When we were married our "wedding hashtag" was #malcomleap2020
It paid tribute to our married last name, our leap day wedding, and of course what we now know to be the infamous year 2020.
As we went into 2021, we continued with our hashtag becoming #malcomleap2021 having no idea how literally we would take it and skydive halfway through the year.
I'm keeping this brief and will also link several of our videos from each month! We have well over 100 videos on our YouTube channel so be sure to subscribe to us there!
January
Of course, with it being Kyle's birthday there are plenty of hilarious moments that come to pass.....
Not only does January mark the beginning of a new year, but also Kyle's birthday. This was his first birthday that we were married! Amy spent the month planning a little surprise party with neighbors complete with a homemade pinata, treats, and decor. Kyle ended up figuring it out day of that something was going on--but we had so much fun regardless! Amy's pinata looked amazing, and we have now turned it into a little pinata monster that we play with :)
January is a bit of a reset month as Kyle's work schedule calms down and we fight over when the Christmas decorations come down. We also renegotiate terms of our lease contract before we sign.
February
In February, we renewed our rental contract and began to look at what the next year might be for us. We tried new things on YouTube like eating a ton of sugar and Amy getting a perm (which Kyle was obsessed with).
Amy also prepared to take on watching an infant in addition to the 3yo. It was the beginning of thrifting, up-cycling, and rearranging the house (which Kyle will tell you is never-ending). Rocky tried out all our new baby gear and Kyle finally embraced Amy's late night shenanigans like when she made dipped candles on a whim.
We had a white Valentines' day and snuggled up with our favorite furball. Later on in the year we would buy him a new harness and a backpack carrier so we could take him on any adventure with us!
March
Officially 1 year of marriage!
In March, we reminisced on our wedding and video-journaled all our memories to have forever. Our computer was in the shop and so took a short break from videos. We celebrated one year of marriage and had a little staycation in Seattle, testing the waters of a Covid world.
We also began to try out different videos and think more about what memories we wanted to create, share, and save. We have grown to love YouTube as what we believe is the best way to store memories. Videos can share so much more than pictures, and we can "journal" to the camera as needed to keep our timeline in order.
April
We celebrated Easter with our second married Easter Egg Hunt. We somehow go all out for Christmas and Easter and our egg hunts are pretty intense "look harder"
We were officially fully vaccinated as a family. Kyle working in the dentistry realm got vaccinated with the first wave and represents #Moderna . Amy got her #Pfizer shots a little later, but at a much more local pharmacy.
Oh, and we housesat, while still working our two separate 9-5s. It was a long couple of weeks. I don't know who declared us the neighborhood go-tos for everything and anything....but we keep too busy.
May
In May we had a some extra time with extended family in town. We also upped our filming game with a GoPro Hero 8 Black.
Amy adjusted to watching two littles, and we both adjusted to having two littles in our home. We were really in the swing of things with our routines and getting outside everyday. We had so much fun with the littles Amy watches downstairs and brought the fun into our evenings with some date night forts. We also got our garden going for the season. We have decided it's a lot of work and too much work with two littles to watch and as for next year, we decided we were liking the idea of an all strawberry garden.
June
In June we began planning our summer roadtrip, uncluding our minivan #stealthvan setup. It took lots of thought and prep to be ready for #vanlife . Amy also spent a lot of time working on new film techniques. Much of June was also negotiating and finalizing our days off from work. Adulting can stink.
July
July was our month of play. We hit the road and began traveling. We met up with family. We skydived, ziplined, cave swam, and more--all while sleeping in Walmart parking lots. We skydived in Chelan and loved it! It was easily one of the biggest things we've done together and Amy instantly decided to go paragliding in 2022, she thinks she's a bit of an adrenaline junkie, but Kyle is not quite convinced it's so.
We started a series of "travel diaries" on our YouTube channel in addition to normal vlogs. Travel diaries are essentially our short love letters to each individual adventure.
August
In August we continued to pump out videos, and spend as much time as we could outside with friends. We traveled to Olympic National Park and chronicled our adventures there.
We had a lot of birthdays and events amongst our close friends as well. All this meant that August was a bit of a GO! Clean up. GO! Clean up. But it was a great month of travel and excitement.
September
In September we still played video catchup while simultaneously going on a few more trips. We discovered an amazing private gorge in Enumclaw and spent a hot weekend in Portland. This was the beginning of our more "blind" trips. We learned to adapt quickly, and to bring clothes for all weather, because you don't know where you might end up.
We also took Rocky on his first overnight van trip--it was a highlight for us having him come along and do so well. It started to get a little colder and we were all about snuggles and driving to warmer, sunnier places.
We ended the month trying to celebrate Amy's birthday and settle into the homey things of fall time. Amy turned lavender from our trip to Sequim into satchets and linen sprays for Christmas gifts, and together we perfected homemade bagels.
October
As the weather turned grey in Seattle, we took a trip to Maryhill to experience a complete Stonehenge and enjoy a middle of nowhere museum. Stonehenge was such a fun little trip and we had the best time filming in the most amazing conditions!
We had a full video game day with our friends and had a few busy weeks of somehow taking care of the whole neighborhood.
We navigated a potential Aurora Borealis sighting amidst and unpredictable space mass collision and Kyle working. This meant some very unglamorous van trips that we treasure as our last with our dear Rocky.
Sadly, on Halloween Rocky passed away. It was unexpected, devastating, traumatizing, and still does not feel real.
November
We started November off by mourning our sweet baby boy Rocky and all the fluffy joy he brought to us. It was the beginning of a long sadness.
Our first little outing after Rocky's passing unexpectedly landed us on the Smith Tower Observatory deck as sunset where we could be a little closer to heaven.
Kyle's work schedule continually increased as it does the end of the year and Amy tried to balance all the productive work things (9-5, YouTube, Website, trip planning) with some more creative pursuits and gift prepping for Christmas. Our Thanksgiving was short lived as we helped Kyle's folks re-carpet their basement.
December
We opened presents a little early, including many special Rocky gifts that were opened the first few weeks of December. We were going to have him for Christmas and it was especially sad. We quickly realized, between work schedules and doing favors for people we wouldn't have much of a holiday break.
The one free weekend we had we decided to forget the cold and wet season and go on a trip. We ended up booking a cottage for one of the nights as we got caught in a horrific windstorm. We went to Cannon beach, Tillamook, and Astoria (these vlogs will be up post the new year). Christmas Eve we went indoor skydiving, and to a fancy mall and Christmas we slept in and had dinner with family. We spent the rest o f the week in snow, dealing with work, neighborhood needs, and then sick.
This essentially wraps up our 2021...
All the while we continued to deal with our 9-5 jobs, various courses, taking care of neighborhood, working on our website, establishing brand connections, church commitments, YouTube, and keeping our home tidy and full of love (home, love, hustle)
What's next?
Our 2022 goals as of now are simple....but difficult. We have decided that we are firmly putting out own little family first. This includes things like setting boundaries so we can focus on our future and pushing ourselves to live the life we dream of.
We of course want to introduce more travel to our life, and COVID permitting begin to go outside of our nations borders.
We plan on officially launching our website, we have so much content that is currently locked and we can't wait to have it all available and working.
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