About Us

Hi and welcome to our website.

My name is Deb and together with my husband Jeremy, son Benji and daughter Emily we make up Grab Life by the Gourlay’s.

This post will be a bit of an introduction as to who we are and what our plans are moving forward.

First off a bit of background information for you all. I’ve been a registered nurse for 12 years working in a major tertiary hospital in Post Anaesthetic Care (or Recovery Room) for operating theatres. It’s a challenging environment and no two days are ever the same.

Jeremy is also a registered nurse and has worked in a variety of different areas however, for the last 5 years he’s been working in community mental health case management roles. He’s worked in a couple of different communities and each community has its own challenges to navigate.

Our first born Benji is 5.5 now and I honestly have no idea how 5.5 years have passed already. He’s a cheeky character and has so much energy to burn. Honestly, I’m writing this in our van and I had to send Benji on 3 laps of our ‘block’ in the caravan park before shower and bed tonight just to make sure he was ready to sleep - wish I still had that kind of energy.

Now on to Miss Emily - this rascal has been keeping us on our toes since the day she was born. I can still vividly remember the after she was born thinking this kid has barely slept - aren’t they supposed to be tired from birth? Turns out we breed kids with ridiculous amounts of energy! Emily turns 4 in May and has faced many more medical challenges than the average 4 year old! I’ll detail her medical journey in a blog series but suffice it to say she is kicking goals and has so much determination which I’m sure will serve her well in the future as an FBI negotiator - nothing gets past this kid!

Our Nissan Patrol Y62 is due any week now and our Marvel Thunderstorm MkII caravan is all set up and ready to go. We officially kick of full time travel in January 2024 and we can’t wait!

Anyone who has already done the ‘Big Lap’ knows the amount of planning, time, organisation and money that goes into making this a reality and we hope you stick around for the journey!

The Gourlay’s