I first moved into 4839 Memory Lane #6 with Brittany Gilson back in 2009. She was the best roommate ever and we really got a long so well. Then she bought a house and I started dating Justin. Once Justin and I got married in 2013 we moved into #5 across the hall and we've been there ever since.
I have so many good memories there from when I was single and even better ones from more recent years. Justin and I shared our first kiss on the stair landing outside the doors, and we brought our 2 beautiful boys home to that apartment. It's been the only home they've ever known and really it was a great place. The rent was cheap ($850 for a 1200 sq ft, 2 bedroom, 1 bath), especially for the nice area, and we LOVED the Holladay 14th ward so we weren't really in a hurry to leave. But we just started outgrowing it and were definitely feeling a little sheepish living in an old apartment with 2 kids when we were old enough and established enough that we could afford a home :D.
It was a long search because there were things that we really wanted in a home and neighborhood (Justin was even more picky than I was though haha). We looked for probably 8 months and then our ward friend Melanie Campbell told us about a home in the Sandy area that the owners were waiting to sell until their new home was built. She got us their number and we arranged to go look at it. The rest is history. I really really liked the house the first time I walked into it. We first looked at it in July 2018 and finally went under contract in October. However because they were still building we couldn't close until February 2019 and couldn't move in until March. Oey, it was a rough wait, but now that we're here it feels like it wasn't so bad. Funny how that works. I still look around and can't believe this is really our home!!
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They boys are absolutely loving the new house. When we first talked about moving Nolan was a little nervous that he would have to leave his stuff. And a few days before we moved we went for a walk in the Holladay Cemetery (where we've gone so many times) and I noted that this might be the last time we go walking there Nolan got really sad and said he didn't want to move and can we come walking here again?! It was pretty sweet. But once they came to the new house and most of their stuff got moved in and (most importantly) we turned on the projector in the basement, they didn't look back. They LOVE our new house!
In fact, Branson doesn't want to go to our old apartment. We're still taking them to Jeanni's and when I picked them up Branson got sad and said, "I don't want to go to our old house, I want to go to our new house." When I said, "ok! Let's go to our new house!" He got a big smile on his face and said happily, "ok!"
Our new ward is much smaller than the 14th ward. Nolan was very nervous to go to Primary the first week, but went with no problem the next week. He even snuggled right up to his new teacher during singing time which was cute.
Branson was just the opposite. The first week we took him to nursery and he went in without looking back. They brought out some blocks and he sat down and said bye mommy and daddy! The next few weeks he seemed fine and excited to go to nursery, but as soon as the door opened to nursery he cried and clinged to us.
We've already met some of our neighbors and they're all so nice. We are just so excited to be here. We still have so much to do (and so much to buy, yikes!), but it's fun.
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Boxes everywhere in the apartment. We were really feeling cramped at the end there because there was just nowhere to store boxes while we packed them up!
We had so many amazing friends help us though - Brad and Myranda Nielson watched the boys for a few hours while we packed one night, Charlotte Baker had the boys over for over 4 hours one Saturday, and Shannon had them over too. We have the best friends!
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The day we got the keys to our new home!
The previous owners were so sweet and left the boys their haul of blasters. Needless to say they were in heaven with their new toys! These pictures don't really show it, they left probably 15-20 blasters and a bunch of ammo!
