WE'RE BACK! What have we been up to?

We're back! In case you missed it a month ago We posted that we were taking a little bit of a break from Instagram and YouTube The reason for this is that we were feeling overwhelmed and extra stressed from all the big changes in our life Yeah, the last 10 months have been full of so many challenges and changes from spending seven months working on the van Which we had no idea how to do it So it was really stressful to working our full-time jobs as well as working full-time on the blog and the vlog Also managing having Kona in the van which has been really hard It was just a lot and we were just feeling really stressed and exhausted and not like ourselves at all And so something had to go so we could kind of find some time to kind of get our groove back And unfortunately, it had to be all of this We wanted to be honest about how we were feeling because the truth is traveling full-time is not always easy We have mostly good days, but there are the occasional bad days And so we just always want to be honest about our experiences So we thought a lot about during our break how we can stay happy and healthy while juggling everything in our life because we can't Quit our jobs and we also want to do this full-time. So we have to find a way to balance it better So we have a few ways that we're gonna do that which might impact our channel in the future So number one, we are only going to film vlogs on the weekend We've been trying to film vlogs on weekdays while working and it's just been way too much. That's when the meltdowns happen So we're not gonna do that anymore Number two, we are gonna probably post one vlog per week That's gonna be the goal if we're on a longer trip We're in Hawaii or in Italy or something like that We will probably post two a week But our normal like day-to-day vlogs will be one a week just because it's much easier for us to one film those Edit them get them posted all that fun stuff and three We're going to take breaks if needed if we feel really overwhelmed. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves So if we feel really overwhelmed, we might take a little mini break and not post something for a couple days We don't want to feel like we have to post something on a Wednesday If you know, we need till Friday just so we feel more relaxed. That's what we're gonna do So it shouldn't change things overall, but that's our plan We want to just listen to ourselves more and the second we feel stressed out. We just want to take a breath Yeah, pump the brakes and find a way to get to that. Happy healthy state keep it balanced Yes, balance is good a huge. Thank you to all of you guys for being so supportive during all of this So when we posted that we were taking a break we were kind of nervous It's really hard for us to step back from this because as cheesy as it sounds Traveling and sharing our adventures and helping other people travel is our true like passion and calling in life And so taking a break from it was really really really hard for us And so we were very thankful that people were very supportive and encouraging and sent us lots of positive Emails and messages during our brain sticking with us. Yeah. Thank you for staying with us So what have we been up to since the last vlog so much has happened since then? Let's fill you in After our hike in the enchantments We spent a couple days in Seattle and visited some of our friends and favorite spots in town like our favorite coffee shops Ice cream and also one of our favorite taco shops ever It felt so good to be back we have a few Seattle vlogs from when we lived in Seattle So we'll link to those below if you're looking for things to do We then headed to Colorado to pick up Kona from her board and train program at flash dog training We are so happy to have her back with us Even if it has been a little hard at times From there we drove to Austin to fix a couple wiring issues on the van long story short We needed to swap out some wires so we could use our induction stovetop and hot water heater And then we headed west again so I could get to two airports I had work trips out of on our way We drove to Scottsdale to see some friends and show them the van our friend's daughter was definitely not impressed And then we headed to Nevada where we explored the beautiful Valley of Fire State Park Which is Nevada's oldest and largest State Park? We saw petroglyphs some crazy red rock formations and a wave similar to the famous one in Arizona If you haven't been to Valley of Fire, you should definitely check it out It's incredible from there. We spent a day in Las Vegas We kicked off our morning with sunrise at seven magic mountains Which is a free art display in the desert that was supposed to only last until 2018 But it was so popular that they extended it It's seven colorful rock towers, and it's just very unique and beautiful We then headed down to the strip to see some classic sites before spending the day at two of our favorite places ever which happened To be in Las Vegas The first one is one of our favorite coffee shops ever called publicus It's such a cool vibe on the inside with really neat decor delicious looking food in this amazing macadamia nut latte Which has actual pieces of macadamia nuts in it our second favorite spot is tacos El Gordo Which is one of our top five favorite taco spots their meat and sauces are so freaking good They have three locations in Vegas and a few in San Diego, too I'm serious whatever you're doing right now stop figure out a way to get there We then spent the rest of the day driving around Red Rock Canyon Which is about 30 minutes from the strip? While we'd say Valley of Fire was our favorite of the two the proximity to the strip makes us a great place to get a Break from the craziness and enjoy some nature if you only have a few hours after Las Vegas We headed north to Lake Tahoe. We spent a week here together going on hikes lakeside strolls working Relaxing and enjoying the beautiful scenery We watched an epic sunrise at Emerald Bay State Park hiked to Eagle Lake Walked the new East Shore Trail and hung out at Sand Harbor We also checked out a coffee shop called Clyde's coffee and ate at a spot called Verde Mexican rotisserie And let me tell you it was the bomb We also celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary while in Lake Tahoe We spent the day in the truckie area going through the Donner historic tunnels Which are old railroad tunnels and are very creepy, but also very cool We also explored the town of truckie, which is super cute and of course we had to try out a local coffee spot After a fun week together. I had to start two weeks of traveling for work first up, Milwaukee Well, most of my time was spent at a conference I managed to check out the public market to local coffee shops and wander around town Adam stayed in the Reno area during this trip and I definitely missed hanging out with him in Kona When Catherine got back from Milwaukee, we headed to Sacramento to meet one of our longtime Instagram followers Mauricio has followed us since right after we moved to Seattle and has always been so supportive and nice and we were so excited to Grab coffee with him Adam then dropped me off at the Oakland Airport where I headed to France for a week I had half a day to explore Paris and try to see as much as I could including a coffee shop Eating some falafel, which is surprisingly a big thing in Paris and go see the Eiffel Tower But besides that most of my time was spent working indoors Catherine flew into Denver from France and we were supposed to spend the week there, but there was a snowstorm on the way We started to panic a bit about having enough power and the fact that our van Conversion was not meant to be in snow or single-digit weather So we spontaneously decided on the Sunday morning that the storm was hitting that we would drive six hours south to Albuquerque to escape it After a few days in New Mexico We drove back to Colorado and suffered through a one-degree night with our heater not working, which was brutal But thankfully we figured out the problem and that that'll never happen again Well, the weather wasn't the best for van life We were super happy to get back to Colorado because our friends got married and we had such a fun night Dancing like fools and celebrating them and we also got to shoot their first look which was super special We'll be here in Colorado the next couple weeks as long as no more snowstorms come our way And that's what we're picking up next time. Thank you guys again for all of the support during our break We are so happy to be back. We have a lot of fun things planned for the rest of the year. So stay tuned