The house I grew up in

My parents moved away from St. Louis 3 years ago, but have not been able to sell their house... until now. The house is finally under contract! My parents had a few things to do to get the house ready to sell, so they came to St. Louis from California for a weekend in September. I didn't want to miss a chance to see them, so I drove the 4+ hours from Indiana with the two boys for a visit. (Mckay couldn't come with us.) It was nice to see my parents again, but I have to confess that was not the only reason for my visit. I wanted to see the house one last time.

I lived in this house from the time I was 2 years old until college, and every summer through college.

All the trees have grown a lot since I last saw them 3 years ago.

We used to be able to put Christmas lights all the way up this tree. There is no way we could reach the top now.

Last time we were at the house 3 years ago, we put bushes and mulch in this area.

It still looks pretty good.

(A post by my sister shows how the bushes looked when we first put them in, as well as some other 3-years-ago goodies.)

Even though my parents are completely moved out of the house, a few little things were left behind.

The fox in the front yard!

Connor called dibs on this fox as soon as we got there, so he is now in our yard in Indiana.

 This was still there.

Contrary to popular belief, this was not a grave marker.

The steps that wrap around the back of the house to the walk-out basement.

This is such a cool house!

I love how much space there is. The yard is huge.

It brought back memories of my wedding reception, held in the very same place 5 years before.

Like I said, there was a few things to be done around the house. For the most part, the renters who had been in the house for the past 2 years took pretty good care of it. But....

We went into the laundry room and found that the washer hook up was leaking. 

It was a very small leak, but enough to be troublesome, and the hookup sticks out far enough that the water was spilling down the wall and filled a garbage can.

It took me a grand total of 5 minutes to come up with this genius solution:

Use an old credit card (or AAA card in this case) to divert the drip back in to go down the drain. Simple. Easy. Cheap. Granted, this was a temporary fix until Dad could actually fix the drip, but I was pretty proud of myself for thinking quickly. My quick thinking skills have suffered since having children.

I brought some toys from our house along with us to keep the boys entertained in the empty house.

They mostly kept busy by exploring the huge house. And they managed to find a few small toys left behind by the renters. (Like the Nerf gun next to Dallin pictured above.)

The boys got to spend a lot of time with Grandma and Grandpa.

Connor especially liked jumping on the air mattress.

And riding around outside on his car.

And sitting on Grandpa's tractor.

Perhaps the thing I will miss the most about this house is the kitchen.

This may be the best kitchen I've ever had the privilege to cook in.

Tons of cabinet space, the granite counter tops, TWO ovens, TWO sinks.... 

And somehow my dishes were always magically done by someone else. That never happens at my house.

Goodbye house. Thanks for the memories.