Moving On Up

Well, many of you have already heard about our decision to head south. Ryan and I always knew we would head back when we started having kids. We never figured NYC would be a great place to have a family. Recently, Ryan was offered an exciting position in Tampa so we decided that now is as good a time as ever. We are excited about being able to sprawl out in a full size home. And the many "luxuries" (washing machine, driveway, closets, grass) that will come with our move. Chase and I are going to vacation a bit this summer before joining Ryan in Tampa early fall.
It is hard to think about life outside of the city. We have enjoyed every minute of living here and feel like it has been an incredible growth experience for us both. It can he a hard place to live but there are many wonderful aspects of urban living. For example, it is hard to be lonely. We know most of our neighbors, and they are all in love with Chase. We have dozens of friends that we play with at the park, without even calling and arranging a play date. We know all of our local service people, from our cleaners to our UPS guy "Archie"- who shouts hello from his big brown truck. We will definitely miss our grocery store ladies- who all stop and come over to talk to Chase and give him arm fulls of fruit (which he enjoys squeezing so hard that it is inedible when we get home.)
We have made many friend during our 6 years here and it is always hard to leave and go to a new city to start over. Thankfully, Ryan's family is there and my family will be following so we have a huge advantage already.