2013 was such a year of change and transition for our family.  We started the year with the loss of my mother to Alzheimer’s and cancer in January and then ended on an equally sad note of Tim’s father passing away in December from Parkinson’s Disease and a different version of cancer.

The loss of a parent changes you.  It brings your own mortality into question.  You look at your life, dreams, goals, relationships, accomplishments, health, happiness and spirituality through different eyes.  You ask more questions of yourself, and search deeper for meaning.

Our biggest dream was to have the freedom to travel the world for as long as we wished, take amazing pictures and share our journey with whomever wished to follow along.  We decided to move forward and are about to launch our dreams into realities.

We sold our family home in June where we had lived for almost 20 years and raised our son.  After sorting through our “things” and either selling them, giving them away, donating or throwing most things out we put a few items in storage and temporarily moved into our tiny mountain cabin.

Tim decided to retire and is in the final stages of turning the business we grew together for the past 22 years over to our son, Dane.

We managed to fit in a couple of wonderful road trips, including returning to Oregon, visiting several State and National Parks and a week at Mammoth with dear friends.  We also flew to Illinois several times to be with family and are grateful we were able to do so.

November was a magical trip to Thailand.  I fell in love with the beautiful Thai people, their warmth and smiles.  I wrote about our daily adventures.  In case you have not read them, here is a link to our Thailand write-ups that you can click to take a look if you are interested.

The month of December is a blur.  We flew back to Illinois to be with family during the final days of my father-in-laws life.  After the funeral we returned home Christmas Eve to a somber Christmas.  I was thankful to have time with my sister, brother-in-law, nephew, his girlfriend and her family, but the sadness, lack of sleep, jetlag and stress took a toll and both Tim and I came down with a nasty bug.

New Years came and went with little fanfare as we took time to heal – our emotions, our health, our spirits.

We are looking forward to all that 2014 has to offer:  New adventures, new countries to visit, people to meet, pictures to take and lessons to learn.  I’m excited for all the known and unknown that lies ahead.  I just updated the “about” page to include some recently booked trips that I will be blogging about soon.

My wish for you is that 2014 brings you vibrant health, abundant happiness, a zest for living, and that your wildest dreams come true!

I’ve decided to end each post this year with something I am grateful for.

GRATITUDE MOMENT – Today I am grateful for the thoughtfulness of family.  While Tim and I were coughing, blowing our noses and feeling miserable, my family took care of us, cooking, cleaning up, grocery shopping, entertained themselves and allowed us time to heal.  You are loved beyond words.