kingdom playgrounds: REWIND 1: Moving with Friends Makes Everything Better

This summer was a little crazier than normal with trying to find a place to live and all. Nearly all of our free time in the evenings was spent on ziprealty.com looking at pictures of houses and all of our free time on the weekends was spent driving to the Bay Area to look at the houses in person. Needless to say, there wasn't a whole lot of time for blogging.

However, someday I will turn this blog into one of those neat little books that you can have printed and it will become the only scrapbook my family will ever know. So now that life has slowed down a little (and we have internet and I have a working computer), I want to go back and fill in the gaps of things that didn't get documented this summer. This is the first of a few posts that will be called "REWIND," as in...going back a little in time.

We're rewinding to four weeks ago - when it was time to move from our beloved Sacramento to our new city of Oakland.

The night before our move, we had a little send-off for the kids at Big Spoon Yogurt, followed by some running around at Land Park. It was a perfect evening and it turns out, I needed it just as much as the kids did, if not more. It encouraged me to have so many of our special people there and it filled my cup in preparation for the following day, which was filled with tremendous sadness for me.

Love these peeps so much!
(Wish we could photoshop in Roy, Sarah, and Isaiah who were also there, but left before the photo)

There were others too who couldn't make it that night but who helped us in the days leading up to the move. Heather watched my boys while I packed one morning and Darcy/Duane came to help us pack just before we left for Big Spoon.

Our move day was filled with exhaustion and tears. At one point, I was crying so hard in the fetal position on our bed that Steve turned on the shower, lifted me up off the bed, and put me in there. There's something about a good cry in the shower that helps to get all of the grief out. Though, come to think of it, I cried several more times after that, just not quite as hard.

Our move included a four-day stopover in a vacation rental so that we could be in Oakland for the kids' first day of school, even though our house wasn't available until that Thursday. What a tremendous blessing in disguise that was. Four days of rest. In limbo. Unable to unpack a single thing.

That Thursday morning, I drove up to Sacramento to meet the moving truck while Steve went to work and the boys went to school. More hard work.  More exhaustion. But, I got wind in my sails from my super amazing friend Rose, who came to help me load and clean that day.  We ate lunch together on the floor of my vacant house before she sent me off on the road to Oakland.

When we got to Oakland, we were greeted with a house full of friends, ready to help unload - friends from long ago who were ready to welcome us into their Bay Area community.  With the help of the movers and friends, we unloaded everything in just two hours. We all slept very soundly that night (minus our two goldfish who did not survive the move).

Two days after we moved into our new home, Rose came to Oakland and spent the weekend with me while our husbands were camping with our kids. We did all of our favorite things - massages, pedis, a trip to the beach, eating out, watching a movie, talking, and even a few tears here and there. When we felt like it, we unpacked a box or two.  It was so much fun and so very special. I've decided that everyone should have a weekend like that two days after they move!

Last weekend, our Oakland friends came over to help Steve set-up the trampoline. The play structure that was left here needed to be moved over a few feet so that the trampoline would fit. It was kind of like an old fashioned barn raising with all hands on deck! They just picked up that thing and scooted it over. Before long, they were setting up the trampoline as well. Granted, it was a little crazy with all the munchkins running around with tools everywhere, but also heartwarming to have community with us every step of the way.