The Decision Has Been Made

This guy and I sat in a room full of friends a couple of weeks ago when he made a comment that took my breath away. When asked about what our shared passions are, we both said that we would love to travel together. Jason quickly followed it with, "We've never even been on a plane together." I kind of felt stunned by his words. I guess I just had never thought of it that way and the rest of the room seemed just as surprised as I felt. 

In actuality, we’ve never been on a trip together outside the state of Texas. In 26 years, we have only visited San Antonio more times than we can count, Abilene a few times, and Corpus once. It is pretty safe to say, our acquaintance with the world outside our great state is critically limited.

This deficit in traveling experience coupled with a marriage relegated to raising babies and living the struggle life at a young age, has come together to create quite the case of wanderlust in the two of us. We now find ourselves obsessed with movies about other countries and cultures and increasingly growing restless to see new places and try new things. 

Last summer, we were introduced to a fantastic marriage ministry that challenged us to set goals as a couple and find passions we want to pursue together. It did not take long for us to place travel on top of our list. 

We had some big fish to fry this past year that pushed some of our shared passions to the wayside for a bit, however, it never left our thoughts. Last week, as we started to work on setting our goals for 2018, we decided it was time to start putting flesh to our dreams and come up with a solid plan.

This new plan not only includes adding a special savings account designated for travel to our budget but also researching and preparing for our adventures well in advance and even doing any necessary training to make sure we are ready in time.

Taking into consideration my heart for the outdoors and our ever-growing need for adventure, we found it only appropriate that our first trip together would include doing the things we both love. Jason has insisted this Texas girl is in desperate need of the mountain views of Colorado for years, so Frisco it will be with a few days full of hiking, golfing and some time on the water.

Being just hobby hikers who average about 5 miles per outing, we know there is definitely some prep work that needs to be done for us to fully enjoy the 10-hour hike we would like to complete during our trip. We may be ignorant, but we are not stupid, and thus are well aware that training should have started yesterday. So In turn, a weekly hike that builds to 10 hours out on the trails is now on the calendar and a pact has been made that there is a very minuscule list of events that will be allowed to change this plan.

And although the day was booked full with Christmas and grocery shopping, baking, cooking, and the very best Christmas party, we squeezed in a couple of hours on the trail in 40-degree weather on Saturday morning.

Deer were everywhere, dreams were discussed, hopes for the future were shared and I did it all with my very best guy. My biggest cheerleader, he decided this was a perfect opportunity to hold me accountable to a more regular writing schedule as well as our hiking plan through a series of entries that catalog our adventures together.

As I begin to share our stories from the trail with you, don’t be surprised to see more of my amateur photography, stories that cover everything from fear to faith, and a few extra experiences to boot.

Welcome to our world. We’re excited to take you along for the ride.