Settling In

We are settling into life in our 5th wheel. Currently, we are parked in our friends driveway (which is only a few doors down from our previous home), and the kids are having a great time staying here with the 3 Fernandez kids. The new owners of our house (Marjorie and Danny) let the kids go swimming every evening at the pool Brian put in last summer, and they are happy to let the kids harvest all of the blackberries this season. It is a little weird being in visual sight of our home of the past 12 years, but this has allowed for a gentle transition. We get to enjoy some of the joys of our previous home and we get to visit Zoe (our puppy who is now living with our next door neighbor) while at the same time we are letting go. Zoe seems very content with her new family which consists of a young puppy named Annie, 2 older dogs, 1 yr. old triplet girls, 8 yr old Brannon, and Larry & Kathy.
As of right now, we have not decided when we are leaving Austin or where we are going first. We had planned to head towards Ohio and Pennsylvania, but it seems very likely that we will spend at least part of the summer in Colorado first. As the heat increases the mountains seem to be calling very loudly! Besides, I (Daphnie), have been really missing the mountains, and I am excited to get out and hike with the kids. Brian has been compiling a list of places he would like to take the kids over the next couple of years, and we are all getting excited about hitting the open road.
We weighed the rig, and discovered that we have to get rid of more stuff because we are over our weight limit! I was pleased because I still felt like we had more than I wanted to be responsible for, but it is tough because it means we have to start eliminating things we really wanted to keep like extra tools, massage table, kitchen stuff, more clothes and books. Everyone is generously giving away more belongings (including Vashti and Shanti) which is pretty amazing since we have already given up so much. Vashti even agreed to part with a whole box of her favorite board books (impressive for a 3 year old)!
It feels like the time to leave Austin is getting close. For now, we will continue to enjoy our friends and all the things we love about Austin.