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UntetheredDays, Hoquiam, WA (2026)

07/03/2022

Full-time travel isn’t easy. We are currently pumping water from a river to take speed showers, I made our truck my office in town because internet at our campsite was so bad,

AND every time I look at the back of our rig, I’m reminded of the pole that I hit last month 🤦‍♀️.

We have physical proof that Joel is the better driver 😂.

YET, I still have those “pinch me, I’m dreaming, this can’t be real life moments”. Today felt surreal while going for a little afternoon walk and taking in the beauty surrounding us from the sea stacks in the ocean to the colorful rocks in the sand to the smiles as my kids said they are loving this RV life. I’ll take the hard for the beautiful any day. 💖

06/30/2022

I vaguely remember a page in a History book about Mount Saint Helens. I eagerly longed to give my kids a different school experience.

Today we are hiking 7 miles along Mount St Helens. They are getting a little bit of History, science, gym, and even lunch with friends at the top.

I hope they’ll remember the smell of the volcanic ash, the perfectly symmetrical trees that look like a painting as all of the trees were planted at the exact same time after the explosion, and the ridge that took us 5 hours to climb that the lava flowed down in just 2 minutes after the eruption.

I hope for them Mt St Helen’s will be more than just a page in a History book.

I’m a little jealous of their roadschool experience and so thankful for these field trips and opportunities to learn with them.

05/01/2022

Our 3 best gifts ❤️.

After visiting a spot where Jurassic Park was filmed, they think they are owed the movie this weekend 🦖.

This little hike was magical. Pictures just cannot show the beauty at every corner. Our feet are soaked and our hearts are happy.

This hike is permit only May - Sept & we were lucky to arrive just before the permits started. It’s a short little hike & we wish we had planned ahead to bring a change of clothes. Our kids could have spent hours here playing! Water, rocks, sticks, shade - this place has it all!

04/25/2022

We spent yesterday winding our way through the mountains of northern CA. When we reached the top of one mountain, we took in the views over a picnic lunch on our back deck.

Travel in an RV is a GAME CHANGER.

Yes, it’s hard to squeeze into gas stations & yes it takes extra navigation to make sure we don’t run into a low bridge, but sitting in the middle of nowhere having a picnic on your home is amazing ✨.

I sure hope that when our kids are grown and flown that I’ll hear them say, “remember that day we had lunch on the side of the cliff…” ❤️.

04/19/2022

Our kids hiked 15 miles with 4400 feet of elevation gain in the last 30 hours plus spent 6 hours chasing kids at the playground in the evenings.

THIS is what we call recess 👏.

I can only laugh that we had a teacher who told us our kids were too wiggly & took away their recess 😜. I’ll take the wiggly, strong kids any day for they will be the movers and shakers of this world! Most adults in America couldn’t do what our 9, 10, and 11-year-old did today 💪.

04/16/2022

History will remember Alcatraz as a secure prison over a mile off shore San Francisco from 1934-1963.

Miko will always think of Lego’s when he hears Alcatraz.

I’ll remember Alcatraz as another spot where History came alive for our family.

You can take a ferry ride over to the island and take an audio tour to learn about daily life in this prison. I’m not usually a historical site fan, but this stop was fascinating to me. I love learning with our kids as we explore new sights.

04/08/2022

Over 7 years ago, years before we ever decided to travel full-time, I pulled out a piece of paper one afternoon and wrote a bucket list of memories I wanted to create before the toddlers left for college who played at my feet that cloudy Pittsburgh day.

These memories included things like eating a key lime pie in the Florida keys, riding a mule through the Grand Canyon, and taking a cruise to Alaska.

That list has grown quite a bit over the years, but riding bikes across the Golden Gate Bridge has always remained near the top. 🌉

We dragged our bikes 25k miles across the US over the last 15 months and last night crossed that little dream of mine off of the list.

As the kids raced ahead on their bikes, I stayed back misty eyed last night. It’s been a really hard few months balancing work and travel, but these are the moments I dreamed about for years. It took a whole lot of determination & not a lot of money to make these dreams a reality.

Joel pulled me aside as we were halfway across the bridge pointing to the water below: Amy, let’s add sail our catamaran 🛥 under this bridge in retirement to that list 😉.

May we never stop dreaming and always keep adding to that bucket list. ✨

04/04/2022

We are staying in California wine country & our campground this week is next door to a winery, so we handed our kids Walkie talkies, told them to have fun playing with friends & walked next door for a date/East Wind Nannies budget meeting 😜.

As much as I’d love for a regular circle of caregivers for our kids, how amazing is it to have a home on wheels to move us to different date spots within Walkie talkie range of our kids.

We’ve saved our pennies and could buy our dream home, but no part of us wants to give up the freedom we feel by living in our 400 sq foot home on wheels without the responsibility of a house 😅. These sweet perks of parking almost anywhere we want & writing endless stories into our family’s memory bank is worth more to us than any pretty home we could buy. ❤️

03/22/2022

Medical tourism - I realize this may sound crazy to some, but we had the most positive experience visiting the dentist in Mexico last month.

We were first introduced to medical tourism last year in Costa Rica as we met people who booked an entire vacation in Costa Rica plus their elaborate dental work for the cost of what the dental bill with insurance would have been in the US.

I think anyone can agree that the insurance/medical system in America could use some improvements.

I’ve been a tiny bit disgusted to see that paying cash for a medical appointment is often less than just the deductible WITH insurance. On the road, we’ve chosen a medical share plan that allows us to pay for appointments with cash & helps cover our bill if we ever have anything catastrophic.

Last month we crossed into Mexico for dental appointments. We called at 8 am and made appointments for all 5 of us for 11 am. 😲

We paid $10 to park for the day and walked across the border to Mexico. When you cross the border at Yuma, AZ, you’ll find an entire town of dental and eye offices. We googled and found one with excellent reviews. The space was clean, staff was friendly and when I asked for no fluoride treatment, they went out of their way to even look for no fluoride toothpaste 👏. We are a little crunchy over here & the dangers of fluoride worry us enough to avoid it. We felt incredibly listened to by the dentist in Mexico. They made the visit about us and the decisions we made for our family. It didn’t feel as though they were trying to take advantage of us in anyway.

We were out within 1.5 hours, cavity free, and enjoyed tacos to celebrate! 🌮

The joke was on us crossing the border back to the US as it took 2.5 hours waiting in a line, so we’d recommend appointments earlier in the day, but all in all, a fun dentist day for just $50/person cash. 🦷

We love looking for ways to support people in other countries & the added bonus of an authentic Mexico taco after a good report at the dentist is a super win to us!

03/20/2022

Hiking buddy for life ❤️. I’ve been a little MIA traveling cross country a couple of x’s over the last month, but so happy to be back.

We are slowing making our way up the west coast and fell in love with Channel Islands National Park this week 😍.

It’s only accessible by boat or plane & just full of beautiful spots.

How fun that we’ve entered a season of life where our kids can take pics of us now 😉.

03/12/2022

Naava: “oh Aviva, I missed you so much when we were apart. I don’t know why. I just missed you!”

They are 14 months apart in age and fight like crazy all day long, but I melted as I heard these words in the back seat. 🥲 Our family has been flying all over the US apart the last few weeks & are finally back together again.

Travel doesn’t magically help your family get along and love each other. Travel seems to bring out the biggest pet peeves. That annoying foot tapping? it’ll shake the entire RV! Want to watch a show? The internet streaming can only handle one show, so you’ll have to pick one with the siblings 🤪. Want space to play? you have to share that 2’ x 2’ spot on the floor with your sister!

But travel is where the magic happens: it’s that brother or sister that you get to look inside a tide pool with and see the wonder of an octopus. A sibling is the built in friend you have to jump the rocks with at a CA sunset. That beat up IKEA table that we all squeezed around for game night will be the table they remember as the spot the family gathered & played & where momma won 😉.

💫I WILL TAKE their fights to gain the togetherness.💫

This morning as we slowly crawl out of bed with nowhere to be, I’m grateful. Grateful that we are choosing slow over busy. Grateful that we rarely set alarm clocks. Grateful that soon I’ll hear the pitter patter of little feet asking to join us in bed for cuddles. Grateful for the bonds and friendships that are happening in this little house of ours. 😍

It doesn’t take travel to choose slow. Five years ago we blocked Saturday off as a family day. It was hard. We let people down. We said no to birthday parties, no to friends, and no to sports, but man, it created some of the sweetest memories for our family & helped us to reevaluate what was most important. I hope our kids can someday look back at their childhood and have a memory book of time together.

03/07/2022

Tonight feels super sentimental….first family sunset in California 😍. I’ve dreamed of a family road trip along the west coast and I’m still pinching myself that this is really happening ❤️.

I can’t believe the miles we’ve driven to get here & the growth and connection that has happened along the way.

UntetheredDays

07/03/2022

06/30/2022

05/01/2022

04/25/2022

04/19/2022

04/16/2022

04/08/2022

04/04/2022

03/22/2022

03/20/2022

03/12/2022

03/07/2022

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