Move Day

I knew this day was coming.  I’ve known it for almost a year now.  But that didn’t make it any easier.  I purposefully didn’t say goodbye to anyone, because it was too hard.  I just told everyone to think of it as a “year-long vacation” :)

Anyway- if there is anyone out there reading this who doesn’t know- Seth got a new job in January working for the U.S. Forest Service.  Its an amazing job, but one that would require us to temporarily leave our mountain paradise & head out for some adventure in the desert.  Me & the kids stayed behind until school was over, then got everything ready to go once summer started.  I kept acting like it wasn’t really happening.  In fact,  i didn’t start packing until 4 days before we left.  Without the help of my amazing friends and neighbors, we would have never pulled it off!

But, as much as I tried to avoid it, move day did in fact arrive.  As I said, we spent the week beforehand scurrying around getting things ready.

I wish I would have taken better/more pictures during this blessed event, but honestly, it was the last thing on my mind.  Michelle snapped these next photos on a whim & I’m so glad she did because its the only evidence of all the help I had with packing.

The next photos are sad.  They are of our empty house the night before we moved.

Looks nice though, doesn’t it?  It never looked that nice while I was living there.

I told the kids I would get pictures of their rooms for them before they left.  This was Liz’s idea & I’m glad she suggested it.

 

Baby J’s room was the hardest one to leave.  I am really proud of how it turned out & I love love loved it!  I took pictures of it almost a year ago to blog when I was getting her nursery ready, but you know how blogging goes.  Sometimes it gets done, sometimes it doesn’t.  I’m glad I have those pictures now, though.

(Don’t you just love waking up to a happy baby?) Sorry,  I know that was way too many pictures of her room, but like I said, it was intended to be its own post & I dropped the ball- so there ya go!

BTW- I totally forgot to do Smurfy’s room because he fell asleep on the couch while I was going around taking the photos.  Its ok.  The poor kid had to share his room with the office, so it was a bit crowded in there anyway.

And here we are actually pulling out of the neighborhood.  Thanks Lowders for the use of the DC trailer!  You guys (and the Meachams, Erickson’s and Gardners) rock!  Without all those big trailers we would have been about $400 poorer.

Seth’s mom & step-dad followed us pulling another trailer, and the White family followed us pulling yet another trailer. 

I’m quite certain Molly knew what was happening, and she wasn’t pleased.  She insisted on sitting on J’s lap all the way there so she could see where the heck we were taking her.

So, another journey for the Wallace family begins. (I’m choking back a sob here….)

It is scary, overwhelming, exciting, and just plain nuts.

So, just to re-cap, I’d like to list my top 5 best and worst memories from move-week……

The best first:

1) The goodbye parties.  I love my m.g. community.  They are seriously the awesomest people.  We had a front-yard dutch-oven cook-out courtesy of the Ericksons, and classic back-yard, completely rained-out barbeque, courtesy of the Gardners, and a covert, sneak into my parents pool swim party, courtesy of me :)

Picture from secret swim party.  BTW- Janet totally blew my cover when she announced to my mom (who was at my house cleaning my toilets on move day- BLESS HER HEART!), “you sure have a beautiful yard!”  Um………….. huh? I plead the 5th.

2) The late nights packing boxes with friends.  Michelle telling me I have way too many t-shirts and its time to go ahead and throw away the silk plants I still have in my house.

3) Dancing in the front yard until WAY too late.  (Sorry Bledsoe’s!)

4) Driving down to price with Chow. We cracked up pretty much the whole way. At least this time we didn’t miss our exit & drive to Nephi :)

5) Saying our last family prayer in the house.  The kids were so cute and they blessed darn near everything we own.

 

Ok, now the worst:

1) Packing all the  boxes

2) Cleaning the house.  (Ok, I’ll admit, that’s a lie.  Mostly because I didn’t do any of it.  I had so much help from so, so many kind people.  My house has probably never been cleaner).

3) Knowing I won’t be there every day for the little things.  Walks/runs, zumba at the gym, Tammy’s awesome neighborhood activities, church with my ward, lunch with friends, playdates, all the adorable kids on my street who always want to play :)

4) Knowing someone else is living in my house :(  (I am so grateful to have found renters that I know and trust.  I know they will take good care of the house- but still.  Its MY house.  I love it & I miss it already)

5)  Having the worst FOMO ever. 

 

 

LOOK OUT PRICE!  HERE COME THE WALLACES!!!!

 

 

Love your guts!

Mandy

Summer Birthdays

Shortly after baby J was born I realized I had created an awfully bad situation for myself as far as my children’s birthday’s go.  You see, 3 out of the 5 are born within a 10-day period during the busiest time of summer (4th of July weekend).  But, I brushed it aside to deal with next year.  HERE IT IS NEXT YEAR!  And my July turned out to be even more busy than I could have imagined, what with packing up everything I own and moving 2 1/2 hours away.  AGGGHHHHH!!!!

Anywho- we managed to throw 3 great birthday parties (with one I-O-U for Sparky), and make it through the chaos.

First up, baby J.  Of course hers was the best, because it was a 1st birthday, and those are the biggest.  (So don’t judge me- because she got more “par-tay” than the other kids!)

I actually managed to decorate for this party, with the help of my friend Rachel (who had just thrown a birthday party of her own- so her decorations went straight into my car.  Voila!)  Thanks Rach!

We had a pool party out at my parents house & decided to do a combined party for J & her cousin L, because they were born just 10 days apart & are the best of friends.  (Also, we didn’t want to bore the rest of our family with 2 baby parties in 2 weeks!)

The birthday girls!

 

 

 

Ok, next was Sparky.  His birthday is the one that is actually closest to the 4th of July, so he always gets to celebrate with fireworks!  And, although he was sung to three times, and received three different cakes, he still doesn’t think he got a party, because he didn’t have a “friend” party, so I owe him an awesome late-night with his bff’s.

 

 

And last but not least, Smurfy.  He is by far the most easygoing of my kids when it comes to birthday’s.  He wouldn’t even have noticed if we celebrated or not.  Oh, bless!

But, we took him out to Papa’s pool for a proper party anyway, cause he’s so darn cute.

This was a first.  Smurf is so shy & nervous.  I never thought he would jump off the diving board.  But uncle Kevin spent about an hour working with him on the 4th of July & by his party, he was ready to go!

So there you have it.  I made it through all the birthdays with my sanity nearly intact.  Who knows if I will survive the next 18 or so July’s, though.  I guess we’ll see :)

Hardscrabble Camping Trip

My dear friend Chowie has the awesomest hookup on camping up in the hardscrabble area. (for those of you who speak Morgan-ite)

So, as it turned out, her family had just come off of a family reunion weekend and by chance, several of the fam’s camping trailers had been left up at their campsite, so she invited us to come up & enjoy a day in their paradise.  Although Seth was not here (working down in Price), I braved a camping trip alone with my kids (minus the baby- thank you JANNA!!!).  We all had the best time.  Michelle took us on awesome ranger rides, we camped in STYLE with a fabulous campground complete with sandbox & playground, and we had a great camper to sleep in.  My kind of camping!  Thank you again Chow.  It was the best!