June 2022 - moving from TX to VA and taking another summer off IG
/Hey hey hey!!! I don’t know who will see this (if anyone haha), but HIIIII! I hope you’re doing well!!!
It’s been about a month since I deleted IG off my phone for the summer to move our family across the country and to be more present with my little ladies + my man and my pups, and I must say - I NEVER REGRET THIS.
Sure it takes about a week to get used to, because my fingers so naturally want to open IG and scroll endlessly to keep up with my friends and family…and yes, there’s also FOMO,
but let me tell you - the memories made with my people with no obligation or timeline to post and share make these breaks so so so so worth it!!!
I first took an IG break in 2020 for 6 months, and since then I’ve been taking every June, July, some of August, and all of December off when my girls are out of school. If you’re feeling a pull to step away and shift priorities for a bit, I highly encourage IG breaks! If it’s your business, then yes it takes sacrifice and unfortunately you’ll probably lose momentum, growth, and money, but I am a big believer that the Lord will provide in other ways.
So let’s get to it! Wanna know what we’ve been up to?…LET’S CHAT! :)
WE MOVED!!! We are now Virginians! and I must say…Viriginia is truly for lovers! It’s a beaut!
We have yet to receive all of our household goods, but here’s a peak into our place! We don’t know how long we’ll be here, sadly, but we’re determined to make the most of it while we’re here! We are gonna make a few home updates, but here’s the start! The story of how this place landed in our laps is such a sweet one that I’ll share one day!
We haven’t received any of our main household goods from the Army yet, and we’ve been sleeping on the ground for about 3 weeks, but we’ll hopefully get our main things in the next couple weeks so I can start truly putting things away, cleaning, and decorating! I need our furnitureeeeee!
But let’s backtrack to leaving TX. Oh man…that was definitely the hardest house we’ve had to leave. We loved the TX house SO SO SO much and all of it’s unique character. And if it weren’t for the market, we would’ve held onto her. Sadly, it was time to say goodbye. Here are some pics from that departure. I’ll never get over the high ceilings, the brick fireplace, the archways, the concrete floors, and the one level open floor plan.
While the summer’s been filled with highs and lows and lots of travels, we’ve also made lots of fun memories. Most of which have been on our bikes as a family! It’s no secret that we LOVE cycling, and both girls learned to ride on their "Guardian Bikes” that I rave about. They’re genuinely the safest bikes on the planet with their sure stop braking system, and both girls have so much confidence on them.
They were also shown on Shark Tank, and we’ve upgraded to the bigger sizes for both girls now too. That’s how much we love them!!
Here are their first bikes from Guardian, and now we’ve upgraded to their 20” bigger models! We can’t get enough of them!!! Shop them here : http://go.guardianbikes.com/aff_c?offer_id=1&aff_id=1021
We traveled with their bikes + our bikes on the back of my Ascent via a LOLO racks system which I can’t recommend enough! I’ll share more about it when I get back on IG in august.
In addition to lots of bike riding, we’re calling this the summer of softball + board games. Here’s a peak at some random fun memories we’ve made thus far.
Wanna know something crazy? My favorite number is 3, and Everly just by luck got number 3 for her jersey number AND was placed on the “Kentucky Wildcats”…one of my dad’s favorite college teams. When he passed away, he was found next to his UK baseball hat that I still have. So bittersweet seeing her in this.
I feel him ever so present every softball season and just wish more than anything he could be here to hear all about his little Everly shining in the sport. …miss you so much daddy.
Aside from tons of family time, we’ve also said many goodbyes along the way. Here are some pics from all of those farewells. It’s been a bittersweet month in every sense of the word.
We’ve done this moving thing so so so so so many times, but let me tell ya - the goodbyes never get easier. :(
After leaving Texas and setting off on our road trip to Virginia, we decided to stop midway in Birmingham to see Rachel and her family!!! Rachel is our shipping coordinator, head of logistics, and strategizes/designs alongside me, and it was SUCH A SPECIAL TREAT for Blake and the girls to meet her family! we were sorority sisters in college turned business partners, and man…EVERYONE needs a Rachel on their team.
Here are some more pics from the trip as well! We took about 5 days and went 5 hours a day which was so wonderful for the girls and I. Blake drove separately in his truck with the pups and pulled a Uhaul, while the girls and I hauled the bikes (and my houseplants)…pahahhaha! Yes, I move my houseplants, and yes I water them at the hotels along the way. 😂😂😂
Anywho! We drove 5 hours a day which worked out perfectly because we were able to sleep in and have breakfast at the hotels, depart around 10-11, stop around 12-1 for lunch, then finish the drive and arrive at our next place to checkin by 3 in time for swimming and dinner! It never felt rushed and we truly enjoyed the drives because they weren’t too long. The girls and I all get car sick too, so that was a great distance each day.
We stayed at Hilton hotels due to our rewards and membership with them, but this trip we tested out their newest line (Tru Hotels by Hilton) and we loved them! They were great for short stays, so family friendly, modern, clean and had tons of activities! We also loved how bright and colorful they were. Plus they’re dog friendly!
Towards the end of the trip, since we’d swam in so many hotel pools, Everly nearly mastered underwater swimming (go E!!!) and the girls also got their ears pierced so so randomly on a whim in a mall! hahaha! Reminded me of my Claires days from childhood.
We were going through a severe storm with winds up to 80 mph and were told to seek shelter immediately so we detoured to a random mall, and the rest was history. We figured we’d turn a rather scary situation into something memorable, and I can definitely say the girls will NEVER EVER forget this roadtrip.
Since we’re starting to get settled in VA (although we’re still waiting on all of our things which will likely still be another few weeks since it’s delayed :( ), I wanted to share some fun summer links that have helped us get through the month, or that I’ve found since being away. You can shop these affiliate links below!
A few bonus items that I forgot to add and didn’t feel like updating the graphic heheh! Just some cute colorful things that I’ve gotten for the new house or for back to school (and Halloween hehehe!)
And yes for those asking via email or anywhere else, I still plan to launch presets and some fun new products ASAP!!! I’ve just been so busy with the fam, so I promise it’s good reasons I am delayed.
Until then, if you haven’t seen our summer sale, it’s still live in the shop and Rachel is still able to ship items over the summer from our shipping center! Feel free to email me if you have any other questions!!
You can check those sale items out here via this link! I even opened up preorders for some sold out pins!
oh….one last thing…the highlight of the summer? …
It’s most definitely Top Gun with my man, and Jurassic World with the fam. We are such a movie family, and for both of these movies to come out this summer back to back - wow, what a treat!
I’ll end with this. Texas sunsets have been my favorite in my life. Every few months (maybe 3-4 times a year) we’d get a bright pink, cotton candy sunset over our backyard. I was so sad knowing we wouldn’t get one final sunset to look at before moving, and just as God always does - He gave me a little wink, reminding me that everything would be okay. Capturing this sunset, mixed with the garden that my hands built from the ground up, was Heaven sent. This is how I’ll remember this home.
It’s no lie that moving is super stressful. Doing it as much as we do, is even more difficult.
And I’ll never be able to explain how timely and simply perfect that final sunset was on the eve of leaving our special central Texas home.
now, we’re off on new adventures. capturing new sunsets, making new friends, building new memories, decorating new spaces, and remaining hopeful that tomorrow will always be a better day.
I sure hope you and yours are doing so very well in whatever season of life you’re in! I appreciate you checking in here, and know that as always, every time I step away, I GENUINELY MISS CONNECTING WITH YOU! so please reach out and keep in touch if you feel like it. If you want to reference any of these pics or this blog post in the future, please don’t forget to pin any image here for easy reference and bookmarking.
Happy memory making friends!
I’ll see ya in August! :)