Goodbye First Home

On Friday, June 1st we drove away from our first apartment.  It had been a long week of packing.  By Friday, we were pretty tired of the trips to storage or to the various homes that helped to store our furniture.  We felt very accomplished as we turned out the lights for the last time on our clean and empty apartment, leaving the keys behind for the next wymounters of 244.  

We were getting very excited for the change.  Excited for an upcoming summer of family trips, San Jose living, new apartments and all other future adventures.  Despite the excitement though, you can't help but get a little nostalgic about that first place you settled into.  

In early January 2011, after only two weeks of marriage, Aaron and I drove up to our new apartment complex with a trailer full of barely unwrapped wedding presents and our couch.  No bed, no kitchen table, no nightstands. We took a picture as we slowly turned the key to finally see our space.  We were shocked for a second at the stark white cinderblock walls, but maintained large grins on our faces for what this very humble apartment could become.  Aaron twirled me around the empty room and then we set to work setting up shop.  

Over the course of a year and a half, our little apartment became very home-y to us.  We filled that space up with tons of laughter, first disagreements, experimental meals (some good and some very not-so-good), cupcakes galore, birthday parties, kitchen dancing, game nights, late night movie cuddling, homework sessions, and of course, with a bed, kitchen table and nightstands.  We filled that space up with so many good things and so many life lessons in marriage that by the time we walked away on June 1st, we felt like we were leaving a home--not just a stark white cinderblock apartment.  

We are excited for future living spaces and the memories that we will create there, but there will always be something special about that first space we had. together.