Preparing for Change

We spent 4 days in the last week at David’s parents’ helping them get ready for their big move; coming up at the end of this next week.

The first step in the process was cleaning out all the farm buildings, including the house, of all the items that went on an auction.  The house they are moving into is smaller, and doesn’t have the storage that the farm house had.  His parents have inherited a lot of furniture over the years, and it was more than they wanted to move.  Plus, when you have lived most of your adult life in the same place, you just accumulate things.  David’s parents had most of the items organized, they just needed to be pulled out to the yard and set up for the auction.  We spent a good portion of two days moving everything to get ready.

The auction items were all lined up.  Only about half of the line would fit in the picture.

A panorama of all the items.  Taking a panorama with an iPod distorts the picture.

During the auction.

The weekend also included a brief farewell to David’s parents at their church.  The kids provided a cake, and the pastor opened up a time for comments and goodbyes from their friends.

The pictures on the cake represented different areas that they were involved in throughout their time in the community.

The grandkids all had one last hoorah with tractor rides, whacking weeds with sticks in the feed lot, and working on their forts in the out buildings.

All the grandkids on the tractor.

All the families now have iDevices, so most of these pictures were just shared by David’s family via Photostream.  There were some really great pictures taken of the farm.  I think some of them are even art gallery worthy.

Thanks Jeff, for memorializing the farm through art/photos.

This coming week, our family is headed back to the farm to load the remaining household items into a truck for the move.  Then at the end of the week, we will be headed the opposite direction to help unload the truck into the new house.  It will be another big, busy week, but we are so excited about the new experiences and memories we will be making at the new house.

July 4th, A Quick Overview

July has been, and continues to be, another busy month.  The girls were with my parents for the last few days of June until we went to my parents' on July 3rd.  They enjoyed their time playing at the youth center, picking cherries on my parents’ cherry tree, camping at the river, and all the fun things that come with camping (i.e. Smores, swimming, etc.)

Bentley helping Grandpa with the cherries.

Bria enjoying a Smore.

The beginning of the month started off with a race.  David, my dad, my brother, and another friend went to Sprint Car races the night of July 3rd.  It ended up being a long night due to the huge crowd (3 times what there was seating for) and track delays.  They drove to my parents’ after the race and didn’t get home until 4:30 am on the 4th.

At the race.

July 4th brought fun at the river (a family tradition) and fireworks in the evening.  This year we were prepared for the girls’ fear of the noise and brought ear protectors.  My brother bought most of the fireworks, making for a bigger display than we had ever done at home.

My sisters and me. We all unintentionally dressed almost the same.

Lunch at the river after some swimming.

During the fireworks.

July 5th brought a baby shower for my sister, who is expecting their first child at the end of October.  We also played a really fun game of baseball due to Bria’s insistence.

Cupcakes for the shower.

Tonia with her gifts.

Our game of baseball.

The last couple of days at my parents were much less exciting.  I helped my mom out by working at the youth center for a few hours.  Bria came with me, and we had some good one-on-one time.  Later in the day, Tonia brought Bentley down and Chris took Bria back to Grandma so that Bentley and I could have some one-on-one time together.  David and the guys worked on the combine, Chris came back early to catch up on some of his own work.  I ran into an old high school classmate, and we caught up some.  (It has been 15 years since I have seen most of my classmates.)  On Sunday we attended church and then headed home, just to get ready to leave again on Friday.