Reflecting on 2025 and a Year of Travel

It's been an incredible year despite some challenges. Here's what we experienced.

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As the end of 2025 arrives, it’s fun to look back over the year and see what it held for us. We had so many great adventures and we’re so thankful for them all!

As I look back over the things we did this year and the places we went, I’m amazed at all the incredible experiences we had. There were some challenges this year, but overall, we were incredibly blessed to have some great adventures.

We headed west at the beginning of 2025 and spent January and February in northern New Mexico, Arizona, and southern Colorado. This part of the country seems to draw us in over and over again, and we enjoy seeing new things every time we visit.

Some of our favorite things from this part of our adventures:

• Petrified Forest National Park

• Hiking in Sedona, Arizona

• Canyon de Chelly National Monument

• Enjoying Pagosa Springs in the snow

We made a quick trip “home” to Oklahoma for a visit, then headed to South Texas to explore the region in March. We enjoyed so many things in this area.

Some of the highlights were:

• Dinosaur Valley State Park

• Hiking to the top of Enchanted Rock in Enchanted Rock State Park

• Visiting the towns of Luckenbach, Fredericksburg, and Wimberly

• Camping on the beach at Padre Island National Seashore

• Visiting Aransas National Wildlife Refuge

• Lyndon B Johnson National Historical Park

• Waco Mammoth National Monument

Honestly, most of those stops really surprised us with how much we loved them. We didn’t expect to enjoy all those places as much as we did, but they were all amazing!

After that, we headed out west again on (what was supposed to be) a huge summer adventure. We were going to venture all the way to the West Coast and up into the Pacific Northwest, then work our way across the north to Minnesota. We spent May and June traveling around New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah. It was the best time, but for a variety of reasons, we ditched that summer itinerary and made new plans.

Spoiler alert - one of those reasons was that we started the process for buying a camper van! 🥳 That ended up taking quite a bit of time, so we decided to change our plans and do something a little different to make that dream a reality.

While we were out this way, some of the things we did and absolutely loved were:

• Riding the train from Durango to Silverton in Colorado

• Unaweep-Tabeguache Scenic & Historic Byway

• Colorado National Monument

• Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

• Valley of the Gods in Utah

• Monument Valley, Arizona

• Horseshoe Bend

• Antelope Canyon

The list for this area (northern Arizona and southern Utah) is so full of amazing things that it could go on and on. Needless to say, we absolutely LOVED this whole region. You could spend weeks in Page, Arizona, alone, to explore the surrounding area and never run out of places to see!

From there, we headed farther north into Utah and explored many other areas of the state. There is so much to see in Utah that you could spend months there and still not see it all. 😂

Some of the highlights from this part of our trip would be:

• The scenic drive on Highway 12 through Utah

• Capitol Reef National Park (Bryce Canyon and Zion are a must, too, but we’d done those before and didn’t take the time to see them again on this trip)

• The mountain pass between south Salt Lake City and Heber City, Utah

• The town of Vernal

• Dinosaur National Monument

• Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area

Eventually, we made our way into Colorado, spending time in Loveland and Estes Park. Loveland has an amazing sculpture park that I absolutely loved exploring. Definitely recommend it if you’re in the area. And Estes Park is a place we never tire of returning to. We absolutely love it there. We love the people, we love the scenery, we love the town, we love Rocky Mountain National Park, we love the hiking trails - there is so much to love about that spot. ♥️

In July, it was off to Minnesota for a business trip, making stops along the way. We explored a bit of Kansas, stopped in Omaha to see the place where my family lived when I was born, and then visited some very dear friends in Iowa.

I attended my company’s annual convention in Minneapolis, where we rented an Airbnb with a bunch of friends and had the best time. Our convention is one of my favorite weeks of the year. I always look forward to spending that time with dear friends. Once the convention was over, we explored more of Minnesota and Wisconsin before working our way south.

Some highlights from this part of the country:

• Visiting the Laura Ingalls Wilder museum in Walnut Grove, Minnesota

• The Como Park Zoo & Conservatory in the Minneapolis area

• Stillwater, Minnesota, and the St. Croix River

We then headed back to Oklahoma to wait for our van to be delivered, but the first deal fell through, and we had to find another solution. Luckily, we discovered Next Chapter Camper Vans in Tulsa, and we purchased our new home. Woot woot!

This all took a bit of time, so we hung out with our daughter in OKC and visited family while we waited for it to be finished.

Once we got the van, we headed northeast and made stops in Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio.

We loved exploring in our new van and the freedom it offered us. We stopped at campgrounds, stayed in parking lots through Harvest Hosts, and even hung out in Walmart parking lots occasionally to get some work done. Additionally, we made some new great friends at one of our stops in Illinois.

After arriving in Ohio, we stayed with amazing friends of ours in the Cleveland area and had so much fun catching up and hanging out at their house. They took us to see a handful of really cool places and we enjoyed staying in their peaceful oasis away from the city.

Some of our favorite places to visit in Ohio:

• Toledo Botanical Garden

• Cleveland’s West Side Market

• Great Lakes Brewing Co.

Even though it was only early November, winter was moving in fast. Temperatures were dropping overnight, and snow was in the forecast, so we bugged out to find better weather!

Heading south, we enjoyed visiting West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia—stopping at several National Parks along the way and having fun despite some areas in each park being closed because of the government shutdown. Our stops included Cuyahoga Valley National Park, New River Gorge National Park, and Congaree National Park. In case you hadn’t noticed, NPS sites are something we love. 😊

The new friends we made in Illinois invited us to meet up at Jekyll Island, Georgia, so we made our way there. We were introduced to a whole new group of friends thanks to them, and we had a wonderful time camping, exploring the island by car and bike, and hanging out with all of these great folks.

We finished up there in mid-November and began our way back to Oklahoma to spend the holidays with family, stopping in Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas before arriving home.

As you can see, it’s been a very adventurous year and we’ve had an absolutely great time exploring different areas of the country! We are so thankful for the opportunity to live the way we do and can’t wait to see what 2026 holds for us.

But before we end the year, we have to say how thankful we are for the old friends we've seen and the new friends we’ve made along the way. Here are just a few photos of the fun memories we made with them.

In wrapping up this long post — thank you so much for reading — I’d like to wish you a Happy New Year, as well as encourage you to get out and explore in 2026, if you can. This country is filled with incredible places to visit and make new memories.

And if you had the opportunity to travel this past year, let us know where you went, or if you’re planning a trip next year, let us know where you’re going. Maybe we can meet you along the way and have some fun.

See ya next year! 🎉 🥂