Kevin was offered a retirement severance package from his job and we knew this was our chance. After all, we aren't guaranteed to see tomorrow so why wait a day longer to live out our dreams. In less than two months we found ourselves crammed into our minivan and making the drive from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Miami Beach, Florida. Step 1 in our crazy family adventure was underway.
With a 13 month lease signed and no plan for what would come next, we didn't waste any time getting our feet wet and exploring Southern Florida. Extra bonus, it felt oh so good enjoying the warmth of the October Florida sun knowing the Wisconsin temps were just beginning to drop.
Halloween was our first family "holiday" where we had to adjust from enjoying our old traditions. The first struggle there was realizing that instead of finding the warmest costume
(i.e. a furry cookie monster costume that we could bundle long johns and a winter jacket underneath in order to stay warm) we needed costumes that wouldn’t cause the kids to drown in their own sweat. The second struggle, with being sooo new to the area, was finding a comparable trick-or-treat experience.
We definitely fell short here as we had no idea yet which neighborhoods were safe and what the local traditions were, but they wore costumes and got candy so hey - it couldn't have been that bad.
Daily explorations became somewhat of an addiction as well as a nice distraction from the homesickness we were all feeling. Moving away from our family and friends, as difficult as it may have been, was a necessary move in order to be able to follow our dreams. We're fortunate enough to have support from all of them and we’ve been able to keep in close touch. Besides FaceTiming with family, some of our faves have been dolphin watching, swimming, snorkeling, beaching, sea creature searching, exploring islands, fishing, biking, kayaking, visiting new parks, you get the gist.
We've been so busy having fun in the sun.
We're also learning all about homeschooling. The kids were in public school previously, but with the move we decided to try our hand at something new.
This was definitely stressful territory for me, but as it turns out, what was going to work for us (and what wasn't) would slowly unfold on it's own making it much less stressful and much more enjoyable as the school year progressed. Something that I started out feeling very uncomfortable with turned into something that I will cherish forever. We loosely used curriculum books and did a combination of workbook style schooling and adventure learning. I'd say all-in-all our first year of homeschooling started out a bit slow, but ended up surprisingly well.
November brought us our first visitors who stayed with us for nearly a week. It felt so good to share our adventure with the people we love in person.
After their visit we joined them back in WI for Thanksgiving. The trip was filled with family visits and went by oh so fast. December had us back in FL thrilled to not be shoveling snow. We enjoyed a few days at Busch Gardens for a Christmas celebration followed by a trip to the beach to make a snowman out of sand.
With the start of the new year we turned a corner and really fell into stride. Our house still hadn't sold, but we were lucky to find renters, whew! We were running low on reserve funds and getting stressed out. Finding renters was a clutch move that turns out may be better than selling anyways. After all, we're fairly attached to our humble home.
We began meeting up with a homeschool group once per week and Oliver and Emmylou started playing baseball on local Little League teams. As the kids began making friends, we started feeling just a bit more at home. Eden thrived in gymnastics class and after baseball ended Emmylou tried her hand at horseback riding.
The next six months were filled with visits from friends and family as well as several trips back to Wisconsin. Oh, and lots of baseball, homeschool meet-ups, play dates, learning, adventuring, gymnastics, horseback riding, swimming, beaching and fun.
Here we are, already into August and experiencing our first Florida summer.
While so far it's not as hot as we had imagined it might be, I do have to say that I have never sweat so much in my life. Oddly enough, none of us really seem to mind it much.
Our first year of adventure is coming to a close and we are ecstatic to report that something BIG is right around the corner for us.
Stay tuned as we prep for the next phase of our adventure!
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