So Long Madison! This is what we will miss...

Now that I have been in Madison a little over three years now, I can officially say that I actually kind of like it. Our time has gone by fast and these are the things that we will miss.



1- Our house- its location mostly. We really do live in the best location in Madison. It is wonderful to be able to walk to almost anything we want. We live on a quiet street with good neighbors. We are close to parks, the library, YMCA, grocery store, zoo, Ben bikes to work everyday in less than 15 minutes... I could really go on and on, but just know that we just love it. If we were staying in Madison, we wouldn't move, just finish the basement and do a few more major projects. Ben has put less than 2500 miles on his truck in the last 3 years..and that includes driving here from Texas..he will make up for that in Boise pretty quickly.




2- The Bike trail- less than 2 minutes from our house we can be on a scenic, paved bike trail that goes on for miles in both directions. We have spent many a day rollerblading, walking, biking, taking it to the zoo, one of several parks, Trader Joes, downtown, the lake- anywhere in Madison is really possible to get to from "the bike trail."


3- The Library- walk to the end of the street and up the hill by the Elementary is the Sequoya Library. Despite all the books that have been damaged by Carter, they continue to let us check out anything we'd like. Our boys love going there to play with the kitchen, the flower shop, the landro mat, doing puzzles and games and getting their favorite Bob the Builder DVD. It has been a great place for us to go.



4- The Chocolate shop: Around the corner from the library is the Chocolate Shoppe, Madison's best ice cream. My favorite ice cream being Chocolate Raspberry Brownie Truffle or Kitty Kitty Bang Bang, Bridger's is Superman and Ben and Carter eat almost anything Bridger and I choose. We love that place in the summer and go there frequently as part of our family night.



5- Trader Joes: I love this store! We aren't really organicy, health-nut people, but this place has great snacks that are a healthier version. Most are without artificial ingredients, preservatives, organic- that kind of stuff. The produce is great, the flowers fantastic and beautiful. I am going to start promoting it when we get to Boise and maybe they will (or hey- even I might) open a store in Boise.

6- Woodmans- This is really my favorite store in all of Madison- And, yes, it is a grocery store (If you remember, I would choose grocery shopping over clothes shopping ANY day) and Woodman's is the warehouse for me. Not only do they have EVERY thing you would ever want, but they have EVERY single brand of everything you would ever want (except green chile enchilada sauce- which really is annoying to me, but hey, it can have one fault) All at exceptionally low prices. This place is huge--I have it memorized. Tell me what you want, I'll tell you where to get it. There is an entire aisle of just pasta, a entire corner dedicated to cheese of any single flavor ever known to man, their freezer section goes on and on... just like I could do about how I love this store. My favorite thing is the drive-up. I love not having to take crazy boys and the groceries to the car and load them myself. This service was inspired by a mom. It is wonderful. Sure am gonna miss ya, Woodmans.


7- The crazy pink house- There is a house close to us that is bright pink with bright blue trim- Every time we drive by Bridger yells "MOM- there's the pink crazy house!" It cracks me up and I don't know when he started it, but he has always done it. There are other houses in Madison that are painted equally as crazy.



8- Our Health Insurance- I can't believe I just thought of this one! We have had the best health insurance we have ever had/will ever have in our lives here. It has been unbelievable. Thank You University of Wisconsin!! Let's just say I get paid to work-out and I got paid to have Carter. We really have come out ahead... And lets just say we will definitely make up for that in Boise.



9- YMCA- only a 3 minute drive away from here. I have loved this place. I am only sad I didn't join sooner. It started with Carter being about 6 months old. I knew I may not survive another Wisconsin winter if I didn't do something different. Something that I liked... yes, exercise! Carter would wake up to eat at 5 a.m. so I could nurse him and then go to the gym and be back by 7 for Ben to leave. It honestly has saved me some mental sanity and helped me feel good, and most importantly survived TWO winters here... and my pant size says I am doing pretty darn good too. My boys love the YMCA too...the swim classes and the family fun nights, the child watch. Bonus in Boise: YMCA is going to be a 5 minute walk from our house! Hooray!!


10-11 Our honey Locust Tree. In our front yard is a huge locust tree. It is beautiful, it shades our house and the leaves are so small that they blow away in the fall so we don't have to rake. I love this tree. We have all sat on our couch and looked outside our front window and studied it. We have also loved that in the last 3 years we have never had to water our lawn and it has always been green. We will miss the heavy rain storms that they have here. I love the lightning and the thunder and the cloudbursts- something that I am sure the desert of Boise just doesn't have. We have had so much rain here that we have a large population of extra-large mushrooms.


12- Westmorland Park- this is "our" park because it is the closest park to us at the end of our street. We have had many, many play days here We have loved the T-rex, the ice cream stand, everything in the summer and the ice skating rink in the winter and the sledding hills.


13- The farmers market in Madison is amazing. They have it twice a week and besides the crowds there, we love going. I love the smell of fresh, fragrant delicious produce and yummy baked goods.



14- Our jobs and even more, our co-workers. Ben has loved his co-workers here and has made many great friends. He tells me all the time that he has a secret plan to recruit them all to work with him in Boise. They have been very kind to us and we are better people for knowing them. We had an Idaho-Down with everyone that Ben works with the other night. Our photographers took 1400 pictures that night, so it may take a while for them to sort through them all and get them to us, but stay tuned for pictures of that. I have enjoyed my job and the great people that I have associated with. This will probably be the last time I work (that is as a RN) for a while. I must admit I am excited to stay home!


15- Last and most of all we will miss is all of our friends and neighbors that we have met here. We live on a very friendly street and have made our best friends here. We love our next door neighbors and are happy that they watch out for us, worry about us and are anxious and willing to help us out whenever we need something. We love our ex-neighbors who we still see all the time who do the same... and Megan doubles as a work-out buddy and hair dresser! Our boys love playing with their kids and will miss them so much. We have enjoyed BBQ's, holidays and many a day out on the Lane playing together. We love you Gepners and Willenburgs, please come visit us!! We also have met great friends that we go to church with. Good thing there are blogs to stay in touch!

So long, Madison. Thanks for being a great place for our little family!