Happy Cabinversary!

Today we celebrated one year since we spent our first night at our mountain cabin.  We can’t believe it’s been a whole year since Dan “carried” me over the threshold of our new home.

Today we danced on this same deck to the lovely music that touches our souls.

A year ago we spent a week in Strawberry, Pine’s sister city.  It was our tenth wedding anniversary, and we had to get away from the 115-degree Mesa temperatures.  We had come to the realization that our bodies were getting too old to live in our Sweet Turtle for our 5-month-long road trips.  We loved that truck and slide-in camper, but the long road trips were getting too hard for us.

It was sad to admit that our bodies were aging, and we couldn't do what we could do when we were younger--road trips, STPs, hard hikes with a lot of elevation, etc.  This was a recognition of a huge loss for us, and we actually grieved this loss.  Because doing those kinds of things together was an integral part of our marriage.

 

Part of that issue is that as much as we love Leisure World, we were stuck inside for several months of the year because the temperatures outside were brutal.  We had to do all of our "outdoors" activities (swimming, walking, cycling) in the dark when it was somewhat cooler (although "in the dark" can still mean 90-degree temperatures!).

The problem is that we still had the desire for the outdoors and for adventures in the outdoors.  So, how do we solve this?  How do we keep our spirit when our bodies are demanding we engage that spirit in a different way?   

We talked about how to keep running with the "feel" of our life the way we like and need.

   

That was the issue that we discussed during our wedding anniversary celebration last July in Strawberry.   We hiked on the mountain roads on the Mogollon Rim every morning, danced and sat outside on the back porch of our Airbnb every afternoon.   It was midsummer and it was heavenly--nice and comfortable outside all day IN THE SUMMER.  The solution to our dilemma was crystal clear…..we buy a cabin high up in the cool mountains in Pine or Strawberry.

And....our solution worked!  Today we are celebrating our wonderful cabin and all the amazing adventures we have had this past year!  But in large part we are celebrating that we found a solution to the problem of this stage of our lives where our bodies don't allow us to do what we could do before.  And has it ever worked! 

We calculated that we have spent more days and nights at our cabin than we have at Nuestra Casa this past year.  This surprised us.  It seems that we want to be at the cabin home where we can get out and hike, walk, or cycle in the morning…AND (this is an important "and") then sit outside on our deck or patio in the afternoon.

For several months of the spring, summer, and fall, it is perfect for deck-sitting in the mountains of Pine, where we watch the deer and elk walk by our cabin.

Then in the winter, there is no better patio-sitting than in the warm sunshine at our home in Mesa, where we are surrounded by our flower gardens!

We can be outside year round!

 

It’s an awfully sweet problem that we have—to decide which of our two homes to stay at, when we love both of them.

But since it was 103 degrees in Mesa today, we celebrated the afternoon of our one-year cabin anniversary on the deck of our lovely cabin.

No one can barbecue better than my Danny!

It was so special and fun to cook our delicious anniversary dinner together. 

The finishing touch of our celebration was dessert of ice cream.....that we enjoyed on our deck.

Happy Cabinversary dear cabin….thank you for an amazingly wonderful year!