Happy Vansgiving

We decided to do things a little nontraditional this year and for go the big hoopla of a meal and all that comes with it. Wednesday afternoon I was able to get out of work a bit early and make it home just in time to help the hubbs finish packing up the Westy. Shortly after we where on our way to celebrate our first holiday of what I am sure will be many to come in the Westy. Vansgivning!!!! 

We arrived at Montgomery Bell State Park just after sun set, set up camp (which in the Westy is seriously so easy.) While the hubbs worked on starting a fire I started getting dinner ready. Bean & Cheese Quesadilla with a side of chips and salsa. We are still trying to figure out what meals work for us on the road / camping and what doesn't so we decided to keep it as simple and easy this time around. We spend the better part of our evening around the fire just enjoying the evening. The weather was perfect not to chilly at all. We roasted marshmallow, made s'mores, and chatted with the In-Loves a bit. 

The next morning we, well I tried to sleep in some but the pups and my ever so lovely automatic alarm clock in my head just didn't let me. One beautiful thing about arriving to your camp site after dark is when you wake up you get to see the beautiful surroundings around you. The stream running right behind us, and the lush trees made for a cozy sight. Which simply put that pep in my step for a early start to our day. Sausage, Eggs and a bagel for breakfast while sipping on some Hot Chocolate. After breakfast we headed out to do a little exploring around the camp site with the pups. I managed to get in over 8000 steps before 10:30 that morning. It always fun to take the pups out walking along the trails, they get so excited. 

The plan was to have Thanksgiving lunch at the Park Resort. It was only 3 miles away so we knew we would just ride our bikes up there. Literally up, it was mostly up hill half way there. Around 11:00am we decided to make our way over to the Resort, knowing we'd probably have to wait a little bit we wanted to get a early start. Much to our surprise the Resort Restaurant was already packed full of waiting guest's to eat. We where told it would be about a 45 minute wait, which really didn't seem to be that bad considering the amount of people there. It gave us time to catch our breath and cool down from our ride. Lunch / Dinner was served Buffet style, with all the traditional Thanksgiving foods and then some. I'd never been to anything like this before and I asked the hubbs if he had either and he said nope. I didn't really know what to expected. I was so used to doing everything myself and or being with family. This was all so new to me, but let me tell you the food did not disappoint. It was simply fabulous, hot, fresh and kept us full. It wasn't a bad deal at all for $15.95 you could enjoy a feast till your heart desired and that we did, dessert included. Although I couldn't help but think about the fact that we had to ride our bikes back. 

We headed out to the parking lot and the hubbs mentioned he figured out a short cut. Ok, I'm all about that, although he failed to mentioned that we would first have to carry our bikes down a couple flight's of stairs ride across a bridge and then straight up close to 100+ stairs to get back up on the road. I wearing boots, blue jeans, a sweat and not to mention I'd just stuffed my face with loads of food. So to say I struggle just a tiny bit would be a true statement. 

The pups did so well staying in the Westy while we where gone. We didn't think we would be gone that long but I'm so glad they didn't mess anything up or get into anything.

 What else do you do after a full Thanksgiving feast, crash out. And that's just what we did. The four of us passed out on the bed. We left the door open to enjoyed the nice breeze coming through and the pups did so good, they didn't even get up to go out once. 

Later that afternoon we went on another little trail hike across the stream back behind our camp site. I loved how it was super dog friendly and yet gave us a pretty good work out at the same time. Gotta work off all that goodness we ate right. 

That evening our site-neighbors arrive, we chatted with them a bit, cooked up some skillet pizza's for dinner, made some s'mores and relaxed around the campfire.

We knew we wanted to head home shortly after breakfast the next morning and of course I did everything I could to sleep in but it just didn't happen. So up early again, I cooked us up some eggs, bacon and potatoes that we enjoyed and then we went on a little walk to get some of the pups energy out before heading out. 

It was the perfect Vansgiving, just the two of us. The weather was amazing the entire time!!! No hustle and bustle of trying to get a big meal prepped and cooked or being on a time schedule having to be at one place or another. I am very traditional and generally want to do things the old fashion way but this was perfect for us. As I grow and experience life I've learned and come to realize that its not all about doing things like everyone else or going all out but rather simply just about being with the ones that matter and that was just what we did this weekend. It was simply but it was perfect!!! 

I Hope You and Your Family had a Wonderful Thanksgiving and are Enjoying the Holiday Season. 

#GabrielVansgiving2015

Life Seems to Get in the Way

I do really good for a while and then time slips away. School becomes over whelming. Work, well its getting stressful with state assessment coming up. Things at home are grand, I couldn't ask for better but the house doesn't clean its self and dinner doesn't get cooked unless one of us does it. Don't get me started on the dishes and walking the dogs. Squeeze in there meal planning and prepping, working out and now working on our newest addition the Westy. Simply seems like there's always something going on. I am looking forward to a new month though, we have no big plans this month which is nice. It should be low key, I'm sure we'll take the Westy out a time or two but aside from that its just the two of us hanging out. The hubbs was suppose to go to Ft. Polk for 3 week to help / train at JRTC but thankfully that got canceled and he didn't have to go. We have just a little more than a month until our 8th wedding anniversary. I really can't believe that we have been married for almost 8 years. Sometimes it seems like much longer then other times it seems like we just were married last year. Up until last year we had been together for every anniversary except one. Being apart for 2 out of 8 living the MiliSPouse lifestyle is pretty unheard of but I guess you can say we have gotten lucky. We have a little weekend get away planned to celebrate next month and I'm so excited. We are going somewhere new, somewhere neither of us have been before. I love visiting and trying out new places. 

Here's a little Insta drop on what we've been up to here the last week or so. :)

On our venture down to Louisiana we stopped off at none other than Duck Commander Headquarters its self. Kinda cool to see where all the filming was taken place, although it looks nothing like the show of course. 

Sweet Savvy girl wanted to have a sleep over, so that did. After dinner and walking the pups that evening we went to Berry Bear for some Froyo. :) 

 Sunday morning she joined us on our weekly bike ride, on post for a little adventure. This girl did great and stayed right with us on the 5 mile loop. 

 The night we bought the Westy we stopped a Starbucks on our way home for a little pick me up. I had my first Peppermint Hot Chocolate of the season. Its so tasty!!! 

 I always check the weather temp before I go running in the mornings here lately now that its starting to get chilly in the mornings. This particular morning there was rain in the forecast but not till closer to 7am. Having to be at work by 7:30 I figured I'd make it home well before the rain hit. Boy was I wrong, with just under a mile to go till I was done it started pouring something crazy and I was soaking wet. There was no point in stopping because I'd just have to walk the almost mile back to my house. So I kept going and was literally dripping when I finally reached our front door. 

Every so often everyone as a not so good day and well I had one just the other day. Everything that could have gone wrong or awful did and it wasn't even lunch time yet. I still had the afternoon to go and things weren't looking up with the rainy weather. So off to Starbucks on my lunch break for a little pick me up. 

For our Sunday ride this past week we loaded up the Westy and drove her to post. I love that we can do so much with the Westy, its def. been a great purchase for us. 

That morning after our ride and a family style breakfast we loaded up, in the Westy of course and went to Shade Tree Farm for a little Apple pickin. Sadly the only pickin we did was from the baskets in their little store. The tree's where all picked through but we did leave with a bag full of freshly picked apples. 

What to do with all those Apples you ask?!??! Well Apple Cinnamon Muffins sounded great, and tasted just as good. :) 

We're Expanding

The hubbs and I have added to our family, not in the way your thinking I'm sure. Sorry to disappoint ya. We've been toying with the idea of a project vehicle of some sorts for a while now. Well really the husband has and I just sit, nod and agree right along with him. That was until he showed me pictures of a VW camper van that was for-sale in Nashville a month or so back. It was completely redone and updated for the most part. I was in love and the price was perfect. We contacted the seller multiple times and their lack of returning calls and emails sent us looking else where. From that moment found ourselves searching every website we could looking for a VW Camper. Our desire to have one grew and grew, we where so excited about the idea of having one and the adventures we would have in it. I was sold, I wanted one we both did. But there was only one problem the market for VW Westy's where far and few between in and around our area. We where willing to travel a few hours to look at one if we found one we liked but no such luck. A week or so ago we went to Louisiana for a wedding and came across a Westy for-sale (before we went) and set up a time to meet with the seller to check it out. It wasn't exactly the year / style I liked but I was willing to give it a look. After talking to the hubbs on the way there and him better explaining to me more of the differences between the one we where going to look at and the one I had previously liked, I started to lean more to the Westy side. Sure it looked a little different then the older retro style camper vans but it would be a much better option for us long term.

We agreed we'd look it over, test drive it and talk to the seller but we wouldn't make any decision on wether we where going to take the plunge till later that evening or the next day. We where staying over night in Louisiana so we had time to think / sleep on it. I long story short after lots of back and forth's we decided to make a offer. Sadly he declined. We where bummed at first, we had our hearts broken. But the next day was a new day and our search continued. We where happy that he ended up declining our offer. It allowed us to keep looking, seeing what else might be out there. It wasn't like we needed to make the purchase or plunge right then and there. Not to say we didn't want to though.

The next day on our way home to TN the hubbs found a 1991 Westfaila forsale in Nashville. It was a bit more than we had agreed on spending but we though we'd at least take a look at it to have something else to compare to.

We knew what ever we got would need a good amount of work, a paint job, new upholstery and a new engine at some point. So we where prepared for that. We weren't prepared to spend what he was asking for it though. We met up with the seller one Wednesday evening looked it over, took it for a test drive and then talked with the seller some more. He was selling simply because his family out grew it and needed something bigger. We talked before and agreed we'd go have dinner and talk about it before making a decision, and that we did. We had dinner, talked about it, drove home and talked about it some more we decided we'd make the seller a offer. The hubbs called him that evening around 8:30pm but he didn't answer. It wasn't until late the next morning that he called us back. The hubbs made him a offer and he said he would have to talk to his wife about it and get back to. We though we'd know something by lunch time but lunch came and went, dinner came and went. Finally he called back and countered with us. We talked it over for a bit, I had the hubbs call his dad to get his thoughts and opinion on it. We decided to go for it. I was a ball of nerves but so excited at the same time. This was a Wednesday evening and the seller was going to be out of town for the weekend so we couldn't pick it up till the following week. It worked out because we had to wait for funds to come from the bank. (HELLO WE PAID CASH, never in my life did I think we would be at a point where we could do something like this and still have so much left in savings.) and it also allowed us to clean up the garage a bit so we could park it in there.

Tuesday evening of the following weekend the hubbs picked me up from work and we headed down to Nashville. Traffic was awful and I was still a ball of nerves, where we making the right choice. Should we really go through with this, its not to late to change our minds. But we did it, mean up with the Seller, his Wife and kiddos at a local Farmers Market they have a booth at and handed over a Check and bought our First 1991 VW Vanagon Westfaila. It was so surreal. But we where beyond thrilled and excited about the adventures ahead of us.

We both agreed that even though we may have paid a little more than we had originally planned or budgeted for we where happy that we purchased our Westy from this particular family. They where awesome, genuine and so nice. Not pushy at all and they where excited for us and our newest adventures ahead.

That evening after everything was final we walked up the street to a local BBQ joint and had dinner. Still in awh over the fact that we where officially apart of the #vanlife. After dinner we went to REI and picked up cook ware, and some camping supplies. Time to stock the Westy!! Driving home I was behind the hubbs in the car. I wish I could have got a picture but it was to dark. He had the window down and his arm hanging out the window. I couldn't help but giggle inside. This was really our life, no turning back now!!!

So with that said meet our newest Addition our 1991 VW Vanagon Westfaila, aka Westy.

Keep an eye our for more pictures to come and all the fun adventures and projects ahead of us. :