Last night at dinner Benjamin asked me to pray and I started but couldn't finish. I'm going to miss it here. 

I'm going to miss our neighborhood- the trees and most importantly our neighbors, two of whom have become dear friends. Our kids are all close enough in age that they play well together and we can call one another when we have free mornings or afternoons and need to go for a walk, the park, or just have one another over to socialize. 

I'm going to miss being so close to the city... In that I'll miss that I can get my favorite ice cream of all time (Jeni's Salted Caramel) at a wine and cheese shop 15 minutes from our house. I'll miss that 2 minutes from that shop is a little bakery with the best petifores I've eve had. I'll miss that if we want to we can go to some great restaurants and be home in 10 minutes. I'll miss that the zoo and other museums can be a morning activity and not consume a whole day. 

I'll miss old town Alexandria. It's reminded me sometimes of Santa Barbara in that its got character but isn't an overwhelming city.

I'll miss del ray. When we venture down there it reminds me of some little parts of Denver I liked when visiting. I'll miss the mom and pop shops galore. 

Although our house has been driving me crazy with its lack of space and overall fact that its been fighting us- its our first place together. It's the house we brought Anderson home to and where he's spent 20 months of his life.  There are a lot of memories here and as Benjamin has reminded me- we'll look back at this little place and think of how quaint it was. 

This time is in fact bittersweet.