Minnesota Barlows: Philadelphia Adventures!

It's hard to believe, but we have officially lived in Philadelphia for a month! Well, the Philadelphia area, since we stayed with Joe and Catherine for 3 weeks in Collingswood, NJ.

We have been in our apartment for a little over a week, and we are starting to feel settled. We finally have all of our things, and I only slightly over packed. We downsized to a two-bedroom, 900 square foot apartment, and I had to try to visualize where everything would fit purely based on the floor plan from the website. I had never seen the apartment, or Philly for that matter, before moving here. Anyway, I think I did okay! Our THREE closets are literally packed full from floor to ceiling, and we had to donate two big boxes of stuff, but other than that, we fit!

Jon has been working for two weeks now, and he is really loving it! His schedule is AMAZING, so we have had a lot of family time, AND the days that he does work, he spends a lot of time in the O.R. which is his favorite part of his job!

I'd say the biggest change about living in a big city is getting around. We only have one car here, and it's parked about a block away in a parking garage. I rarely use it unless I need to run to Target or Ikea (which is only 3 miles away, but through a sketchy part of town, so I wouldn't dare walk), which is generally a weekend adventure. I will also use it a little more regularly when the weather is cold so that we can go to the Children's Museum, which is about a 10 mile drive. Jon has a parking spot at one of the hospitals, but he can also take the subway, so he drives if I don't need the car (because it's faster and he can sleep later). He also has one day a week out in the suburbs so he has to drive that day. Other than that, we have been walking everywhere, which I really enjoy! We are about 3-5 blocks away from 3 different parks, about 3 blocks away from 2 different little grocery stores, and there are restaurants, convenience stores, coffee shops on every corner. All the things we need are just steps from our door! It's great so far...We'll see if I'm singing a different tune come winter time when I have to bundle two little kids up everyday! :)

As for our adventures...We have spent a lot of time at the different parks. Two of the close ones are just green space with little statues everywhere. To my surprise, Kylie loves them. She runs in the grass, climbs the statues, and chases pigeons! It helps that they are just swarming with other kids her age! The other park has a playground, which is pretty nice, so we go there once in a while too. There is also a really nice trail along the river that we have been walking/jogging along now that we have the Double BOB back! We have spent A LOT of time at Ikea and Target picking up furniture, accessories, and groceries for our apartment. Those trips have been true adventures! When we bought our couch at Ikea, we realized it wasn't going to fit in the car with the car seats in there, so I had to walk with the kids to Target (about 1/2 mile away) while Jon brought the couch home and carried it up to our apartment by himself. Let's just say, no one was happy that day! :) We went the the Please Touch Museum, which is a MASSIVE children's museum with two floors of exhibits for the kids to play with...We were there for 2 hours, and only discovered about 1/3 of the exhibits. We bought a yearly membership, so we'll be back A LOT! We also walked to the Reading Terminal Market, which is a huge, indoor, daily farmer's market! It was awesome! I can't wait to go back there! We have also been shopping on Walnut Street, which is the downtown area with all of the stores...Banana Republic, Anthropolgie, Gap to name a few! Before we left Rochester my friend, Sara, connected me with a friend of hers who lives in Philly. So, last week, we met up with Ashley and her two girls (who are the same ages as my kids) at the Philadelphia Zoo. I had a lot of fun meeting a new friend, and Kylie LOVED playing with someone her own age! Finally, Jon and I got to enjoy a Phillies baseball game on Sunday! Jon got the tickets from his attending physician, and we were able to find a babysitter on short notice. The Phillies even WON a game for us! Philly has been fun and full of adventures for us!