Today our sweet Elise turned 8 years old, and she was lucky enough to have two birthday celebrations this year. On Sunday we went to our friends Tiko and Tina’s house to have a dual birthday party for their daughter Beatrix (aka Bea or BB), who was turning 3, as well as for Elise.
Our whole family, including Nana, plus our friends Devin and Bridgette, as well as a few others, were there for the party. They had a bouncy house in the backyard, and Jessica couldn’t help herself with the treats – she got a doubled layered bundt cake plus a box of vegan doughnuts from Pinkbox that spelled out “Happy Birthday”. It was a nice time hanging out with friends, and even Mom and I took a few turns jumping in the bouncy house with the kids. It was extremely hot that day though, so a couple minutes at a time was about all we could handle.
Today was Elise’s actual birthday and we celebrated by taking her to Omega Mart at Area 15. It’s pretty tough to describe this place but I’ll do my best. You enter through a fake grocery store called Omega Mart, which is full of funny fake products. You have a card that you can swipe at various locations to get clues about stuff, and as you explore you will eventually find yourself going into the back of the store, which turns into this sci-fi neon filled warehouse full of rooms to explore, slides to go down, and musical gizmos to play. “Star Wars on drugs” is about the best way I can describe it.
Most people in there are trying to find all the clues and figure out the purpose behind the whole thing, but for us it was enough of a challenge just to keep all 6 of us (Nana was with us) in the same place at the same time. It was a crazy and memorable experience, but Elise had fun, which is all that mattered. There are lots of other things to do at Area 15 so I’m sure we’ll be back someday.
After that we went to lunch, then back to Nana’s house for cake. This was a special cake because Elise and Jessica made it together the day before. It was a confetti cake with Fruity Pebbles sprinkled on top as a garnish and it turned out great.
Once we were finished with cake we decided to let Nana take a break, so we took the kids to our new house to hang out and go swimming, then have a sleepover. We closed on the house on Monday and got the keys that day, which is incredible considering it was a 15 day close after our offer was accepted. It’s even more crazy to think that we left Washington on June 16, arrived in Las Vegas on June 18, and got the keys to our house on July 12! Talk about a quick turnaround.
Jessica and I have been making trips in our cars between the storage unit and the house all week, and we’re making good progress. There’s boxes everywhere, but we’re getting things unpacked and put away as quickly as possible. Saturday we’re renting a moving truck to get all the bigger things that won’t fit in our cars. At that point all of our stuff will be in the new house, but we’ll still have these construction projects to take care of before everything can be put away.
The biggest project is the new flooring upstairs, and the demo stage is beginning tomorrow. We’re tearing out all the carpet on the stairs and everywhere upstairs, and replacing it with a really nice waterproof laminate floor. We decided to pay it forward by going with a premium floor that we really loved because we’re going to be here forever and we felt like this house deserved it.
On Monday my Uncle Terry is beginning a project to replace each of the wood posts on our staircase railing with iron posts. He’s also going to stain the railing so it’s dark brown, and paint the base of it white, where the rails connect at the bottom. I’ll share pictures in a future post once everything is done.
The other project we’re hoping to get done next week is in our family room. We want to remove the built in entertainment center, as well as the fireplace next to it, and knock out part of a wall insert. This will open things up even more in that room and leave space for the new TV and entertainment center that are on the way. There’s already a fireplace in the living room, so we’re replacing the one in the family room with one of those cool new electric fireplaces, which will be in the base of the new entertainment center. Once again, I’ll post photos once everything is done.
We may take on more projects in the near future but that’s it for now. Other than that we’re just focused on getting settled in the new house and getting the kids ready for school, which begins on August 9th. They got shorted on their Summer a bit this year, but it’s been very special staying with Nana, and they’re going back to her house tomorrow for a few more days. In addition, Grandma and Grandpa Rudd are coming for a visit next week, so they’ll get plenty of time with them, including a night or two at the hotel.
I think my first realization after moving into our house this week is that maintaining an outdoor pool is a lot of work! Even though we currently have a pool guy coming once a week, you still have the daily maintenance of brushing it and skimming it with a net. Eventually I plan on letting the pool guy go and doing all the maintenance myself, but I need to learn more about the chemistry aspect first. I realized yesterday while cleaning the pool that I’m going to spend more time cleaning it than actually swimming in it, but it’s worth it each time we jump in! Seeing the kids swimming out there this afternoon brought the biggest smiles to our faces.
Overall things are slowly starting to sink in that we live in Henderson and this is our new house, but it’s still crazy. I think Enzo put it best when he said “How were we able to trade our old house for this new house? Our old house wasn’t special, but this house is special.” It was difficult to explain, and I still don’t think he gets it, but I’m just so grateful that things have worked out the way they have.
That’s pretty much it for now. I definitely plan on sharing more photos once the projects are complete and things are all put away. I’ll probably even do another video walk through at some point, but I want to wait for our new couch to arrive, which will be at least two more months. One thing I wanted to call out, and I’m upset with myself for forgetting to do so in my last post, was that it was my Mom who found this house for us. She found it while searching online, on the same day it was posted, and we were there checking it out the very next day. While it’s possible that we would have found it, or our real estate agent would have, the reality is that Nana found it, and that makes it even more special! We can’t wait to start having her over for regular sleepovers.
Before I go I just want to say Happy Birthday to Elise one last time. We love you so much and hope you’re happy with this new life we’ve just landed in. Thank you for being such a sweet and caring daughter and sister. We’re all so lucky to have you in our lives.
