Slowing down even more... for more joy

We have covered a lot of ground in the last 9 months and camped in many, many different places. Now, we are feeling the consequences of it... The lack of space seems to be harder to handle for our girls too lately. This week and for the next couple of weeks at least, we will try to do and move around less, and to keep doing some of our favorite things together in order to bring back as much joy as possible in our everyday life.

We spend some time at the beach too (although I do not bring my camera often because of the sand and wind...). Today, I wished I had it with me because JF had his super happy-to-play in the waves smile that I love (finally some decent waves!)...

Long-term travel sure is a great adventure, but it requires the skill of constant adjustement. After 9 months on the road, here are some of our realizations: 

-we need to travel more slowly (we knew this, but wanted to do an overview of the States this time around) and spend *at least* a week at the same campground, so the girls can feel familiar and comfortable (and feel more secure to go the the bathroom and park alone for instance), get the Legos out, etc. and simply for us to be able to enjoy this lifestyle more. I could even consider a month somewhere I really like.

-4 to 6 months on the road in one stretch is enough. After that, we would need to pause for at least 6 months and rent a house to have more space and receive friends and family (ideally in a tropical location! *wink*).

-2 months stretches without seeing/meeting anybody is very long... I had this very romantic idea that we would often meet our Yukon friends that are also on a year-long road trip on a similar itinerary, but we have met only once back in September and will meet again next week. The kids and I feel quite socially deprived at this point of the trip. We would have needed more pit stops at friends' places or more meet-ups with friends and family along the road.

-It's really hard to keep any kind of routine on the road. JF really struggles with his running routine and finds it quite frustrating. He finds it much easier when we are home, or even last winter, when we lived in Costa Rica.

Mathilde started learning to play the flute by herself. She is very into it and quite musically inclined. It is fascinating for us who are not musical to see her go... She has started to ask for a guitar...

 Our favorite games right now: 5 Crowns and Labyrinth

Meeting a friend who lived in the Yukon at the same time as I did was such a treat this week