One Last Time

I've imagined leaving this place almost since we arrived.  I remember starting this blog, writing about looking at homes in Minnesota and whether we should buy a house or not because DUH! we won't be here long!  I was a bit checked out before I even got here.

I've told countless people that I feel like I just got my groove here in the past two years.  I was able to shed my homesickness just enough to really open up to this place and I truly fell a bit in love.
I love being able to walk just about anywhere we want.  I am going to miss walking to the bakery for bread each week so much and our little adorable amazing library just over the bridge too.  I am going to miss our giant park and filed just up the street and the pool in the summer, oh the pool.  I am going to miss walking to pick the girls up from school (and I'm SO thankful I don't have to do that anymore at the same time).  I am going to miss walking out our front door and having 10 friends right there all at once.  I am going to miss dinners and weekend breakfasts with neighbors, the farmers market, the Botanic Gardens.  I'm going to miss my quiet Saturday mornings while Ian takes the kids downtown.  I'm going to miss hearing about those adventures too.

And the people, our friends, of course.  When you don't have family close the friends you make become even more important.  Our friends, neighbors, meant everything to us here.  We hope to keep in good touch.  We know we'll never find just what we found here.

Now that the day is here I feel calm and panic too if that's possible.  There are so many things that I didn't get to do one last time.  There just wasn't any spare moment this week.  I resent a bit that our last days here were so hurried and flurried.  Though! We've lived life full here.  We've soaked it all up and the memories we've made will be lasting and good.  I'm excited to look back on our time here and remember so many wonderful things.  The girls are already filled with anecdotes to tell their new friends.

It's our last night in this house. These walls where we brought toddling Ainsley into and jaundiced smiling Louise home from the hospital and where Felix was born just upstairs.  It's where I've averaged 22 hours a day (I'm sure of it) inside with my children, playing, crafting, dancing, singing, learning, squabbling, snuggling.

The more I process this move the less sentimental I become.  I know these walls and streets and places don't hold our memories, we do.

Oak Park, you were more than I ever could have imagined.  It's been grand.  I'm ready and excited for what's next.