I wanted to call this post “on the road again”, but it turns out I’ve already written 3 posts with that exact title, so…. might be time for something new 🙂
Today was step one of a multi-step January that I am equal parts excited / nervous / sad / happy about. If I could draw, I think I’d sketch a picture of Jon and I, faces forward, hands clasped, a luggage-scale in my left hand, a wad of CDN/USD/pesos/eBay bills/amazon orders/west marine receipts in Jon’s right hand, standing on the brink, staring out at a huge curling rip-tide wave of jumbledness…. the plethora, the MASS of things that January has going for it… the leaving of family and friends and jobs and dogs… the fear of visa interviews and borders… the hope of maybe finishing this visa process… the anticipation of seeing Maine family and friends that I haven’t seen in 14 MONTHS… the excitement about getting back to the boat at some point this month… the dreams for this upcoming sailing season… and the myriad of details that go into making it all happen!!!
It’s hard to describe what it feels like to pack up your entire life (into 2 checked bags and 2 carry-on bags, each — pretty good, if you ask me, especially since 50% of that is for Brio and Brio alone) and set off… it’s freeing, in that I feel like we could go anywhere, do anything, show up to Brio and just set off… and it’s sad, in a root-tearing, family-goodbyeing, ‘where is our home’ kind of way… We know how this goes though — we’ve been here before. To live this life we have to literally uproot everything and do a physical 180… and transition is tough, no matter how you crack it.
Anyways. Enough of that! We’re sitting in a Seattle hotel room, all eight bags packed and ready for our 5:35 AM flight. Each one weighs 49.7 pounds (#luggagescalesarethebest), so there’s no way we’re cracking any of them open… My sister drove us all the way down here to drop us off, we had some sushi and ice cream to celebrate our last minutes together, had a good cry in the Best Western parking lot, and then that was that. A few photos from the last month:
Gingerbread with the boys:
Jon’s reaction to his gingerbread-truck (GMS Sierra!) falling apart:
My favourite Christmas gift this year (hand-made by Jonathan):
My sister celebrating 2014:
At Jess’ short story reading (she kicked butt):
Jess eyeing up the hill (you can’t quite see the jump in the middle…!):
Getting a little shove over the edge:
Jess and her cute giraffe hat:
Jon feeling the fear:
Jess *really* feeling the fear:
Jessica’s delivery system back to the top of the hill:
Making lists and checking them twice:
A last high-tea for the Kruger sisters:
The ridiculousness of our lives this morning: 
If only this was a fake pic… leave it to Jess to take pictures of the worst times (I’m gonna miss this girl):
If nothing else, this year is getting off to one heck of a start 🙂