Unstoppable Family Monthly Newsletter: Merry Christmas!

Published: Sun, 12/22/13

Merry Christmas from Tenerife!

Hi ,

Merry Christmas from Tenerife! We've really enjoyed the luxury of being right next to the beach, but also being located just one hour from Mount Teide, Tenerife's active volcano. So not only do we get to enjoy the beach, but we also get to enjoy the mountains full of snow. It's a pretty vast microclimate in Tenerife and from our patio we can see the beautiful volcano. It's a pretty amazing view and topography we have here!

Hanalei has really enjoyed hanging with her friends, taking horseback riding lessons and being part of the school. She calls the English that she learns here "fancy English" because her teachers are British!

For the first time she is confident in Spanish and now at any time she can order her own food, ask questions or respond to people that speak to her in Spanish. She's been in Spanish-speaking environments since she was 3 years old, so now she's pretty confident, even if she doesn't know the words. Her verbal isn't as strong as it could be yet, but she's been getting much better as she grows and matures.  
Announcement- We're moving!

Despite all this, we've decided to move from Tenerife because the age group here is older than we are and about 90% of the people that we see on a daily basis are British. So there's not as much culture as we would like and there's not nearly as much community as we usually look for in places we move to. 

That's really one of the most important pieces to us having been on the road now for 5 years. We celebrated our 5 year anniversary of traveling the world on 25th November and Brian and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary on 28th November.

We're leaving Tenerife because it doesn't have the community feel that we would need make it a long term arrangement. That's one of the things we love; being able to be among other people that are either traveling or have children. We like to make friends and have a 'family' around us, even when we're not with out family at all times. 

We just haven't found that here, so we decided to think about where would be the No.1 best place to move to. 

Bocas Del toro is one of our favourite locations and as soon as we go back to Panama we have our full network of friends. We have talked to our friends already and we have around 20 people excited to see us on February 1st. 

So come January we are leaving Tenerife and making our way to Panama! 

Before that we're going to Morocco and Paris because Hanalei has been dreaming about seeing Paris. Our intention was to have her go for her birthday but we are going to be going in January now before our Empower Network event in Miami from the 22nd-29th. 

So we'll be spending Christmas here in Tenerife, then we're heading to Morocco for a few days, followed by Paris, followed by Orlando to see family and Disneyworld, before ending up in Bocas del Toro to close out the school year. 

Hanalei will go directly to the Tangerine School that she started with when she was 3 years old, and she has all of her friends there. She's gone back to that school 2 different times in the last 5 years- we've stayed 4-5 months each time so it's like we're going home. Hanalei keeps saying "I can't wait to go home" and it will always feel like our hub. It's our place that we will always go back to or possibly eventually move to. 

We hope you all have an UNSTOPPABLE Christmas and New Year wherever you are in the world!

Live Your Dreams,
The Unstoppable Family