Making the Big Move

Our son and his wife have been living in Kansas City, Missouri, since he started his residency at Children's Mercy Hospital almost four years ago. Over those years we have made several trips to their city and have come to like visiting there. Their family has grown to three, and they started looking for a house closer to the clinics where the two of them now work.

They loved their neighborhood of Brookside in the older section of the city. They could walk to restaurants, coffee shops, and the neighborhood grocery stores from their house.

The houses on their street are almost 100 years old, with 100-year-old trees that turn magnificent colors in the fall. This trendy historical neighborhood is a much sought-after location, and their house sold the day they put it on the market.

When we got the text message asking if we could come help with the move, we started making plans to be there. We wanted to be helpful, but we were especially interested in baby-sitting our granddaughter while her parents were busy moving and packing.

We could include pictures of boxes and moving trucks, but we would rather include Carter and her dog getting used to their new home.

Before the furniture arrived, the new "great room" made for a long runway for a novice crawler.

Gram (aka Denisa) loves to sing songs with Carter. It's fun now that she's old enough to burst out in a smile and start clapping when Gram starts a chorus of "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands!"

Granddad did a lot of lifting boxes and working on projects around the new house, but his favorite project was lifting Miss Carter.

Since we saw her last time, she has graduated to real people food. She was getting full of eggs and bananas this morning, and we noticed that more food was landing on the floor than in her mouth. But her dog was sitting patiently, waiting to clean up those scraps.

The new house is in a suburb of Kansas City, and has more room for visiting grandparents!

It is also just a stroll from a great trail system that connects to miles of options. The moving crew included our daughter-in-law's parents. After a long moving day, we saved a little energy to go for a walk that felt like we were far from the city.

Between packing, moving, and unpacking, we spent six days in the Kansas City area. We really love spending time with this sweet family! Even though they were busy, we had game nights with friends almost every evening after Carter went to bed.

The big move is complete, and now we're already looking for places to park our motor home around Lenexa, Kansas, for the next time we'll get to spend time with our granddaughter and her parents! Any advice for close camping spots is greatly appreciated, as we plan to visit this place often!