one last time

I stopped off at the homestead on my way to Joel's wedding. Actually, I went to my in-laws in Western Washington first to see Erik and then we came up to see the homestead.

It was strange to see it packed up in boxes. Every drawer and cupboard was empty. The shelves had nothing on them. Dressers and shelving units packed away in the garage. Even my parent's bed was disassembled (they were sleeping in the trailer). The kitchen and the garage were both a mountain of carefully labelled boxes. It was strange. And unreal. And I didn't really like it.

It was surreal to walk through the house thinking "this is the last time I will ever set foot in here".  You know? My parent's keep saying a house is just a house. And it is. But it's our house. And it houses many precious memories. Memories that are more easily evoked when sitting in the rooms they were created in.

One thing I realized (and that I find funny) is that in my head the rooms are still delegated to their original owners. Or at least the original owners as far as I can remember. For example, the rooms above the garage belong to Sharlene and to Lindsey and me. The room above the kitchen is still Joel and Anthony's and the room by my parent's belongs to Zachary, Jonathan, Justin and Benjamin. Sharlene hasn't lived in that house for 20 years and yet her room is still her room to me. I haven't slept in "my room" in 7 years and yet it is still my room to me (Zachary took it over and then Justin jumped in when he left).

We had a good little visit with my family. Jonathan and Courtney were in town for the wedding so we had dinner at my parent's house. I don't know what Zac, Jon and E are laughing about, but this is a pretty typical scene when all the boys get together.

This is also typical. Dinner outside while someone is swimming in the pool and everyone is laughing and chatting away. Man I'm going to miss that pool! I'd love for my parent's to get one here in K-town, but they don't really have room for it in their new yard.

And laughing around the fire at night. On this particular night we were reminiscing and probably discussing our various little diddy's for the wedding.

And just because. Benjamin took a self portrait and I think it's cute.