Week 2

Another week has flown by!  West Hartford is starting to feel more and more familiar and even a little bit like home.  I will start out by saying that the best part of the week and the move so far is that we have been in Connecticut for 16 days and Alan has spent every night at home!  It has been years since that has happened.  Some days he is in New York City and doesn't get home until close to bed time, but he is able to see the kids every day.

The other BIG thing that happened this week was that I made some progress on making friends.  A few weeks before we moved here I joined a moms club in West Hartford.  I had been in a similar club in Minnesota and loved it so much and had made some really great friends through it.  So I figured this was a good way to start to meet some other moms in the community.  Well, after my post last week (seriously like a few hours after I posted) someone from the club posted that they were looking for an Event Co-Coordinator for the moms club.  I decided that I would step out of my comfort zone and replied to the post saying I would be interested.  Next thing I know, I am one of three Event Coordinators for the moms club.  I even got to meet up with them last week for some wine and some planning!  It was fun to meet some moms and they couldn't have been nicer and more welcoming.  They gave me lots of advice about the area and helped me find a pediatrician.  So I am feeling much better about making some connections here in CT.

We also have met a lot of the neighbors and they have all been so nice offering lots of suggestions on where to visit, where not to visit, and bringing us baked goods.  Charlie and Jack have made a few friends in the neighborhood and we even spent an evening playing at one of their houses.  We are starting to feel like we are settling in and making some friends.

Other than trying to make some new friends we also did some more exploring!  We started the week out with another trip to the library.  We were able to get a library card this time (because we had finally received some mail that verified our new address).  So we checked out some books and hung out at the library for a few hours one morning.  The other place we checked out was the Children's Museum in town.  The kids had a fun time.  It wasn't nearly as big as the Children's Museum in St. Paul, but they had a dinosaur exhibit which was a hit, and they had lots of animals to check out (lizards, raccoon, coyote), and a butterfly exhibit.

Kaylee performing at the library

Children's Museum

Children's Museum

Children's Museum

Children's Museum

Making friends with the raccoon

Charlie had a school tour of his new school this week.  He will be going to Bugbee Elementary.  We met with the principal and got to check out some 1st grade classrooms and the rest of the school.  Charlie will be a walker this year which will be a change for us, so we learned the morning and afternoon routine for drop off and pick up.  Charlie also got a pretty sweet shirt from the principal and has been wearing it a lot!

Bugbee class of 2021!

The most exciting part of the week was that we had our first visitor!!!  Grandma Hanson flew to town on Friday night!  We all met her at the airport and couldn't wait to show her around.  Since we had grandma here to watch the kids, Alan and I went out Friday and Saturday night and tried some new restaurants and bars in our downtown area (West Hartford Center and Blue Back Square).  It was fun to have a date night and some quality time with my guy.  Unfortunately, hangovers in CT still feel the same as they did in MN.

Grandma made it!

Date night!

Date Night

Last stop of the night!

We took Grandma to our farmer's market on Saturday morning and to Charlie's favorite restaurant for lunch, Bar Taco.  West Hartford has lots of restaurants that offer outdoor seating and the boys love picking a place where we can do this.  We also made a stop to the kids favorite spot, the Toy Chest, which is the local toy store.  That afternoon Grandma took the boys for a date to go see the Emoji movie.

Favorite spot for the kids

West Hartford Center

On Sunday we got up early and drove the hour to Mystic, CT.  We spent the entire day exploring the Mystic Seaport.  Mystic is a fun town with lots to do for everyone.  We wanted to get to the aquarium there, but ran out of time because we spent so much time at the seaport.  The seaport has old ships and a town that shows what the town and stores were like in the 1800's.  The kids really enjoyed it and we had fun exploring another new town close to our new home!  Sunday night Alan and I took the boys out for sushi to a local place in West Hartford Center.  They both love sushi and are also getting more adventurous with their seafood as we are finding lots of local seafood restaurants to try. 

Mystic Seaport

Touring the ships

Captain Kaylee

Shipsmith

Locals

Sushi

Date night with all my guys

Grandma is here until Wednesday, so we are going to try and check out a few more things before she leaves.  Today we have family pictures being done by a local photographer.  I have them scheduled during Kaylee's nap time so that will be interesting!  But, we will make it work.  Thanks for checking out the blog this week! We are still missing our family, friends, and familiarity of "home", but making the best of our new home and having fun exploring.

The first week

We made it!  We all survived our first week living in a new home in a new city in a new state.  We kept busy exploring our new city which meant there wasn't much time to feel homesick or realize we didn't know a single person in this state.  You realize pretty quickly how dependent you are on your village when your village is 1300 miles away!  I mean we really love Al, and being here is totally worth the extra family time, but I really underestimated my love for my people. 

I have also realized this week how dependent I was on the boys' friends.  I have never played more board games, superhero/monster/bad guy/jail world, basketball, and Legos then I am now that we don't have the neighborhood kids to play with.  And not that I am surprised, but I am still really terrible at imaginary play.  Thanks to Charlie and Jack for constantly reminding me that I was not being Superman, Batman, bad guy, baby, police officer, a mom, fill in the blank, the right way.  Thankfully, Charlie's friends FaceTimed him multiple times this week.  He loved these special moments and while it was a little heartbreaking for me, he was so excited to tell them about what we had been up to and to show them our new home. 

We loved checking out the new places inWest Hartford. We spent one of our first days walking to the nearby park that also has a splash pad and pool.  We didn't hit up the pool this time, but the kiddos loved the splash pad and park.  Especially our brave Kaylee girl.  

During our first week I also had to put together Kaylee's crib and let's be honest, I am not handy or really domestic at all.  It took me way longer than the average person and I only freaked out a couple of times, but I got it figured out.  More importantly and frankly rather surprising is the fact that it is STILL standing and supporting Kaylee.  

One of the best parts of West Hartford is having Alan home every night for dinner!  This hasn't happened on a regular basis in over a year. The kids get to spend the evenings playing in the backyard with their dad and that has been worth all the work and sadness of leaving Eagan.  

This week we also visited Jack's new preschool and met a few teachers and toured the classrooms.  This got Jack really excited about starting in a few weeks.  We got Charlie registered for school and he gets a school tour this week.  We also checked out the cute downtown here and found a toy store and ice cream shop that have already become favorites.   One day was spent at the library that we all loved.  They have an entire floor dedicated to a kids area.  We spent a few hours there and it is already on Charlie's weekly bucket list for this week again.  It was fantastic!  

Once the weekend was here we knew that the first place we would visit would be the OCEAN!  Our home is about 45 minutes from the ocean and this was definitely something I was most excited about when moving here.  While the closest CT beach is only 45 minutes away we decided to hit up a beach in Rhode Island.  We had been told that Rhode Island beaches have a little bit bigger waves than CT because CT beaches are actually in a sound.  So we drove about 1 1/2 hours to Westerly, RI.  It is a cute beach town and we had the best time!  All three kids loved it and we had a super fun day.  

We had a great first week in Connecticut!  Lots of family time and checking out a few places around the area.  We are looking forward to our second week and on Friday Grandma Hanson is coming to visit!  We can't wait!!!  We can't wait to show her some places we have loved and I can't wait to leave the house all by myself!  One of my weekly bucket list challenges is to make a new friend this week.  This has been the hardest part about our move, not having a connection with another girlfriend nearby.  I am going to really try and put myself out there...wish me luck!  

The Beginning

After a few months of packing, making arrangements, saying goodbyes, moving a few belongings, and shipping our cars, we have landed in our new home in West Hartford, CT.  In an attempt to document our family adventure I have decided, like many of my friends have done when they have moved, I will start a family blog.  My hope is that I will have something for the kids to look back on about our time out East.

The Beginning...

As to how our family ended up moving from Minnesota to Connecticut, you can blame Alan.☺Alan took a new job within the company that he works for in May of 2016.  The job required him to spend most of his work week in Windsor, CT. or in New York City.  This meant he spent many nights away from our family and our life in MN.  When he took the job we had a five year old starting kindergarten in the fall, a three old starting his first year of preschool, and a three month old baby girl not sleeping through the night. Alan was missing a lot of these firsts and we were all struggling with the distance.  After 10 months of him spending his weeks out East we decided to at least start thinking about the option of moving to Connecticut.  This conversation started in March of 2017 and in April I made my first visit to Connecticut.  In my three days out here we found a home to rent, a preschool for Jack, and an elementary school that we loved for Charlie.  The family that lives in the house we are currently renting is spending a year in Spain and needed a family to live in their home for one year.  After our visit we felt like too many things had worked out perfectly that it seemed like we were supposed to take the leap and move out here. The one year lease will give us a chance to see if Connecticut is a good fit for our family.  In the middle of all of this I somehow convinced my parents, who had just sold their home in Rochester, to rent our home in Eagan for the year.  I then also talked my brother into joining them since he had just moved home from Seattle.  They will all be taking care of our house and Remy!  By the end of April the arrangements were made and the lease was signed.  We would be moving to Connecticut in July!  

Our lease started on July 1st, but because we spend the first week in July up in Nisswa, MN with the Elder family, we planned to make the move the week after we got home. We had a great week with everyone and it made saying saying good-bye really hard.  The kids got to spend a week boating, tubing, and spending time with their family.  

Our belongings and our cars left Minnesota July 10th and arrived later that week in Connecticut. Alan started staying at our new house that week and was able to meet the moving truck so everything was out here and unloaded by the time the rest of us arrived later in the week.  After some really sad and hard good-byes our last week in Minnesota with our friends we drove to the airport on Saturday July 15th. Both of our families took us to the airport and we said our teary good-byes at the security gate and we boarded a plane to our new home in Connecticut.  Alan and I both agreed that the hardest part of the whole process was watching Charlie say good-bye to his neighborhood buddies!  They have a very special bond and we are missing our Hillcrest gang!

Bonfire and sparklers in the cul-de-sac

Tie Dye matching outfits with Grandma and Grandpa

Send off with the best neighbors

Saying goodbye to his pals before heading to the airport

We made it to Connecticut

While the beginning of July was full of goodbyes and tears, we are excited for our new adventure and to be with our favorite guy.  We don't know if the move to Connecticut will be permanent, but we do know that we have big plans while we are here to make the most of it and to make it our home.  Here we go...#EldersGoEast!