The week before...

The week before graduation, Trav was done with school and clinic and basically had the whole week to party hardy with me! Not. 

We spent the first day at the water park together and then it was basically him and the boys hanging out while I packed. Then, his mom and sister, Carrie, came into town that Wednesday nigh,t so he would take the boys to go do all the typical sight seeing stuff that Carrie hadn't done before. It was really nice having the boys mostly out of my hair for several hours each day to just power through and pack. I don't think I would have been ready in time without it!

Before I get ahead of myself, his last week of clinic was pretty relaxed too. He had a lot of unused time off, so he skipped a couple days and then only went in for a couple hours in the morning. One day, he went with a bunch of buddies up to Toronto to watch a Blue Jays game. I told him to take pics. Here's what he came home with. I guess it would have been too girly to take a photo of themselves. This was actually when he discovered his passport was expired. They almost turned around, then debated on whether to hide him in the back, but then decided to just risk it. And whattaya know. The border didn't bat an eye!  

The past couple of times we've been to Palmyra, Collin discovered that it is great fun rolling down the Hill Cumorah. If you've never been, it's fairly steep. I wouldn't roll down it. I just diverted my eyes when Trav let him. And apparently when it was only Dad with him, this last time, he made it the whole way down. 

Another day it was a trip to the Falls. I wonder if Collin will even remember them once he's older. Probably not.

And of course we needed to take Carrie to Duffs! This was the night before graduation and we ran into three of Trav's classmates there with their families too.

For some reason Weston was getting such a kick out of putting the wing bucket on his head. The waitresses thought he was so adorable and gave us one to take home. 

I'm a little shocked to realize this was the only picture I took in the midst of packing up our house. It was pretty disastrous. But I scored a ton of great boxes at the mall and some really nice, sturdy produce ones from a friend. Add that to a massive roll of bubble wrap, 200 sheets of packing paper and 3 rolls of packing tape, and you've got yourself the Evans household. It was a love/hate sort of experience. It really is nice to clean things out, throw stuff away and basically take inventory of everything you own. But man, it's tedious! It reminded me that whether you want to or not, everyone should mover every 5 years or so. Or at least pretend you are and force yourself to act like you have to pack everything. It makes you really evaluate how much you want to keep some things. And I got rid of quite a lot. We also sold a ton of things on Craigslist. Oh Craigslist! What a wonderful site. Also, a pain in the a** sort of site. It brings out all the scammers, the flakes and the questionable characters. It took a lot of time to clean everything up, take pictures, upload pics and make advertisements. Answer calls and texts, set up appointments and help people move the stuff out. The guy that bought our house didn't want the appliances so we also had to sell our stove, fridge and dishwasher (only later we found out the dishwasher isn't considered an appliance and we shouldn't have sold it. Arggghhh!) We had a sweet, antique stove in the basement and record player that was in the house when we bought it, that we sold. A really nice guy came all the way from Ohio to pick up the stove and was tickled pink to have it. He's furnishing a second house in Ohio with all vintage appliances and plans on actually using it. He said he names all of his appliances and after being around Collin for a while (It took over an hour to dissemble it and move it out) he said he planned on naming it Collin. I know that probably sounds really creepy, but if you had met him, it wasn't. 

We sold our couches that were in the basement, some dining room chairs, a changing table, an old kitchen table, a grill, an office chair, an old sewing machine, a night stand and piano. And made over $600. Not too shabby! Especially considering that we were selling things that we had gotten for free.

OK, back to these pictures. Collin likes to hide a lot, but lets be honest, he's a terrible hider. He usually hides while I'm watching him, then thinks he's so sneaky, like I don't know where he is. Well this day, I was upstairs when I heard him call for me to come find him. I sighed, then came down the stairs and peeked in the office. No Collin. I wander to the kitchen. No Collin. And proceed to do this all over the house, becoming increasingly perplexed that I can't find him. Then I hear muffled giggling and return to the office. STILL can't figure it out. I finally call to him and the giggling is loud enough that I can narrow it down to a more specific location. 

Finally, I pull back the right flap and lo and behold, hide and seek is over. I was pretty amused that he got me. As I'm sure you can imagine, having a house full of boxes was loads of fun for these boys.

One more packing story...

While Trav and I went to the graduation dinner, Paula and Carrie watched the boys and ordered pizza for dinner. Collin wanted his slice cut smaller, but Paula told him the pizza cutter was packed. "Nu, uh!" he exclaimed and ran to the drawer to retrieve said cutter. Only, to his dismay, it wasn't there! That was puzzling. Not long after, something ran out of batteries so he was told it wouldn't work because it needed more batteries. Ever the problem solver, he ran to the spare room and pulled open the drawer in the desk where the batteries are kept. But... no batteries. Sorry, he was told again... they're packed! Now it was time to take a bath and Paula didn't have quite the torque to twist the knob to get it to drain. Collin had the answer! Get the hammer in the cupboard next to the bath tub... it's there for just this reason. Open cupboard... no hammer. I had actually just packed it that morning. Poor Collin! His little world was turning upside down. That's a lot for a little 3 yr. old to understand. We got a kick out of hearing all this when we got home. Lots of changes coming your way, Collin. :(