Well goodbye summer!

If you are joining me here after I shut down my facebook, I welcome you! It has been 2 weeks officially since I deactivated it, and I can honestly say I dont miss it, AND I feel lighter and more free of brain space. Its mighty refreshing.

This summer has literally BLASTED past us. We as a family, (as you may know) started our summer adventure moving into our camping trailer over 2 months ago. This was to give us a good chance to prep our house to be listed for sale. We spent hours on cleaning, repairs, and updates/remodels, worked in 100 degree weather, learned how to (or not to) tile a backsplash and a brick fireplace, and overall just poured out our all on this place. We listed it for sale about 10 days ago and received our first offer yesterday. We were THRILLED to say the least. We accepted the terms and are now awaiting the inspections, and appraisal. Did you know that its now standard for most home buyers to request a radon test, along with a sewer scope? Fascinating. We are praying for smooth inspections and a quick transition.

Lets be real here (am I ever not?) I love trailer living. SO MANY have asked us how we are, while rubbing our arm with a sympathetic look... We are great! Trailer life is actually quite awesome. We have had bumps in the road (literally and metaphorically speaking) we have battled over the tiny storage space, I have organized, and reorganized several times over to find what we need and dont actually need, we have felt the walls closing in, and also experienced the joy of a more simplistic living style. I came up with this "you know you live in a trailer when: " segment for your enjoyment. I have had so many friends say "I WOULD LOVE to do what you are doing," or "I AM going to talk my hubby into selling everything and buying a tiny house."  This is for you, for those of you who need a little insight onto the day to day living in a tiny house.

You know you live in a trailer when:

1. You realize what a light sleeper you are, when your son rocks the whole house using the potty.

2. You become expert status in meal planning, because the real estate in your fridge is minimal. You may even find yourself foraging in your moms garden for dinner.

3. You learn very quickly that if you forget to turn on the water heater 30 minutes in advance, you can either forgo your shower that day (again) or wait ever so patiently for the water to heat.

4. You discover how amazing and quick propane heats on the stove.

5. You fold laundry the second it comes out of the dryer (score) because otherwise its blocking either the whole walkway, or the whole couch.

6. Your kids become rock-hard sleepers because they go to bed and if you still want to watch a movie, you are in the same room. Sleep my children. Sleep.

7. You text private conversations to your spouse because lets face it, there is no privacy in a tiny house.

8. You become a stock holder in command-brand hooks and hang nearly everything you own from a hook or a hanger.

9. You dont keep a single spare thread or piece of scrap paper. There is simply not enough room. That receipt you want to keep? Go put it in your car.

10. If it seems like you are wearing the same clothes every 2-4 days.... Its because you are.


Seriously though. Its not bad at all. We were able to hitch up and leave for the weekend a few weeks ago, spent some time with Hubby's sweet Auntie and Uncle, hit the beach for the afternoon, and I didnt have to pack a single thing. Talk about being prepared!

Summer is quickly winding down, and we are looking forward to where God will take us next. Ethan is starting 1st grade in just a few short weeks and Luke and I will be starting preschool together. Seth and I will begin shopping for what I am calling our "forever" home. One can hope right? ;)

Thanks for checking in. Our family is so blessed with such amazing family and friends, Feel free to leave a comment! We would love to hear from you! :D

Fun at Peter Iredale

 The kids and I built an air tram for their legos. lots of fun!

 The view from the master bed. My jewelry, spare change, socks, earplugs, hat, and everything else misc. storage.

Just a normal morning in the trailer.

Ireland Adventures: Day 1 Arrival and Grafton Street

Well we finally arrived here In Dublin. We traveled over 13 hours total and both slept very little on the plane. We had read that in order to adjust to the time change more efficiently,  to do whatever it takes to stick to the new time zone schedule as much as possible, but staying up all night then arriving for their "morning" is easier said than done. Most of you know I am not a coffee drinker, but when Seth got in line for a mocha yesterday morning in dublin airport I said "sign me up"..

Our next adventure was renting our adventure car.

Seriously?  Wrong side of car. Wrong side of road. Very confusing on a sleep deprived brain. But exciting! Seth took it like a champ. We are learning to navigate with nearly no street signs. Ireland's roads are in Gaelic. . With English printed underneath. And as are general rule, only marking main highways, not side streets. The street signs are old,  faded, and on the sides of buildings, behind trees, if you can find them. We considered this our "Amazing Race" training and made it to trinity college after only having to turn around twice, and even that's a chore as the streets are wicked narrow, and most cars parked along the street are even parked half on the sidewalk. We rocked it!

We arrived at trinity college and met up with my Mom and Grandma who had arrived 4 days earlier. We checked into our dorm room with its 2 college size beds and as soon as I sat down I started falling asleep. So off we went (after more coffee and tea) walking down towards the famous Grafton Street.  So much activity there! Musicians and other misc. talent (some more than others). Hundreds of people and street vendors and many many shops. Some we recognized (McDonald's and subway) and many we didnt. So much excitement and activity. Pretty cool stuff. That's where we saw the dudes in the black suits still as statues (creepy) and grandma requested a picture of the street sweeper. :D

More soon!  Enjoy these pictures!

Seattle 2013

This post is a little late, but I believe taking a trip to Seattle may very well become a yearly tradition for our family.. so I wanted to document it. We took Ethan when he was 9 mths old but this was Luke's first trip.

We bought the Seattle City Pass which had vouchers to let us into the main Seattle attractions, including a harbor cruise to see the cityscape of seattle, 2 trips up to the top of the Space Needle, the Aquarium, and many other things that we didn't even have time to do (the aviation museum and science center are both on our list for next year)... We highly recommend the city pass, as it saves a considerable amount of money, and is still valid up to 3 months after purchase. We made sure to book a hotel that had a pool so the kids could get some water time. They sleep so well after pool time!

Enjoy the pictures! :)


Pool time!

 Ethan can't help but dance when he hears music. I love that about him.

 

 We rode the max that took us from the space needle to a nearby shopping mall (it was huge!) Ethan loved watching the buildings go by...

 

 Seattle Aquarium

 I took this from the Harbor Cruise Ship.

 

 Photo Bomb. :)

 Seattle Train Station

 

 Waving to the Max train going by.

 First face paint!!!

 

See you next time Seattle!