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The main characters of this website are Sylwia, Sebastian, Grayson (7) and Damian (5). We're a family looking for adventure while chasing blue skies and epic sunsets. 

S & S Adventures began in 2024 as a way to capture our boys’ childhood memories and give us a place to look back on our own journey in the years ahead. At the time, we were living in Poland for a full year—but that’s just one chapter of the story, so here’s how we got here ...

Sylwia and I were both born and raised in Poland. I came from Grajewo, a small city in the northeastern part of Poland and Sylwia was born and raised in Tarnów, a southern Polish city. At around the age of 11, I left Poland and moved to Chicago with my mom. Sylwia left Poland and moved to the suburbs of Chicago 3 years later, when at that time we were both 14. We didn’t know each other until we met in Lake Villa, a northern suburb of Chicago. We attended the same high school together and remained friends. After high school, I joined the United States Air Force. I spent 6 years in the AF, stationed in Tucson, AZ for more than half that time. I also deployed to the UK and Masirah Island, Oman for a short period and my last two years of enlistment was in South Korea.
 

After separating from the AF, I came back to Lake Villa where I reconnected with Sylwia. She was working full time while attending college part time and I began college full time as well.

Four years later we both graduated, I with a Finance degree and Sylwia with Accounting, got married and started looking for our first apartment together. Fast forward a few more years and we were living the good life in downtown Chicago. We purchased a studio in Marina Towers (corn on the cob buildings) where I had a five-minute walk to my job at the Cook County Public Guardian’s office and Sylwia had a short commute to Evanston, working as an accountant for a marketing firm. Life was good.

By the summer of 2018, our first son, Grayson was born and we decided it was time to leave the city behind. We closed on our condo and moved out the same weekend that Grayson was born. We ended up moving to a small house, which we completely renovated in the suburbs near Lake Villa. 22 months later our second son, Damian was born. We sold our little house, moved into a townhouse in Lake Villa and started Sylwia's Accounting / Bookkeeping business from home: S&S Bookkeeping Solutions, LLC
 
A few years later, Sylwia’s aunt in Poland passed away unexpectedly, and with that came the chance to buy her condo in Tarnów. The condo had been in the family since 1964, when Sylwia’s grandparents first owned it, and it was the home where she grew up and built countless childhood memories. After sixty years, it was showing its age and needed major care, so we decided to purchase it in 2023, give it a full renovation in early 2024, and make it our own.
 

From the summer of 2024 we spent a year in Poland soaking up family time, settling into our condo, and watching the boys enjoy their Montessori school. We traveled all around the country, with plenty of little adventures, and even snuck in a trip to Prague. After a year abroad, it felt right to head back to the States and spend a laid-back summer in the Midwest.

That's where we are today, enjoying the summer in the U.S. while planning our next adventure. 

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