The blog is back...tell a friend...

Well, after spending the last 45 minutes trying to remember how to log into the admin portal for this blog, resetting my password two times (and somehow also changing my FB password in the process), I have found my way back to my blog. When I logged in it said it has been read over 63,000 times. I am fairly certain that 62,995 times have been by Shawn and me. (And btw if you don't have Grammarly on your laptop - get it! I just wrote Shawn and I and it let me know that was incorrect. 🤪) 

The summer that I blogged was hands down the best summer of our lives. Yes, in hindsight it was totally bonkers as the kids were 2, 4 and 6. And yes, we had more screw ups than we could count (anyone remember the Tahoe catching on fire just 45 minutes into our trip outside of Charlottesville!?) but there is no question that we look back on that summer and the memories we made and nothing could top it. Except maybe, this summer. 🙂

As I type, it is 5:15am on Wednesday, July 13th. I just went to bed before 1am because if you see entry 2 from the OG blog (ooooh - it is now referred to as the OGB!), I am a terrible, last minute, scatterbrained packer - nothing has changed in the last 8 years. Shawn, on the other hand, has been packed since last weekend and likely won't wake up thinking about a skirt that he must take on the trip and realizing he hasn't seen it in weeks and where on earth could it be??

And this time, well, it's going to be a significantly different trip. Why? Glad you asked! :)

1. The kids are now 10, 12 and 14. No one is wearing diapers or falling out of RV bunk beds because they still sleep in a crib. (Thank the Lord.)
2. The OG RV has moved on to a new owner (sold during COVID after getting 1 million emails with interest given that the winners of COVID were pets, therapists and RV's!) So the tin can that blew us all over the mountains the first time is gone, and we now share an RV with my parents, which means it is a definite upgrade (and super clean if you know my mom!)
3. Oh, and Shawn and I have jobs now. So there's that. 🤪 (one blog in and already annoyed that they don't have my most favorite crying laughing face emoji! what in the world)

So if I had to boil it down to what I am most nervous about right now, it is the fact that we have jobs. That we still plan to do. While we travel. Like, actual zoom calls with cameras on and screensharing. If there is one memory I have from the OG trip, it is that the wifi was basically non-existant. At least this time we are staying in actual rental homes and not just living in the RV all summer. 

To say that our pace of life has been absolutely bananas in the last few years is an understatement. We even moved to be closer to school, which turns out just made us even busier now that they can go to ALL THE PLACES AND DO ALL THE THINGS. Shawn's 2nd company, goHappy, is growing like crazy (and yes, I work for my husband again - the sposs - spouse/boss for future reference!), and with the kids ages, we know we are in the most hectic years we will have. 

Which is exactly why this trip is happening. All we want to do is slow down, be present, soak up our kids and hold on to these years. Macy will be in college in FOUR YEARS. I just can't. 

We just finished reading "The ruthless elimination of hurry" and I am just convicted by this book and the thought of a slower pace, a present pace, one where I can be a much better mom, wife and friend pace. (side note - per the photo above, I literally have 255 unread texts right now. So, it's not you - it's me.) 

Like the last time, I don't know how much I will write, but I know that it was such a fun outlet for me and SO fun to go back and re-read. 62,955 times. 🙂 Stay tuned!