Wow-wee! Looking back, September 2017 was quite the eventful month! As we get closer and closer to our departure in June 2018, it seems that both our excitement and nerves are increasing. Although we still have a bunch of places to visit, a TON of stuff to sell, and a LOT of planning to do, we are taking this challenge head-on and making sure we are as ready as possible to start our travel adventure on the right foot.
The 9-Month Notice
This was the month where we started notifying family, friends, and my work of our travel and online business plans. We were extremely nervous to start spreading the word about our plans, but the more people we told, the better we started to feel. Jess loves making sure everyone is happy so knowing that some people disagree with our plans and were disappointed has definitely been hard for her, but we also were expecting a mixed reaction. We hope although people may never agree with our plans they come around and support us eventually. I, on the other hand, felt a huge sense of relief telling my work, because carrying that secret was stressful and the positive support I received helped me feel motivated.
It’s not a very pleasant experience verbalizing your intentions to walk away from a job you love, but the support from my leadership at work was tremendous. Although not everyone we have told these news to agrees with what we’re doing, it’s been very valuable to hear constructive criticism (and feedback) of our idea. This allows us to plan a little better and minimize the risks that we’re taking by traveling the world full-time.
Blog and YouTube Launch
Another one of our main focus points for this month was to systematically launch all of our social media and content channels while we told our family and friends. This month we launched our website and populated it with two sections: Adventures and Blog. The Adventures section includes information regarding the places that we’ve visited and any recommendations associated with those places. The Blog section itself will have posts about our preparation, research into travel-related topics such as health insurance and booking airline tickets, as well as reviews of any gear that we select for our full-time travels.
We also launched our YouTube channel this month! On the channel, we plan to publish a variety of content, from adventure recaps to vlogs, Q&As, gear reviews and other video content. If you have any ideas or requests for types of videos that we should put up, feel free to reach out to us at [email protected]!
Visits from Family and Friends
Our weekends in September were also super busy (in a good way) since we had guests stay at our house almost every weekend! Jess’s close friends Jessica & Deanna and their boyfriends spent a weekend with us before heading up to Denver to watch the Broncos vs. Cowboys NFL game. We also had Jessica’s cousins Liz and Joanna experience the beauty of Colorado Springs with us for a weekend. We were able to take them around to some of our favorite places in the Springs such as Garden of the Gods, Seven Falls, and the Cave of the Winds, and Santi and Nora had a great time that weekend as well!
Overall, I’d have to say that September was a very memorable month. We were able to peel back the curtains of The Jetsetting Family and share our progress and plans with friends, family and coworkers. However, now that we’re public with this the pressure is on! There’s no turning back now; only planning, selling, and jetsetting around as we prepare for our departure this coming June. Thank you for allowing us to share these reports and tidbits with you, and as always, please contact us if you have any questions or content you’d like to see from us!
Plans for October
We’re going to focus a lot of our efforts in October on selling stuff! We have kept all of Santi’s clothing (so we could reuse if we had another boy), so we have a ton of clothes and baby toys to sell. We’re going to have our first garage sale in October, and this will give us a good indication as to how easily we can pass on some of our stuff.
As far as experiences go, our Santi turns 5 years old in October! We’re spending the first week or so celebrating him and his new milestone. We were blessed with some family visits for Santi’s birthday party, and he had a ton of fun so look out for those pictures coming up on Instagram soon! In addition to that, October in Colorado is beautiful because the leaves start changing as Fall arrives. We’re planning on going to Cripple Creek to see the beauty of the Colorado landscape, as well as making a trek up to Pikes Peak before it gets too cold and snowy up there.
