We are now 2 weeks away from moving trucks and 3 weeks away from the beginning of our journey. The past couple of weeks have been full of getting ready to move, buying things for the trip and saying goodbye to friends and neighbors. Everything is happening so fast!

A lot goes into selling a house. Mom and Dad in particular have been taking down paintings, patching up nail holes, replacing mirrors, and painting walls. We have a long to-do list hanging by mom’s desk with everything we need to do. Slowly but surely, we’re checking the items off. Not only are we getting the house ready to move, but we are also selling and donating furniture, clothes, and knickknacks.

Honestly, buying gear for the trip hasn’t been that stressful. Each person has their own backpack to hold clothes, toiletries, day-to-day necessities. On Mother’s Day, the whole family went to REI to test out backpacks. The employee who helped us taught us a lot about finding the right backpack for each of us. We had to take into consideration that the three younger kids will still be growing and getting stronger while we’re traveling. We ended up getting varying sizes and styles of 40L-55L backpacks.

Saying goodbye is difficult. Though it’s cheesey, I’d like to think of it more as “see you later” than “goodbye.” The truth is, you don’t really know which it is. Between work, nannying, coaching, swim team, dive team and moving, we are all very busy. H and I are always running from one event to another. When we’re not, we are hanging out with friends, spending time at the pool or helping out around the house. We’ve had dinners and brunches with neighbors and families we are close with. It’s hard to imagine that we won’t be back here. There’s always a chance we will be, but it isn’t on the plan for now.

I think when the time comes, we’ll be ready to leave; but, until then, we’ll be rushing around doing as much as we can in our home town before time runs out!