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RTW Family travel planning – Page 2 – Mom Dad CuppaKids
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RTW Family travel planning

Real LifeTravel

Countdown to Departure on our Round the World Trip

by Jenn & Chris on

All The Feels

Mom Says:

People have been asking us often how we feel about our upcoming trip. If truth be told, for the past number of months, my mental image has been one of those windy, twisty, scary-as-f*&K roller coasters. We buckled in for the ride when we decided to do this round the world trip over Christmas holidays last year. Over the past 8 months, through selling our house, having surgery, getting vaccines, connecting deeply with friends, and putting our whole life in storage we have been climbing that trek to the top.

A couple of weeks ago, I could feel us in that moment.

You know, that split-second, moment of pause at the very top right before you tip over the other side, dive down a 60 degree slope, careen around corners, turn upside down and finish the ride with all sorts of vomit-inducing adrenaline tricks.

THAT.

via GIPHY

I wanted to puke.

When we left our house and moved into 2 bedrooms at a nearby friends, we transcended the hump. The universe gave us a gift in providing a landing pad that feels more like the world’s friendliest hostel rather than an inconvenient couch-surf. Props to Izzy and Angus, (2 recent college graduates) for being so chill and fun when they got way more than they bargained for by having 4 Powells thrust upon them for a month.

Today, at T-minus 3 weeks out, we can feel that thrill as we start our deep dive into our global adventure.

There is no escaping it now (not that we want to). We are all in. #TeamPowell is ready to rock this. The kids are excited and talking a LOT about the “When we go on our world trip” while Chris and I are running around frantically getting all of those “things” you never think about or usually put off done before we leave.

Our mantra: Nobody ever said they regret moving forward. Sure, you get stuck in the moments where it’s actually the change that is uncomfortable. Once you get to the other side of the discomfort, the world truly feels FULL of life and opportunity.

mark-twain

Someone asked me the other day if I was stoned. I’m not stoned. I’m just at peace.

I have been working hard at mindful living. Making effort to take notice of the little things (hot showers, cushy beds, abundant food, kind people, Kraft dinner, smells, tastes, you name it) as I know so much of what we take for granted here will be absent in our world over the next many months.

We are finally organized. Our 2 backpacks that will house a family of 4 for 7 months proudly weighing in at 30lbs a piece. Most of our life is now in storage and we have started our goodbyes.

I can feel the shift in all of us.

That fear of the roller coaster gone and replaced by the thrill of the ride.

And what a ride it’s going to be.

how-i-feel

Dad says:

Stoked.  Absolutely stoked.  I have never used that word before outside trying to seem cool on a double black run with the kids, and that was a total fake.  I was not stoked at that time, I think I pee’d a little, truth be told.

But I am now. We are closer to departing than ever, and have arranged some arrangements for our first destination…The Galapagos!  Oh yeah, out of the gate with a bullet!  Now, if it was just me/just Jenn and I, it would be done differently.  We would arrive as the sun is setting, having no plan or destination or place to stay for that matter.  Generally, that works out in the end, but I will admit there is a chance of failure and sleeping on a park bench.  Only happened once, but proof positive if you know what I mean…

With the kids, it seems like a good idea to wade into this adventure, slowly until the tender bits are past the point of no return. They are generally as excited as I am, but there are bouts of uncertainty that I need to acknowledge and address.  They are 10,  give or take, and we are stealing them away from friends and schoolmates to grow as people, dammit, and I guess we should appreciate that they might have some misgivings. Sleeping in the great outdoors night 1 might be a bit off putting, if you know what I mean.

BUT:  the bags are packed, we could leave now honestly. And not so secretly, that would be ok…

screen-shot-2016-10-04-at-7-48-48-pm

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Family MattersReal LifeTravel

Finding the Edge of Comfortable

by Jenn & Chris on

When everything feels icky & squirmy & totally uncertain

Mom Says:

I was a bulging, sweating, 8 months pregnant hot mess in the middle of one of the hottest heat waves we have ever experienced. My husband will recount to you tales of woe and suffering as he endured the words “I’M UNCOMFORTABLE!!” more times than I care to remember. It has become a standing joke between us, one that is typically accompanied with boohoos and mockery to indicate said Uncomfortablist is being entirely unreasonable.

On a happier pregnant days
On a happier pregnant day at the cottage

The word comfort has been an enemy in so many ways throughout my life. At the start of our marriage, I would share with my husband (often) my thoughts that the minute we were comfortable, we were done for. Comfortable meant being normal, stagnant, conforming and lacking passion. I didn’t want us to ever get there. I wanted us to strive for date nights and spicy moments so that the notion of comfort would never take hold.

I am often found pushing myself past my comfort zone. Whether it’s skydiving, scuba diving, motorcycling, bungee jumping, or climbing mountains, I have done it all. At the start of every one of these adventures, I am scared poopless. Every. Single. Time. Until I do it & then realize that that wasn’t so bad after all.

The whole fam came out to support me when I jumped out of a plane. I hope we are teaching our kids to be fearless.
The whole fam came out to support me when I jumped out of a plane. My only hope is that we are teaching our kids to be fearless.

I like it & I don’t like it. It feels icky and squirmy and often disagreeable. Yet something about pushing through the hard parts, to conquer and achieve a challenge on the other side makes it so worth the initial grossness of it all.

The thing is, I have started to think of my comfort zone as exactly that. It’s just a zone. It’s not your prison cell. Your zone can take on different shapes or sizes. The more we push, the bigger our space of allowable adventure becomes. We just have to keep pushing out the walls.

As we hit our 3 month window before we leave on our #CuppaRTW Round The World trip, I have recognized I have that uncomfortable feeling once again. This feels new for me because this time it’s not just me getting out of the zone. We as a family are taking this on, all parts of it feel foreign and unsettled.

I have been trying to explore what is actually causing these whirl-a-gig butterflies inside me and I think for the most part I have figured it out.

  1. We are planning to not plan which for a planner makes things all kinds of up in the air. I feel like I’m on a roller coaster that’s pulled out of the station and already on the ride but need to get past the urge to hold my breath through the whole thing because its a long time before its over.
  2. I am curious how we are going to manage surviving as a family 24/7 over the next many months. We are a strong team and we all love each other dearly but we already know we are going to plan for breaks or we will end up killing each other before we get out of South America.  We have even invented a safe word to roll out on the days for the kids (or each other) are driving us so batty that we might say something we regret. We are also planning on taking days in which one of us takes the kids and in which we each take one kid to keep things different and exciting.
  3. Very soon, we will no longer have a home. We are letting go &  rid of most of our stuff. The grounding stuff. As we start packing up, we are starting to work on how to create a new version of “Home” for us & the kids. We will have no place to come back to and the concept of coming home will now have to truly live in “home is where the heart is”. So how do we teach that to our kids?

I know these are all just growing pains as we start this new chapter in our life. I just can’t wait till my brain is settled on the other side and starts feeling more comfortable (baahaaahaa) with it all.

Climbing Kili was something I thought impossible. Until we did it.
Climbing Kili was something I thought impossible. Until we did it.

Dad says: 

oh, the pain of comfort…

I am, unlike above, comfortable with comfort to a point.  The balance I constantly try to strike is to look around and appreciate accomplishments before running off to literally jump of a cliff.  There is little joy in a life so hectic that you forget to breathe, look around, smell the roses, you know, LIVE…

Part of joy is enjoy, which is a poorly spelt word that should be in-joy.  Get in the moment, relish it, then set you sights on the next adventure.

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