We've moved!

This weekend was a busy one for sure! On Friday we finished packing up the house and Saturday we loaded the truck and headed down to Newton! After this weekend, I can honestly say we have some of the greatest friends and family anyone could ever ask for. Well, I could have (and I'm sure have) said that before...but I can't help but look back on the weekend and feel pretty darn blessed so many people came out to help us. This post is going to have lots of pictures, mostly so I can show my Momma in Africa.

First up, an update on the hardwood floors! They are BEAUTIFUL!!! If you know me, you know I love all things old and my dream floors would be 50 year old hardwood floors with pegs and lots of character. Since those weren't an option (maybe the next house!), we did the best we could to get some what close to that. And I absolutely love how they turned out! They are dark (but not too dark) and wide (but not too wide) and have lots of little scrapes and character marks built right in! Here are a few pictures (plus for those of you who haven't seen the house, you can get a little bit of an idea of how the living space is laid out).

 View out to the back porch.

 View into our dining room.

And the kitchen. Please ignore how dirty the floors are...we opted to wait to clean them until after everything was moved in and put away.

And here are some moving day pictures! Mom, I know you are reading this....check out how well the truck got packed in that second picture! We had all the furniture in except for the gray couch and armoir and still had all that room. Yay us! (And yay for the nice men from KC Metro Moving who came over and helped us "jigsaw" everything in our truck...I highly recommend them! Who knew you could just hire them to help load the truck!)

 Robby, Rob, and Alan trying to figure out a game plan. Robby has issues keeping his eyes open...even for candid photos.

The truck almost completely loaded!

Once we got to the house it only took us about an hour and half to unload the truck and get everything to the right room (or close enough). Between my family, Rob's family, and a bunch of Rob's friends who were in Wichita for a wedding shower for Jeff and Carey, there was never a moment that passed where something wasn't getting carried off the truck!

 This is only a fraction of the people there helping us!

Hi Katie!

After everything got unloaded, my Dad and I quickly took off for Westminster Woods Friends and Family night. Betsy met us there, dessert in hand, so we could spend a little quality time with Tedder catching up on how his summer is going. Bets and I both worked at this camp as well, and this is the seventh summer in a row that Westminster Woods has had a Dower on staff! Tedder is of course thriving out there, growing in his faith by the second and doing all that he can to spread the good word to others. I found myself tearing up about every thirty minutes, and I know my Dad and sister felt the same way. Here are a few "incomplete" family pics from that night. Mom, Joe Henry, and Rob were definitely missed!

 Our little "Baked Po-Tedder" in his sweet chapel socks!

 So many beautiful photo ops out at the woods...thought I would play around with a little out of focus bokeh.

 Hanson energizer! Let it be known, that 2006 Sr. High Week Cabin Five girls made that up! Yes, that was my cabin and yes, I am still incredibly proud of them. :)

 Tedder and Betsy...the peanut butter and jelly in our family. :)

Love a little worship session. Live worship everyday was one of my favorite parts about being out WMW.

 

 Typical. :)

 He is exactly one foot taller than me...I wish I could steal just two or three inches from him!

I love the Woods for many reasons, one is that you are guaranteed a beautiful sunset every evening.

 The road into the woods...the first couple years after I wasn't on staff any more, everytime I would turn onto this road I would just start crying. I know Bets felt that same way this year...something about this place.

Well, I should probably get back to unpacking. As you can see...we still have a long ways to go despite the progress we made yesterday and today.

 Rob, taking a little break from unpacking.

Just some of the boxes we have unpacked already. We are looking forward to actually being able to park in our garage.

And real quickly, I wanted to share a couple of pictures from tonight. Robby and I were sitting in the living room eating dinner when the clouds opened up and it started pouring rain, despite the beautiful sunset already going on. I rushed out to take a few pics and just soak it up. This is something I have definitely missed in KC...wide open fields and gorgeous sunsets not hindered by houses or hills. Loved. It.