My Childhood Home

This is kind of a bitter sweet post to write for me, but I am trying to look on the bright side of things and look forward to new adventures in the future.  A few months ago my parents decided to sell the home that I grew up in and move into a new house.  They wanted a house with less yard work and maintenance.  After a couple months and (what seemed like) a 100 showings later their house sold and so the official move has begun.  We have spent the last few weekends in Draper with them at their house sorting their belongings and moving boxes to a storage unit.  They are planning on moving to their new house in the next few weeks.

Today I want to share the story behind the house.  Their home was built around 1980ish by my grandparents.  My dad is the youngest in his family and he was still living at home when his parents moved in.  Eventually my dad went on his mission and then got married.  My parents lived in the basement of the house for 10 months while my older sister was a baby.  I have many fond memories of going and visiting grandma and grandpa at their house.  With having an apartment in the basement they seemed to always have someone extra living with them.  Grandpa always had bubble gum for us too.

Then in 2000 my grandparents health was rapidly declining and the house maintenance was getting too much for them to handle so my parents and my grandparents came up with the plan for my parents to buy the house from my grandparents.  Then they would move into the apartment downstairs and my family would live upstairs.  I was 10 years old at the time and I still remember that first conversation that started it all.  It was an inspired conversation that led us to move in only a few weeks later.  It was a blessing that we were able to move in so quickly because my sweet grandma, who had always been the caretaker for my grandpa, lived for only 6 weeks after we moved in and then she passed away.  Grandpa continued to live downstairs for another 2 years before passing away.  I have good memories from having grandpa living with us.  He was always so pleasant to be around and never seemed too bothered by us crazy kids.

My sisters and I grew up in that house.  We went to Elementary school, middle school, and high school.  We left on our first dates from there and we left for college from there.  McKay came to that house every weekend during the summer of 2009 while we were dating and we later got married there in Draper.  To my kids that is grandma and grandpa's house and they get so excited every time we pulled into the driveway. My family has known many of the people in the ward for a very long time.  Awesome friendships and experiences have been made in that house.  Our family kind of thought that my parents would live in that house for many more years.

But then about a year and a half ago my dad was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease.  I haven't talked about it much on here but this diagnoses has caused us to see the future a little differently.   So this past fall my mom started to just look at houses, kind of for fun, and mostly to just see what was out there.  She thought that moving to a less maintenance house and one with a smaller yard might make sense given their new situation.  In the beginning she couldn't imagine actually moving from my grandparents home and the neighborhood that they loved, but slowly over time heavenly father showed her that it was the right decision for them even if it was hard.

So at Christmas we all knew that it was probably our last one in that house.  After Christmas was over my parents dejunked 15 years of their stuff and some of my grandparents stuff that had been hanging around and gave the house a fresh coat of paint.  Then the house went on the market.  My parents had TONS of showings.  They were such troopers and would often have 2-3 showings a day.  It was pretty crazy, but their house showed well and soon the offer came.  Two offers in one day to be exact.  They accepted the first one and they will officially be moving soon.

I think it was when my mom told me that they had sold it that reality finally set in that they were actually going to move.  I was pretty emotional and sad.  I wish McKay and I had been in a situation that we could have bought it from them and continued having family living in it.  We LOVE that yard and would have also loved to raise our family there.  But it was not our time and I have accepted it now.  The family that is moving in seems like a really sweet family and they are really excited to have their kids grow up in it.  It helps knowing that the new family will love it just as much as we did.

A couple weekends ago we had a special Family home Evening at my parents house.  We skyped with my sisters who were away and we all shared our favorite memories of living there.  We all had similar favorite memories some of them being...

-Leaf Houses in the backyard
-The neighborhood and ward members
- Cutie my grandparents dog
-Night games with cousins and my dad
-Family parties
-Painting the front door :)
- the old hot tub off of the garage
-My dad's homecomings from Iraq and Afghanistan when the house was all decked out in flags and yellow ribbons

Our kids will miss feeding the Goats next door.

Such a fun place to grow up!  We will miss that house and Draper.  Our trips to Utah will just not be the same anymore, but like I said before we will adjust and make new memories.  My parents new house will be just that, brand new, and that will be so nice for them to have a break from the fixing up and lawn care that they have had before.  We will still LOVE visiting grandma and grandpas house and are so grateful for all that they do for our little family.  Too bad we couldn't convince them to move to Idaho ;)