Sweet Berry Farm 2012

In keeping with our family tradition, we visited Sweet Berry Farm a few weekends ago. I'm pretty sure I rave about it every year. It's a fantastic place and if you live in Central Texas you must make a trip out there.

Now that Chloe is getting older, we are able to stay longer and participate in more activities. This year we tried to take a horse ride. However, Chloe was a little skeptical of the situation so we had our tickets refunded. She did cry about not getting to ride the horse once we arrived back at our house. Maybe next year?

We didn't let the missed horse ride ruin our fun...we fed goats, painted a pumpkin, had an adventure in the corn maze and rolled in the grass. This is one of my favorite days of the year for our family.

So happy she found a "baby pumpkin"

Enjoy this little video clip of Chloe feeding the goats! I honestly thought she would be more hesitant to feed them. This girl always surprises me.

Links to the past Sweet Berry Farm trips:

2011

2010

The Big Move

 

Mark taking apart Chloe's bed for the move.

 

A glimpse at our old living room before we loaded the boxes on the truck.

 

Our cold, empty home the morning of the move.

 

The shiny, new home before we got the keys.

 

Almost our entire home is in that truck!

 

Making silly faces during our first dinner at the new place.

 

Mark and I pretending to be mad at each other while we are painting the new house.

 

Part of the new kitchen. That's our brand new stove! Now we just have to get a microwave above it.

 

Shorty sharing ice cream with Chloe.

 

Mark changing out that ceiling fan. No brass in this house.

 

Pop helping to paint the kitchen. It was stark white. So white it was blinding.

 

 

 

So far we have painted almost every room, changed out the light fixtures in every room but two bedrooms, hung blinds and added a new stove. We are having counter tops installed in a few weeks and I'm going to paint our bedroom in the next few weekends.

 

I really hope to share more details about the new house, but we are super busy getting things done.

Mommy and Daddy needed a Vacation

Two weeks ago, Mark and I were on our way to board a boat. A big boat. We took a Carnival cruise out of Galveston. We had it planned for months. We payed for the trip in full well before we put our house on the market.

As luck would have it (and I'm not complaining), our closing date was set for two days (2 DAYS) after we disembarked the ship. It wasn't as awful as we anticipated. We did lots of planning and preparing in the weeks leading up to our vacation. We also had family and friends who provided so much support during those two days.

But before I move on to talking about our new pad, I want to share our trip. We left on a Thursday sailed to Cozumel, Mexico and returned on Monday. It was four nights of relaxation and it was just what the doctor ordered for all the stress that a move entails.

There aren't many pictures because:

1. my point and shoot camera stinks
2. there wasn't really anything to photograph. we were at sea for two days with nothing in sight.

We did see a waterspout while we were sunbathing the first day. I wish I had my camera while we were out that afternoon. It was so beautiful to watch from a distance. Other than that, there wasn't much excitement which was exactly the way we wanted it. We had enough excitement going on at home.

In case you are wondering, Chloe had a mini-vacation of her own while we were gone. She staying with Shorty and Pop in Houston. In fact, she stayed with them for two extra days while we finished with closing and moving. It was sure hard for this momma to leave her behind after we returned from our cruise. More than a few tears were shed, but it was the right thing for Chloe. She got some extra loving and attention from her grandparents.



leaving Galveston. isn't it gorgeous! ha.

in Mexico at a little cantina we stumbled across.

A hood roof ornament in Mexico

 As you've probably figured out, we are officially in our new home. We closed on our old house at 9:30 the Wednesday after we returned. Then we immediately drove to another title company to close on our new home at 10:30. I had the keys to the new home by 1:30 on Wednesday.

Something I never anticipated was how much more complicated a move is when you are selling AND buying a house. This is the first time we've had to make such coordinated move. Last time, we had a few weeks to move out of our apartment and into the home we purchased after our wedding. This time, in order to avoid living at a friend's house or in a hotel for a few days, we had to be very strategic about closing dates and times. Thankfully, our real estate agent was amazing and coordinated everything perfectly. We literally loaded up the moving van on Tuesday night (with the help of some awesome friends), slept on the floor of our bedroom with two pillows and one blanket, woke up and went to signing, and then unloaded the van at the new house on Wednesday. Whew, I get tired just thinking about those two days. It was a lot. It was totally worth it!

I'll post pictures of the new house soon.