Moving on . . .

Well first I must say goodbye to our old apartment. . . 6035 W. Port Pl. #101 really was good to us for the past 2 years. This front door has seen many friends, family and more come and go for millions of reasons. Here are a few things I WON'T miss about our old place:

1. Being RIGHT and I mean RIGHT in front of the dumpster, for a variety of reasons, although the top 2 are being woken up at 6am every morning when they come to dump it, and . . . seeing/smelling what you can see in this picture:

Back to my reasons for not being sad to leave. . .

2. Having Nazi parking patrollers who even booted Collin's parents one Sunday when they were like, the only car in the lot for like half an hour.

3. Hearing every single sound from our neighbors on both sides of us, including music, movies, and ah yes, we even found out one of our neighbors was pregnant one time from a loud telephone conversation. (no joke)

4. Not having anywhere to put our bikes except in our spare bedroom, which is up the stairs and a sharp turn to the right, past the computer and next to the hide-a-bed couch.

And those are the main things Collin and I are super-pumped about not having to deal with anymore. Oh, and bonus! We even get our own mailbox and no longer have to get it out of a locked box on the other side of our neighborhood!

I took some pictures right before I really started packing everything away, so here are some fond farewells to our home of the past 2 years:

Our kitchen, which saw many different incidents, parties, and good meals!

Our living room, which was a place for so much--we watched the Fiesta Bowl in here! 20 piano students came through here every week, this is where I practiced 4 hours a day for my senior recital, laid around any time either of us was sick, and some people even carved pumpkins in here once.

Now, onto the things we really ARE going to miss. Number one, and really the only one--OUR WARD!!! It has been much more emotional and sad to leave this ward than I thought it would be. (Ask the bishop, I've only bawled in his face like 3 times now) The Castle Park ward is so incredibly friendly that they befriend everyone. We have no family anywhere near Boise so we really have always been relying just on ourselves living here. This ward has been so amazing in supporting us through the crazy things that happen in our lives. They have truly been a family to us. Collin's serving in the bishopric has really opened our eyes even more to how much love everyone here has for each other and we have been able to witness even more the wonderful fellowship that these people give to everyone, not just us. We have really grown to love them and are SO sad to have to be in a whole different stake and everything, but we know we were guided to live here for a reason.

Of course for me, besides all the wonderful, supportive friends I have made in this ward, I am going to miss my dear young women incredibly. . . these girls are the best and are great examples to me. We've had so much fun together, and it has been awesome watching them each grow and mature over the past 2 years I've been their leader. I'm really going to miss them, especially our movie nights and sleepovers! Here I am with my darling beehives (minus one) at a Hawks game, one of the last activities I went to with them

TA-DA!! The new house! (these pictures were taken in the unpacking process, which we are still in, so don't take the full effect yet--I'll post more once I get it all CUTE)
This is a genuine picture of us right before we both went inside for the first time--we had signed a few hours earlier.
A full-frontal of our cute little house

The living room. . . it's got a cute bay window out front and vaulted ceilings that open up to the kitchen.

Yipee! I have a piano studio! I get to use one of the bedrooms for a piano studio, which is so incredibly awesome. It's not all set up yet, but this is it! And just think, I could play the piano at midnight if I wanted to, and no one would pound on the wall . . . (it's bliss)

The kitchen. . . it's the same size/cupboard space as our other one, which can be good or bad. But it's just so fun to have our OWN kitchen!

A bathroom. . . there is also a master bathroom off the master bedroom (first time we've had one of those), and there are also 2 other bedrooms--the master and our "office/random crap" room. They're not exactly in picture-taking order at this time. :)

The backyard is big! I thought that was great, until we realized. . .

We have to water it! BUMMMMER!! :) We have been working all weekend to figure out a good system for this and are still searching. . . it's definitely an adjustment!!!!

The FIRST time Collin mows our lawn!

. . . And that concludes my first home tour for you. I'll definitely put up more pics later once I get more stuff settled, but you know, it's been crazy! We're off to Idaho FAlls for the week so I might be catching up with some of you--and also off to a family reunion which I am super-pumped for. Anyway, take care. . . more to come later!