The Key to the Rest of Our Lives

Here it is!  This is what we have been dreaming of for years ... the key to our "forever" house.  The place where we will grow our own food, raise happy and healthy children (hopefully), and some animals too, entertain friends old and new, laugh and learn together, and much, much more ... and it all starts here with this key!

We took possession on Friday and decided that, although we won't be moving in for a few weeks, we would spend this first night in the new house!  The boys got to work right away exploring our backyard.  One suggested it would make a good baseball field and off they went, stopping briefly to examine the little stream (boys do not possess the ability to walk by water without at least stopping briefly ... it's a well documented fact!).

While looking around, we discovered deer tracks by our back door and are anxiously awaiting the first sighting -- boy, is that deer in for a surprise when it realizes that 4 kids and a dog have moved in!

The boys really wanted to play hide and go seek in the empty house, so everybody joined in and it turned out to be a ton of fun!  It turns out that Laurel is a surprisingly good hider!

The sunset was spectacular for our first night's stay.

6 sleeping bags in one room ... sounded like a good idea at the time ... not much sleep was had by anyone.  But it will be a night that we will remember for a long time.

So, here we are at the beginning of a new journey and we are all very excited.  There is much work to do, but no longer will we have the excuse "when we get a new house".  The house is ours, and I have the keys to prove it!