Never in a million years would I have ever imagined that I would be sitting here, “blogging” about  life and my family’s adventures. I never really minded reading about other people’s stories; in fact, I figured, that people who write about their adventures and travels in life, are likely to be interesting people who travel to exotic places, try crazy foods,  and who go on insane adventures… people  who had totally blog worthy and enviable tales to tell.

My husband and I, and our 6 (yes, I said it… 6!) fur children live pretty quiet lives here in Chandler, Arizona (although I can’t say it’s quiet at home ever). What I mean, I suppose, is that we’ve always kept to ourselves and kept our little everyday small and big adventures to ourselves. In some ways, I’ve secretly  admired those who were committed enough to document the events in their lives they they felt were worth sharing with strangers, but I have never done so myself. I never put in the time nor the effort (or maybe never really had the patience to sit down and talk about what we did that day), and honestly, I just never really thought that our lives could be THAT interesting.

However,  my husband and I have both reached a point in our lives, inspired by documentaries that preach about happiness, minimimalism, and sustainability .. (aka “hippie stuff”) in which the little things that pass and all the adventures we experience as a family together truly matter above all. And we thought that maybe writing about it now could be a fun little detour from our busy professional lives and could fulfill a piece of ourselves that has been lacking in but secretly craving the creativity that we all lose over the years within the noisy traffic of everyday activities.

Life is full of fleeting moments., and we agreed together this year  to capture these moments in words and in photographs and to share it with you all. For those of you animal lovers out there, I think this blog will be a special treat for you as the center of our story revolves around our 5  dogs (Maxx, Churro, Luna, Eddie, and Pistachio,) and our “Cinderella cat” Oates! 

You can probably imagine that our lives with 6 animals is an adventure all in itself everyday, but our story and the motivation behind this blog began on August 14th 2018, the evening I decided to ask my husband if it would be alright with him if I went back to school to specialize in pediatric dentistry, knowing that this decision would be years in the making and would require the family to up and leave our cozy lives here in Arizona in pursuit of a lost dream that could literally take us ANYWHERE in this country. 

Nik was extremely supportive and has been since day 1,  but the events that I experienced during the almost one year application cycle weren’t exactly smooth sailing or predictable, and at many times very disappointing and discouraging. And yet, through it all (I won’t bore you with the details), we realized that our Arizona chapter would soon come to an end, and we would be starting new adventures in Toledo, Ohio!

We thought that the best way to move a family of 2 humans and 6 fur babies across the country enjoyably would be to RV it up! Keep in mind, neither Nik nor myself have ever been in an RV, let alone, have operated such a vehicle; we kind of looked at each other when we made this decision a few months ago that we would “just figure it out!”  

Our road trip adventure launches on June 14th, and we are anticipating a week long journey through New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Ohio. I’m pretty sure that we are both grossly underestimating the challenges we’ll be facing on this trip… the 8 of all cramped together in tight quarters . Dogs will be restless and barking, Eddie will be confused and will be spinning, and the cat will likely be pissed off the entire time; but this journey will likely be a once in a lifetime opportunity that is pushing us outside of our comfort zone. I look forward to documenting every step along the journey to “The North” and making lasting memories.

 

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton