Danbury Railway Museum

Happy March everyone!

We're all settled in our new apartment here in Danbury, CT and are having fun in the same ward we were in a year ago.  It's good to see familiar faces and know the territory.  

We had a blast when the Quinns came out to visit last week.  Having family around is the best.  Hint hint. For those of you who have slept on our floor, we just got a second air mattress!

Here are some pics of our visit to the Danbury Railway Museum, otherwise known as Ira's Dream Come True. 

Ira followed Grandpa out to the train yard...

and almost immediately biffed it on some slippery ice.  

Ira calls this the "Thomas Train."  I keep thinking the Thomas shows will bore Ira out of his mind, but since he got scared out of his pants watching Veggie Tales last week, I guess boring is a-o.k.  

We tried to replicate some train yard super model shots they had in the museum with Mckay.  

So majestic. :)

Ira with Grandpa and Grandma.

I'm not a huge fan of having my belly-shot taken, but I had to show off the Pennsylvania car.  

I can still get the top and bottom buttons together on my coat, but nothing else.

Speaking of being pregnant, I'm feeling good and have been nesting like crazy!  Now that I've got less than 4 weeks till my due date, I'm suddenly packing hospital bags, organizing cupboards, setting up babysitting, and reading up on birthing.  I feel like I've just sprinted a few laps after bending over to put on shoes, and can't stop checking out books for Ira about becoming a big brother.  We're really liking our Bradley class, and love the birthing center I'll deliver at if all continues to go well. Here's a link if you're curious. http://www.ctbirthcenter.com/

Work is keeping Anthony busy, and being a few blocks from a library and park are keeping Ira busy.  Spring can't quite decide if it's begun or not, but we try to get out when we can. 

More Quinn photos and updates from Anthony are pending.  

Have a happy Sunday everyone!   

Our New Home

Last week was a whirl wind. We've been waiting to hear where we would be working on our first rotation forever and were excited to learn we will be in Danbury, CT.

Tuesday morning we drove out to Danbury to find ourselves a place to live. We've been looking forward to this and also dreading it because we've been spoiled with Provo and Pittsburgh rent prices, I would say Danbury is at least twice as expensive as anywhere else we've lived. Connecticut also has some weird real estate laws we found out. Anyway, it was an extremely hot three days of patrolling the streets on the look out for a nice neighborhoods and places for rent. It was a head ache trying to get appointments lined up too. In the end we were able to get in and see about 10 places. We feel blessed to have finally found one that we feel comfortable with, it has nice landlord, Italian again, and below the average price for the number of rooms and space we have. It has a spacious bathroom and kitchen, a nice living room and master bedroom and two small rooms, one for Ira and one for guests/office/crafts. So if you want to come visit we would love the company. If you want the address email me.

There are many great reasons you can come and see us which can mostly be summed up in this phrase I heard the Honda dealership using on the radio, "We're minutes from anywhere". This says a lot about my first impressions of Danbury. Locally, nothing is more than 15 mins from anything else, and  more broadly we are only ten minutes from the New York border; thirty minutes from the coast, beaches, and some minor National Forests; an hour and a half driving to Downtown Manhattan (two by train); three hours from Boston; and four hours from Marietta and the Adirondacks.

The Exterior, we are on the second floor.

(This is an old picture, there was no snow when we were there, just a hot sun)

The living room, looking from the master bedroom. You can't see it, but there is a huge heater right next to me that is kind of ugly and we're not sure how we will work it into the interior design.

A nice spacious bathroom, those who have been in our Pittsburgh apartment will know how nice this is compared to what we had there.

Looking into our bedroom from the living room.

The kitchen, looking in from the bathroom.

Looking into one of the smaller rooms. Sharon calls it a midget house because the ceiling is a little lower

than typical and the windows aren't far from the floor.

The floor plan is a little strange and it has it's quirks, but like I said we feel blessed to have found a place that met almost all of our criteria(washer, dryer, room for Ira, etc) in the price range we set for ourselves.