Goodbye, Apartment

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Today Ray and I turned in the keys to our apartment and officially ended our lease in Apartment #37.  Leaving the apartment for the last time was emotionally hard on us, harder than we expected.  From the minute we moved into that apartment we felt like we were home.  We rented two apartments before that but they always felt temporary, we pretty much knew that we would be there for 1 year then would move.  Our last home never felt temporary.  Ray and I lived there with Atari for close to three years.  When we moved in Atari was still a puppy.  All 3 of us fell in love with green trails and took lots of long walks together.  Ray and I loved our apartment from the beginning but when we had Nathan it took on new meaning.  We found out I was pregnant in that apartment and brought Nathan home for first time there.  Nathan ate all of his first foods there, rolled over for the first time and learned to crawl, walk and even dance there.  My favorite memory in our living room was celebrating Nathan's first Christmas and Ray's was when I decided to let Nathan go diaper free to clear up a diaper rash and he, well, made a mess of our coffee table and couch.  Nathan and Atari bonded in that apartment and Nathan joined the 3 of us on our long walks.  We pushed Nathan in his stroller, then jogger on our trail until he eventually walked it with us.  Nathan and I swam together in the beautiful pool and we celebrated my baby shower and Nathan's 1st birthday in the party rooms in the main building.  We have memory after memory in the apartment and even though we are excited to take on the role of homeowners we are sad to have said goodbye to our first home together.

Before leaving the apartment we were able to share another very special memory, we found out that for the 2nd time I am pregnant.  I took the pregnancy test in the same bathroom I did when I found out I was pregnant with Nathan and was able to share the news with Ray in the same cozy home.  New Baby is due in June of 2012 and we are very excited to expand to our family.

This morning before we turned the keys in to the front office we took Nathan and Atari to our apartment one last time to say goodbye.

 It looked so different and empty but Nathan loved the space to run around

 Being naughty and climbing the landing (like he knows he is not supposed to) for the last time

 This was the only picture I could get with Nathan and Atari (a tip of a tail counts right?)

 A last game of peek-a-boo behind the bedroom door

 Exploring his empty bedroom, you can still see the marks in the carpet from the rocking chair I rocked him in for a year and half

 Ghosty.  Atari was so terrified of this fan we had to leave it on the same speed 24/7 or she would run from it.  We were convinced a ghost must be in it and named it Ghosty.

Goodbye, apartment.  It was a great 3 years.  I wish I could have taken care of it better than I did the last year but the memories I have there are the best of my life.

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