Okay I have to admit I have been really slack at posting on this blogsite...you all know the constant treadmill of life...and life with kids..days go to weeks and weeks to months...however exciting things are happing in our life. As many of you may already know the Bedford's are moving to Austin, Texas!! Mark has received a promotional transfer to the Hyatt Regency Austin. For those of you familiar with the Hyatt world relocating is part of the territory. This definitely is bittersweet news for us as we have really enjoyed living in Celebration, we have made some wonderful friends, love the Celebration lifestyle, and really we get to take our kids to Disney quite often...even to this day I always enjoy visiting the Disney themeparks. On the flip side this is a great promotion for Mark and out of all of the places we could be going to Austin has always been at the top of our list. Neither of us had been there before this transfer, however we really felt it was a city that suited us.
Well the whole Bedford family has been in Austin for a week and I have to say out of all of the hurdles we will endure during this relocation, liking Austin is not going to be an issue. Austin is a nice blend of what we loved about Hawaii - beautiful scenery, lots of nature, healthy eating, an outdoor lifestyle and what we have come to enjoy about living in a metropolitan area shopping, good restaurants, activities for the kids, etc. The Hyatt is in a fabulous location right along the river (that they call "Town Lake"). There is this wonderful hike and bike trail that runs along the lake. People of all ages are out walking, jogging, biking...I am actually starting to feel a little out of shape! There is a park along the trail so the boys and I have spent many afternoons hanging out at the park or even just watching the dogs swimming and playing in the "no leash" area along the trail. There is a Children's Museum across the river from the hotel so we could not have asked for a better location to be for keeping the kids busy. I was kind of dreading living in the hotel with two young kids, but it really has not been difficult at all. In addition to all of the nearby attractions, they have this nice little play area in the restaurant so Joshua and Noah have become morning regulars...I imagine the staff dread seeing us come in as we make a big mess, the restaurant is open to the lobby...so the noise my boys make kind of echoes throughout the atrium. Noah's latest party trick is smiling and just screaming at the top of his lungs...great...However the staff always seem very excited to see us and have really taken good care of us. The sad news is the restaurant is getting renovated and Mark has informed me that the play area may be gone as soon as next week!!!
We have been in total grocery store awe and excitement as we have twice visited the downtown flagship store of Whole Foods. Austin is where Whole Foods started and I have never experienced a grocery store where people seem so happy to be shopping! I love it! We just love going over there to eat dinner sometimes the food is amazing and the choices are endless.
I think our big hurdle is going to be finding a place to live. We have realized that we will never find a master-planned community quite like Celebration, but we are remaining hopeful that we will find a family friendly neighborhood with good schools and decent amenties. We loved this one area called Steiner Ranch which had many of the qualities we liked about Celebration but the commute is just too far for Mark. We are now looking into an area called Circle C...a master planned community only about 20 minutes to downtown. However the Austin market is actually doing well compared to the rest of the country and inventory is a little low. Anyway I am remaining optimistic that the right house is out there!
All in all our first week in Austin has been great everyone has been really friendly and helpful. One of my old roomates from when I lived in Hilton Head lives here and has a 4 year old boy - so it has been nice to at least know one person. The GM of the hotel and is wife and family have been extremely gracious as well...ensuring we have a nice spacious room, taking the boys for an afternoon so we could househunt and so on. The boys definitely miss their friends and doing laundry is a bit of a pain, and we don't have TIVO (Survivor is on at 7pm!!) but really it hasn't been bad at all.
I'm not sure when we will head back to Celebration. I'm really hoping to find us a house and Joshua a preschool before I head back with the boys, but who knows. However I think we will definitely head back in another couple of weeks regardless of if we found as house as I believe the boys will be really wanting to get back to their own things and routine by then.
Lots of Love!
Amy, Mark and the boys.
