Coming here to live vs. coming here on vacation proved to be two
very different things. Packing was harder because I knew we were not just here for the beach or to tour some Mayan ruins, but to actually stay.
This mindset penetrated everything we planned and the first week of our stay was focused around finding a school for the kids and a place to live.
Traveling with kids is an interesting experience. Traveling with anyone who has a different personality than your own can be a
challenge. Everyone has different ideas of where you need to be and when and what makes for comfortable travel. I’m an over-packer. Romeo has to be through security before he can relax. We discovered that Goose is a nervous traveler.
The day began early. Everyone was excited to get started with the big trip. A couple of our best friends met us at the house to have coffee and bagels before they drove us to the airport. Continue reading
The weeks and days leading up to the move were more than I anticipated. There’s quite a lot to do to prepare for an international
move. Not to mention the various levels of emotional well being (or lack thereof) experienced by everyone.
Romeo worked out his final 2 weeks of his working-for-the-man day job. I finished packing and cleaning out the house with the help of an amazing professional organizer. The kids had more sleepovers than this mama would normally handle because they needed a lot of last hurrahs before leaving. So how did everyone deal with the stress of the big move? Continue reading
For me the defining moment was that look on my bosses face when I put my notice in. It pretty much took his breath away, and he couldn’t respond. And I heard from co-workers that all he could talk about was the fact that I’d be in Mexico. I offered to provide transition and support remotely from Mexico, and he couldn’t get around the fact that I wouldn’t be working from Florida but instead I’d be in Cancun(even though I explained 3 times it was 3 hours away. Continue reading
Sorry we haven’t posted in a while. There has been a TON going on. So here’s the big one, a decision has been made, and tickets have been bought. Woot!!!
Anyone know where that is? It’s one of the most popular ruins. It’s Chichen Itza. Not that we’re moving into an ancient Mayan Ruin. But we are moving to the Yucatan Peninsula.
When we leave on this journey, all of our possessions have a fate. They are either
1) going with us
2) going into storage or
3) being sold.
We’ve reached the point where we are ready to start selling some of the things that will not be going with us or into storage. Continue reading
We had a house showing in the morning on Sunday. The showing came after what seems like the longest day of the 
year in our house – dance recital day. 3 dancing girls + a really enthusiastic dance studio owner = 7 different dance numbers and 11 costumes (and luckily only 8 hair changes). Dance recital day starts at 7 in the morning with a protein-packed breakfast and the unnatural act of putting makeup on children. After that it’s down to the performing arts center for a dress rehearsal that lasts from 8:30am – until you finish all your dances. For us, that meant 2pm. Then it’s back home to “rest” until we have to re-do all the hair and make-up and be back downtown for the performance at 6:30. The curtain goes up at 7 and at 10pm we are still taking photos and packing the rolling wardrobes up. Longest.Day.of.the.Year. But the kids love it, so we do it.
Traveling necessitates a minimalist approach to packing. The unfortunate 
truth is that we are all going to have to carry whatever we plan to bring. The more we pack, the more we have to personally haul around. The idea of minimalist packing brought me to discover the capsule wardrobe.
I have been attempting to embrace a minimalist lifestyle at home with the KonMari method of decluttering. I have tried to lessen the amount of kidstuff at home by emphasizing experiences > stuff for them. And I have come across articles like this, shared by other minimalist moms.
So at this point, we’ve been talking about leaving the country and traveling the world for over six months. But what happens when you don’t exactly see eye to eye? What if you travel very differently. How do you make it all work?
When we were first married we traveled VERY differently. My idea of traveling is relaxation. It includes a beer, and good book and not moving very much at all. I remember quite clearly the first time we took a cruise and my wife wanted to do EVERYTHING. And I mean everything, she wanted to plan every moment of the cruise. She literally couldn’t sit on deck and read a book for 30 minutes without getting antsy and knowing “the plan”. I was thinking when are we going to start vacationing? Continue reading
Explore. Learn. Play 