26.

Today is my 26th birthday! My birthday was generally uneventful, but with lots of love from my family, friends near and far, and coworkers. Since I unfortunately didn’t have the day off, I woke up early to get some work done, ran to a few of my hotels for special birthday treats, and finished a little early for the day. Later on, we went grocery shopping for Thanksgiving (which we are hosting tomorrow!), and went to dinner at one of my all time favorite SLC restaurants — Copper Onion, and then my favorite fro-yo place, Yogurtland. It was a simple, but lovely birthday.

In other news, Brighton (and me) received exciting news, which will result in some big changes in our lives! I will share more on that in another post at a later time. 🙂

Last year, I wrote a list of things I wanted to do before 26. I thought it’d be fun to revisit the list, find out what I completed, what changed, and what I am looking forward to for next year!

I accomplished 17 of 25 before 26:

  1. Expand more into the wedding photography industry. – Decided it wasn’t for me right now, and got a full time job again
  2. Make my photography business a more substantial income.
  3. Buy a house. – See our home buying experience here
  4. Go back to Glacier National Park. – See our 4th of July trip here!
  5. Expand my recipe/cooking repertoire. Blue Apron/Sun Basket/Home Chef has helped with this goal immensely! I feel so much more skilled and confident in my cooking.
  6. Learn to relax, and have more downtime in my life.  – I feel like I was better about saying no, even when I needed to edit or work on something. I’m still very busy, but it’s more balanced
  7. Build more savings and pay off more debt. – Yes! We are killing it!
  8. Visit Maroon Bells in Colorado during the summer. – During the shoulder season 🙂
  9. Hike Antelope Canyon/The Wave in Arizona.
  10. See at least 4 more US National Parks.Joshua Tree, I didn’t see 3 other new national parks, but I did see new National Monuments/State Parks/Indian Reservation Parks – Goblin Valley, Escalante National Monument, Natural Bridges National Monument, Antelope Canyon, and also revisited some of my favorites – Glacier, Zion, Grand Canyon, Arches
  11. Continue to build my photography network.
  12. Decorate my house and make it a home.
  13. Celebrate our first anniversary! See our trip to Moab in this post!
  14. Continue to blog life experiences, hikes and trips.
  15. Lose weight and get in shape. – I lost weight, but didn’t keep all of it off :/
  16. Get a dog Koda has been a wonderful addition to our little family
  17. Bonus: Make it to 26 – We’re here today, aren’t we?

26 before 27:

(Existing and new goals from last year):

  1. Go on a backpacking trip on the John Muir Trail.
  2. Learn how to outdoor rock climb.
  3. Tackle debt!
  4. Visit The Wave
  5. Learn off-camera flash techniques.
  6. Road trip cross-country with Brighton, visiting friends along the way.
  7. Make yoga & the gym a habit.
  8. Visit the Northeast US.
  9. Get TSA pre-check and go home more often.
  10. Create a home garden for herbs & staple items (and not kill everything!)
  11. Get back on Keto!
  12. Generate more photography clients organically via SEO/Website traffic
  13. Visit 5 new national parks/monuments/etc.
  14. Finish revamping my blog (new theme, SEO, organization)
  15. Walk Koda every day
  16. Spend those travel vouchers and go to Europe (or somewhere new!)
  17. Read Side Hustle School
  18. Decorate our home/spend more time and effort making it simple and clean
  19. Print more of our photos and display them
  20. Write for an hour every week
  21. Organize and use my filing cabinet
  22. Renew my passport with my new last name
  23. Try new types of adventures
  24. Learn a new dinner party go-to dish
  25. Knit/crochet a beanie
  26. Learn to French braid my own hair & teach Brighton too

Cheers to living life to its fullest!


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