We are the Burtons

from Austin, Texas: Jack, Maja, Grayson, Fox, Carter, Zion, Titus, Paden & Leif.

We sold everything we owned and moved to Valencia, Spain, to embark on an exciting new adventure! 

Follow us on our journey as we deal with moving, learning a new language, culture, and way of life.  It isn't always easy, but we sure have some fun!

Our Story

Born and raised in a small Texas town, musicians and artists at heart, we have always wanted to create things and travel.  But, as high school sweethearts who became pregnant with twins less than a year after marrying, and quickly popping out 5 more babies, feeding our growing brood quickly consumed all our time and money. Yep, 7 kids.   There were years of putting groceries on credit cards and working numerous jobs at a time just to make ends meet.  It often felt like our dreams would always be just that - dreams.  At the time, we didn’t fully understand what a great gift all the hustle and stress of loving and caring for a large family would be. 

For the last 5 years, we have worked hard to eliminate debt and live on less, and to minimize our belongings to live more simply.  Books like Seven by Jen Hatmaker, and Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey, were key instruments for motivation and learning how to live simply and wisely.

Meanwhile our business and musical endeavors continued to take off, further fueling our desire to get out into the world and experience the adventures we had so often heard of from our friends who took a less domestic path.  But a busy family schedule and demanding work life were pulling us 1000 different directions. We were losing the close-knit connection we valued so much as a family.  We began to think about what we could do to change that.  It became clear that we needed to move somewhere more affordable, where we could live on less, work less, and have more time with our children before they start to embark on their own adventures.  We needed a place that would allow us to continue honing our creative skills and have memorable experiences with our kids. With a couple years of sweat and research, we found ourselves in a position to restructure our main venture and work from anywhere in the world.   It would mean a serious pay cut, though.  The list of possible cities shrank down until we were left with one: Valencia, Spain.

So, we went for it! We applied for Visas, hired a great manager for the business in Texas, sold everything we owned (almost), and took the plunge.

Now we're here.  WOW.

We'll be posting videos we made during the process, and future blog posts will include more details on the nuts and bolts of how we accomplished it all, but for now, we are here.  Trying to soak it all in.  Incredible.

October 12, 2016