Atlanta "Lasts" and Christmas

Hello Friends and Family,

Buckle up! This is a long one! The last time I moved from one city to another was in 2004 when I moved from Raleigh to Atlanta. I forgot how stressful it is to pack up your entire life on a deadline.

But, that did not deter me from getting outside and letting Mills experience his first summit hike. I know he and I are both going to climb higher mountains, but there is something extremely special about sharing this first summit with Mills in the city where he was born.

Atlanta “Lasts”

We got the news that we were 100% moving to Denver on December 1st, which makes it difficult to juggle: My birthday, Christmas, Packing, saying goodbye to friends, and of course fitting in some “lasts”.

I miss having a fire pit more than anything. Denver does not allow wood burning fire pits for good reason, it is very dry here. When we were here over Christmas 2021 there were 3 wildfires and one of them burned an entire neighborhood.

Thankfully our fire pit and chairs have a wonderful new home with Ben and Corey!

We had our farewell party at a brewery close to our house and had so many great friends and co-workers come out to wish us luck. We are so lucky to have built such an amazing and supporting group of friends in Atlanta.

For Courtney and I it was an emotional afternoon as we sat and reminisced with so many great friends. Some of Courtney’s high school friends even made the trip into the city, kids in tow, to say goodbye.

For Mills, it was a month of lasts…and firsts! Because of our travel schedule this fall many of our friends still hadn’t had a chance to meet Mills. We did our best to have everyone meet Mills. If you didn’t get to meet him…well come to Denver, we would love to host you in our guest room!

Then there were a couple of lasts that I chose not to have any pictures of because they are so special I want them only in my mind.

We had a last dinner and fire pit with our neighbors, Brian and Jenna Howell. They have become like family to us over the last 3 years as we each watched dogs cross the rainbow bridge, had our babies together, and celebrated so many good things with great champagne.

We watched Elf with Matt and Penny Pohlmann for the last time in the same city. Matt and Penny were in our newly married small group over a decade ago and we invited them over that first Christmas to watch Elf and it became a tradition.

We celebrated my birthday with Matt and Penny Pohlmann and David and Christina Sawyer. These two couples have been such good and constant friends over the years. I cannot count the number of meals, Braves games, brewery visits, and pool parties that we have been a part of with them.

Christmas-ish

Christmas was…well…not. We did set up the Christmas tree for Mills’ first Christmas, but it was taken down in time to be loaded into the Pod for our move.

I even bought wreaths for the balcony and front door to make the Holiday feel just a little more normal. It was still weird to do a virtual Christmas with my parents in a house with no furniture. Mills, however, didn’t know any different.

We spent Christmas Eve packing, packing, and packing. Then, around 4pm we stopped to get ready to have dinner at Jimmy and Tyler Ewing’s annual Christmas Eve dinner.

On Christmas Day, we woke up, loaded the car, and started our drive to Denver. It rained most of the way to Kansas City that day, but we made it with 30 minutes to spare before they closed the kitchen at the Westin.

We were simply too exhausted to take a family picture by the time we got to Kansas City. Take my word for it…we looked awesome!

One More Atlanta Last

I’ll get into this next week, but I flew home from Denver on 12/27 to get the rest of our belongings. I just couldn’t leave Atlanta without a last meal at Bones Steakhouse.

I don’t know how many times I have eaten at Bones. I reached 100 visits during the Summer of 2017 and got a card with my name on it declaring my membership in the “Bones 100” club. (I am entitled to a 10% discount for life!)

I sat at the bar every Friday during lunch for so many years, people would just show up on Friday to have lunch with me because they knew I would be there.

It became my own little country club. I knew all of the staff and they knew me. More likely than not, if you came to town, I took you to Bones. I thought about trying to find my “Bones” in Denver, but I don’t think I could ever replicate this anywhere else.

I was lucky to have one of my closest Atlanta friends, Steven Carrington, join me for dinner. Steven was either the 2nd or 3rd person I met when I moved to Atlanta. He and I passed through every phase of adulthood together from dating to marriage to having children.

Farewell, Atlanta

Atlanta, you were so good to me.

Until our next Adventure,

Austin, Courtney, Mills, and Willow

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