We’re Officially a Full-Time Traveling Family!

This weekend we officially set off on our Great Big Adventure!

We’ve been a bit quiet on the blog front, but for good reason. Apparently packing up your entire life — from a two-story home to a Sprinter van — takes a considerable amount of effort! ?

Over the past week, it felt like we never stopped moving. Steven was putting in overtime on the van build, while I focused on selling/donating home goods, clothes and other items online. With the latter, it seemed like every time I opened a drawer, cupboard or cabinet I found a plethora of stuff! At one point, my goal narrowed to cleaning out one room at a time — and then shutting the door for good to signal that we had gotten everything out of there.

We also had to take care of some straightforward tasks, like mail forwarding, disconnecting our utilities, signing escrow papers, etc. For those wondering, we’re having our mail forwarded to my parents house for the time being. (Thanks, Mom!) The way I see it, it gives us a reason to come home periodically and keeps me from having to set up a PO box every place we stop.

We had one hiccup this past week, when Harvey woke up with an eye swollen shut! After a quick eye doctor’s visit, we confirmed it’s nothing serious (an allergic reaction) and we’re able to get treatment situated, thankfully.

On Thursday night, we met up with my family at a local Mexican spot for our family dinner. This is a tradition we started doing YEARS ago, before marriages and kiddos. Every Thursday we get together for dinner, usually rotating homes every week or going out to a restaurant on special occasions. It was bittersweet to know that it would be our last hurrah for awhile. ?

We had our third and final yard sale the day before we departed. I hadn’t slept very well the night before. I couldn’t stop thinking about all of the memories that we’ve built in our home over the past 10 years. For the first time in months, I let myself have a good cry. And you know how that goes — once you start, you begin thinking of other things to make you cry even harder — like saying goodbye to family and friends. So the next morning, I was emotionally and mentally exhausted! I wasn’t in the mood to do another yard sale, but after my Mom brought over an iced latte, I regained some energy and got to work. Good thing we did — we ended up selling about $1,000 worth of stuff!

On that same day, we had friends come pick up the washer/dryer, the kids’ beds, our fridge and couches. Literally the only thing left was our king bed, which was getting picked up on our departure day. Oh! And our kitty Lola. My brother and sister-in-law volunteered to take our cat in, so they picked her up on Friday afternoon. We couldn’t think of a better home for our sweet kitty!

After the yard sale, we had a quick lunch and then went back to work. While most of the home items and appliances were gone, it was time to start working through things like cleaning supplies, canned goods, bathroom items, etc. This is no small task! I also cleaned out the fridge, transferring whatever I could into our Dometic, which is the fridge we’re using in the van. My parents came back by with my Dad’s truck to take a load to the dump, saving us a trip.

Thankfully on Friday my mother-in-law took the boys for the day to spend some quality time with their cousins, which freed us up quite a bit. And to top it off, our sister-in-law picked up the kids in the afternoon to go bowling! The boys were STOKED.

By the end of Friday, we were pooped. Because we didn’t have any pots, pans or plates anymore, we opted for one last dinner at our sushi joint, followed by some frozen yogurt.

The next morning was our departure day! We both woke up early and started moving all of our “van” stuff — basically everything that was coming with us — downstairs into our empty living room. Besides that, we needed to clean out every single crevice of the house too.

Around 8am, I heard a parade of people outside of our house. We came outside to the best surprise — a final visit and champagne toast from all of our best friends! ? I literally started tearing up on the spot! Knowing that we were taking off later that day, it meant so much to us to see our friends (and receive some big hugs!). Words can’t express how grateful we are for their thoughtfulness. Thank you friends for making our send-off so special!

After their visit, we went back into beast mode! We started packing up the van and triple-checking each room. It felt like the clean-up would never end! Steven’s parents came to help, which moved us along a bit faster.

Finally, the van was ready to rock and the house was empty. The four of us sat down on the floor in the living room, where Steven helped us bid our home goodbye. We thanked those four walls for treating us so well, and giving us so many incredible memories. From preparing for our wedding day to bringing Ruby home from the shelter, to bringing both boys home from the hospital and celebrating each milestone, we are so grateful to have made those memories in this special place. Of course, Steven and I were on the verge of tears during this moment, but trying to hold it all in for the boys — who were simply excited to hop in the van and start our Great Big Adventure.

After a last round of hugs with my parents, who came by to bid us farewell, the tears REALLY started coming down! I felt a whirlwind of emotions as we backed out of the driveway one last time and said goodbye to our home of 10+ years. Even harder than all of that was saying “see ya later” to our parents. ? And with that, we started our trek down to Paso Robles, which will be our home for the next 30 days.

It’s difficult to find the right words to express what we’re feeling. Excitement. Sadness. Wonder. Gratitude. All the feels! Once we got a ways down the road, Steven and I looked at each other and laughed at how crazy it is that we’re actually here DOING IT. We’re fulfilling our wildest dreams. It’s hard to believe that a year ago we set out to make it happen. And here we are!