Since moving to Florida we have constantly been getting messages like I am so jealous and you guys are living the life. All I want to say to that is, you could be living here as well. We always knew we wanted to move south, Florida just wasn't my first choice. South Carolina was always my top choice in where I thought my family and I would settle down. Florida has always been an awesome vacation spot but I had irrational fears that alligators were just wondering everywhere and would be hanging out in peoples yards. haha I know crazy right?! now I cannot see us living anywhere else. This is home! I am going to share some tips that helped us with our move 17 hours away from family. Just a few of the amazing people we have met since moving here. 1. Research the town that you want to move to and if you want to move just do it! I know that may not be that easy but if you want it work towards it. I joined a moms group here and met so many women when I first moved to town. Its nice to have friends that have kids around the same age. We all get to hang out and the kids love it because they get to play. 2. Save money. I know this is obvious but it takes so much to move to a different state especially one that is so far away from where we lived before. We came from Ohio to Southwest Florida. We had to get a moving truck that was big enough for all of our things, we left quite a bit behind. You could totally just leave everything and get all new when you move but we didn't have time to sell everything and worry about that. Moving trucks aren't cheap mainly because it goes off mileage. Plus we had to get our own vehicles down here. Luckily Have super supportive parents and they came down with us on the move. We all took turns driving so we could get some rest but still make it here fairly quickl, so we thought. It ended up taking 31 hours! 3. Find a house way quicker than 3 days before you have to move haha. Travis and I flew down for the weekend luckily found a house and we're moved down by the following weekend. Talk about cutting it close. 4. Rent first. We knew we didn't want to immediately move to a new town and buy a house so we of course rented first and it was the best decision. We are now able to see what area of town we want to buy in and if we want to live on the water or not. We both know we have to have a pool and preferably be on the water. Before we moved down I said no to the water; pool and canal! Now that we live here and have friends with pools and live on the lakes, canals and rivers I have completely changed my mind. The kids do really well around all of the pools and do not get in unless someone is with them and they know they are aloud. Oh and alligators aren't just hanging around waiting to eat you like I thought ;) 5. Just do it, I know I already said this once but its true. If you want to move do not let anything stop you. If you are lucky enough to find a job and everything falls in to place go for it. We were lucky enough that Travis applied for a job and got it pretty much right away and then within a month we were living in Florida. 6. We miss our family so much. If that is the only things stopping you, just go for it. I am super close with my family so some days I do get upset that I can't just drive 5-10 minutes to go see them but we talk on the phone all of the time. My family has also been down several times in the short 11 1/2 months that we have lived here and it's awesome they always have a place to stay for vacation. If they come to Florida that is haha. None of them complain about having to come visit us lol I hope this helps anyone wanting to move to a new state. This was the best decision we have ever made and we couldn't be happier. The only regret we have is that we didn't do it years ago!