Hello to our current subscribers and those new to our site! If you hadn’t already noticed we have been MIA for a while. Well things have changed, our family has grown and we’ve updated our website and logo. Thanks to our graphic designer and web designer we’ve refreshed our look as we adjust to our new normal as a family of 4 in Dallas, TX. Yes, you read that right. We’re no longer in Atlanta, GA. We moved to Dallas at the end of April 2020, at the “beginning” of the pandemic. Like many of you we didn’t think it was as serious as it was and so we moved knowing we were expecting our Littlest Little Ava 2 months after we moved.
Moving from Atlanta to Dallas was easy because we had movers who packed us up and unpacked us when we got to Dallas. I can’t ever go back to moving myself ever again after these two experiences of moving from Michigan to Atlanta and Atlanta to Dallas. Unlike the move from Michigan to Atlanta we gave away so many things, including the bed in our guest room and we sold our car – the 2009 Toyota Corolla that we had for 10 years. The movers were great and packed us up well. So we moved to Dallas without a car.
When we left Atlanta we left a wonderful support system we had built over the 10 months we were there. Why did we move? The opportunities my husband was looking for, for his career are located here in Dallas at his company’s headquarters. We moved right downtown Dallas so that Mr. HutchLife could be walking distance to work. It’s actually a 12 min walk to his job from where we live right now.
Moving to Dallas without a car was intentional because I wanted to get as much exercise as possible before our LL arrived. Boy did I get exercise during those 2 months. I walked everywhere in downtown Dallas. I walked to Klyde Warren Park, Griggs Park, Reverchon Park, Uptown, West Side, right Downtown, North Side, Katy Trail, anywhere I could walk to with the stroller and our Big Little Carys I did. I think all the walking along with eating much healthier this time around helped with labor and delivery when Ava came. Ava was born in our apartment but that’s a separate post for another day.
Dallas has been good to us so far, 11 months in. We’ve gotten to know the city of Dallas well and now that we have a car, we bought a new to us (used) Ford Explorer last November. I’ll share that experience in a separate post as well. Our Explorer has been serving us well, getting us all around the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex smoothly and comfortably. We know Downtown very well and the benefit of most things being shut down when we moved here was that we could walk around without having to be around a lot of people and see the sights without interruption or congestion while walking. That was a lot of fun and Carys and I had a lot of fun doing that. She got to walk, run and play through a lot of places she normally wouldn’t have been able to.
Now that we are 11 months in almost a full year here in Dallas there are so many things you can do for free, which is what I love to do, as well as so many things to do that are fairly inexpensive that are good family fun. With 2 Littles, 2 and under I wanted to make sure they were able to enjoy the activities that we wanted to do and that we could find activities that they would enjoy as well that we, the grown ups could too. I’ll share fun things to do with kids in Dallas in a separate post. There’s so much you can do and so much fun to be had.
One of the things I was determined to do that we started doing is weekly date nights. One month in and it’s been such a fun way to spend time together without the kids and be intentional about our relationship and continuing to build on our friendship with one another as well as our intimacy. I’ll share date night activities in a separate post as well.
Now that we’re back I look forward to sharing not just about Finances, but about Family and Fun things too! Thanks for your patience as we took time off and we are excited to share what we have been up to and what’s ahead for The HutchLife family.
