I feel like I need to get this out of the way: I am not a “New Years Resolution” person. At all. I feel like life is ever changing, therefore goals should be ever changing. With that being said, I do love to reflect. I think that reflection allows you to celebrate every little success and grow from past experiences to learn for the future. So, as I reflect back on 2019 and the pretty amazing things that have come to fruition for me in my life, I invite you to look back on your year as well. Does anything specific stick out? If the answer is no, what can you change in 2020 so that answer is yes?
Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.
Soren Kierkegaard
January
January started (literally on New Years Day) with a hike up Camelback Mountain via Echo Canyon Trail. This trail is a 2.4 mile out and back, rated hard, with an elevation gain of 1,423 feet. On this day, Brad and I promised each other that we would keep exercise a priority in 2019.
February
One day in February, I turned to Brad and said, “I want to start a blog.” Now, to be fair, he had been encouraging me for MONTHS at that point to start a travel blog but I never felt ready. I have a Mathematics and Education background, so putting my writing out there for actual people to read…on the internet…who would even read it? Other than my mom and dad of course (Mom and Dad, you BETTER be reading this right now). I think finally saying it out loud was exactly what I needed: once it was out there in the universe, there was no taking it back. This started our journey of Bohemian Postcards!
March
March holds so many special memories for Brad and I: we went on our first backpacking trip to Havasupai, WHERE WE GOT ENGAGED!!!! Havasupai, Havasu meaning “blue-green water” and pai meaning “people,” is a remote village deep in the Grand Canyon not accessible by road and only accessed with a permit. From the trailhead, you hike eight miles into the canyon to get to Supai Village and then another two miles to the Havasupai Campground. I remember getting super emotional every time we would see a new waterfall. On our second morning, Brad asked me to walk out to the bottom of Havasu Falls so he could take a video of me. When I turned around to walk back, he was down on one knee. You can watch our very first Vlog on our trip to Havasupai (engagement video included), here!
April
Within the first week of April, I made the decision to start my first 30 day yoga series. I’ve done yoga on and off for around 12 years, but lost my way when I moved to Arizona and started hiking more and more. I would still hop on my mat every once in a while and just do some self guided movement, but I didn’t have the same love for yoga I did when I was practicing in a studio.
That all changed when I found Yoga with Adriene. Adriene hosts a Youtube channel that puts out a new video every week, sends out weekly “Love Letters,” and has monthly themed calendars with a suggested daily video so you can practice in the comfort of your own home every day. What started with a challenge to do one 30 day series, turned into a daily practice that is still going strong to this day. Adriene rekindled my love for yoga in a way I didn’t think possible.
May
In May, May 5th to be exact, I officially made the blog public and published my first blog post: “It all started when…” This post was my introduction to the blog world, or really, an introduction for my readers to me. I wanted people to know about the journey that it took me to get to this point. I didn’t start traveling so that I could blog about it; it’s been years and years of traveling wherever I could (thank you travel bug), paired with loving to share my trips with those I love in whatever way I could. I have journals of my travels, photo books, and countless albums on Facebook for my family to see. So, for me, a travel blog was the next step.
Creating this blog was the biggest journey yet: I never knew how much work went into building a website from the ground up. There were endless nights that Brad and I would be side by side watching tutorial after tutorial on Word Press to try to figure out how to configure plugins or write HTML code to get the blog to look the way we wanted to. I know that I would not have been able to do this without Brad: his continued encouragement was literally the driving force of Bohemian Postcards.
June
Come June, I realized that we were letting our other priorities (traveling, the blog, exercise) get in the way of our friendships. So, we made a promise to ourselves that we would be better about balance. June saw so many friend adventures: we went camping in Flagstaff one weekend, tubing down the Salt River another, hiked the Lava Tubes in Flagstaff, and drove all the way to Grand Falls to only find out it was completely dry.
I think more than anything, my time in Arizona has shown me that friendships are about quality, not quantity. Finding people who you truly connect with it so hard. But, once you find those people, hang on tight.
July
In July, Brad and I went on what is one of my top three favorite adventures to date: Banff and Jasper National Parks. Over 7 days, we traveled through some of the most breathtaking scenery Alberta, Canada has to offer (see our itinerary here). In typical Gabrielle fashion, I was sick the entire time (gotta love some broncitis). Thanks to Brad making random drug store runs anytime I was out of medicine, we were able to make the best of the situation and not let it ruin any part of our trip. Watch our Banff Vlog here and our Jasper Vlog here!
August
In August, Brad took the test for FAA part 107 certificate. After passing the test, that meant that Brad could now fly his drone commercially. Moreover, it meant that Brad was now legally able to start his own company, Aero Visuals! While he is mostly shooting with wedding videographers, he is currently shooting this amazing Arizona Promo video with a director and producer from Tucson! Head over to the Aero Visuals Instagram page to keep up to date on this project and all future endeavors.
September
In September, Brad asked me to act in his first short film, Amber, a storyline Brad and his friend Steve created. Amber is the story of a mother and daughter who go camping, only for the mother to wake up in the morning and realize her daughter, Amber, is gone. She frantically searches around the campsite and takes off running through the woods when she cannot find her. The film ends with the mother finding her daughters backpack 50 feet away from the tent, in an open field, with Amber no where to be found.
Acting is not really my thing. In fact, it’s completely opposite of my thing. But, I knew that Brad was stepping out of his comfort zone to try something he never had before and that gave me the courage to step out of my own comfort zone (it DEFINITELY helped that when we filmed Amber, it was just Brad and I in the middle of the woods in Flagstaff with no one around). It was such a cool, new experience for us to go through together.
October
In October, Brad entered Amber in the Arizona Drone Film Festival and was nominated for the category “Best Narrative.” This meant his film was going to be screened at the awards ceremony on October 26th along with all of the other nominations. So off Brad, Steve, and I went to the Film Festival, bright-eyed and bushy tailed. We sat in on talks with industry people, mingled with award winning directors, and the moment we were all sweating over, attended the screening of all of the nominees. I think I held my breath the entire time Amber was playing on that giant screen in front of all of those people. While the film did not win its category, I could not be more proud of Brad and all of his hard work.
November
In November, Brad and I went on an engagement photo session turned epic adventure session with our beloved photographer, Brian. When the topic of Engagement Photographs came up, we were unsure if we really wanted to do them. From what we’ve seen, engagement photoshoots just seemed so staged and uncomfortable, and we knew that ours too would look like this if we didn’t find a photographer who really understood us. Cue Brian.
Now, we actually met Brian when he was photographing my brothers wedding in Crested Butte, Colorado (adventuring runs in the family). I reached out to him to see what he thought of my ideas and he was so excited right off the bat. I immediately knew we made the right decision to reach out; he just jived SO WELL with Brad and I. We turned the session into an epic road trip to Moab, Utah and explored Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park, and Dead Horse Point State Park. You can watch our vlog on this trip here!
December
December was, as it always is, insane. We travel every year for Christmas since we do not have any family in Arizona so it always feels like we are going, going, going until the last day of work before the holidays…and then traveling, traveling, traveling. Thankfully this year, Brads Mom and Step-Dad asked us to go to the Bahamas with them for Christmas 🙂 Our “traveling, traveling, traveling” turned into “sit your butt down on the beach and just breathe.” While it took me a few days to get into the swing of what relaxing actually is, MAN did I relax. This trip was the exact opposite of how Brad and I normally travel, which made it all the more exciting. Keep your eyes peeled for the Bahamas Vlog coming soon!
As I look forward to 2020, I’m feeling excited, nervous, anxious, thankful. 2020 will see new states traveled to, new National Parks, and a new last name for this girl 🙂 Remember, “life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.”
Yours,
Bohemian Postcards
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