We Live Here, originally uploaded by cheryl.
We live here, in a place where the trees are HUGE beyond belief. Surprisingly, that's never happened for me. Ever.
Even growing up, I was fortunate enough to live in new homes. My parents had just built their first house the year before I was born. We lived there until sometime in elementary school (fourth grade, I think, but I wouldn't swear to it) and then we moved to another new house down the road.
In college, I lived in the dorms the first few years, then moved out into a brand new house (an investment for my parents) for the last two years. Josh and I did live in a slightly older rental house just after we were married, during that in between stage of selling both the houses we'd had before (the one my parents owned and one Josh owned) and building our first new one together. And with Josh building, we've moved every few years into a brand new house.
This house, not so much. It was built in the 70s and hadn't been updated much since then. Hence the gutting and the rebuilding. But the neighborhood has been here forever. And for the first time ever, there are big, huge trees everywhere. They line the streets, they're all around the houses and in the fence rows between the houses. I LOVE it.
The kids love the park being so close. We haven't ventured down there much just yet, simple with the chaos that is moving a household of our size from one (much larger) place to this one. We've been busy arranging and organizing and trying to figure out our new normal. My working three nights a week also changes things, since evenings and early mornings are the best summer times to visit the park. Evenings I work. Mornings I come home to sleep.
But last night I took all three boys, for the first time all by myself. It went surprisingly well. We had to set some ground rules, mostly for Connor, that you have to stay within sight and you have to ask permission to venture away from the play equipment (there are also playing fields, like basketball and baseball and tennis and even grass volleyball). Rules are good, especially when the space is so large. But after we talked about it, he did well. Even if his friends had a little more freedom (and seemed a little younger!)
Take a look for yourself, but I'm pretty sure they had fun!