Despite the minor adjustments, we’re pretty settled and overjoyed to be home. And it just so happens that our current, temporary home is a pretty historical one. We’re living on my great grandparent’s farm, which became my grandparent’s home that my father grew up on as well. And that lead to my brother and I spending a great deal of time on the farm every summer as kids. People ask me what it’s like living here, and it’s hard to explain the feeling in just one word.

I will say my husband and I are nothing but grateful that we can stay here while we search for our permanent address, and I often wonder how coincidental it is that we ended up here. A lot of people say my grandmother would be proud, and I’d have to say I agree.

I thought about how I would share this place of so many great memories, and I decided to share the small bits and pieces that made this house so full of character instead of showing you room by room with the furniture we’ve recently inserted and the boxes we still haven’t unpacked.

You might see old, but I see memories at every turn…

A note about the below photo: This is a vent in the ceiling of the first floor. I remember going to the second floor as a child, opening up the vent and talking down to whoever would listen on the first floor. I used to imagine I was some kind of sneaky spy looking through it, of course.

The below is wall paper I used to stare at when I would play on my grandma’s organ in the back room.

This bumper sticker says it all.

The below is a photo of the plasticky floor in an upstairs bedroom. I used to think the different floor designs were so cool.

Another floor design.

And of course the aquarium, which used to house hundreds of guppies! I’d feed them and stare at those little fish forever, and watch them give birth to 20 more little guppies, most of which would disappear by the next day. I’d always wonder why. Such is the circle of life.

When I woke up and realized it was snowing, I grabbed my camera and this is the first photo I took of the snow flakes.

Following up from my last post about moving, I will announce that we made the trek north and arrived safely! Besides the 25-hour continuous drive, car-egging incident, wildfire set-back and two other major traffic jams that forced us to u-turn in a grassy median, it all went swimmingly. And I have to give a huge thanks to my parents who helped us drive the moving truck cross-country. The whole do-it-yourself moving method is more work and headache, but by us packing everything and using the help of friends loading up the truck, we sure saved a lot of money and probably will have some pretty lasting memories to say the least.

Currently we’re settled in a farm house (yes, on an actual farm!) until we find and purchase our permanent address. So the months ahead will be just as exciting as the last couple. We’ve only chosen a handful of boxes to unpack along with our clothes, to avoid any unnecessary packing–we’ve had our fill. As for friends and family, it has been exciting to be able to make plans and see them without purchasing a plane ticket. Small things you might take for granted seem so wonderfully convenient, like being able to drive our very own car to a restaurant instead of borrowing someone else’s while in town.

One piece of the puzzle that was missing was the snow. I, a lover of snow, looked forward to catching the tail-end of winter (for Wisconsinites that’s kind of a joke) and getting to “play in the snow” a little before spring set in. But, with the mild winter the Midwest has been having, I began to think that maybe we wouldn’t be seeing much aside from a few flurries. And then I went to sleep the other night saying to my husband just before I shut my eyes, “Why won’t it just snow?”

And I woke up to this, a beautiful invitation to play in the snow…

Bailey dove right in, racing back and forth. Digging, biting, licking, I saw it all.

She also stopped to sniff it all in.

A tennis ball in the snow is a whole other animal.

Took a quick snap of the barn.

And I included the shot below because I took it the day before, when we thought the yellow grass would be our playground. But we were wrong, luckily.

It’s fun to discover a baby’s tendencies, too. Even with their eyes closed, they tell you yes or no to certain positions, laying their little hands and feet where they feel comfortable. That’s why you never know what types of photos you might get with newborns. Aeden frowned at a hat we tried, and smiled while laying on his side (below)! And it always amazes me when I see their little toes up by their nose, reminding me that I need to go home and stretch more. All in all, it was a great photo session and I can’t thank the family enough for having me photograph their new addition.

Enjoy!

Packing day 5:

Packing day 7:

We’ve already started getting the tape measure out trying to guesstimate if everything will fit, but I guess there’s no sense in worrying because there’s not much we can do–we’ve already rented the largest truck! As it stands now, the garage is a disaster area where cars no longer belong; photos will be coming soon. The living room is increasingly becoming the place where odd and breakable items are to be placed until we get moving blankets. Great spot too since this is where B goes tearing through with her tennis ball.

And one surprising find was my one and only Cabbage Patch Kids doll. I don’t know how it made it to Florida, but there she was all wrapped up, clothes a little faded and her plasticky face a little dingy (I did find her other shoe though). Some more good memories uncovered.

Related articles

• Proceed to Pack (kimhopfphotography.com)
• Hints and Tips for Packing Your Moving Truck (apartmentguide.com)

Because I need a strategy for everything, I’ve decided I’ll move from one room to the next clearing out each and probably save the kitchen for last. The kitchen frightens me with all that heavy, breakable and not to mention expensive stuff behind those cupboard doors. I’m putting the oddly shaped items in our dining room for now because frankly, I don’t know just how to move them yet. Some stuff just wasn’t meant to be moved I think.

Once we’ve got a box full and taped shut, we put it in Bailey’s old room (not sure she approves). And speaking of approval, one thing we did discover over Christmas is that Bailey loves snow. Phew!

Packing: Day 1

(A modest three boxes completed. Baby steps.)

Packing: Day 2

Today I found Bailey’s old blanket in an unused dresser drawer that she used to sleep on as a puppy, too. And if you’ve kept up with B’s blog posts (such as Old Friends Die Hard), then you know that her “puppy love” occasionally turned into the need to annihilate. It was mildly shredded and mangled when I found it, so I thought why not let her do the honors of finishing it off. I set it down for her to smell, and her tail went wagging immediately with joy. She remembered her old friend. B would never tear up a good blanket of ours, but this one she knew was hers. I quick snapped a photo because I knew this would be the last time she saw it, and it made me think about how this move will be sentimental for everyone involved- even B.

Who knows what will turn up next.

The morning was a little foggy, but our pilot seemed confident after letting off a couple of test balloons.

Fans initially filled the balloon up.

Then, they turn on the propane burners, which ultimately make the balloon start to rise up.

This turns the basket over, and then it’s time to jump in!

In the basket, watching the pilot heat the balloon air with the propane tanks.

And then, you suddenly start to….float.

It was amazing to be at such heights without a loud, rumbling engine controlling your altitude and speed.

The fog offered some great opportunities to get photos with our own balloon’s shadow in them.

The top/inside of the balloon.

One of the balloons that went up with us in the distance.

We saw a lot of other balloons below us. This one was floating over an orange grove.

You can float over virtually anything, and sometimes you can get so close that even the cows notice you.

We flew over several games of golf, and bet a couple of guys $100 if they could get the ball in our basket, but luckily they didn’t take us up on it.

As I posted yesterday, this is our balloon floating over a pond. One of my favorites.

One of the balloons we went up with found a place to land. Sidenote: it took us quite a while to land our balloon because the wind kept blowing us near power lines, trees or houses, so that made things a little more interesting.

Once the balloon lands and deflates, you need to jam it into this huge bag. They call this “balloon bonding.” As a note to those who are wondering and for me to remember via this post, our balloon held 425,000 cubic feet.

I hope ballooning becomes of a habit of ours, because this was truly a great experience.

I think that because the dust has settled a bit on the future of our Florida home helps, which has been a hot topic these days. And I have the sneaking suspicion that their won’t be too many lazy days once we move north. I suppose I could worry myself about that minor detail of where we’re going to live in two months, but I’ve decided not to and instead take this day off from doing anything but coasting through Sunday.

Black swan at Lake Eola, Orlando, FL. By Kim Hopf.

Black swan at Lake Eola, Orlando, FL. By Kim Hopf.