The Word is Out and Spreading

It started with the family and then the neighbors and will continue out to the friends...we are moving. Virtually across the board, the response has been supportive. "I wish I could do that", "What an experience", "You guys will have such an awesome time", "You've got balls, that's for sure but WOW". The follow up questions is always "When can I come visit?". What people need to realize is that this will be "home" for us. We will need to work, get things done, make new friends and connections, grocery shop, do laundry,

learn a new language and stay on top of the kids's school work. This ain't gonna be a vacation.

Like I said way back in the very first post of this blog, before you know it, time for "Adventures" such as this will be over. The chance for experiencing something truly unique will have passed us by. We will get busier, kids will get older, priorities will change. We have a chance to do something as a family that we will remember for a lifetime and we are going for it. Stayed tuned, this is gonna be good.

... And Just Like That, We Are On Our Way

It happened so fast. We have been going, not going, going, not going for the better part of two years and suddenly we have a place to live, work and a plan developing based on reality not what we hoped might happen. I advertised on Sayulita Life Classifieds just to test the waters and received a response from a homeowner who was happy to rent his new purchase to us. Casa Estrella

is where we will be and he has generously agreed to let me work out of the garage at the house. Perfect. A little far from town for the kids to walk home but a home we could basically just bring our bags to and start living. Not to mention the place and view is more than we could have hoped for. We've been running fast to get our own home fixed up, cleaned up and rented by the end of September. I've been busy making new contacts and recontacting folks who have asked about what I do in the last year and I already have some potential work lined up. So much to do, so little time.

Wait A Minute...Again

Just when we think we may have it finally figured out, things go in a different direction. The owners of the hopeful properties we would take care of were not so sure of our committment to come down so they decided to go with folks who were already down there. Can't say that I blame them for that decision but it sure changes our outlook as far as what we can handle when it comes to expenses. Also, the family we had hoped to rent from found someone to rent their home. Considering the gardening upkeep, rent and size of the home it may be for the better but the location would have been fantastic. So, now we have all the flexibility to make things work for us on our schedule and not when someone needs to have us down there to start or move in. Pushing on with Mountain Wave in the US for now. Just stopped snowing a couple days ago and it's June. In a couple months it could be snowing again. Hopefully we can figure this out by the fall.

Are Things Lining Up?

We've been home from our month in Sayulita for a couple weeks and a few things happened along the way which make us think that the move may be meant to be. First, we were introduced to Summer Helms and were able to rent her palapa for the month. Summer and her family just happen to be leaving Sayulita for Hawaii this summer for 1 to 3 years. They have a house to rent in a great part of town and a property management business up and running. Though summertime may be a bit early, the idea of stepping into a situation where we know the landlords of a house for rent and a money making business to take over makes this whole ideas much easier to swallow. I may even have the beginnings of a concrete job lined up. Put all these things together and the situation looks good. Certainly better than just landing in town and asking myself "now what?". Summer's husband even has a surfboard factory for rent that could be used for concrete. A bit too pricey but it's out there and available. Too good? We'll see. Nothing is for certain since we have to interview with the property owners to see if they even feel comfortable with us taking over. Anyway, great exposure for Mountain Wave while we were there and many people seem to have heard of us. If one wants to see the blog of our trip, check out "A Month in Sayulita" tab at the top of the page.

A Coming Out Event?

Tonight is the Grupo Pro Sayulita's Fiesta Fund Raiser. It will be our coming out party for Mountain Wave Concrete here in the area. We are donating a custom sink and it will be auctioned off during the LIVE auction component of the party. Will we hear bids or crickets? People evidently come from all over for this event so I hopefully will be talking concrete with lots of folks. Could be a real great start or it could be an embarrassing disaster. Lost sleep over it last night.

Sometimes It Just Doesn't Matter How Much Planning You Do

It was just one of those moments. We had planned, packed, traveled, prepared and left for our month long "Adventure" in Mexico. We arrived at the airport and Ashley looked at me and asked me where the bag with the passports was. I looked at her and thought she had to be kidding. She wasn't. The most important bag on the trip was sitting in a bedroom back at the house. A speed record trip back up to Park City and back, some persuasive discussion by Ashley with the ticket agent bought us some time and we checked in 20 minutes before the flight left. If we didn't make this flight we had no idea when we might get here. Sometimes it doesn't matter how much planning one does, things can still go wrong. Maybe a lesson learned for future adventures.

A March Adventure

We will be staying in Sayulita for the entire month of March. This will give us real feel for town(after 3 years)and allow us to make a really "experiential" decision whether or not this is a smart move for us. While we are there we will be meeting with anyone who wants to talk about potential sink projects for fall. The fun news is that we will be donating a custom designed sink to the Grupo Pro Sayulita Fiesta Fund Raiser being held on the 9th. We'll see how that goes. We are happy to help out and at the very least it's exposure to wide variety of people and can help get our name out there. Hope we get seats on Delta to get down to PVR.

The New Year - 2011

Lots of goals for 2011 and many of them are in the works already. Mountain Wave will get a facelift, store and a new marketing push, Ash's Lifemax efforts will go to a new level, Delta continues on and we hope to become a lean mean efficient, uncluttered, adventuring family machine. Many of the pieces are in place or developing so that we can put this family on the road to Mexico next fall. Here's to the New Year and new adventures. Feliz Año Nuevo!

A Year Later-Preparations Will Continue

Almost a year later since we considered the move and a decision has been made to stay put for the time being. We will reconsider the move south again as 2011 moves along. In the meantime, we will be getting our ducks in a row as far as finances, language skills and business income go and then hopefully be in a much better position to take this experience on next winter and not struggle. I can't say that I am very excited about snow at this point but it's something that "just is" for the time being. All good plans need to be re-evaluated and tweaked a bit to truely be a success.

Really?

It looks like we may be on our way! After receiving some positive designer feedback in the Sayulita/PV area and Park City, we are ever closer to packing up the truck. It's so nice when people take the time to get back to you. There is so much to do to pull this off right that I am not sure how it will happen. Simply put, it's time to bust ass for a month so we can give this idea a shot. Items of concern: the condition of town after the flooding, housing, kids tuition at Costa Verde, getting a trailer with tools and supplies across the border, telling the grandparents, paying bills and being sure Ashley has an incredible time with this experience.

More Scary Events

Sayulita and surrounding communities have recently been hit hard with flooding and damage. Many good folks have lost everything and many more are busting tail rounding up donations and cleaning up mud, debris and getting these hard hit towns somewhat back to normal. Not sure how this might effect what we would like to do this season but for the moment we'll just sit tight and send good vibes to those on the front lines.