One Year

Today is a monumental day, and I almost missed it!

One year ago today, we welcomed a new family member:

Our multi-year dreams of having our very own RV came true one year ago today. I'm pretty sure we were both scared to death as we signed on the dotted line and felt those keys drop into our hands. 

There she was, with her overwhelming smell of cleaners, her floral couch, and all the oak. So. Much. Oak. 

We stood on the lot with the sales guy, and I snapped photo after photo while Ryan took a crash course in things like shore power, how to manually run the awning, and the finer points of a sewer hose. 

It was National Coffee Day, we learned, so we poured two cups of fake lattes from the dispenser in the dealership and drank them in our new home on wheels. 

We received our "RV Starter Kit" and took it home to our Amazon wish list of things we'd learned we needed...mostly from our Pinterest research. 

And then we stood in our parking lot and leapt with joy and trepidation at this major project we'd just acquired. 

Could we do it? Could we figure out how to renovate an RV together? Neither of us had ever spent a night in one in our entire lives. Would we even like traveling in an RV? 

And so our fall and winter began. Every spare minute went into updating Miss Abby. 

So much demo. So much rehab. And finally...the decorating. She was so so pretty when we finished!

We loved her so much and thought she felt just like home. But we still had to see if she really could be home.

We went on our first official trip in April. The weather wasn't great, but the trip was delightful. Having an RV was everything we thought it would be. 

That trip whet our appetite for the big trip west, where we just wanted to keep driving for a year and see everything everywhere!! (A special shout-out to all the pictures in this row re-ordering themselves.)

But we did come home. We did. And throughout this summer, we've gotten to enjoy short trips locally that have reminded us why Abby was such a great decision!

We even took Phoebe on her first ever camping trip!

Happy birthday, Abby the RV! What a spectacular first year we've had together! Five trips. Eight states. Sixteen nights. A whole lotta miles. A whole lotta learning. A whole lotta rest. 

Here's to many more adventures!!