Saying goodbye

We left Moscow 2 weeks ago exactly.

I didn't think I would be as sad about it as I was.

We absolutely loved our 2 years spent there.

We met some of the greatest people, had some of the hardest times, and had some of the best times.

I will always remember our experience in Moscow,

and how it helped us grow closer together as a little family.

I wish that I would have taken more pictures the last week we were there, 

but it was so busy with Matt in finals and trying to pack...

We went to the Farmers Market the week before we left...

Just to get one last feel of true Moscow

We spent a WHOLE lot of time with our friends, the PuffPaff's

at their house eating dinner, playing games, the kids running around and just talking about life.

Colty and his best buddy, Gavin.

Mylee and her little buddy (although she mainly just stole toys from her)

Colty and his other buddy Jay-Jay

My sweet friend Katie, this is the only friend I took a picture with before we left :(

Matt and his study buddies always did crazy stuff together.

They had an egg war and set up an obstacle course where they had to dodge getting eggs thrown at them, they played indoor basketball on a mini hoop and literally threw each other to the ground, so right before we left his friend called and said he had something big planned that all of them had to do before they became Lawyers.  Matt was wondering what he should wear incase it was going to be something crazy, well, he had scheduled pedicures for all of them.  So, Matt got his first pedicure with all of his law school buddies. Hilarious.

We had a ward party the night before we packed up the truck.  I was still in packing mode so I don't think I realized what was going to hit me the next day.  We had a pretty dang good ward.

Here are the kiddos the night before we loaded up the truck, I don't think they knew what was about to hit them either.

My sweet dad came and helped us pack.  

I kept telling him we would not need any help and could handle it all.

Wow, were we grateful he came up to help us.

One extra person made ALL the difference in the world.

The Sunday morning we left, Matt took off early in the truck, 

and I went to church with my friend Monica.

I had been doing so good up until this point, I think because it had been such a stressful few days I couldn't even think about what was about to happen.

Well, Sunday morning, the truck was loaded and headed to Boise, our apartment was cleaned spotless, and I was going off of very little sleep the night before...

I headed to our church building for one last meeting with my incredible ward, I sat by one of the greatest friends I have ever had, (oh, and it was Mother's Day) and cried the entire meeting.

I feel like being in Moscow changed both Matt and I, for the better.

And life will never be the way it was living in that tiny little town.

We learned that friends can truly become like family.

We learned that through prayer and our Heavenly Father and wonderful people placed in our lives, 

we can get through any situation we are placed in.

I really hope that someday our paths cross with some of these amazing people again.

But as for now, we are loving the time we get to spend with family until we head out for our next Journey!

My friend Monica, who is SUCH  an amazing story teller, summarized the way she feels about everyone leaving and I think it's Perfect, I always want to remember those feelings, so I'm posting her link here.  Enjoy!

Basketball

So, I finished playing basketball in college 6 years ago.

After Colton was born I played in a tournament when he was about 3 months old.

After that, we moved to Germany, I got pregnant with Mylee, and never got a chance to play,

I never got back into the shape enough to play.

This year, one of the girls that played at ISU after me moved up here to Moscow.

She said there were a bunch of mom's who got together and played Tuesday and Thursday mornings.

I didn't start going until about October because I thought they wouldn't be competitive and it would be hard bringing both my kids.

WOW.  Was I wrong.

First day, I was DYING running up and down the court.

Now, 7 months later, after playing 4-6 hours of basketball a week, I feel amazing

and I have 15 new AWESOME friends.

We had a get together last week cause I am leaving

(And a few others throughout the summer)

I look forward to every Tuesday and Thursday because of these amazing women.

They are fun, competitive, athletes with 2, 3, 4, 5 kids who show up every week!

Some of them get done nursing their babies and run on the court,

or take 4 kids to school and show up.

I love it.

I keep telling Matt I do not think I will find dedicated ladies like this just anywhere.

I will miss them all.

During Junior High Basketball season, we would even go 1 or 2 nights a week to scrimmage a 15 year old boys team.  Their coach loved it, and we loved getting a little bit more basketball in!

I posted about intramurals before, but besides Matt and I playing women's and men's intramurals

we also got to play Co-ed intramurals with some of our greatest friends.

I looked SO forward every week to going to our games.

Girls points were counted as double.  So my 3 pointers were 6 pointers!

It made Matt want to pass ME the ball instead of taking it for himself!

However, I believe Matt and I are both a little too competitive. 

During one particular game, we only had 5 of us there. 

3 girls and 2 guys.  You only had to have 2 girls on the court at a time, so the

other team had a guy guarding one of us girls.

We started off the game, and I was on-fire (I'm so humble)

Anyway, so they had a guy guard me.

He went to steal the ball while someone was passing it to me, and

literally plowed me over.  Knocked me on the ground and they didn't call anything.

He ran down the court and went up to shoot a 3 and Matt ran him straight over.

Thanks babe!  (he got under control after that)

Anyway, we ended up winning the Championship after spending 5 hours playing games that week!

It was SOO fun.

I don't feel like Matt and I will get many opportunities to play like that together,

so we enjoyed every second of it!



Those are some Main reasons I am going to miss this little town dearly!!!