The Rest of 2021
A quick catch-up for posterity, family, or whoever takes the time to read this post.
August 2021
At the end of July/beginning of August, we went on a much anticipated trip to California. This trip had been in the works since early 2021 and had been a lot of fun to plan and dream about. It was slightly stressful to be flying again (especially since we’d never in all our years of travel seen the Denver airport so busy), but things went pretty smoothly.
Fall Break 2020
We had penciled a backpacking trip onto our calendar for fall break months ago, but it wasn’t until the week before that we actually decided what we were doing. We’d originally wanted to backpack in Canyonlands, but didn’t realize how competitive the permits were and that our fall break was at the same time as the entire state of Utah. Undeterred, this just challenged us to go even further off the beaten path. Finally, we decided to backpack the Halls…
Fourth of July 2020 Backpacking Trip
As the fourth of July approached, we weren’t feeling very enthusiastic. All the fireworks shows were cancelled and honestly, we weren’t feeling terribly patriotic and didn’t have much of a desire to be around people who were. We decided it would be best for us to get away from everyone and enjoy some of our nation’s natural beauty.
San Juan River Trip 2020
I mentioned in my last post that we had permits to raft the San Juan river. Way back in March we snagged the permits. We didn’t get selected through the lottery, but after lottery recipients accepted or declined they released any extra permits. Quarantine had just started and we figured things would be better by June. As the weeks progressed, we began to realize there was a strong chance the trip would be cancelled. Noel was calling the BLM office…
Costa Rica Trip 2020
I have been wanting to go to Costa Rica for years. I can’t pinpoint exactly what attracted me to the country. I do remember learning about Costa Rica in high school Spanish and thinking it was cool that they didn’t have an army. As an adult looking at traveling internationally for the first time, it helped that it’s a relatively safe and very peaceful country. Being gorgeous and warm didn’t hurt either.
September 2019
We kicked off September with a Labor Day trip to Maroon Bells. This was a trip we’d planned 6 months in advance because that’s how far in advance you have to reserve campsites.
August 2019
We kicked August off with another trip. This trip was not one we had originally planned, but when a friend of ours got permits to hike the Narrows in Zion we couldn’t pass up the opportunity. The biggest obstacle was finding something to do with the kids. My brother and sister-in-law live in Cedar City. When they said they could watch the kids the day we did the hike we began planning our final summer adventure.
November 2018
Here we are almost at the end of December and I’m doing my November recap. I feel like every year when Thanksgiving rolls around life goes into hyperdrive and doesn’t slow down until we hit Christmas. We’re finally to the part of December when the social engagements have petered out and we’re left alone to recover spend time with our families and do things like reflect on how we got here.
Yellowstone and Tetons Trip
Our big summer trip this year was a trip to Yellowstone and Grand Tetons. We booked our Yellowstone campsite months ago, put it on the calendar, and then just kind of got distracted by other things. When we were debating whether to rent a pavilion for our cheesecake party, Noel and I made a pros and cons list and enumerated the reasons why it was a good idea. One of our biggest reasons would be that our house wouldn’t be…