Why this? Why now?

There have been so many serendipitous things that have led us here. A couple of summers ago, my oldest, Sienna, and I got the idea to live in a camper. We loved the idea of getting up early to see the sun rise and staying up to see the sunsets, running along beautiful trails, swimming all over the place, and feeling free and relaxed. Oh yeah, and the s’mores!. However, I still would have had to work, so we couldn’t sell everyone on this idea. We let it sit. Then move forward a couple of years…Our oldest dog Frisco had died due to old age and we were faced with having to get rid of our puppy after he bit a neighbor friend in the face and scared us all. We had to get rid of him. He wasn’t mean, just jumpy and scared and over protective- also kind of crazy sometimes and seemed to not always know who we were. We were able to find another home for him without small children and were just happy to not have to put him down. We were all saddened by this, but as the days passed after he left, we realized that he was one of the biggest reasons we couldn’t even fathom living in a camper and traveling. 

Also, we really wanted to get off of HWY 285 as our kids started to approach driving age, but just in general. Nothing is close by. We have to drive almost 20 minutes to see friends for any of our kids. Most of our kids’ friends live 30-45 minutes away. Ava’s  swim class requires an hour of driving, and Sienna’s rock climbing requires an hour and a half. We have to turn down requests for other activities, because our work, the timing, and the excessive driving makes it nearly impossible. Then, when we are doing these things, we barely see each other. There were some weeks when I didn’t see Teagan for 2-3 days or longer because I leave before she is awake and get home after she is asleep. Nick and I barely talk some weeks except through texts for days at a time! This didn’t seem like the healthiest family situation and was exhausting!

Last, but not least, we only live once and we never know when today might be our last one on earth. The last few years have been hard with my mom’s Alzheimers getting worse and worse. We saw her a few times over the last year, but it was not enough and she didn’t remember it anyway! We did it for us and to give our kids and us some memories of Grandma Sue to hold onto. Then, this spring, right as we were trying to sell our house, she took a turn for the worse and was put in hospice care. We dreaded that she would be in her near-catatonic state for months or years, but God does have mercy and he took her all-too-quickly for us and she passed on April 4th, 2023. Alzheimers is hereditary and I am going to make some memories while I still can! Also, maybe if I can get healthy I can keep my mind healthy too. I know that we all need to take better care of ourselves, but we are all slaves to the “Golden Cage” we create and I want a break. 

I want to see family and friends I haven’t seen in years. I grew up with my aunts, uncles, cousins, and so many great family friends in the midwest and in other places and haven’t seen them for all too long. Nick’s family lives on the East Coast and see them only about once or twice a year if that. Our travels include time for us all to get sick of each other and also to enjoy some time together. The experience of growing up around aunts, uncles, cousins and so many other extended family members is something we have deprived our children of with our choice to live in Colorado. We are hopeful that we can reconnect with many of them over the year and give our own kids some of those kinds of memories that have been so precious to us and even help get us through the hard times.