Family makes dramatic lifestyle change By North Ottawa Weekly October 03, 2009, 10:07AM Johnny Quirin Danielle, Morgan, Ryann, Jaxon and Craig Parrent relax on their newly acquired boat at the Grand Isle Marina in Grand Haven. ADA There are people who dream of the having the kind of lifestyle that the Parrent family of Ada was living a beautiful home, nice cars, financial success and security. Then there are those who might think it s crazy or be envious of how they were able to give it all up for things they determined were far more important family time and a more simple quality of life.
Pictured in New Orleans, La., during Mardi Gras, left to right, are Morgan 8, Ryann 6 and Jaxon 3, with Mardi Gras masks. It was a T-shirt that was the final inspiration that led Craig Parrent, 34, to make the dramatic changes in his family s lives that he and his wife had long been thinking about. This shirt said, Instead of spending the next 20 years talking about what I wish I had done, I ll spend the next 40 talking about what I have done, Craig said. The family has found a home this winter in Grand Haven after spending the last year on the road in a recreational vehicle seeing the United States. If everything goes as planned, they will shove off next August for the second leg of the tour aboard their newly purchased Chris Craft cruiser. They plan to spend the next couple of years seeing the eastern half of the country by water. Craig, the successful owner of Signature Homes, and his wife, Danielle, also 34, closed the Grand Rapids area business they had founded 13 years ago, sold their $400,000 Ada home and stored their possessions. They went from a 4,500-square-foot house into a 350-square-foot recreational vehicle while they traveled across the United States with their three children Morgan, 8, Ryann, 6, and Jaxon, 3 from September 2008 through May of 2009. We were originally going to do our first big trip by boat but couldn t find the right vessel, Craig Parrent said.
We had never camped a day in our life, Danielle Parrent said. After the trip, we ve just sold the RV and recently bought a 1987, 48-foot Chris Craft Catalina cruiser that we are living on until October. After October, the couple will move into a rented house in Grand Haven. Our next big plan is to take our boat on an extended two- to threeyear Great Loop cruise route at the end of this school year, she said. If Craig is anything, he is brave, determined, ambitious and, most of all, adventuresome. Adventure brings with it stories, and the Parrents have plenty, beginning with the day they met in 1995. I was driving down the highway and saw this great looking guy in the other lane, Danielle Parrent said. We were passing one another, checking each other out, and when I went to exit, I was hoping he would follow me, but he didn t They would meet at a gas station a few minutes later. The couple was engaged two months later and married within the year at age 21. She went to work in international marketing for Amway Corporation in Ada, and Craig began building his company that grew to employ 16. What I left was huge, Craig Parrent said. When others were struggling, we were thriving. I walked away from more money than you can imagine. He said that he was working every waking moment. He said he needed to reset his priorities and wanted his children to be able to dream and understand that they could do anything and not be afraid. My job is to be a parent now make that parrent with two rr s, he said. The Parrents changed their lives for many reasons. We re young and healthy now. We want to live life to the fullest, spending quality time as a family, seeing the country and getting back to the basics. Danielle said. We wanted to be better parents and spouses. Life is not all about money. During the nine months the Parrents traveled in their RV, towing their pickup truck packed with a dinghy, they covered 21,000 miles and
spent $20,000. We were very frugal, Danielle Parrent said. They would stay free at places like Wal-Mart and Cabelas. They ate three home-prepared meals a day and would only eat out about twice a month, and only then with coupons. We are not cutting into our principal, she said. They did not scrimp on the opportunities the family enjoyed. The trip took them as far northeast as Maine, then south down along the eastern coast to Key West, west as far as San Diego, north to San Francisco and then back east toward home. Highlights included days at Disney World, the Hearst Mansion, tours of the White House, museums, aquariums, historic sites, swimming, beachcombing. They even visited 36 zoos on the same low-price pass. The kids were home-schooled throughout the journey. Among Morgan s favorite things about the trip was finding $26 in change on the ground all over the country. Ryann liked learning how to ride a bike on Wellesley Island in New York and losing her front tooth taking a bite out of a Florida orange. Jaxon liked all the trucks and tractors he saw. Danielle Parrent said there were big adjustments. Coin laundry, no dishwasher, no GPS, no cable TV, and it was the first time we had a strict budget. It was budget, budget, budget, she said. But it all made us more conscientious of things like water use, new ways to save money, minimizing wastefulness and not taking anything for granted. The RV has a story all its own. Although it was for sale after the road trip, a sleeping driver hit the front end, causing $10,000 in damage. Upon repair, and having sold the RV, Craig left to deliver it to its buyer and the RV was damaged again on the trip through Chicago by kids throwing rocks from an overpass. It did about $5,000 in damage. Perhaps for the Parrents, one of the most perilous adventures was when Craig Parrent took delivery of his boat in St. Claire Shores a few weeks ago. He was by himself when he began navigating around the treacherous waters in the Saginaw Bay area as waves were building. I was fine in the five-footers, Craig said, but it continued to grow and soon I found myself in 12-foot waves. He was running out of gas and needed to leave the helm to switch tanks but couldn t safely because of the high seas. As I was trying to
make my way to safety, my bow completely submerged three times, all the way up to the hatch. I would watch for what seemed like hours to see if it would resurface or if I would totally nosedive and sink. It was the first time I ever thought I could lose my life. The Parrents children have begun school at Mary A. White Elementary, and Craig Parrent has gone back to work as an independent contractor to raise enough extra money for their next big adventure. In August 2010, they will begin their boat trip on The Negotiator, which is expected to last two or three years. It will begin with the Great Loop, a water route from Chicago, down the Illinois Waterway to the Mississippi River, out to New Orleans, through the Gulf of Mexico and around Key West. The trip will extend to the Bahamas and Caribbean, after which they will return through the intercoastal waterway through New York and into the Great Lakes. While her husband is at work and the kids are in school, Danielle Parrent s days are spent in stark contrast to living together as a family 24/7, but she stays plenty busy. Adventures like ours take a lot of planning, she said. You don t just pick up and go.