Welllllll......that was an interesting summer.
The last time I posted, we were deep in the throes of packing up almost everything we owned into a 33 foot RV headed for Ketchikan, Alaska. Today, I sit here in an apartment in Auburn, WA thinking, "What the h*** happened to get us here?"It's definitely been a wild 4 months.
Let me explain. Remember how we quit our jobs and packed up our entire life to go live an Alaskan adventure? At the time, we had made no plans for after September on purpose. I remember feeling so at ease with the entire situation, even though it sounded so so crazy. Well, I think that was divine intervention, because I definitely wasn't planning on Matt's lung collapsing 6 weeks into the summer season and a lightning-fast move down to Fullerton to live with my parents for 6 weeks. (And then moving to Auburn 6 weeks later).
I feel like we were just getting settled into Ketchikan when Matt called me one day, telling me to come pick him up south of town because he thought he was having a heart attack/dying/something of the sort at his remote work camp, a 30 minute boat ride away.
Matt spent a week in the hospital. It turns out that he couldn't continue doing his uber-physical job and heal properly at the same time, which is why we decided to quit our jobs that week and move home to save money. I kept working freelance while we decided where our lives would take us next.
We went to Alaska with the idea that Matt would work towards being a fishing guide. But he learned pretty quick that he wants to do something more with his life. While we were in Fullerton, he honed in on this idea of a dream he's had for a while now, which is to run or own a high-end fishing lodge in the future. So he got a job at Salish Lodge here in Washington to learn the ropes. He's hoping to move up to a management position within the year, and possibly move up and over to a different lodge within the same company within two years.
Our stay in Fullerton was so unexpected, but very nice. I haven't gotten to see my parents for that amount of time in almost a decade, and it was amazing to spend time with them. They were quite literally our port in the storm. They and other family members helped us out tremendously in many ways, and we'll never be able to pay them back. But I am so grateful for family...in fact, my testimony of the eternal nature of families has grown much in the past 6 weeks. For me, it was also a good little parable about the Savior and His Atonement. We received so much that we can never pay back, and they gave so willingly, much like the Savior. I miss my family so much.
But you can't live at home forever, so we're here now. Here's a little re-cap of the summer:
End of April - quit jobs, moved into an RV, drove the RV through Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia to Ketchikan.
May-June - worked in Ketchikan, lived in the RV, went on multiple hikes a week, lived that ghetto life, ate a lot of fish, met a few good friends, I lost 8 lbs, was a homesick, had an adventure, Matt's lung collapsed.
July - In a crazy turn of events, my uncle Jerry flew up to Alaska to rescue me. Matt flew home to heal, Jerry and I drove allllll the way down to southern California with a suddenly faulty RV on our hands. We lived with my parents, took an RV trip up to Santa Barbara with friends, I worked and Matt looked for jobs and did projects around my parent's house, we ate at a lot of restaurants.
August - Celebrated a week of birthdays, my brother came down to visit for a week, we went to stay with Matt's brother and sister and their families in San Diego for a weekend, I kept working, Matt found a job, he drove to Utah to sell the RV and pack up our things, my mom and I drove up the California coast for the trip of a lifetime and met him in Auburn. We unpacked, my mom left, Matt started work, and I'm just sitting her ladeedahing.
Thus ends the word vomit. I will forget this all in a year and I need to have it written down somewhere. I'll start posting more frequently now that I am just at home all day.
I'm still trying to digest what happened this summer, and I have a lot of deep/dumb thoughts about it. Oh, and I gained 5 lbs because #home. Can you say fresh homemade daily bread, lots of restaurants, and yummy mom cooking? Yikes.
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