Three Years Later - Happy Anniversary

Has it really been three years since we moved from Colorado? Yep, three years ago today we drove away with tears in our eyes. I remember pulling out of the driveway and trying to not look into the rear view mirror at my boys. I just knew if I made eye contact with them that I couldn't do it. I couldn't leave that place that we had come to love so much. The place where we had best friends and memories to last a lifetime. We were at a crossroads and needed to move. It was a terrible way to spend our anniversary. But, as parents, you do what you have to do to take care of your kids and make their lives stable. We knew if we stayed that we were facing a serious unknown and so we chose the safe but very difficult path to move. Steve and I both cried the first day that we met with our realtors. We tried to explain to them house much we cherished our home. We changed our minds 200 times in 24 hours when we decided to move.

 I took this photo the morning before we left for Kansas. It was bright and sunny and beautiful.

 

 

 

That house still holds so many memories for us. Almost daily we hear, "Do you remember when.... in Colorado?"

 

Like the time Cam broke his arm? He was scootering home from the bus stop. We were walking Colin home and Cam slipped on a patch of sand in the road. I also remember that night some very dear friends bringing over a kitkat bar and a card for Cam. Those were the amazing kind of friends we had in Colorado.  

 

 

Or Colin's first day of Preschool? Both boys went to Promise Preschool. It was such a sweet little school. Again, we still have very dear friend that we met at Promise. I will never forget their teachers. They were two of the kindest most gentle souls I have ever met.

 

 

Not to mention all the Birthdays we celebrated in that house? The first birthday was celebrated was Colin's third birthday. Little did I know that by inviting the neighbors to that first birthday party, we would have some friends for life. The best neighbors, I tell you. The best!

 

 

The snowy days? Ironically the day we tried to move into our Erie house, there were back to back blizzards. The semi got stuck in front of our driveway.

 

 

The hotwheels tracks? Our lives now have less toys and more electronics, but we still have stuff strung out all over. How is that possible?

 

 

 

That house, that town, those schools, they all held such great memories for us. Memories we thought we could never recreate. Three years later, we still miss Colorado. But three years later, we can't say "We just moved to Kansas". Or, "We're new here." Or even, "We haven't lived in Kansas very long".

 

It's hard to believe that we have now been in Kansas for half as many years as we lived in Erie. We're settled in here. We love our school and like our house. We're in a safe neighborhood with easy access to any store we could ever want (and even a few that we don't want).

 

We enjoy our neighborhood pool. Most days when we go, there is no one else there. It's awesome!

 

 

We've celebrated milestones. Cam's First Communion, Colin's 5th grade graduation, Steve and I both turned 40, new baseball teams, new basketball teams, boyscouts campouts....

 

 

And first days of school. This first day of school was met with anxiety and tears. The first two weeks I walked the boys back to their classrooms. The school staff was gracious and understanding.

 

 

We've become huge Royals Fans. Oh boy, have we ever! We enjoyed our first game in 2012 and have been hooked ever since. They Royals even had a playoff game on Cam's Birthday in 2014 and Cam was stoked when Lorenzo Cain "liked" his birthday photo on instagram.

 

 

We've even had a lot of snow! Like, a TON. The first year we had so many snow closure days from school. Last year we had none so it will be interesting to see what this year holds. Steve seems to be out of town a lot in the winter so it seems that I've traded shoveling an extra long sidewalk for shoveling and extra big driveway.

 

If anyone ever tries to tell you, "moving is easy",  it isn't. If anyone ever tries to tell you "kids are resilient", slap them. If anyone says, "you'll figure out someday why this is happening, why God has put this in front of you", believe them. Steve and I cried a lot of tears those first few months here. The kids cried a lot of tears too. It was hard. So hard. But we made it through. We've made some great friends. We've had some great experiences that we wouldn't have had in Colorado. We get to see our families more (still not as often as we would like but at least more than we used to). The boys are so happy in their school. We've definitely made friendships here that will last a lifetime too. We still miss Colorado but the pain has turned into a swell in our hearts. We can smile now when we think about Colorado. We are making new awesome memories in our home. It feels like home now, not just a house. That being said, we have plenty of space for Colorado visitors!