Life in western Mass….
1. is busy (hence, the no blog for 2 months – working a full-time job in the office 5 days a week in a district turnaround environment… and with a hubby who travels every couple weeks doesn’t lend itself to extra time on the computer)
2. is not as cold as expected (we’ve only had a couple snowfalls – and never made it to a ski weekend. We opted instead for a stay-cation at a hotel 8 minutes from our house in lovely Springfield)
3. has thankfully included a couple visitors (our nanny Alison’s best friend Caitlin was the first to visit – followed closely by Grandma and then Nana and Pop. The grandparents have definitely spent a lot of time playing in our basement – the kids fav place in the house. Basements are a novelty in urban life and they are loving the extra space here)
4. has a lot of donuts (and I’m not referring to Dunkin Donuts like you might expect… but Donut Dip in the next town over. There’s full-size donuts at church the first Sunday of the month, “Donuts with Dad” every 2nd Saturday of the month at the library, and donuts when people come over for a play date! After the church donut days, we have the kids run home to burn off the sugar – and because they are training for a St. Patrick’s day road race)
5. feels like a comfortable suburbia (= less traffic, = more space, = safer, = more neighborhoody and less anonymous, = more reliance on cars, = SWING SET THAT DADDY AND POPPY JUST PUT UP TODAY)
6. is definitely different than Chicago. (We definitely miss our friends and family in Chicago the most – and some big city conveniences like 10 parks within walking distance, a state-of-the-art gym with awesome group fitness classes many times a day, biking to work.)
We’re viewing our time here as a fun adventure – Jordan has a super long list of places we need to visit in the next couple of years. Although, almost all of our vacation time for 2016 is booked for trips to Chicago, Green Bay and Alaska (for my baby sister’s wedding in less than 6 mo!)… we’re taking the kids to New York City next weekend!