Kelly Ripa And Mark Consuelos Are Living The Empty Nester Life: 'This Is Kind Of Great'

Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos are officially empty nesters.

All three of the couple's children have moved out, leaving them to adjust to their new life. Their youngest, Joaquin, 19, moved out last year and is attending the University of Michigan. Daughter Lola, 21, is studying abroad in London, and their oldest, Michael, 25, is living on his own and working as an actor and producer.

A few weeks ago, Ripa, 51, had all the kids under one roof and posted about the happy moment on Instagram captioning a photo of the three kids, "It sure was nice having the chickens back in the nest for a couple of weeks. Back to life…..back to reality ♥️♥️♥️🥺#summer #vibes" to which Consuelos commented, "Love those chickens."

Having an empty house is something the couple has had to adjust to. Even a little thing like making dinner has a learning curve. "It's scary, thrilling, liberating, shocking...and quiet," Ripa told PEOPLE. "I didn't know how to make dinner proportionally. Now, it's 10 p.m. and we'll eat."

Approaching the empty nest days were nerve wracking for Ripa, but they've been making the best of their new life. "There were moments when I was like, 'We're going to be that couple: Our third child goes to college and we get divorced because this is it," she joked. "But there was this other moment, where we went to the beach alone for the first time since our honeymoon with cheese and a baguette. These other parents were running around us with small kids." Ripa said she was never able to notice the sunset in the past, but that has now changed. "I realized I had never noticed the sunset because I was making sure our kids didn't run into the water when I wasn't looking," she explained.

The couple realized that being empty nesters meant they could enjoy their alone time how they wanted. "So I think for us, it was 'Oh this next phase of our lives, this is kind of great," Ripa explained. Ripa and Consuelos got married in 1995 when Ripa was just 25-years-old and welcomed their first child in 1997. "On paper it should not have worked and when it didn't work, we really worked at it," she said. "We fought for our marriage when it would have been easier to quit and throw in the towel."

Both Ripa's and Consuelos' parents have been married a long time, so working on their marriage was all they knew. "Listen, my parents have been married for 61 years and Mark's parents have been married for 55 years," she said. "We didn't know any other way."

Ripa's first book, "Live Wire: Long-Winded Short Stories," is being released this week. The book of short stories takes a look at many different areas of the talk show host's life, from being a mom, a wife, a professional, and everything in between.  She talks about how she met Mark, growing up in New Jersey, becoming Regis Philbin's cohost and many other areas of her life in the new book. The new author is also taking her show on the road with a book tour starting this week, visiting locations in New Jersey, New York, Kentucky and a few others, with a special guest by her side at each event.