What’s up everyone?
We hope that you had a great Thanksgiving, at least for those that celebrate it. For those that don’t I hope that you had a great week. I know that we did. It was good to see family that we haven’t seen in a long time. For many of us, during this time of year, our minds turn to the many things that we are grateful for and I am no exception. I am grateful for my family and friends and I am deeply grateful for all those that follow us. We really enjoy sharing our adventures with you and hope to inspire you to seek out your own. With the holiday season upon us, we here at the Adventure Diaries will be going on a small hiatus for the month of December. Don’t worry though we’ll be back in January after all the hustle and bustle is over.
With that said I thought that we would take a minute to look back at the past year. Even though it didn’t start off that way but our year turned out pretty crazy. We had some big milestones that we celebrated and some major life changes.
This year our adventuring did really start until April when we visited two of Chicago’s landmarks: Adler Planetarium and Shedd Aquarium. I had forgotten how much I used to be obsessed with outer space until we visited the Planetarium. The many displays and artifacts that the Planetarium has will spark you interest as well. My favorite part was the Astronomy in Culture Exhibit. In it there are instruments that date back centuries showing that humans have always looked to the stars and wondered what was out there.
I just realized as I’m writing this that I had not done a post on Shedd Aquarium. I was pretty sure that I had but can’t find anything on it. I hadn’t been to a real aquarium in a long time. We had a lot of fun there seeing the different sea critter and even the local once.
2018 is a big year for Erin and I. This year we celebrated our 10 year anniversary and we wanted to do something special to celebrate. We decided to relive our honeymoon and go back to Disney World. This time we invited any of our family, from both sides, to come a long with us and the majority of them was able to make it. It was the first time in a very long time that all of us were together in the same place at the same time. We spent seven days in Disney and we enjoyed every minute of it. Even the days that it rained on us. It adds to the stories that we would later tell.
In June we found ourselves heading to Michigan to check out Warren Dunes State Park. These were not the type of sand dunes that I am accustomed to. Growing up in Utah, sand dunes existed because we lived in a desert with very little water. The Warren Dunes sit on the edge of Lake Michigan. I guess you can say they are more like an over exaggerated beach. I’m not much of a water person so I really wasn’t too excited about visiting but it turned out to be really fun. We walked up and down the lakeshore and enjoyed each others company. It was too bad we didn’t pack a lunch. We could of had a picnic on the beach.
July ended up being the busiest and craziest part of our year. Near the end of June, we had started talking about how we no longer felt that Chicago was home and that we should move back to Utah. There was a lot of things that we had to take care of before that was even possible. As quickly as we decide, everything else fell into place. The universe was definitely telling us to head home.
It was still the early July and we couldn’t leave till the end of July so we found some adventure to occupy our time. Erin had heard that there was a Swedish Museum and had been trying to get me to go. I finally said yes and off we went. The Museum was small but it was really interesting to learn about the Swedish migration to the United States. Just incase you didn’t know, there is a huge Swedish population in the Chicagoland area.
For our last hurrah in Chicagoland we went down to Chicagoland Speedway to see the Nascar Monster Energy Series. It was a good and exciting race. I didn’t like who won, I would have preferred anyone else but thats okay.
July came to an end quickly. We found ourselves boxing up everything we owned and cramming it into a U-haul. I’ve been on a few cross country trips but I don’t remember them ever being as bad as this one. I think it was just me wanting to be back home that made it feel so maddening. That and maybe being stuck in a U-haul all by myself and nobody else to talk to. Two and a half days and 1300 miles we were back in Utah and ready for a new set of adventures.
September and October was really about us getting back to the swing of thinks in Utah. Starting new jobs and getting used to our new co-workers. It wasn’t all work though, there was plenty of play to be had.
The first stop we had was This is the Place Heritage Park. This Is The Place Monument stands near the place were Brigham Young state “This is the right place.” With these word the Territory of Dessert, which would eventually become Utah and parts of other states, was founded. The Heritage Park takes you back in time to see what it was like to live in Salt Lake City in its early years.
One thing that Erin was looking forward to was the 2018 Lantern Fest. It was a pretty cool event. People came from all over to participate in the releasing of the lanterns. When we finally got the go ahead to release, the night sky was illuminated with hundreds of lanterns rising to the heavens and gently drifting along. I will say that not all of us got our lanterns in the air but thats alright.
Besides our trip to Disney the highlight of the year for me was our trip to Daniel’s Summit. We spent a weekend exploring the mountains of the Wasatch in our side by sides. I’ve mentioned it many times and I sure I’ll mention it again. I love getting into the mountains, I should say that I love getting out into the outdoors and exploring. It doesn’t matter if it the first time or if we’ve been there many times. The trails were fun and the fall colors were on full display. You couldn’t ask for a better day. For me its was more about the quality time spent with friends and family than it was about exploring.
That was our year in a nutshell. A lot of things have change for us but we want to continue bringing you entertaining adventures. This time off will not be wasted though. We are currently working on plans for this coming year. So far there is only one trip set in stone and thats the Easter Jeep Safari. The rest of the year is still in the air. We did finally get our YouTube channel up and running and are working on bring you content about our adventures and more.
As always Thanks for stopping by. Until next year.
Josh and Erin
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