Tammy and David are moving into their new house this weekend, so I was almost certain there would be none of the usual Thursday night get-together tonight. Then this morning Tammy called me and asked me to come by. At first I was going to go with them to an event at the school, and then I was going to stay with the boys while Tammy and David went, but I ended up meeting all of them at the new house while they moved in the first couple of loads of boxes.

This was my first time inside the new place, although I’d driven by it earlier in the week and was impressed by the location and the way it looked from the outside. Tonight I was even more impressed by how open and airy the house is, with windows and sliding glass doors all over the place. They have one great room and a large kitchen and dining room, plus three bedrooms. That’s perfect for the family, for now (and probably for as long as they’ll want to stay there).

The big move starts tomorrow and things will be pretty much in place by Saturday night. Since they started getting serious about moving only about two weeks ago, I’m blown away by how quickly they found the right place and made everything come together.

The kids seemed at home there already tonight. D.J. and Dakota had fun running in and out of the house and around the deck outside the back door. Aiden made himself right at home, although as soon as he saw me with my camera that became his main focus of interest. Naturally I let him play with it, which is one reason I didn’t get many photos of the house.

When we were getting ready to leave I took the camera from him and couldn’t make it work. Something was jammed, or something was broken, I was sure. And I blamed myself for not being more vigilant, although I have been thinking about a new camera for a long time. But when I got it home I worked on it and somehow (I have no idea how) got it operational again. So: crisis averted, lesson learned.

The big boys went straight to bed when we got back to the old house. It might be the last time they sleep in that room, although I doubt the immensity of that prospect had much of an impact on them. Aiden was just as tired and was asleep within a few minutes. And then, as usual, he was awake again, and by the time I left at nine o’clock he was climbing over people and laughing, in that way he has that draws you in and makes you laugh along with him.