Two Wandering Soles

Let's catch up... This week marks a special anniversary for us. Actually 2 anniversaries, if I think about it… We met on a youth group snowboarding trip this week… 19 years ago. I cannot believe we’ve almost been together for 2 whole decades! This is the week we consider our “blog-iversary”. Okay, so when I say “blog-iversary” I mean this is the week 10 years ago we left on a one-way flight bound for Colombia! This is us mere days after arriving in Colombia in February 2014. It was 2014. We...

Wow. I just want to take a minute to thank everyone who reached out after we shared some hard stuff last week. We may not have the time to get back to everyone, but we have read every single message and your support and kind words truly mean so much to us right now. We are trying to pack in all the things before Ben’s surgery (which is 1 week from today). Alllll the house (and yard!) projects. Lots of work stuff. Last (for now!) meals Ben won’t be able to eat for the next several months. And...

If you’ve been reading our emails over the last 3 months you may have noticed that we haven’t been quite as upbeat as usual. We've alluded to the fact that we are going through some stuff behind the scenes but kept things pretty vague. We needed space to process everything privately before we shared publicly. Now, we feel ready to share more. It’s too much to explain everything in an email, so last week we sat down and recorded a video that goes over what we’ve been going through over the...

We spent the weekend doing yard work, bringing Juniper snowboarding for what might have been the last time this season, and Ben participated in the Orange Theory Dri Tri (running, rowing, & weights)! I'll brag on Ben's behalf (because he won't)... he absolutely crushed it and finished in 35 minutes 42 seconds (aka very fast!). This morning, it dawned on me that April is flying by. It's my birthday week (yay!), which always means summer will be riiight around the corner. If you're like us and...

This email is coming atcha from Texas, y'all! We flew into San Antonio last weekend with hopes of catching the eclipse Monday, and here we are. So how was it? All ready for the eclipse! Pretty dang amazing. We were on the very edge of the path for the eclipse in 2017 and while that was very cool, we regretted not being in the path of totality. So for this eclipse, we booked a trip to Texas way in advance. (Getting accommodation for these dates was TOUGH, fyi). We chose Texas because...

I'm feeling refreshed after a much-needed mini weekend getaway into the forest that was good for our souls. We took our campervan into the woods, hiked to waterfalls, and spent the night cozied up in our little home on wheels. (Lately, Juniper has been calling it "my van" which is so cute and makes us happy she loves spending time in it so much.) I love that we live just a short drive from places like this. Then on Sunday, we went to Breitenbush Hot Springs, a place we've been wanting to...

We’re home after a week in Palm Springs, and while we did have an overall great time, it definitely wasn’t the trip we had originally planned... My parents rented a beautiful 2-bedroom Airbnb for a month and last fall, we decided to join them for a week. They’ve been to Palm Springs a bunch of times and were excited to show us around town and take us on their favorite hikes in the area. But, on the drive out to California (from Minnesota), my dad fell and broke his ankle. After an ER visit in...

In honor of St. Paddy’s Day tomorrow, we are wrapping up our Ireland series with Part 2 of our Ireland road trip. We swapped our camper for a rental car, ventured into the north of Ireland, and toured the west coast. This allowed us to stay at some pretty phenomenal Airbnbs and even explore a secret waterfall! If you want to travel to Ireland but a camper is not your thing, this video is for you. This part of Ireland is way less busy than the south and has some of our favorite spots on the...

Over the weekend, we took a somewhat spontaneous snowboard getaway in our campervan and it was just what we needed. After a bit of research we found that the Venn Diagram of ski resorts near us that offer both RV parking AND childcare is pretty small. We ended up choosing Mount Hood Meadows because it ticked all the boxes, and it ended up being a really nice way for us to have family time in our van and get outside. We have a big week ahead of us, but we're feeling refreshed after a weekend...

I actually love waking up to snow. I will admit that Ben is usually the one who shovels and drives on icy days, so maybe that has something to do with it? We've had quite a bit of snow the last week in Bend, Oregon. The pretty kind – the fat flakes, white-dusted treetops, winter wonderland kind. We've been trying to get outside and enjoy the snow as much as possible, because this coming weekend is going to be in the 50s (10+ºC) so it won't be around for long! We celebrated Valentine's Day by...

We released our second video of our Ireland series on YouTube today. And while I know “How to find campgrounds in Ireland” might not be the sexiest topic ever published, I have a sneaky feeling you’re going to want to watch this one for two reasons: It’s short (under 9 minutes) and easily watched while you have your morning coffee. It’s funny and filled with witty banter and tons of pop culture blurbs (thanks to our editor, Eric). Plus, it is super informative if you or someone you know is...