goodbye to our sweet little apartment (part 2)

A few more glimpses of our home… (part 1 here).

Stephen relinquished our keys about an hour ago, so it’s no longer ours :( But it will always be Nolan’s first home! This is where we paced the floors with him and took turns holding him twenty-four hours a day when he was a newborn. This is where he learned how to sit up, crawl, walk, and run. It’s the place where we were overjoyed with each little new thing that he did. I will miss it!

This was our living room—it was Stephen’s workspace, Nolan’s playroom, our TV spot, my blog-writing center, etc.

And dining room:

Every day, our floor was completely covered in toys.

Slightly different angle:

Tiny little kitchen:

The white shelf is one of three that Steve found in the dumpster and painted. We were glad for any extra storage space!

This was moving day on Monday. We’ll definitely miss our town and the friends that we have there! But at least it’s not too far to visit! :)

goodbye to our sweet little apartment (part 1)

These are photos of the place that has been our home since August 2011—three weeks before Nolan was born! Yesterday, we loaded up the U-Haul and moved to our new place. Steve is actually back at the apartment right now, painting the two bedrooms back to white.

This was Nolan’s room. It was never quite this clean, but I loved it.

(Paint color: Olympic’s “Serendipity”)

Our bathroom. Steve made the shelf to give us some extra space (so we got to take it with us). I’m not sad to leave this bathroom. I always wanted it to have a window so our towels wouldn’t get mildewy, and so I could air out the bad smells that would drift in from the apartment above. A few mornings this spring, we woke up to dirty water pouring out of the exhaust fan in the ceiling from the shower upstairs!

Stephen's and my bedroom. We painted it yellow a year ago, and it made for a happy room to wake up to! The apartment complex chopped down all of the trees that gave us shade, and these windows face east, so we usually had a black sheet over our blinds and curtains.

(Paint color: Olympic’s “Golden Slumber”)

One more sidenote about the neighbors upstairs—they were from another country, and a completely different culture than us. The past few months, I woke up every night at 2 or 3 to go to the bathroom, and I’d hear the little footsteps of their two-year-old! Needless to say, the two-year-old didn’t start running around until noon or one in the afternoon, right when I would be putting Nolan down for a nap. I am going to love the quietness of having our own place!

I’ll post pictures of the dining room, living room, and kitchen soon.

And then of course, I’ll have to start posting about our new place from 1920 that we’ll be working on for the next while. :)

my last first kiss

July 28, 2007

Steve and I had started spending quite a bit of time together at camp.

One Saturday (a day off from campers), Steve and I walked down to the lake at sunset. Steve asked me if I wanted to go out on a rowboat with him. I spent every afternoon that summer putting kids in canoes, kayaks, and paddleboats, so I pointed out that no one ever went out in the rowboats because they had holes in them. He didn’t seem to mind that fact, and of course I wanted to go with him!

As we got into the boat in shallow water, we passed my friend Kristen and a couple other girls on the dock. They started humming “Kiss the Girl” from Little Mermaid, and I tried to quickly shush them.

Steve rowed, and I bailed every so often with a small bucket.

We talked about our jobs at camp, campers, our families, school. It was  the first time that he really opened up to me about his life. It got dark out as we were out on the water. The moon was up, and bats were low in the sky.

We were out on the water for a long time…. hours. At some point Steve stood up in the boat, and pretended to rock it from side to side. (Steve told me later that the rocking back and forth was to buy him time—he was trying to build up his confidence.) I stood up next to him. It had gotten cold, so we were freezing in our shorts, tee shirts, and life jackets. And then we kissed for the very first time!

Eventually we realized that the boat had drifted pretty far from camp, so we headed back to shore.

And that was the very beginning!

baby, baby

Feeling so blessed and so excited!!

steve’s superman birthday

Last year, “The Dark Knight Returns” came out at midnight on Steve’s birthday, so I put together a little Batman birthday spread and gave him tickets to see the movie the next morning. This year, I knew I couldn’t top that, but I liked having a little theme to work with… so here’s Superman ;)

This was last year’s table:

I went with the same dark chocolate cake this year, but switched it up with an amazing cookie dough frosting.

HB, Steve!

happy birthday Steve

This handsome kid turns 27 today! I love him more than words.
I am so floored by his dedication to us, to our family.
He is the best dad. Nolan thinks he has his own personal comedian.
Steve is spending this sweltering hot birthday week sanding and refinishing the floors of our new rental house. He’s tearing apart the bathroom, putting up new drywall, and painting before we move in by the end of the month. (We just got the keys on the 11th).
I am so grateful that my scholar is also a handyman!
Happy birthday, love!

family camp: july 4-6

We celebrated the fourth of July with a little parade for all of the kids at camp. :)

Walking in the parade—popping wheelies.

Friends Leah, Sophie, and Jessica

The three of us on the fourth.

At 10 that night, we headed down to the beach to see fireworks across the lake. The perimeter of the lake is all lit up with flares.

Watching the fireworks.

Nolan was the first to wake up in our cabin most mornings.

The whole family on the last night of camp.

Stacking crackers at the banquet dinner.

With so much going on, Nolan had trouble sitting more than five minutes to eat at every meal. We found a Max & Ruby book at the dining hall, and I can’t tell you how many times Steve read it over the week.

Favorite!

Dana became all of the kids’ best friend when she passed out her glow stick bracelets :) Not sure what Steve is gesturing here.

I bid on this s’mores bucket in an auction to raise money to help build wells in Congo. We enjoyed a small campfire on the last night to eat the s’mores. The Reese’s one I ate was delicious.

with Grandma Alice

Uncle Josh was fun (& helpful) to have around all week!

Saying bye last Saturday.

We stopped by this restaurant on our way home to meet up with my friend (and former camper) Ellie! We liked the seagulls all lined up on the roof.

So good to see this girl!

I will be honest that it was difficult chasing an under-2-year-old around at family camp. I had made a list of ideas of things to do while we were there—and some didn’t happen. I spent most of the afternoons in the cabin for nap time, so I missed out on a lot of activities. I didn’t see Steve’s winning shot when he and his brothers won the basketball tournament. There were some great moms there that I wanted to get to know better. And it would have been nice to lounge on an Adirondack chair on the beach with a good book.

But I am so happy that Nolan got to spend a week with us in such a special place! He really enjoyed all of the time outside playing. He loved being with his cousins. And I hope in the future, it can be a place full of memories and spiritual growth for him. :)

family camp: july 1-3

I posted the beach photos the other day, and here are the rest of our photos from the first half of our week at family camp.

My newest favorite picture? Aww.

Waiting for chapel to begin one day, we had a visit from an English prince.

Which could only lead to my husband running in with a Scottish kilt as William Wallace. I was thrilled that the guy on the right captured it all on video. It’s on the camp’s slideshow/video for the week, and I’m going to have to get my hands on it. 

Anyways, this signified that we were going to play Braveheart (our camp’s version of capture the flag) that morning.

Remember Braveheart Halloween baby?

Faces painted, and ready to win. (All of Steve’s brothers are in this photo—Josh on the far left, Phil next to him, Dave in the GIVE shirt, and then Steve).

Nolan decided it would be fun to pull up some of the cones separating the English side from the Scottish side. How symbolic, right?

I spy Nolan in the crowd.

Steve in search of the English medallion.

What the littlest kids would rather be doing.

And the Scottish side wins!

Cutest photo of Nolan and his cousins.

My sister-in-law Dana and I escaped nap time in the cabin to tie-dye some tee shirts at the Arts and Crafts pavilion. I was Arts and Crafts director one summer, so it brought back memories :)

Tie-dyeing with some fun ladies.

We took a little trip down the road for some ice cream. Perry’s is the best! Nolan tried some of Mommy & Daddy’s favorite flavor, Piece of Cake.

That night at camp, we watched a huge black tower of smoke appear just a couple blocks away. Sadly, a bad fire had completely destroyed one of the vacation homes on the lake. There was a large group of boats gathered in the water to watch.

Camp is known for its all-red cabins.

Blue eyes, green eyes, brown eyes. Not sure what Nolan is chewing on here.

Chapel, built in 2007-8, while we were on staff.

The dining hall.

Taking a break from all of our guys for a ladies’ lunch.

Little piano man.

Second half of the week to follow soon!