We spent most of the day at home in our pajamas. We woke up to a thunderstorm and it rained for most of the morning and early afternoon, and I think that we were all a little bit reluctant to get back into the car. Kristin and I also feel like we need some time to decompress and figure out how it feels to live here, without the pressure to be social. By 3:00 I decided that we really ought to go do something, and it had stopped raining, so we took the kids downtown to the Kalamazoo Valley Museum, which is free. It doesn’t compare to Stepping Stones (our old museum that we all loved SO much), but it’s something to do on a rainy day.

As we were leaving, my dad called to see if we wanted to meet them for dinner at a pizza place downtown. That sounded perfect, so we joined them and followed it up with ice cream at the best little place that we’ve been wanting to bring Jonah to, but never have. The kids were ridiculously excited. Jude’s tongue started darting in and out as soon as he saw Kristin’s blue moon cone, and Vivi made her signature “Aaahh!” noise with her mouth open wide, waiting for a bite.

As we left the ice cream shop, I noticed a spectacular little independent bookstore I’d never seen before, and Kristin quickly fell in love. We drove by our house on the way home, and felt great about the way our evening had unfolded and started to feel a little more warmth for Kalamazoo. Little by little, I think we’ll find our way here.