One Dae at a Time: Getting Our Ducks in a Row

Monday, May 25, 2020

Getting Our Ducks in a Row

This week was a big week!

We bought our first home, and Michael signed his contract to join Fort Collins Oral Surgery.

Big changes are coming!

Shelley was so nice to watch Westin and Bennett in LA while Michael and I took a long weekend with Camden to head to Fort Collins and check out neighborhoods. Buying a home is a much more consuming process than I ever predicted. There's just a lot of fate involved in that process. I'll never forget the ups and downs of the first and second offers we put on houses, and then the way things came together for the third. And third time was the charm! We have a lot of painting ahead of us, but I can totally envision what our house can be. The location, the walk to school, the commute, the neighborhood, the backyard -- we are so excited. I'll never forget Ali and Becca helping me from afar as the process hit ups and downs we didn't expect, and all the heavy decisions that you just have to commit to or walk away from. The way we found our realtor (through a friend of a friend of a friend who had a rental but was also, we later found out, an amazing realtor) was an answer to prayers because she was incredibly helpful.

Also I always want to remember the dinner we spent with Michael's future partner. He and his wife were so incredibly kind, and personable, and I was so extremely impressed with their children. I just keep thinking about their family. The way their kids were truly good friends with each other, none of them looked at a phone the whole night, they were so fun to talk to, and it was just so nice to finally meet them. I have felt so much peace about our big changes coming up since meeting them.

Camden was a trooper on the trip -- last Sunday he went through 11 houses with us, never able to fall asleep on the drives between each one until we took a 90-minute break so that he could get a rest. Then we needed to stop for gas and it woke him up... oh little babies. He took a long nap in our hotel the next day before our dinner plans that night, and a long nap the next morning soon after he woke up. And he's been catching up on sleep ever since and sleeping quite well since our trip. He even slept his first 12-hour stretch with 0 wake ups! But has woken up once a few times, too. Which is way better than what we were dealing with just a couple weeks ago.

Westin and Bennett always have the best time with the Cannons. They went on fun walks, picked strawberries, ate a lot of sherbet, went swimming, played so much with cousins, drew pictures, hopped on Westin's preschool Zoom meeting for joke day, and they are just so happy with family. I'm so grateful for Shelley's help with the boys and Katie's help in Colorado. It was SOO fun to meet baby Finn and see Jack and Oliver. Our new house is 90 minutes away from them and we have never been so close to family before!

The last few months have been putting together puzzle piece after puzzle piece, with so much thinking and prayer and stress and faith to figure out how this should all come together. All we've wanted was to go where we feel like we're supposed to, and make a good life for our little boys. Each step has been work. Then it comes together. Then it's the next step. I haven't even written a "We're moving to Fort Collins!" post because it has just felt like a process. Each step illuminated a little at a time, but no big bursts of light. But now we can see the final picture, and it's time to put in the work to make the transition happen.

Oh, moving.

Making rock stacks like when Grandpa Miner was here!

Bingo time with his class

Camden getting into the car playing scene

We've been having picnics outside tonight and somehow this is our only "outdoor"ish blanket.
Didn't notice that our banana bread was keeping Ariel modest.
Also, banana bread and a parfait may not sound like dinner to you but we've reached the point in the COVID game where anything pretty much goes.