Ready, Set, Go!

We started our travel year! It's so hard to believe we've started this trip, after talking about it for YEARS.

On June 21, we moved out of our first apartment as a married couple in Lakewood Ranch. While it was more emotional than I thought it would be (and expensive!!), everything went smoothly. You never know how much stuff you have until you have to put it all in boxes. I can't count how many times we said "How do we have this much stuff?" or the number of trips we took with a full car to Goodwill.

Once we were moved out, the next thing to say goodbye to was our car. We gave it to Brennan's brother to drive while we're gone. Brett & Gabriel flew down and spent one night with us at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Sarasota. It was so fun to hang out with them and surreal when they left the next day and we were just at a hotel in the city I've called home for almost 5 years. We spent another night at the hotel and left Florida on June 23. We arrived in Dayton, Ohio to spend time with my family before leaving the country for the summer.

We spent June 24-27 enjoying the best parts of Ohio. The weather was perfect. I went to a lavender farm with my mom on Friday and we were able to see some of our close friends, Greg & Rachel and their kids. My sister Rachel came home and brought her two kittens, Pancake and Waffles, who I was excited to meet. We all went to Young's Jersey Dairy for my dad's company picnic Saturday afternoon, and had a dinner & swim night with the Hudson family. On Sunday, my mom and I helped set up and coordinate details for a wedding. By Sunday night, we had packing to do! Miraculously, everything fit in a carry on bag and a backpack for each of us. 

Our travel year had begun!