Home #4: Some of the Things We'll Miss

In our six-and-a-half years of marriage, we've now lived in four homes, excluding living at Grant's parents' home for the summers and Christmas break.  Our first home, an old, scary really, apartment in southwest Provo, was our home for the longest amount of time -- almost three years.  It was old and worn down and in a scary part of town (I'll never forget Grant running through the door one day and telling me to turn on the news because the SWAT team was just up the road), but to us it was wonderful.  From there we moved across ward boundaries (to the "nice" part of the ward) and lived in a beautiful, light-filled condo.  Our landlords were salt-of-the-earth people, and that home was an absolute haven.  It was the home we brought Eliot home to. Then when Eliot was only six weeks old, we packed up and moved to Oregon, where we lived in home #3, an apartment we found last minute thanks to our friends (whom we had only met once at that point) Spencer and Mary.  There were some difficult things about that apartment, but it was the home that Eliot came to know first and where he experienced many of his firsts -- rolling over, sitting up, crawling, eating solid foods.  And then there's home #4, the house we just left after completing Grant's second year of law school:

Dickinson Family Home #4, the beautiful home we got to house sit for a couple in our ward while they were on their mission to Hawaii.  Not your typical student housing situation, we know. This home provided not only a lot of living space (understatement), but also a lot of wonderful memories -- having friends and family come and stay, hosting baby showers, game nights and get-togethers with friends.  This is the home where Eliot took learned to walk and talk, where Grant successfully completed his second year of law school, where I taught piano lessons ... so many great memories made in such a beautiful place.  Here are some of the things we will miss the most about living in this home:

"Eliot's toy corner."  I've always dreamed of having a home with a window seat, and if I ever get to design even part of a home someday, a window seat will be a must.  Here's Eliot perfectly content the first time he climbed up onto the seat, not long after we moved into this home.  He's loved that area ever since.  He knew just which toys went in which drawers, and he would sift through and pull things out and play contentedly there for hours.  Watching him in "his space" is a happy memory for me.

The fantastic kitchen where we not only celebrated my 30th birthday, but also hosted baby showers, had our "down time" at the end of the day when Grant got home and we could enjoy a meal together, where I learned to make jam and bottled my first successful jars of applesauce.  We will definitely miss having the kitchen that opened into the family room.  It was so nice to be able to fix meals while Eliot played on his jungle gym and in "his" toy corner.

The views from the kitchen and family room.  These are some of the images that now come to mind when I think of Oregon and the lush green horizon.  Some of my most peaceful moments in this home were sitting in the big overstuffed chair by the family room window first thing in the morning as the sun was coming up over the beautiful trees and reading my scriptures and thinking in those quiet minutes before Eliot woke up.

The spacious jet tub ... that mostly got used to bathe Eliot.  Lucky kid!

Seeing and hearing this every night before Eliot's tubby time.  This will be the image in my mind of evenings spent in this home.  That sound of Eliot's feet scurrying across the floor is one of my favorites so far of being a mother.

The incredible views from the back of the home and this wonderful deck where we loved to barbecue and eat outside on beautiful days like this one, our last night in Salem and in the house -- a celebration dinner of steak, potatoes, grilled veggies and watermelon, in honor of Grant and another successful year.