Three Years?! Already?!

It is our three year travelversary this weekend. Three years ago today, we left the US and flew to Ecuador. We had no idea what was to come and, quite  frankly, not a clue what we were doing. We cried tears of joy, anxiety, relief, and excitement as our plane touched down in Quito. And now, here we are three years later, feeling like we’ve experienced a lot but also like we still have so much more to learn and experience in this big beautiful world.

When we left, the initial plan was that we’d travel for maybe 2 years, figure out what we wanted or where we wanted to be, and then settle back down. We thought this trip was going to show us where home was. But that’s not what this trip has shown us at all. In the past year, we’ve realized that what this trip is really all about is us figuring out what kind of life we want to have. And it turns out that the kind of life we want is one that doesn’t come with a solid, permanent home-base.

We have discovered that we are vagabonds at heart. That we thrive on change and adventure and challenge, especially the small challenges of living daily life in a place. We love to travel, but we also like to settle in from time to time and soak in the people, the food, the culture, and the feeling of a place. We’ve spent a lot of the past year doing just that.

We like the flexibility of a simpler life and all the benefits that come from being able to slow down, to savor life, and to not have to work all the time. We’ve given up a high income for more valuable things like time with people we love and the flexibility to go where we want and do what we want. A lot of this last year has been about that as well. We’ve been able to spend the past 6 months in the US with friends and family. We’ve been soaking them all in, enjoying them, arguing with them, celebrating with them, and loving them through it all. We’ve celebrated 3 weddings, the Christmas and Easter holidays, countless birthdays, and even were lucky enough to help out a good friend who was recovering from surgery. It’s been a time of reconnection & rebuilding relationships. This crazy lifestyle we picked has made all of that possible and for that we are very grateful.

But it is approaching time for us to start moving again. We’ll leave ABQ in just under 4 weeks time and be out of the country again by the beginning of July. We’ve come so far on this adventure and there is so much more to go and do and see and experience and share. Loads of ideas and new projects are percolating and we’re super excited for what we have in store for the coming year.

We’ve put together a slideshow of some of our favorite memories from the past year of blogs, instagram posts, and our personal archives. Even with being stationary for a lot of the past 12 months, we still lived or traveled in 9 countries, including 4 countries which were new to us. So there was loads of stuff to share and we just picked a small snippet for you. Hope you enjoy. (It’s up top!)

We are so grateful for all of you that have come on this journey with us. You read our thoughts, comment on our funny photos, worry about us and love us from afar, offer amazing advice and guidance and ideas, and even feed and shelter us when we’re near you. We’re incredibly lucky to have all of you in our life and hope you’ll continue on this journey with us. We’re all looking forward to seeing where this journey takes us next, especially me and Kyle.

Let’s keep this party going for a bit longer, shall we?

See videos from our First Travelversary and Second Travelversary.