2018: A Year in Review
Happy New Years everyone!! Perhaps I'm a little late given that it's already the middle of January, but for this weeks blog post I decided to do a recap of 2018.
Some times it's easy to feel like all the years run together, or that nothing super special might've happened, but as I was sifting through my photos from last January through December I was reminded once again how important it actually is to take the time and reflect and even celebrate the moments in our life, even if they feel small because that is what all the big things are made of. A compilation of small moments that lead us to those magical monumental moments in life that become memories.
I'll try my best to do this in chronological order! These were taken in January during a visit to Chattanooga Tennessee to celebrate my 25th birthday.
By the way I grew up going to Chattanooga a lot, and it's still one of my favorite cities to go visit!
In early spring we went through Kansas City and got to stop for the day and explore downtown in the West Bottoms area, as well as spend quality time with some of my family that lives there.
The West Bottoms is really cool, it's basically just the old industrial side of town which makes it a perfect place to explore and take portraits.
As you can imagine life on the road is more tolerable when you get chances to visit with family! My sister took us out to the Thou Mayest coffee shop which is an awesome place with the best iced chai. If you want some excellent coffee shops with atmosphere as good as the beans, Kansas City has got you covered!
In May we had the chance to be in Wisconsin visiting our dear friends who were about to have their first baby! It's incredible how God would orchestrate our loads and take us places at the most perfect time. Because everyone knows you can't time your life around a baby being born!
But we got a load through the town where they live and were able to stay for when the little guy was born.
May/June we came home to Montana for a week. It was unfortunately quite chilly still and mostly cloudy, but that didn't stop us from having a blast and riding the motorcycle as much as possible!
There's nothing like fun summertime evenings spent with family and friends around a campfire, especially when the backyard is a stunning little field of daisies!
It might seem random or insignificant to others, but dying my hair lavender was actually a big personal achievement for myself! I've always loved color and creativity, and so dying my hair this color was a way for me to express that part of myself while at the same time overcoming fears and being brave to try something new and crazy!
A big highlight was getting to model biking gear and shoot video for a motorcycle company with our friend Jeriah Miller who owns his own media company.
In July we made it home again to Montana to celebrate the 4th which is one of our favorite holidays.
We spent many days at the lake swimming and grilling out, and the others were spent cruising through the mountains on the motorcycle.
Montana has some of the best roads in the country, with sweeping curves and magnificent views like this while most of the roads hardly have much traffic.
We worked very hard this year and even though we couldn't take time off in certain places, we still got to see some pretty sights along the way.
This is taken going down Wolf Creek Pass in Colorado. It's an absolutely beautiful drive but it's not for the faint of heart with it's steep grades and hairpin curves.
Left: Lake Michigan in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
Right: Rapeseed fields in Saskatchewan Canada
We found this old abandoned church just south of Regina, Saskatchewan as we were taking an alternate route to avoid traffic.
Late summer there were so many vibrant sunflower fields along the highways in the midwest.
We took these photos just along the interstate in Fargo ND.
In early September we got a load going to Colorado. Up in the mountains it had already started to turn to fall. This photo is taken on top of Wolf Creek Pass where the Continental Divide trail crosses in this little valley.
Colorado is so fun because on a lot of the roads you can almost always find a turnout where you can pull off and just run into the woods a little ways and explore.
In September we were invited to a friends wedding in North Carolina, so we made a little weekend out of it and spent some time in Asheville. I did a whole post about our visit to Asheville, click here to read.
We also got a little time to visit with my family in Georgia which was a blessing.
Perhaps the most unique load we ever hauled as far as route and mileage was up to Norway House Manitoba. It's so far north, 500 miles north of Winnipeg and you have to travel up and around lake Winnipeg, then cut south on the other side of the lake just to get there.
There is only one route to get here, and you have to take a small ferry across the water in the summer, but in the winter it turns into an ice bridge.
From Iowa where we picked up the load it was 2,232 miles round trip.
It's an Indian reservation and not very populated, therefore it's quite small with not much to offer. No truck stops and not even a coffee shop or Tim Hortons, ha! But the nature around there was quite beautiful.
We crossed the ferry just as the sun was setting and it was absolutely beautiful!!
They recently constructed a new ferry, this is the old one that now remains docked in place.
Driving through the midwest we got to see some phenomenal rainbows!
In October we got to spend a couple days exploring Omaha Nebraska and it just happened to fall around our anniversary, which was such an extra little blessing! I just recently did a two part blog about that, if you happened to have missed it you can read part one here, and part two here.
October was a very exciting and transitional month for us!
After 3 years of living in an 18-wheeler truck on the road, we felt from God that new things were on the horizon and that it was time to end the trucking chapter of our lives.
It still amazes me how God so perfectly orchestrated everything and brought it all together. We sold the truck to a friend and the same day we packed up my car literally to its fullest capacity and headed west towards home. It felt so surreal to be cruising on the highway no longer in an 18 wheeler, but in a car headed home, never to drive truck again.
Everything came together quite quickly; just at the beginning of the year we didn't even have a shred of hope that we would potentially be getting out of the truck, but over the summer God started bringing everything together and it was clear to us that we would be done trucking by the fall.
We arrived home on the 18th of October just in time to still enjoy the last bit of the beautiful fall colors and weather.
David finally was able to ride his new Victory motorcycle that he had bought in the summer!
We filmed more promotional videos with Viking Cycle and were able to model some prototypes that hadn't even been released yet.
I might look like a natural on a bike, but I'm still learning how to ride! It's a little scary but exhilarating and I'm looking forward to many miles next summer!
I love fall in Montana, there aren't many colors other than the golden larch trees, but I think they're just so beautiful!!! And I'm so thankful we were home this year to enjoy it.
Thanksgiving Day was very special for us, it was the first time in over 3 years that the majority of our family was able to be together. I cooked a big traditional southern thanksgiving meal that dare I say was the best I've ever cooked, especially the turkey!
Needless to say this year was way better than the previous one where David and I spent Thanksgiving alone at a truck stop in Connecticut and ate dinner at Cracker Barrel, which by the way has a pretty dang good holiday meal.
I took this photo just a few miles away from where we live. My soul has so missed seeing beautiful views like this.
There's not always much to do or get dressed up for in a small town, so we always take advantage of any chance we get, haha!! Before Christmas we went to see Handel's Messiah performed by the local symphony. I always enjoying going to events like that, it helps to get you in the holiday spirit.
Not sure what's going on in this photo! David's little brother Josh is not so little anymore, and isn't far from catching up with him.
During hunting season we drove around up in the mountains hopeful that we'd find us a good buck, but good views is all we got! This is looking out over Lake Koocanusa at dusk.
Everyone was praying for a white Christmas, because we hadn't gotten any snow yet! At last just a day before Christmas Eve we got just enough snow to cover everything in white. But it's been a very mild winter so far.
We had a wonderful Christmas this year, once again it was so special to be home and to spend it with our family after years of being on the road.
And perhaps the most exciting thing this year... We built our first house!!!
When we moved home in October we quickly got started on building a mini barn and finishing it out inside as a tiny house. We moved in at the beginning of December, and I just can't say enough how incredible it is to finally have my own house after all these years of living our first years of marriage together in a truck.
2018 has definately been a year of victory for us, and the overcoming of hardships and struggles.
Life is like the butterfly effect, every little moment and every mundane day brings you one day closer to your dreams and your goals being accomplished.
I'm so thankful for all the blessings God has poured out to us, without Him I don't know where we'd be. And He is always such a faithful leader just like He promises.
Next up on the blog will be the story and building process of our little house, so make sure you stay tuned for that! You won't want to miss it!! :)
