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Alyssa here this sunny afternoon sharing some big news + what I’ve decided is my new favorite video of our time in Japan.
Watching it, I burst out laughing at least 20 times and also cried at Eli speaking Japanese. Or, at least, as much Japanese as an 18-month-old can muster.
Highly recommend you end your week with some giggles and gorgeous scenery in our latest video driving the forgotten coastline of Japan.
OKAY ONTO THE BIG NEWS…
But first, the wind-up, because this story dates back three years.
2020 was a particularly crazy year for us.
- Heath raised big money to keep Campground Booking growing.
- We were searching for—and found—property to build a campground.
- We bought a house near said property so that we could have our own space while we were under construction and while we were hopefully growing baby #2.
- Plus it was 2020.
It was a year of major life decisions.
Well, you may know how all those things worked out.
But if you don’t… TL;DR, we sold everything so we could spend time traveling together as a family of four.
Last year we spent four months traveling abroad and barely spent half of the year actually in our house.
Which had me asking Heath…
Why do we live in a house again? 🤔
After a lot of back and forth, we decided in traditional Padgett fashion to blow up our life plans and start from scratch.
We’re already taking multiple months out of the year to go abroad. Why not sell the house, pocket the money, and travel the world?
So the day before leaving for Japan in April, we met with a realtor and listed our house for sale.
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Then interest rates skyrocketed so we pivoted and found renters for our house instead.
This was one of those moments where we could say “No one is buying houses right now. We shouldn’t sell. Let’s just stay home.”
Or we could say “How can we still make this travel dream happen?” and go for it anyway.
Heath sends me potential Airbnbs from Zillow basically daily so this killed two birds with one stone. Heath can have his “rental investment property” and I don’t have to ever say things like “babe we really need to weed eat over here.”
So behind the scenes, while we’ve been sharing videos of Japan and stories behind how we’re growing our new business, I’ve been packing up the house.
And in a few weeks, we’ll become full-time nomads again…this time, with two kids in tow!
In so many ways, the past year of our lives has felt like undoing and revisiting all the decisions we made in the tumultuous year that was 2020. It’s been our year of selling off the old businesses, shedding the house, and chasing after the things we love most in life.
It feels like hitting the play button after having life on pause for a bit. Well, not on pause, but just after a slower season.
Heath and I both have fears about what we’re stepping into. Having a home to come back to after travels has felt incredibly comfortable for us. However, we’ve always dreamt of spending extended time abroad, so why not do it now?
Our plans are relatively fluid, but we do have two major commitments for the upcoming season of our lives:
1. Two weeks in a motorhome in the UK.
We’re SO pumped about this trip. We’ll be doing a trip partnered with Brit Stops (think Harvest Hosts but in England 🍻 ) where we’ll be touring around the backcountry of London and overeating fish and chips (Heath especially is excited about the last part).
2. Spending our fall in Portugal with a program called Boundless Life.
A year ago, some of our friends spent three months with their kids in a program called Boundless. It’s for digital nomad families. There’s a school for the kids, a coworking space for us, and lots of community events with other families.
We did our diligence on the school and decided to give it a try, so we’ll be living in Portugal for 3 months this fall. 😬
This is not the first or (probably) the last time Heath and I have blown up our life plans in favor of adventure.
Life is short.
We want to take full advantage of traveling while we have our health and the ability to spend quality time together as a family.
If you’re still here at the end, thank you so much for being a part of our little online community. The emails we receive from you all mean the world 💜
See you around the world,
—Heath & Alyssa
