Closing up Shop

The last couple of weeks have been totally crazy. We have been juggling "normal" life stuff while also packing up our "cute and tiny" apartment and preparing for a season of homelessness. It's been an exhausting couple of weeks, but we survived. The apartment is vacant, our stuff is reduced to a small storage space plus what we carried to grandma's house, and we've struck out on the open road for a cross country adventure. Here are a few photos of these last couple of weeks:

Lily lost her first tooth in the midst of the packing. Hooray!

We shared dinner with some friends in our cute and tiny apartment. This is a fun friendship for me, because even though I consider this gal one of my dear friends, we've hardly spent any time face to face. She and her family live overseas and while Ryan has been to visit them, I had barely met them. Through a variety of circumstances, we have developed a friendship via Facebook and e-mail and we were thrilled to actually spend some time together in the flesh. She was just as delightful as I imagined she would be!

Lizzy and her good friend Alexa decided to swap shoes one Wednesday night at church. Needless to say, both mommas were ready to clobber them when they came home with mismatched shoes. Here they are a couple of days later, preparing to swap back. Crazy girls!

Nana and Pap came to visit and treated us to a yummy dinner at the Macaroni Grill. They were kind enough to haul home a small trailer with some of our special goodies. Things like the kid's yearly school portfolios and special memory boxes are now safely tucked away in their attic.

The kids have had a great time playing with our seminary apartment neighbors. They are truly going to miss the community we found there. Here is Lily with her friend, Katelyn.

Empty kitchen cabinets can sure provide for fun times in the middle of packing.

This is the way my world has looked the last couple of weeks. Boxes, tubs, totes, and piles. I am confident the stuff just multiplies!