Farewell Coopers

Saying Goodbye was so much harder than we could have imagined. While we were all very excited for our upcoming adventures, it was hard to leave our Santa Cruz Community, Friends, and Family. The bonds that we have formed and the friendships that we have are incredibly special and mean the world to our family. Our last few weeks flew by in a flash as we prepared ourselves to move from our beautiful home in the redwoods of Bonny Doon to a sailboat in Fiji. We wrapped up our jobs, packed for our trip, packed our house, and packed our hearts into bags and boxes to be opened at a later time. We even squeezed in an interview for the This Ocean Life Podcast. Click here for link to podcast. We had so many people come to visit and say goodbye that it reinforced how truly blessed we are to have our tribe. Brian's mom and sister came down from the Pacific Northwest along with his cousin who flew in from South Carolina to spend Thanksgiving with us. My brother spent a day with me and Malia while on a layover from his job. My parents flew in from Florida to spend Christmas with us. My sister came up from San Luis Obispo with my nephews, and my niece came down from Mendocino with her two little girls to enjoy some time together after the new year. We tried to say "yes" to everything the girls wanted to do before we left and allowed them the space to have as much time with their friends as possible. The girls had hang outs, surf sessions, ice skating, parties, sleepovers, pranks, and time with all of their friends not to say "goodbye" but "see you later". One of Malia's friends wrote a beautiful song and together with another friend played it for us as a parting gift. It was such a sweet and heartfelt gift and it left each of us with tears of gratitude and love. Click here for a link to the song. It is hard to imagine that by the time we get back Malia and her crew will be well into High School and Isla will be a Middle School-er. I look forward to seeing all of the growth (physical, mental, emotional) in all of their friends. Our friends and neighbors have us over for impromptu dinner and/or wine and hosted small gatherings to  say " see you later". It was hard to pull away from the people who have been there for us over the years, helping to raise our kids, to be an extra set of hands when needed, and our travel/adventure partners. We will doing this adventure on our own, but hope that if possible some will come to visit us along the way. We did not have a chance to bid farewell to everyone, so to those who we missed, we send our love and thanks and we will see you later!
Check out the link below to watch a short slideshow.
lCick here to watch our Farwell Coopers Movie

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