Well, it's over. Mercifully. What a brutal weekend. We learned that it is IMPOSSIBLE to do all that needs to be done during a move with two little boys running around! It was exhausting, stressful, and sickening - literally. Mitch had a touch of heat stroke on Sunday afternoon that was a bit unsettling and took him down for a couple of hours. But, we survived. Somehow. Closing was yesterday morning and we are officially no longer residents of 6947 Lerwick Court.Here are some pictures from the weekend:
The movers showed up at about 9:00 a.m. on Sunday morning. They were great. And luckily, during the bulk of their work, the boys were napping. In the same crib! It was pretty funny, but I guess they were tired enough to cuddle up together and fall asleep. Wish I had a picture of that, but I couldn't risk waking them up!
This is Ovando (below). He is the owner of the moving company who showed up personally to help and supervise the crew because of a snafu that prevented them from showing up on Saturday afternoon (which we were actually glad about because we needed more time), and he is also giving us our first month of storage for free, so it was win-win for us! He's a nice guy.
Bye-bye big comfy bed! See you in a couple of months - we'll miss you!!
Those are Tyler and Evan's floor lamps waiting in Evan's otherwise empty room waiting to be packed up.
The cats were a little wigged-out. I'm sure they were thinking "Here we go again!!"
Ok, that one isn't George freaking out, I just caught him in the middle of a yawn!
Eventually the boys woke up. Since the front door was propped open and all the gates had been removed, it was impossible to keep them from running outside. At the time when they woke up, Mitch was out picking up our van (for moving some stuff to our temporary living situation at Mitch's parents), so all I could do was put them in the stroller and wheel them up and down the street. I couldn't go too far in case the crew had any questions. After a while, it was getting pretty hot walking around in the sun, so we parked in the shade of our tree in the drive way and watched the action. And had a snack.
When the movers were done, we had more back-breaking work ahead of us. We were left with much more stuff than we anticipated - things we were bringing with us, and stuff that we just didn't have time to pack or couldn't decide what to do with. It took Mitch 3 van trips to Fairfax to get it all there. I think the in-laws are still in shock about how much crap we brought into their house!! Luckily, they have a basement, and kind dispositions! The first trip over included dropping the kids off, which helped in getting everything else done - the loading, the sweeping, the mopping, the vacuuming, the scrubbing.
As the day wore on, the house got emptier and emptier.
Our bedroom - or part of it anyway:
This room (below) started out as storage. Then it became an office where we worked on our adoption plan. And then it became Tyler's room. I have always loved the color - it is called "Billowing Clouds". I remember painting every stroke and wanting it to be perfect for the little boy we would be bringing home from Ohio:
Evan's room - still with the ladder in it from taking down the window treatments because I am not supposed to lift it! The only window treatments that didn't convey with the sale were the boys'. I don't think they will fit in their new windows, but they were from their baby rooms and I couldn't leave them behind.
The rec-room, suddenly looking much bigger without anything in it!! We spent some nice evenings in front of this fire watching movies - before we had kids of course!!
Our little back yard!! Not possible for this to look any bigger. Our new yard, while not humongous, will put this one to shame!
Our living room, which just that morning had been strewn with toys:
Our empty - and sparkling kitchen! I SCRUBBED that refrigerator!!
And our garage, which, I promise you, had not been this empty since the night we moved in 4 years and 8 months ago!
And here is all the trash we left on the curb. We were really hoping it didn't get too ripe in the heat before the scheduled pick up this morning....
When we were making our final exit, it was 11:35 p.m. Cue the tears. I did a last look around at all the rooms. As excited as I am to move on to bigger and better things, I found it pretty emotional saying good-bye. I was flooded with memories of bringing both boys home for the first time, of them taking their first steps, saying their first words, and all the other firsts they've had in that townhouse. As well as a lot of firsts for Mitch and me. It was the first home we bought together, as a happily commited married couple. It was where we decided to have children, dealt with the disappointment of not being able to, bravely ventured into the world of adoption, and blissfully brought Tyler home after a 3 day stay in the hospital and another 3 days in a hotel and a 10 hour drive home in the pouring rain. It was where we dealt with the shock of finding out I was pregnant when Tyler was a month old, where I went into labor in the middle of a cold night in December, and where we brought Evan home from a 5 day stay in the hospital after an unexpected C-section, and placed him under the Christmas tree. And of course, where we found out just a few short months ago that, shockingly, I am pregnant again, this time, even more shocking, with a little girl who is sure to steal her daddy's heart. A lot to remember, a lot to hold dear.
Now we are settling in at Mitch's parents. Here are Tyler and Evan happily enjoying their dinner at the table yesterday (no more lounge style eating - yay!!):
Time for new memories. We found out this morning that the concrete has been poured and the framing began today on our new house - VERY exciting. We're going to visit the site this weekend, so there will definitely be pictures to post! Stay tuned...
But, not big enough to be able to see out the window, so I moved over to the window seat and put him on my lap:
He sat like that the entire ride home. He had a lot of fun, and so did I. I was glad we got to do it, since today was really the last day that we could because we're moving this weekend. It was a great adventure for us both!!
Evan is taking more of a "top of the world" approach...
Lots more to do, so I'd better get back to it. By this time next week, we'll be moved into Mitch's parent's house, and hope to be in the new house by the beginning of October.
It's a tough life, wouldn't you agree?
Oh, and this:
Yes, baby number 3 is on the way, and we've sold our townhouse. We were already on our way to needing more space, but now it's sort of an emergency. We got lucky in that we were only on the market for 13 days before we had a contract. So far, everything is going fine. As long as nothing goes wrong, we will close on July 27th. What?!?!? That's not very long from now! Where will we go, you ask?
This is a rendering of the house we are building. Except ours won't have brick. And ours will be reversed, with the garage on the left. We are moving back to Prince William County, so that we can afford this beautiful 5 bedroom house, that in fact costs far less than we paid for our townhouse. Location, location, location. While I'm sad to be leaving Fairfax County, the area where we are moving to is really nice and has a tremendous amount to offer. I can truly see us being happy there for a long time to come. 
Later in the afternoon yesterday, we headed over to Tiffany and Forrester's for a cook-out and some backyard fun.
It was a great afternoon. It wasn't too hot, and there was a nice breeze. We had a lot of fun with some of our favorite people.
Here's something weird - as I was unhitching the booster seats and cleaning the chairs, I started to cry. All of a sudden. I think it had something to do with the table being one of the first pieces of furniture Mitch and I bought together, and those are the chairs that the high chairs were attached to so I suddenly got very emotional. Oh, and I'm sure the hormones had something to do with it... :)