The Young and the Restless

Home Away from Home

This past summer when we were in Pinetop for our family reunion, an idea was hatched. We've always talked about having a family cabin as a dream in the future, but while we were up there we looked casually at some condos and were surprised at how affordable they are. And if you know Jason, once he gets an idea in his head he doesn't stop until he achieves it. It's one of the things I love about him. So three months later we found ourselves picking up the keys and turning this condo into our home away from home. What makes this dream even more of an affordable reality is that we are able to rent it out on Airbnb and VRBO, we don't plan to turn much of a profit but it should at least pay for itself and provide the perfect escape for our family. Escape is the perfect word to describe it. Escaping the heat in the summer, escaping to experience the magic of snow in the winter and especially escaping all the distractions at home and forcing us to spend quality family time together. I say "force" because I'll admit that Kylie wasn't too excited about spending 9 days -her whole entire Fall break- away from her friends, especially when those same friends invited her to spend the week on a beach in Mexico. But as we were packing up to go home she casually told me how glad she was that we came and how she loved hanging out playing games and spending time with the family. Mission accomplished. We had about a month from the time they accepted our offer until we closed, and that was about the funnest month of my life. I'm not being sarcastic, I seriously loved the challenge of decorating an entire house on a budget within a month. You would be surprised all the things needed to make it a fully functioning house for guests, everything from spending a small fortune on towels and linens down to every imaginable kitchen appliance and tool. Thankfully they left all the furniture (except the kitchen table), which was a blessing. I spent my days shopping all the clearance shelves and you bet I did a lot of happy dances in the Target aisle when I came across deals like the cutest bedding for $15. Our guest bedroom at home was filled to the brim with things for the condo and miraculously Jason managed to fit it all in the Sequoia. I would lay in bed at night envisioning how I wanted to decorate each room, so I was so excited when the day finally came that we could move in. 

Our first meal together, eating pizza among boxes and packaging. Some of my favorite memories are the first meal in any house. I still remember when I was 12 yrs old eating Peanut Butter Cap'n Crunch on the floor of our new house in Georgia wondering what new adventures lay ahead.

Evenings were my favorite, heated games of monopoly and Apples to Apples (the Youngs are known for their feisty competitive nature) or watching movies by the fire. Fire, popcorn and hot chocolate were a given every single night. 

And every morning started out with hot chocolate and bagels on the deck, per Maddox's request. I loved these quiet mornings with the boys, watching squirrels and commenting on the changing leaves while everyone else slept.  There are so many good things in store up here, I can't wait to discover them.