Prologue - The Family Adventure Lives On!

In many ways, Boulder has already exceeded our expectations on so many levels. Our house turned out to be even better than expected, and now that we have finally got all of our stuff moved in, it has already started to feel like a home. We have been continually amazed at how friendly and welcoming people are here, inviting us over to their homes and helping us network with other families and like-minded individuals. There is a strong sense of community and family here, which is what had been looking for but had never found in LA. It is nice to be so close to my brother Jeff, Lynn and their 1 year-old son Braydon who are only 10 minutes away and have helped us settle in quickly. Plus, we now live in the same town as our new best family friends, the Andrews - with whom we've shared countless highs and lows during our crazy adventures in Spain together. I love the fact that we can ride with the kids on bikes to school, watching with amazement as families seemingly pour out of the different streets along the route to ride with us. I love how our kids now regularly broker "play-dates" on the fly after school, as if drafting for a fantasy football league. The boys are in soccer and cub scouts (making a former AYSO junkie and Eagle Scout's heart smile), and Casey is now doing ballet and gymnastics. We found a local student who is from Mexico who is now coming out to work with the kids to preserve what little Spanish they have still retained, so we'll see how that goes! We are all continually meeting interesting new people and making new friends. They like their school and their teachers and Suzanne and I are filling up our time by volunteering at the school and getting to know the community. The biking out here is world-class, and I've had to re-set my perspective about what it means to be an athlete; the people here are on a completely different stratosphere! While the specter of employment and re-engaging in a career still looms in the back of our minds, we are quite content at the moment and are extremely fortunate to take this opportunity to really settle in before jumping into the next big thing. We have had enough craziness and uncertainty over this past year and it feels good to really take the time settle down and plant roots. We owe that to our kids, to ourselves and to each other. As each day goes by and we settle into our new lives here, our Spanish Adventure Year feels more and more like a vivid, fascinating dream. It is amazing to think about what a wonderful and crazy experience our last year has been and how much we experienced in such a short amount of time. All of us have memories which will stay with us for a lifetime, and although things didn't always match up to our expectations, that is what made this an "adventure" in the truest sense of the word. Viva Espana and Viva our new adventure in Boulder!

Next Stop on the Adventure Train - House Hunting, Boulder, CO

As it turned out, we only had several days to adjust, before Suzanne booked us on a flight to Boulder with the goal of locking down a rental home. Exhausted as we were, we were excited and admittedly a bit nervous to arrive there, knowing that this would be our new town. We stayed at my brother's place and began our property search with 5 promising options to look at. Unfortunately after 2 days, we had nothing to show for our efforts and we were discouraged. Seemed that everything we were looking at was either too small or had no yard. There were some interesting spec house options, but ultimately they were too expensive and we felt were more for showing/entertaining than living in. With our return flight looming, Suzanne asked me to stay 2 more days to keep searching and she headed back to pick up the kids from a long weekend with their babysitter. I must have called dozens of realtors and looked at over twenty places, but still did not have anything concrete by the time my trip ended. On one hand, it was only a rental, but we were going in with the attitude of finding a place where we might eventually settle, which made the search more challenging. Discouraged and frustrated, I headed back home empty-handed. The only angle that seemed to be working for us was by contacting the realtors of houses on the markets to enquire about rentals. After all, that's how we ended up renting out our house in CA, so we knew that this approach could work. It just meant more searching and a more creative effort. Suzanne began to dust off her previous house searches, and we started walking down the call lists. Fortunately, my brother Jeff and his wife Lynn were on the ground in Boulder, and they made several critical visits to "weed out" houses in our absence. Within several days Suzanne hit paydirt - a lovely house in N. Boulder whose owners were moving to S. Africa in August and had not been able to sell their house in time. Everything seemed to fall together perfectly for both families. The house was huge and sat on a beautiful five-acre park. Plus it bordered the local middle school, with several ballfields, a track and 8 tennis courts almost literally in our backyard! While we had not originally targeted North Boulder, it turned out to be a wonderful family setup and just felt right on many levels.