Richmond Recap

 Hi!  Sorry for the lack of posts lately.  We went to Richmond for the weekend to start the home search.  Mike's parents flew in from Minneapolis to help us with Kolton.  Thank God they did because we ended up on a whirl wind 8 hour tour on Saturday that we couldn't have done if we had to attend to the baby.

The weekend was frustrating to say the least.  Oy, we just could not find anything we liked.  We are the first to admit that we are extremely spoiled.  We built our town house new in 2007 with all of the space and features that we wanted.  We've become accustomed to a certain standard of living.   Now to back track and look at rental is such a harsh slap of reality.  We found a couple of places that would work space wise but neither were in communities that we liked.  The one community that we felt the most comfortable in didn't have the space that we need.  Ideally we would like a 3BR + den:  1 BR for us, one for Kolton, Mike's office, then a guest room.  It just does not exist in apartment world.  So now we are looking at private single family or town home rentals.  Basically, someone just like us who bought their home at the wrong time and can't sell.

The other thing we are struggling with is the realization that the suburbs are probably a better fit for us than the city.  Don't get me wrong the Short Pump area is very, very, nice but wholly suburbia!  I actually broke out in a fit of giggles.  But the fact remains that even though we love our urban lifestyle I find myself having to drive 20 minutes to Target a couple of times a week.  It will be nice to have all of that stuff within a few miles.  It also sounds like the Richmond neighborhoods attract a lot of college kids (VCU is there) that ultimately move out shortly after school.  So while we could probably make it work if we really wanted to; I'm not sure how many young families live there.

Kolton was a diabolical disaster!  I made the mistake of not bringing our pack n play because the hotel could provide one.  Well the thing was a piece of sh*t!  He cried through out the night, both nights.  Then he repeated the same pattern last night even though we were home.  I hope and pray that things return to normal tonight.  He is starting to roll a lot at night and sleep on his side.

I feel bad that Father's Day was a little uneventful.  Although I think it was nice for Mike to be with both Kolton and his dad that day.  We all went out for breakfast before we hit the road leaving Mike behind in Richmond.  We maybe should have stayed the extra night but I'm so glad Mike was able to get some sleep before his first meeting today.

I know I'm playing with fire but I'm going to drive down to Richmond again tomorrow night to check out a couple of houses.  Mike is busy with work and not in the area and I don't want to miss out on something that might really work for us.  Kolton did really well on both the drive down and the drive back so fingers crossed he can do it again.  Although I'll probably be spending the night; I'm definitely bringing our pack n play.