Have you ever dreamed of moving to a new state and starting a new adventure?!
From Michigan to Arizona, Josh, Oakley, and I drove about 1,500 miles across the country to our new home. It took us two full days to get down to Scottsdale and into our apartment.
On our way to Arizona, we HAD to go an hour out of our way to see White Sands National Monument. WOW!! This place is unreal. I would love to go back and spend the day running across the massive white sand dunes. Even Oakley was able to join us to explore.
My amazing parents drove our Uhaul while pulling my car. We are so grateful they did this for us! It was nice to have them down here for a few days while we settled in. My mom is like me and loves to organize so she was a great helper!! We also were able to show them our new stomping grounds. We went hiking, to TopGolf, many restaurants, and shopping. Having them see exactly where we were living helped all of us with the transition. They are so excited to come back and visit, and I CANNOT WAIT for them to come back.
Arizona is awesome. There is anything you could possible need, anything to do when your bored, and any kind of restaurant you could possibly think of. We truly love it here. Everywhere you look, you can see gorgeous mountains, cacti, and the SUN! It's warm in December. I'm wearing sandals around Christmas time. It's great. The only thing missing is my family. If they were all here, it would be the most perfect place ever.
Being here for three weeks now, I have done so much thinking. Isn't it crazy how I picked up and moved my entire life across the country? Leaving all the people I absolutely love. I'm a huge family girl, so missing them is the hardest part. My mom and sister who are my best friends, my fun dad, my brothers, my grandparents who I visited with almost every day, my Nonna who is my biggest supporter, my aunts, uncles, and cousins, my sweet Tallu, my second family, Reid, Harrison, and Josie (who I watched for five years) my friends and the rest of my family, even the LAKE!
Every time I think of how much I miss these people and my hometown, I think of how brave I am to have packed up literally all of my things and move across the country for an adventure I've been craving. I've always dreamt of living somewhere warm. Where I wake up and see palm trees, the sun, and NO SNOW lol.
Michigan will always be my home and I love that I always have home to go back to. For now, I'm so excited to make memories, explore a different part of our country, and grow with Josh and Oakley while we make Arizona our home. Everyone knows I love to travel, so now I can explore more places by car around us!
I'm not going to lie, there have been days where I think to myself "what the hell am I doing and who do I think I am to leave everything I had?!" BUT this is life and you can't live life in fear and comfortability. YOU MUST LIVE IT. I'm all for "do what makes you happy, not what's expected." Here I am, doing what makes me happy with Josh and Oakley who make me happy!
We could be here for a year, or we could be here for ten years. It's exhilarating to not know the outcome of this big move we made. But I trust that we will do our best and have no regrets in the end!
Cheers to a new life in Arizona with my little family!
Harleigh