We sold it all.

WE did it. We said goodbye (sold it all) to all of our stuff and houses in Minnesota and came down to Guatemala with 6 suitcases that contained our life. I guess not really our life, just our stuff.

Last family photo at Minneapolis house.

We were in Minnesota for 5 months. It was good to be there and to be able to reconnect with many people that we miss on a daily basis while living in Guatemala.  Charlie changed a lot over the months in Minnesota. He grew a lot of hair and developed a ton of comprehension. He seems to understand everything we say at this point.

Fun with friends

Townhouse patio

Minneapolis Pride Festival

Splash pad

Park fun

Loving the REAL bathtub 

Driving to the cabin...always during nap time

Construction observation 

Lots of bike rides!

Outside dinners

Garden fun

Brandon turns 40

Bjorn and Charlie

Owen and Charlie

Cousins

Oh and yes, I became pregnant early on in our time in Minnesota. This came as a complete surprise to both Brandon and I. We really thought that we would be a 1-child family as we had a really difficult time conceiving Charlie.  This baby is a boy and we are expecting his arrival sometime in early to mid February.  My mom will be here again for the birth (not at the actual birth this time but taking care of Charlie) and to help out after the birth which is really amazing of her!

We have been back for about 7 weeks. We moved back into the home that we had lived in before. We love the location and the garden. I decided that comfort during this pregnancy is important to me and so Brandon is working with his friend Cruz to build a sectional couch for our patio. This will expand our living space. I also brought another chair down from Ikea. The furniture situation is much better this pregnancy than it was with my first!

It’s kind of funny how life can just pick back up. We do have our routine back with our sitter coming to take care of Charlie so we can go and do the things that need to get done without a child. Like taking the boat and lugging all of your groceries home on foot. This is much easier without Charlie. It is also really nice that we have a community of friends here now. There actually were people that were excited for our return!

So even though we don’t have 9-5pm jobs, we keep very busy.  Brandon hasn’t given up on finding remote work and in the meantime we are working together on creating our small business. Tesoros de Atitlan is in full swing over here. Meetings with artisans, working on developing our logo, meetings with exporters, and overall developing Tesoros as a brand is exciting and has been taking up our time. We plan/hope to have a collection complete by May 2018! 

I plan to keep this blog alive. My posts really slowed down after Charlie’s birth but it is really fun for Brandon and I to look back at the documentation of our first year here. I want to keep it going so that we have an artifact of the months leading up to the arrival of our second son and the months there after. I also want you all to know that we are alive and well (and when we aren’t doing so well too).

Next visitor is my dad!! He arrives 12/19/17 and will be spending Christmas here with us. We hope he is ready for his 5am wake up calls from Charlie!

XOXO,

Katie, Brandon, and Charlie

New venture

We are in Minnesota for the summer! We arrived May 3rd and have been hard at work on our townhouse in Saint Louis Park. I bought this place before I met Brandon and we have had it rented out for about 7 years. Our tenants moved out mid April and we moved in. We are hoping to have it on the market by June 15th but the seemingly small list of tasks to complete keeps growing so we will see.

Charlie is doing well with the adjustment. The pool in our community opened and we went for the first time this morning. He loved it and I see us spending a lot of time there this summer.

Before coming back I worked for 3-4 months on a project that I am really excited about. I fell in love with the textiles of Guatemala and the history and tradition of the weaving process. I have been told by some close friends in the past that I should be a personal shopper and that thought kept coming back to me as I was shopping the vintage textile markets.

Eventually I decided to give entrepreneurship a try. I sourced textiles and worked with local artisans to create beautiful leather and textile purses, decorative pillow cases, textile clutches and cosmetic bags. There is a large need for employment opportunities for all in the village that we live (Santa Cruz) and the need is even greater for women. My goal is to create employment opportunities for women in Santa Cruz.

I hosted a SOFT launch last week and received some fantastic positive feedback. I still have a lot to learn about branding and marketing but I am really excited for the feature and am really looking forward to getting back to Guatemala to create another line! I still have some product left from the current line so please check it out.  The name of business if Tesoros de Atitlan.
 
                                                       www.tesorosdeatitlan.com

Our current plan is to return to Guatemala at the end of August. It really has become home to us. Being far away from friends and family is a challenge and so being able to be home for 4 months is great but we are sure that we will be very ready to return!

Parks in the USA are amazing!

And this park is even better!

Spending evenings with friends. 

Walking in the woods with Papa

The last day on the lake

Saying goodbye to our Guatemala home for a few months



XOXO,
Katie, Brandon, and Charlie

Oh Charlie!

XOXO,

Katie, Brandon, and Charlie

Another two months have gone by.

Lets see. My mom was here for 5 weeks over Christmas/New Years. Her visit this year was much different than last. Last year we were waiting for Charlie’s arrival. This year we spent our time chasing him around!

Walking some hanging bridges

Hanging out in the hot tub

Brandon’s parents arrived the day before my mom left so we could all celebrate Charlie’s first birthday. He has 8 teeth and is working on 1 molar, walks, babbles all of the time, loves being outside from the moment he wakes up, is working on taking only an afternoon nap, and must learn through DOING. He is not one to watch how things are done. He must do it!

We left for Costa Rica the day that Brandon’s parents left. Our visas were due and we found really cheap flights. We spent 4 days at the beach and then headed north to Lake Arenal for 3 nights. It was an adventure.  Vacationing with a toddler is work but I’m ok with this.  We rented a car, which was really nice but right before we left on a day trip with my mom Charlie got carsick for the first time. He also became carsick on our trip to the airport. This made our Costa Rica driving challenging. We were on hyper alert for carsickness as we drove the extremely windy roads. Luckily we were able to time most of the driving over naptime.

The only animal I really wanted to spot! 3 toed sloth.

Playing at the playground...we don't have one where we live.

Lake Arenal

3 day old calves spotted while hiking...my back if full of sweat!

It feels good to be back home and back to some routine. Charlie and I stopped attending the mom/baby class that we had been going to in November. It just wasn’t a good fit for our schedule or Charlie’s needs. We do still have Anna coming 2 days a week to care for Charlie so that Brandon and I can have some time away from Charlie and so that Charlie can have some time with someone other than us.

Playing in the yard

Life here at the lake while wonderful is becoming more of a challenge for me. I am missing some of the freedoms and conveniences that come with living in a more populated place…or just a place with roads! Also, Brandon worked for 4 months and then the company that he was working for didn’t get some funding that they had been counting on so Brandon hasn’t been working since the end of December. We had just gotten used to our work/life routine and also to having an income. All of this has us thinking a lot about what path our family life will be taking in the upcoming months. Exciting and scary!

XOXO,

Katie, Brandon, and Charlie