about the last thing I wanted to do, but it was important to them to get to hang with their friends one last time. And it actually turned out super fun and I'm so glad we did it! My kids have the greatest friends!
Adonyah has been the sweetest friend for Aliza.
And Dallin has many friends, but these two might be his most favorite - Case and Matt.
There's already been many tears about having to say goodbye to his buddies.
Case, Dallin, Matt and Liam
And Charlotte has some pretty great friends too that will be hard to leave.
Now Dallin has the extra hard time of saying goodbye to his Meriwether friends that he's been with since Kindergarten and then also saying goodbye to his brand new Crozet friends that he just met. He's actually know these two a while from church, but just now got to go to school with them: Peri and Cash.
Cash became his new best buddy since August. He just moved here and the two hit it off, so he understood about how hard it is to leave friends.
And Carmen is just getting so wrapped up in her EMT course! She loves it so much. She didn't care where we moved to as long as they offered an EMT course that she could slide right into. Which luckily we found a great school that can make this happen for her.
We had a final goodbye dinner with some of our closest friends, the Sorensens and the Flanders. We talked and laughed for hours until we were finally kicked out of the restaurant. There just wasn't time to say goodbye to everyone we love so much in Charlottesville, but I'm glad we made this dinner happen.
And then we were off! With the back packed to the brim, a dog and a cat and 4 kiddos. David drove the truck and pulled the trailer with our kayaks. Oh, we also were both equipped with brand new vehicles with all wheel drive to help us get through Michigan snow.
We arrived Sunday night and stayed at a hotel and patiently waited until morning when we could pick up the keys to the house. Also, it was freezing when we arrived!
When we first got to the house these hoodies were waiting for the girls. That is so sweet that someone was thinking of them! They'll be attending Mattawan High School.
The Beans have arrived! A family selfie before going inside. We only just saw this house 3 weeks prior to this and only for a few minutes. I hope we love it as much as I think we will.
And now we wait for the moving trucks....they didn't come until the next day. But we spent our first day in Kalamazoo buying beds and stocking the fridge. So many times over the past 6 months I've tried to imagine what our new place would be like. Every time we have bought a house, I just knew it was the one. This one felt right to me the very first time I looked at it. While it's not a dream home, we are so so grateful to have a place of our own again. And yes, we will be celebrating Christmas in our own place, even though I had doubted. We made it happen!
And there they are!!! All of our stuff, some of which we haven't seen since March when we first staged our house to selling.
We had to buy a lot of new furniture since we got rid of so much beforehand. We just couldn't possibly store everything that we owned. This couch was bought back in Virginia before we moved, but this was the first time we were actually seeing it. It fits the space perfectly.
And since we moved in the days before Thanksgiving, my cousin Elise, who lives about 90 mins away in Indiana, invited us for Thanksgiving Dinner. It was a welcome relief to see familiar faces and to have a nice meal and a place to sit. In the past we have always hosted Thanksgiving at our place on Ivy Springs, so this was a welcomed change. It was fun to watch my kids play with my cousins kids. I have so many great memories of playing with my cousins during holiday dinners.
And as we drove home from Indiana, we experienced our first Michigan snow. It felt exciting, but I'm sure we'll be sick of it in a few months.
My kitchen is all unpacked! Now on to the rest of the house. I'm glad you can't see the mess behind me.
And these two are off to their first day of their new schools. I'm so nervous for them. When we moved the kids in the middle of the school year 5 years ago, I said I'd never do it again. But here we are doing it...and it's not easy and I'm so nervous for them and I don't envy them at all. They are brave little humans! I didn't get a picture of Aliza and Carmen had actually gone back to VA for one more week to be able to wrap up some things with some of her classes. Her being gone for a week definitely made me realize that I'm not ready for her to be gone off to college! Only 1 1/2 more years to get ready.
And there you have it....the Christmas tree is up and the stockings are hung. Team work makes the dream work! David had a dream just 2 months ago that he was going to celebrate the holiday in his own house. I seriously doubted it could happen because he'd been job hunting for over a year and nothing was coming up. But I guess it took just that extra bit of faith and works to make it happen. And we are thrilled to be here! Phew, what a month. Now let's get all unpacked, oh and onto Christmas shopping.
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