It’s been an incredible 3 months snowboarding in Colorado. We’ve spent over 40 days on the slopes together as a family. And one of the things I know is that I will never forget or regret the times cruising behind my family and seeing us all shred down the mountain together. It’s surreal for all…
Family, Fun, and Freezing
Well, it’s been quite a whirlwind since we left Austin at the end of November. We enjoyed a fast and special Thanksgiving week in Dallas, leaving our remaining memorabilia and my piano with my parents. I got to celebrate both birthdays for Annette, my sister, and Dannette, my niece, which was a special treat! The boys…
Hosting Friends
This is a very different year for us than last year when we spent most every week/month traveling to new places. We totally, totally loved hopping around from city to city last year, but it was hard to maintain consistency with athletics, activities, and music lessons, so we switched things up this year. This winter,…
Favorite Family Snowboard Pics
EpicMix rocks!! At the top of the lifts at all the mountains are a handful of people dressed in Green with professional cameras ready to take your pic as you strike a pose. They zap our Epic Mix card, and then at the end of the day, we get an email that includes a link…
Thankful for Great Parents
I was a lucky one. I was fortunate to grow up in a home with two wise, wonderful parents who showered us with love, encouragement, and memorable experiences. It was their aim to raise us four girls to be independent, kind, and full of faith, and so they offered us many opportunities to spread our…
Leaving Austin
It’s been such a weird experience for us all to slow down from traveling for three months in a place that feels like “home.” In the beginning, it was actually quite shocking to our system to be plunged back into some amazing friendships that we’d missed over the year and also into a rigorous athletic…
Wisdom to a Teen
Our son Gabe recently became a teenager! One of my great friends inspired me with a special birthday gift idea – to compile a book of letters to Gabe from the people who know and love him most. They shared what they appreciated about Gabe, and what they hoped for him for his future. Needless to…
Gabe’s Year of Amazing
Gabe turned 13 today! Yes, we have a TEENAGER in the house. This is exciting and wild to us all at the same time. Hard to believe, and yet just feels like the most natural next stage of life as parents and a family. I wanted to make sure and have this video of his…
Slideshow and Playlist
I love my family, mountains, pictures, and music. Those really are my favorite things. Put them all together, and you get a slideshow of our Freejourners adventure together. We relive these memories frequently as we watch the slideshow together. It makes us both happy and sad. I think we just miss it. Sometimes a song…
One Year Reflections
Man, oh man, one year breezes by when every week feels like the best week of your life. It is surreal to think about our last year, traveling around the West. We’ve seen and learned so much, and grown in ways that are likely hard to measure just yet. Gabe’s height and shoe size is…
Doing Hard Things
We have been hiking through some gorgeous parts of Oregon. The Columbia River Gorge has endless hikes and the greenery makes it all feel like a rain forest. I still can’t believe how much water is out here. We have seen waterfalls galore. Sonya will be posting on some of our many adventures and hikes….
San Francisco Fun
For some reason, it felt surreal being in San Francisco! We’d been looking forward to this area for so long, and so we hung around for a few weeks. Everywhere from San Jose to Windsor. So many great spots to explore, and so much variety. We did the city as tourists: Golden Gate Bridge,…
Freejourners 