Settled in Denver!

For the first time in forever (in Anna’s voice from Frozen) we are officially settled! Our year and a half of traveling month to month, state to state, has come to a close. What a chapter though!

I cannot properly describe how life changing this moment has been, transitioning from one massive life event to another. I’m sure everyone who has gone through a similar transition understands. In a way, I feel like we were in a shaken snow globe with the snow and glitter swirling around in a stunning frenzy. Then, the flurries stopped just as suddenly as they began, and our snow globe was put on a shelf . That shelf is our Denver apartment. It feels unreal to live in a spot for longer than a month.

And one of the craziest parts is, we get to have our own things! Living in monthly rental stays means that you are always using other peoples’ dishware, beds, couches, and tables. It didn’t bother us too much during our travels because of all the incredible places we got to experience, but being in our own place with our own items is such a relief. Being able to come home and sit on the couch I’ve had for years is a comfort I don’t want to take for granted. We get to use all of our own blankets and plates, I could go on, but just know it feels like warm sunlight wrapping you up on a perfect summer day.

It does definitely feel surreal though. On one hand, I feel like all of the traveling was a dream and that we have been settled this whole time, while the other part of me is tripping out that I didn’t have to pack my car at the end of the month and head out on a 10 hour drive. I have found myself tip toeing through the apartment as if it’s going to disappear. I feel like it might take us a couple months for the reality of not being a nomad to really sink in. But we are definitely loving it.

Our apartment is perfect for us! Believe it or not, this is Connor’s and my first time getting a place together, so crazy!

We have lived together in my apartments in the past, and then all of the monthly stays, but this was our first time touring places and signing for one together.

So, it was a very big deal and we took it very seriously. We toured nine places, used four excel sheets, and took five hours to finally decide on our current place.

We couldn’t be happier with our choice! It is spacious and updated with huge windows, a balcony, new carpets, and tons of other items that checked almost every single box we had. I couldn’t find any good pictures of the space, but this was the first picture I took of Connor in our new apartment!

We took the last couple weeks of August to unpack and settle in. It will take awhile to completely furnish the apartment, but we are happy taking our time.

Actually, the first week of August was spent in NorCal with family and friends. After the engagement, we flew to Denver to look at apartments and sign for one. Then, we got to enjoy one more week of quality time with everyone before our move. We moved into our new place on August 9th! I had to drive to Tucson two days later to pack up our storage unit, but that is just a bunch of moving chaos. I brought all our Tucson stuff to Denver, and everything was officially moved in after that!

I planned for August to be the month of moving and settling, with September being a month to prepare for my upcoming marathon. October will be wedding planning month! I’m stoked to report that Connor and I are on track with the plans. I’m so happy with how August went! I cannot wait for all the months after. I’m truly so happy to be here and experiencing life to the fullest.

Denver is amazing! I feel like we haven’t gotten into a steady schedule yet which makes exploring a little tricky, but we have been doing our best!

Some highlights have been reconnecting with old friends, visiting our favorite restaurants (and trying new ones that we love!), going on hikes, starting new jobs, going to art festivals, and all that jazz. There is still so much I want to do and see here though.

I’m sure my list will be never ending, but I would love to do a cooking class or pottery session soon! Acroyoga and my new run club have been happy accidents. Our apartment is in the area we both loved when we visited initially, and we are so happy to be here. It all feels very right.

With all of this being said, we aren’t moving month to month anymore! What will the blog posts look like? Will I be doing them? I think I mentioned in previous posts that there will be some change ups. I can’t exactly write a new, monthly travel post when Connor and I aren’t moving anymore. However, I do not plan on killing off the blog. I love to blog and talk to you all about this interesting life. So, I will continue to do so (yay!)! I am not sure what it will look like or how frequent I will post, but I will keep everyone updated on social medias for when I release new posts. I haven’t decided if I want to do a monthly recap on our fun adventures, or post smaller updates here and there as they come up, or something completely different. I hope you all come along for the ride and enjoy the next phases of the blog, whatever those may be. I appreciate your support! Thank you for reading!

Last little update before I go, I will be focusing a ton of time and energy on writing my book. I mentioned this forever ago, but I have been writing a book about our experiences traveling through life this past year and a half. Since life has been a little wild, I haven’t gotten the chance to write a full rough draft yet, and that was one of my New Year’s Resolutions this year. I hope to have a rough draft done by the end of the year, so most of my writing time will probably be going to that. That is another reason why I don’t want to promise anything with my blog because my writing time may get fully sucked into that realm. So again, thank you for being patient! I appreciate you being here, and I will keep you in the loop about posts in the future!

I hope to write to all of you again soon. Thank you!

Princess Update:

Look at how great of a helper she is with building our new furniture! She is so cute.

Princess has been through the ringer with all of the traveling, and I’ve said multiple times how big of a trooper she is. She has been amazing, adapting every month to a new place. We are over joyed and so relieved to finally give her a place where she can relax. She can settle down here and hopefully have lower stress levels and better overall health.

She has seemed very happy being in the new apartment. She was happy when we brought some of our old furniture in that smelled like our old place, and she loves all of the sun from the big windows in our new place. So, she is doing well and we are so happy to not be moving her every month anymore.