Saturday with Friends

My dear friend, Holly, was in town this past week visiting from Long Island, NY.  She came last weekend to see the new house and it was a loud, crazy afternoon as her four children and my two children ransacked the house and raised the roof with all the yelling. (Sorry Josh and Papa Dan!)  But since we don't see them that often it was worth any headache that came from the commotion.  Later in the week, Holly and I took in a late movie after we got kids into bed, and another night she came back to help me unpack my scrapbook room and set it all up!  (Love her for doing that!!)

So this Saturday we decided to get together one more time before she left for New York.  We opted to pack the morning with activity to avoid the mass destruction that occured weekend prior.  

We started our morning with a visit to the local farmer's market!  This was the 1st time I had been to the town's farmer's market since moving here.  It was nice and small, but it had a lot of variety. We bought some juicy cherries (Kate's pick), some garlic pickles for Papa Dan, some string beans, freshly made fettuccine and fresh bread.  I love local markets like this!  Oh, and we also grabbed a few chocolate chip cookies for road! (Nathan's pick.)

 Then we took the kids over to a neighboring town's park.  It was a perfect place to burn off a bundle of energy.  Kate loved the zip line and the swings.  Mia and Joel played on the slides.  Nathan adores the gravel box full of dump trucks.  Gabe was content eating grass and hanging on to his mama.  And Andrew, well he just chased the kids around the park and added to the fun!  (Andrew seemed to avoid the camera...so I don't have any shots of him...sorry, Holly.)

 Holly and Gabe!

 (Notice the matching dresses that Aunt Holly pick out for the girls!)

 After the park, everyone was hot and hungry.  So we had a picnic lunch on our front porch.  (I love my front porch!)  And then the kids played in our kiddie pool for a while.  There were lots of splashing and squeals of delight. 

We were sad to see everyone leave.  But we were so glad we got to see them so many times this past week.  Now if we could just get Uncle Neil to transfer his job to Virginia, life would be sweet!!

Moved in...again...and again...

This is what April and May looked like:  boxes, laundry and more boxes. We had project after project lined up to get ready to sell our townhouse in Maryland.  I am happy to say we are now on the other side the move.  We moved into our new house on June 1st.  And we still find ourselves in a world full of boxes and cardboard and bubble wrap all month long!

We had an amazing crew of guys that made our first move so easy!  My Guys Moving was fantastic if you need a recommendation for a moving company.

Our piano was the first piece of furniture placed in the new house!

Josh and I after we closed on the new house.  It was a super stressful week leading up to closing.  The mortgage company almost went back on their offer.  We had to to fight tooth and nail to get into this house.  But God was very good to us, and amazed us over and over again as we trusted in Him to make this happen. We even got in to the house less than a month before interest rates began to rise.  Never been more grateful for a 30 year fixed rate mortgage than I am right now!

Just when we felt settled in the new house, Josh took off to Washington State to pick up his Dad and a 26 ft. moving truck full of Dan and Ann's stuff.  They made it across country in record time - 4.5 days in a large, slow truck!  They pulled into town just in time to celebrate Father's Day weekend.

Thanks to my brother, Shaun, Josh and Shaun had the truck unpacked in one day.  It was a long, hot Saturday for both of them, but I am so grateful that they were able to unload the truck in one day.  Josh rested on Sunday and celebrated Father's Day with the kids at our local Sweet Frog yogurt shop.  And on Monday, my brother, Brian, helped Josh load up the 26ft truck AGAIN with the remains of our storage unit in Maryland.  So Monday our house was flooded with boxes for a third time.  I am so grateful to both my brothers for giving up their time and energy to help Josh.  Thanks guys!!  Beers are on us!

 I must admit I lost steam for a while and couldn't bare to unpack another box.  But after a week of staring at boxes I jumped in again and tackled a ton of boxes this week!  I'm happy to say that we are almost unpacked.  I still have the dining room to tackle this week.  A few boxes left of clothes for the  master bedroom closets, and well the front library which won't be unpacked for a while yet!  But the house is starting to take shape.  It was three moves in one, and I think we won't be needing a moving truck again for a LONG time - God willing.

Josh and I went out on a date night to celebrate the last unload of the truck.  We love exploring the Leesburg area.  We've found a few little independent restaurants that we love!  The mom and pop shops in our town are amazing and the selection of stores and restaurants nearby Leesburg makes up for anything we might lack right in town.  The longer we are here the more we love it! 

Home Sweet Home!