Spring

Spring.

I love Idaho and I'm proud to be from here. This is the time of year where I every year I fall in love all over again with my home. I love the smell in the air of plants blooming, dewey mornings and sleeping with the bedroom window open. With Sasquatch just a month away (we leave exactly a month from this morning) I'm officially starting to go crazy.

This year is going to be a whole new kind of adventure but before then we'll be doing a lot of preparing. There will definitely be a lot more moments where I feel like ripping my hair out at my job and repeat to myself in my head the countdown of how much longer I have to be there (right now I keep saying "4 more months... 4 more months...") but I also have to remind myself to enjoy the NOW. And damnit there will be a lot of great moments in the next 4 months!

-Sasquatch (of course) and reuniting with our awesome Canadian buddies from last year whilst dancing our butts off, playing "throw stuff close" at camp and rocking out to the likes of Tenacious D, Beck, The Head and The Heart and Cloud Cult (to name a few).

-Many backpacking trips. Although they may be just 1-2 night getaways nearby it'll be great practice on what is necessary to pack in a backpack you'll be hiking around with and good exercise for our backs and legs. Also, who can resist getting away from cell phone reception and enjoying nature for a few days? I swear every time I camp and have to pee in the middle of the night I'm in total awe of how incredible the stars look in the wilderness. Makes peeing in the woods not so bad ;)

-Friends' birthdays. Some of my friends have spring and summer birthdays and always seem to have something fun going on to celebrate. I'm a big fan of last year's Camp Grumption (Money's bday) and Camp "Keep it Down" (Jenna's bday).

-Rheanne and Josh's 6th anniversary. I'm so inspired by my sister's relationship with her husband Josh and want to help them celebrate their love.

-Jeff and I's 3 year anniversary



-4th of July

-Many many more spontaneous moments like bikerides, swimming at the lake and more.

Basically... Australia is going to be an adventure of a lifetime but this summer will be one for the books as well :)

It's All Happening!

I can honestly say that since I wrote that last post not a lot has changed in the work department but there are some big changes coming up in my life!

First of all, I have a new niece who was born on April 3rd named Adelaide (Addy for short) Marie! She is the sweetest little baby and I'm really flattered that Rheanne and Josh decided to give her the same middle name I have. I can't wait to see what kind of personality she'll develop just as I've enjoyed watching Oliver grow into a car loving, spider man mimicking, hyperactive smartypants.

We're off to Sasquatch Festival again this year again (couldn't miss it!) and we're sad that Rheanne and Josh can't join but there will be more opportunities. This year we're excited for :

Jack White

Beck (can't wait to sing along)

Bon Iver

Tenacious D (can't wait to see Jeff's face during their set)

The Shins

Beirut

Girl Talk (jock jams dance party!)

The Head and The Heart

Feist

Silversun Pickups

Metric

Explosions in the Sky

The Joy Formidable

John Reilly and Friends

The Civil Wars

Of Monsters and Men

tUnE-yArDs

Beats Antique

Apparat

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

fun.

Grouplove

Deer Tick

Cloud Cult

Ben Howard

Polica

Walk the Moon

Hey Rosetta!

Sol

Those are just the ones we KNOW we are excited about! There are so many more we've heard small bits of that we are interested in depending on what times none of the above bands are playing.

We are also training for a marathon we will be running this September! I've done some distance running in the past and am getting back into shape and Jeff is pretty new to distance running but is kicking ass! We've got a lot more training to do but we're sticking to a 30 week training schedule and we're on week 8 currently.

What marathon are we running?

Blackmores Sydney Marathon in the Blackmores Sydney Running Festival!

Which leads me to the next BIG change this year...

AUSTRALIA

August 28th, 2012 - January 3rd, 2013

I wrote in the previous post that we had plans to head off that way in fall of 2012 and I'm so happy that we're actually making it happen! It's easy to dream but it's hard to make it a reality. We will be heading off to Australia for 4 months later this year with just what we can fit into our backpacks! Plane tickets have been purchased already and train passes are only a week or two away. After that it's mostly saving money for hostels, hotels, camping permits, food and entertainment of course. We're doing the whole WWOOFing program and also Workaway which are organizations where people can register as hosts and you work for them doing various jobs in exchange for a place to stay and food. Check out the site http://www.workaway.info/ if you're ever interested in doing something like that. There are places all over the world that have registered hosts!

There are A LOT of things that factor into making this trip happen. We are still working at the same jobs and just saving, saving, saving. We moved out of our apartment we loved (for the most part) to move in with my parents and save even more money. Yard sales (one down, maybe 2 more to go), haircutting and coloring, photography and whatever other ways we can think of to come up with extra money to put into our savings.

I've been extremely grateful for all of the support and encouraging words we have gotten from family and friends. Of course there's some worrying words in there as well since we will be so far away from home with just our backpacks for 4 months. I'm so thankful that my family trusts Jeff so much and loves him. We've been really digging in and doing as much research as possible to make sure we are overly prepared. Budgeting, mapping, putting things on a calender based on what time of year is best to visit what part of Australia, etc. We won't be spending too much time up north with the Crocs and I'll still be terrified to swim in the ocean because of Sharks. No swimming around the north too late because of Box Jellyfish and must bring plenty of water in west and central parts to stay hydrated.

Jeff and his friends met this amazing couple Nanc and Hedley when they went to Oz a few years ago and I really can't explain how great they really are and I've never even met them myself! I can't wait to meet them :)

This will probably be the official blog we will update when we can while we are preparing and while we are there so we can update everyone at the same time on where we are and what we're up to.

Cheers to Adventure!