goodbye to our besties

As I sit here at the computer, there are three workers from the moving company busy packing our house. The contents of our home -of our life- are soon to be the contents of boxes. Some boxes we won't see for 4-8 weeks and others will be in storage for at least a year.

This is all starting to seem more real.

Although I know it will only feel completely, irrevocably, unchangeably real when we're on the plane the day after tomorrow. When our bags are packed, our goodbyes are said, our house is empty... when there's no turning back.

Well, sort of.

This first trip will see us heading to Regina for three weeks -with a weekend spent at a family reunion in Calgary- before a brief stop back in Gatineau. Had this trip west not been planned months ago, we probably would have talked ourselves out of a last minute visit, so I'm really glad the timing is allowing us this time with family. On the return trip, we'll be back to for a day and a half before our actual departure for Colombia. Peter won't be with us then (since he flies direct to Bogota the day after we leave for Regina), but I know that day and a half will be as crammed full of friends and visiting and fun and (more) goodbyes (again) as time will allow.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Speaking of goodbyes, we had a wonderful evening with friends on Friday night. Most of our closest friends were there. We ate good food, drank yummy sangria, celebrated two birthdays, and chatted late into the night... all while 22 kids played hockey, wrestled, roasted marshmallows and generally ran wild.

These are some of the people we love and who will be greatly missed.

I'm near the upper right, grinning madly... and hiding Andrew who's in 

Peter's arms behind me. Liam and Simon are hugging just left of centre. 

I love this picture. It's not perfect (deep breaths, Amy), but it's full of so many people that we love. This is our family. There are others who aren't pictured but who will be equally missed. All together, these people are making our leaving very hard.

I look at this picture and smile. 

While a very large part of me is super excited about the adventures this next year will bring, and equally large part of me is already looking forward to coming home.

We'll miss you guys.

(Do. Not. Cry. Now. The movers already think you're weird since they saw the green smoothie you made this morning and for insisting that Peter take down the piece of 1x4 we've been using to measure the boys' growth*.)

*This is totally NOT weird, thankyouverymuch. What mother wouldn't want to take that with them? Especially since we screwed that piece-of-easily-removably-wood to the wall precisely so that WE COULD TAKE IT WITH US WHEN WE MOVE? Totally not weird. The green smoothies? Well, maybe.