A House Swap Adventure

“Hey, would anybody be up for a house swap this summer?” my husband’s cousin posted in our family group chat.

My husband has close to thirty first cousins, and everyone is spread out across the country. Surprisingly, no one responded to Kaleigh's post in the first few days. The more we thought about it, the more it seemed like a great idea!

Kaleigh and her family, live outside of Seattle, Washington, somewhere we’d never been before. House swapping meant we’d be able to have free lodging, free use of a car, and someone to take care of our dog and fish. Same for them, although they have a cat. We’d just have to pay for flights and whatever activities we wanted to do while we were there.

We let her know we were in and made sure they were up for coming to Arizona in the heat of summer. Thankfully, they had been out to visit the previous summer, so they knew what they were getting into. Plus, we have a swimming pool, so that sweetened the deal, and they agreed.

We coordinated dates and booked flights. We timed them to arrive at our swapped destinations at the same time and left our cars at the airport for each other. Just a few hours later, we Facetimed. They were on our couch with our dog, and we were on their couch with their cat!

We had so much fun on our vacation. We got to explore a new place and do new things. We went to a ropes course, we went strawberry picking, we went to the Space Needle and Pikes Place Market. We played outside. We drove to Leavenworth, a Bavarian town a few hours away, and fed reindeer.

Kaleigh and her family swam in our pool. They went to the theater and museums. They swam in our pool some more. It was an amazing vacation for both families!

The only downside we noted is that we didn’t get to see each other, but we made sure to Facetime over the course of the week.

We saw Kaleigh recently when she was in town, and we kept talking about how wonderful the house swap trip was. We were both so comfortable in each other’s spaces and loved that someone in the family was there taking care of things while we were away. We may even do it again!