We happened to come to crossroads in both of our careers at the same time and decided we wanted to spend more time with our kids right now while they’re young and they still like us. We can get back to work after this intermission.
We had saved a some money in 2025 in preparation to buy a new house in 2026 so we had a nice little nest egg to start. Then we sold our house, our car, and as much as we could before putting the rest in storage.
Way beyond finances though, we are extremely lucky that we have an incredible support system back home in the US. My parents are amazing and they not only let us stay at their house for extended periods of time, but they also generously let us dump a bunch of our most important items on them and volunteered to receive our mail.
My brother and his family helped unload and agreed to keep an eye out for all the rest of our belongings in a storage unit near their house.
Plus we have amazing friends and family from all over the world constantly checking in on us and helping us feel like we’re really not that far away.
Not exactly.
We’re slow traveling, which means we’ll spend a few weeks in each place instead of rushing from one attraction to the next. Most days look surprisingly normal: work, school, grocery shopping, playgrounds, laundry, cooking dinner, and trying to remember which language to say “thank you” in.
TBD!
Our itinerary is intentionally flexible, but the plan is to spend the next year slowly making our way through South America, Europe, and Asia, with plenty of mountains, coffee shops, neighborhood parks, and the occasional tourist attraction along the way. We have a few stops in mind, but we intend to figure a lot of it out along the way. You’ll just need to stay tuned to keep up!
Yes—just not in a traditional classroom. Our kids are 5 and 3 so we’ll be homeschooling while we travel, which means learning will happen everywhere: museums, markets, hikes, train stations, conversations with locals, and probably the occasional kitchen table.
Yes, just not as much. I’m taking an intermission from corporate life after 20 years as a project manager.
We are instead focusing full time our our trekking company in Peru – First Step Expeditions. We run the customer communication and social media which we can do from anywhere while our team on the ground in Peru pulls together the logistics and leads the tours for each group.
I’ll be sharing more about how we’re balancing work, travel, budgeting, and everyday family life as we go.
Nope.
This isn’t a race to collect passport stamps.
We’re much more interested in getting to know places for a longer stretch of time.
Just a way to keep our friends and family updated on what we’re doing while sharing real life abroad.
Most posts will just be about some cool things we did each day or every few days. I’ll post more daily updates on Instagram. Sometimes I’ll make destination guides. Other times I will tell you what we really didn’t like about a place. If you have any other stuff you want to know – please ask!
No, not nearly as much as I’m missing the random Tuesday cocktail or weekend brunch with my friends.
I miss our bed, water pressure, air conditioning, our big comfy couch that we can all pile on, and honestly…our spice cabinet, but otherwise we haven’t thought too much about the house.
Our kids do ask where some of their toys are and when we’re going “home” sometimes. We tell them their stuff is at grandma’s or Uncle Walker’s and that we are at home for right now and they seem to be ok with it.
We miss people more than things though for sure.
I will, but only based on what we’ve actually experienced.
I’m not claiming to be an expert on every destination. I’ll definitely share what’s worked for our family, what didn’t, and what we’d do differently next time.
Coming soon! I’ll be adding and taking away from our packing list as we go. I need to set it up first though so please check back later!
Please do!
Whether you’re planning your own trip, living vicariously from your couch, or just here to laugh at whatever we’ve gotten ourselves into, I’m happy you’re here. Please feel free to comment or send me DMs as much as possible too – I’d love to know there are people out there coming along for the ride.