PBnJ5 Adventures

Well my friends it has been almost three weeks since I have posted and life looks and feels a little different now then it did when I last posted. And by a little I mean A LOT! But first Christmas. We had a great time being home in Colorado. A little disappointed that we did not get a White Christmas, but we did get one decent snowfall while we were back which I guess is better than nothing. It was great to be home with family and so thankful for Grandma who was up early with Zac every morning. She was our hero. Why we (and I mean the boys) can’t sleep past 5:30 is a frustrating moment of wonder that continues to amaze me even now back on the road. But I digress. We had a good time and enjoyed large indoor running/play areas and long hot amazing showers. We got to see some friends and were blessed by all the encouragement we received while being home.

The boys did great flying back to Houston. But they started to loose it a little bit when we had to take a taxi (with no carseats, ssshhhhhh) because the stupid hotel shuttle just randomly decided to stop running with no explanation. Apparently they had a New Year’s party that just couldn’t wait. By the time we got to the hotel their credit card machine was having issues. Turns out they can’t issue a room key without payment and they don’t take cash. People, I have three exhausted children using your luggage cart as a race car around your lobby that I can’t control anymore, you are KILLING ME! So forget you stupid Comfort Suites; hello Home2 Suites. Best decision of our life. We finally got to bed before we could ring in the the New Year and sent 2019 off with a great night sleep.

We spent New Years Day with my Great Aunt Jane and Uncle John who live in Houston. They showed us around and took us to a great Mexican restaurant, as you do when in Tex-Mex land. We appreciated a house to hang out in and spending time with family we rarely see. Seeing friends and family has been one of the best parts of our trip for sure. We spent another night in a hotel down by Sugar Land (one of my favorite Country bands by the way) at a HORRIBLE Comfort Suites because there literally was no room for us at the other 3 hotels we tried. It was gross and not restful at all. But it was right across the highway from the Chevy dealer which brings me to the main point of this blog post.

We bought a new truck. Not just any truck. A giant 3500 Diesel Silverado. WHAT?! WHY?! Well my friends, let me refer you back to my previous post of how incredibly hard our first month of full time living has been. There might have been a few things I left out or didn’t elaborate on as much as I could have that made our first month super hard. The main thing being our RV. Just to be clear. When we bought the RV in June we NEVER intended to go full time. It was a 1 month at a time kinda home. When we decided to go full time we thought about switching, but decided to go with what we had and knew. However, it was the things we didn’t know about our home sweet home that had us considering quitting by the first week of December. But we ain’t quitters! (I hope you read that with a hillbilly accent). So if something isn’t working you make a change. And so we did.

We bought our new truck on the 2nd, and drove on the 3rd to Brenham to pick up our RV. Our wonderful friends who let us park at their house for Christmas traded us the RV for our Jeep. The Jeep will make it’s way back to Colorado in February hopefully thanks to our wonderful brother in law, but for now it is a Texas resident. We drove to Buda and on the 4th finalized papers on our new 5th Wheel. Holy Moly it is hard to keep up and I am actually living this life!

We had looked at this 5th wheel when we were in Buda right before flying home. While we were home we decided to pull the trigger and jump off the logistical nightmare ledge. We reserved the model we wanted and started looking online for trucks from Colorado. I will not bore you with all the logistics in making such a huge move from a few states away but I can assure you it was stressful. BUT SO WORTH IT!!!

We are now proud owners of a 41 ft. Grand Design Solitude and we (so far) could not be happier. We traded in the RV, good riddance, except Tucker was very emotional, and said goodbye to it. We spent 2 days moving houses and could NOT have done it without our friends Gordy and Michelle watching the boys for us.

Our maiden voyage was back to Houston. We found an awesome RV resort that has been a great place to continue organizing and figuring out how to use everything. I think I have already cooked from scratch more in my new amazing kitchen than I did the entire time we were in the old RV. If you know me, you know my soul died a little in the RV not being able to cook for real. The living space is incredible with enough couches for everyone to sit without touching each other (not that they don’t but at least it is an option). And the main selling point, we can sit in the living room after the boys go to bed instead of sitting on our bed whispering with the lights off. It sounds romantic – it is not. It may seem small but trust me when I tell you it is a game changer.

Tonight is our last night in Houston and then we start our trek down the Gulf Coast. I think Tucker might loose his mind when he finally gets to dig in the sand and swim!!! We did enjoy going to NASA today. Hard to tell how much the boys really take in at a place like that but you never know what seeds are being planted. Maybe one of them will end up on Mars someday. (Secretly I hope not, I don’t think my mama’s heart could handle that.) Did you know it will take at least a year for a trip to Mars and you will loose 2% of your bone and muscle mass! Just a knowledge nugget for you, I was listening.

Our hope and prayer is that we continue to love our new ride and home as much as we have so far. There is so much less stress on a daily basis and during driving. We are so thankful that everything worked out as smoothly as it did in the buying/transition process. There was a lot of moving pieces and God put them all where they needed to go for us. Thank you Jesus!!

I think my biggest take away from all of this has been that just because you started down a path that turns out to be awful, it is okay to turn around and start over. Don’t let what other people are going to think of you keep you from making decisions that will improve the quality of your life. Pick your hard, but don’t stay miserable for the sake of loosing face. It can be a hard pill to swallow because let’s be real, pride does not swallow easily. But at the end of the day, you are the one who has to live in the stress and pain of whatever isn’t working, not anyone else. Do you and do it well. Your potential is exponential when you aren’t in survival mode all of the time. I am hopeful that we are entering into our season of thriving. Enough with just surviving – I am ready to start having some fun. So I think it is time to take a drive down I-10 and see what there is to see. God is good – all the time.

Live your Adventure,

Julie