When Its Time To Move On

Ripping off a bandaid from a still-healing-wound on the hairiest spot of your body. That’s what this feels like. We know it’s what’s supposed to come next, and we’re excited for things to progress in the next chapters in life, but we’re dreading it at the same time.

What started as a “vacation stop along the way”, turned into “just a couple months” after squatters took over the house they were trying to sell. It then morphed into “we’ll just move with you to Wyoming and find somewhere to live there”, and then turned into a “yours, mine, and ours” situation. After 3 years of this, we’re now going back to “yours and mine in separate places” again. I don’t know how to describe how I feel about it, really, other than to say it’s a bittersweet thing.

Three years ago, I never thought I’d have a household of 18 people, but we did and, while it was chaotic at times, it was truly one of the most wonderfully challenging and fun experiences in my life. We have laughed and cried and grown and carried each other through these last few years. 

We’ve gone through a good many things - comforting and caring when the squatter situation turned out to be a bigger issue than first expected; moving extra people in while trying to sell a house; moving 2 families to another state; supporting each other through job changes, losses, and shifts; lifting and supporting each other through loss of loved ones that are very dear to us; being snowed in (literally) for days on end; too many flat tires to count (gosh it’s been insane lol); emergency room visits for various reasons (hatchet mishaps, miscarriages, gastro issues that almost became surgeries, stitches, bone infections, fainting spells, strep, flu, mono scares…just to name a few); water pump going out on the well…not once, but TWICE…making it so we were “glamping” in our own home; IEP and 504 meetings at various schools and helping each other fight in the trenches for our children; leaning on one another when parenting got difficult; playing devil’s advocate in various situations just to help us see all sides of any situation; sending missionaries out, as well as bringing them home at various times; planning a wedding; helping children through relationships ending, and beginning new ones; planning vacations for either family, or both at the same time; the list could go on and on.

And here we are, at a crossroads that we expected to happen, but didn’t at the same time. We’re packing up half the household to move, while trying to rearrange “half the people in twice the space”. While we were going through some shared spaces in the house a couple weeks ago, deciding what to pack, leave, keep, donate, or toss, one of the kids chimed in that this was “the most amicable divorce I’ve ever seen”. We all got a good laugh out of that and it has become the running joke when we find something that we can’t remember who it belongs to - “in today’s divorce proceedings, we bring this item to everyone’s attention…”

While I DO look forward to some quiet moments happening more often, I’m going to miss the late night giggle-fests that happen on one parent’s bed or the other one (depending on who is still awake enough to host all of them); the late-night dashes to Walmart before it closes so the teenagers could get ice cream and popcorn; movie excursions that fill up half the theater with just our crew; cousin-siblings that rally around each other and plot revenge involving nerf guns and PVC pipe bows and arrows; pranks at random times; hiding the tiny figurine of Jesus around the house and yelling out I FOUND JESUS then hiding Him again for the next person to discover; the midnight baking shows that happened when teens couldn’t sleep (not watching the show, creating it); floating the river or playing at the lake, games of all sorts going on ALL the time (electronic, board, card, nightgames, etc); discussing conspiracy theories like they’re truths and then laughing at the ridiculousness of it all; bearing testimony of our Faith in different ways; being able to text the group chat with “everyone pray” and KNOWING that every single person just stopped and added their faith to yours; memes of laughter, joy, encouragement, and utter nonsense being shared daily; making General Conference weekends actual holidays with candies, crafts, feasts, and sleepovers in the living room to hold their “good seat spot” for the next day; chore charts and meal assignments that mostly got ignored (why did we have them? idk, it made us feel we were put together somehow, I think haha); so much laughter and love and support that, I hope, never goes away!!

So, while we’re parting ways, we still have major plans on get-togethers and vacations and, I’m sure, daily texting and calling so we can stay in touch. I’m so happy for them in their new adventures and I can’t wait to see what our next adventures hold! God be with you, sweet family of ours, and much love and joy are being sent from us to you all.

London Trip Day 5: There's No Place Like Home

 Morning came way too early after that late night! But we got up and gathered our stuff, bracing ourselves for the underground with all our luggage in tow again. Then we realized that...it was New Year's Day! It was not busy at all and wasn't near as difficult as when we arrived! BONUS! 

We navigated through Heathrow and found where we needed to be (Chris and I were very grateful that we'd experienced LHR before, this made it much easier this time around). As we reminisced about our adventures, we realized that it hadn't rained much while we were there. The weather reports we had looked up and called for rain everyday. We count ourselves very blessed over this! The flight back was uneventful, thankfully, as was the drive home! None of our luggage was lost and turbulence was pretty low, as well! Things had warmed up enough to melt the snow and ice so we really had zero troubles! 

We got home and immediately were surrounded by all the kiddos! We were missed, but here's a secret - we missed them too! It is always so fun to travel, but it is so much nicer to come up and sleep in your own bed! There really is no place like home!

London Trip Day 4: Regent Park, Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, & Diagon Alley

This morning, we slept in a bit to let Celeste rest up. After her meds had kicked in, we went out and meandered around Regent Park, which was very near our hotel. Celeste tried making friends with the wildlife we came across. A squirrel scampered up to her, eager to see what kind of treats she offered. He left disappointed, however, SHE left elated because she got to touch a squirrel! We also got to smell the roses that were still blooming around the park. While the trees were rather bare and the leaves were very sparse, the roses were few and far between but what was there smelled just lovely!

On our way to Hyde Park, we found the Sherlock Holmes museum and house on Baker Street. We went to the shop, but not on the tour of the house.

Right next door was the Beatles Store! Obviously we had to go in there too! Celeste was loving all the hoodies she was coming across in her travels LOL

Hyde Park was our next stop, but it was a little ways away from where we were, and Celeste was still feeling a bit run down, so we hopped on another double-decker, I mean, why not?! This one, we even got to sit on the front row up top!

Hyde Park was the park to walk or ride through back in the day (think Jane Austen time lol). It still is a good place to go riding in, apparently, since we were finding all sorts of (fresh) evidence of horses there. After seeing yet another pile of manure, Celeste piped up "Forget picking up after your dogs, people! Clean up after your horses!! Clearly that's a bigger issue here!" Haha, she cracks me up! We found an amusement park "Winter Wonderland" going on, but decided to pass on that one. It was a pretty cold day, so we found a vendor and got some hot chocolate. While we waited on that to get prepped, Chris and Celeste squatted next to the pond and tried to make friends with the swans, using crumbs they found on the ground LOL 

We worked our way across the park, following The Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Walk and across the street where we found a few more monuments dedicated to the regiments in the World Wars. 

Just a short walk down the road, we came to Buckingham Palace! That was kind of fun to see!

We decided to keep the Harry Potter vibe alive from yesterday, and went in search of Diagon Alley. We kept commenting on how we loved the look of the taxis around here, so we grabbed a pic of one. Then we found a phone booth, and couldn't pass up that photo-op! We also came across a memorial monument for the great fire that spread through London a couple centuries ago.

We followed the maps and excitedly rounded the corner where Diagon Alley and found...

We had to back track slightly to an actual alley-way and then...we found what we were looking for!

We enjoyed dinner here and then browsed through multiple book shops and started back to the hotel to rest up before enjoying the fireworks bringing in the new year!

We set alarms just in case we all fell asleep, and then we got up and dressed warm, looked out the window at the Winter Wonderland (from the park) and noticed a few early fireworks going on.

We went to the sidewalk near Regent Park and counted down to bring in 2025! This was what Celeste had been waiting for! Even with feeling yucky she couldn't help but prance down the street!