We Did a Thing, or a few. A Recap.

Yes, that is super vague and you’ve only gotten radio silence from me for a while now. It’s been a little busy. This will explain it all. But guess what, we’ve joined the rest of the pack of post (I think?) covid-er’s that up, moved, and relocated. A just because we’re so ambitious, we decided to do it twice. In less than a year. It’s been quite the journey to get here, but we’ve finally arrived at final destination number two, and we’re mostly all intact.

Stop 1: South Carolina

Back in February, we packed it up in Denver, Colorado and moved to upstate South Carolina, near Clemson University. It was been bittersweet, we really loved Denver. But relocating had been a possibility we talked about for more than a year and were so excited for the new possibilities ahead of us. It doesn’t hurt that the area is surrounded by beautiful lakes AND we were still in the foothills to the mountains. The beach was even in driving distance again. Two birds, one stone. So we traded in the snow ski’s, and headed back to the water to learn how to water ski. Surprisingly enough, and despite growing up in a beach town, I have no idea how to play water sport games.

We’re not new at this moving thing and are probably a little more seasoned than we would like. After spending almost ten adulting years in Orlando (plus that whole college thing and a new apartment each year), we had moved to Denver with elementary age kids in tow. We also had a company relocation package that took any pressure and work off of us during the moving process. This time was a little different, the kids are older and have a more established group of friends and activities. We had to pack our own boxes and truck.

Our new town was a little (alot) smaller and it took a country road to grab a gallon of milk, but we were ready to embrace the changes. What has been the same each time though is how much the Thomas 4 has learned to rely on each other. Life is always changing, but we have been consistent to our little unit.

Surprise!

The surprises don’t end there either. In Orlando we had owned our home and taken years to slowly make it a cozy home. In Denver we became renters again while we learned our way around. This time, we bought a house again… and here’s the surprising part – sight unseen. I can also confirm that shortages and shipping delays are real, we didn’t have a kitchen table (or any chairs) for the first month we lived here. My Pinterest account has welcomed me back with arms wide open and pictures on pictures of bohemian-inspired living rooms.

Surprise #2: We got a puppers! Like every good decision that the Thomas parents have to make, we needed about 4 years to discuss, process, and create a pros/cons list. A dog was no different. What breed, what size, how old, etc. And of course, after 4 years of discussions, it was really just one short series of text messages and a picture that had us sold on sweet Keiko, all the lists just thrown out the window.

It was a process…

While some people crave the stability of one place, moving has always been this exciting adventure for me. Having moved several times now, we’ve learned alot. The change isn’t so scary after the first time. You’ll always have a place to come back to if it doesn’t work out. Or maybe it does work, and your grateful for having friends all across the country. People and cultures are different across varying regions, but they are all generally kind and intrigued by stories of different places.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing – we packed up literally every square inch of the PODS container, putting things in the container or our cars until the very last minute. What started out neat, organized, and with a mock up in our basement. The end result was chaos. Luke’s cello took up so much space!

It was a VERY long car ride from Denver to South Carolina. (SPOILER ALERT: We took even longer in part 2 of this essay!) According to the kids, there wasn’t even corn to look at. We had two separate cars, it was like a less thrilling segment of the Amazing Race.

We did take a quick trip the other direction back up to Beaver Creek for a few days before leaving and liteally had the most epic trip of our entire time in Colorado. A blue bird powder day and a complete dump that filled the bowls in minutes.

The first leg of the race was to Kansas City – which was so much more fun then we thought. Other than the $23 Chris now owes the Kansas Transportation Authority for toll running, I’m so glad that we picked this as a stop. The following stop was Nashville, and really the first spot we had some less than stellar weather. After almost 4 years in Colorado, we didn’t really think about the possibility of a snow storm making this trek in February, so we are really thankful this was the first time we hit weather. From there and relative to the rest of the travel days, it was a short ride to our new home. We made it just in time to close the next morning!

Next: Part 2, Our Second Working Vacation!

File: We Moved! Seneca, South Carolina