I celebrated the 33rd Anniversary of The Incident of 1986 in true Holly fashion – with a new adventure. This year’s adventure entailed a hot air balloon ride over the city of Albuquerque & the most delicious confetti cake from Nothing Bundt Cakes Albuquerque. If you have one of these Cakeries near you, do yourself a favor and get one.
I was somewhere over the state line in New Mexico driving the 26 ft U-haul from Kalispell to Albuquerque when I got an interesting message from my friend Mallory: Not sure when you’re going to be down this way but I have this wedding thing coming up and was wondering if you would be interested in taking some photos for us?
Taking photos? Of course, I was interested. What I later learned was that ‘this wedding thing’ was an entire weekend in the Rocky Mountains with the most amazing festivities centered around the love of two unique and truly amazing people.
I just wanted to share a few highlights from the weekend. The entire album is theirs to share (or not).
May you always remember the love that brought you to share your name. Xoxo.
I drug myself out of the woods late Sunday morning to head into town to pick up the 26 ft U-haul truck waiting for me in Evergreen. Thanks to the help of my in-laws and their amazing friend John, I was able to have the entire storage unit cleared out in around an hour and the excess stuff we’d had stored around the Bennett house pack up in another.
I set out early Monday morning. The scenery -as always- was beautiful and the drive was relaxing despite the heavy construction and the giant vehicle I was soloing. My first stop was Missoula for a quick ice cream stop with two of my favorite people. 
After Missoula, I spent the next 3 days taking my time traveling down to Albuquerque. With only a few hiccups along the way, I was able to take my time moving our household goods from Montana to New Mexico. One of the hiccups involved our new house not being ready for us to move into yet, so I hired a few movers for a couple of hours to help get everything out of the truck and into a storage unit. I’m about to hop an earlier flight back to Ohio for a few extra days with family before picking up Brian and driving back across the country to start the next chapter.
My mother-in-law has been telling me about the annual family camping trip since before Brian & I got married. Finding myself not working and back in the lower 48, I planned a trip out to Montana to spend the 4th of July with my husbands family. It was a blitz trip in the woods before packing up the u-Haul and relocating our household goods to our future home in New Mexico; that’s for another post…
Perhaps one of my proudest accomplishments during my travels was getting each of my nieces and nephews to open their minds (and mouths) and give sushi a try. I was able to video my nephews reactions to their first attempts at one of my addictions (yes, I also introduced them to my other addition – macaroons – but with greater success).
Growing up in a small town has its perks. It also leaves a lot to be desired if you’re born with a strong desire to travel the world.
When my brother and sister started families of their own I knew in my heart that I someday wanted to have the chance to travel and adventure with them each individually. Seeing my oldest niece’s 12th birthday fast approaching I took advantage of my time on the east coast and planned a trip to NYC exclusively for her and I.
We left early one morning for the 6 hour drive from Somerset County, Pennsylvania to NYC. Since we are both the animal lovers of our family our first stop was the Bronx Zoo.
Afterwards we traveled by car [during rush hour] to our AirBnB in Brooklyn. I only got lost twice before finally making it across the right bridge to get us over the East River. After a quick check-in we were back out the door for Emily’s first culinary adventure of the trip – and one that should not come as a surprise to anyone who knows me – sushi!
We arrived back at our homestead around 8:30 and started readying ourselves for bed, but before we made it there Em informed me that she was plenty awake to take a late night trip to Times Square. After a quick check of the subway map we found ourselves on a train bound for Manhattan.
It was nearing 2am when our heads hit the pillows and we both dreamed of lights that night. In the morning we found ourselves bound for Battery Park.
We took a boat to the Statue of Liberty.
Then found my grandmother’s (Em’s great-grandmother’s)name on the Memorial Wall at Ellis Island.
When we returned to shore Em had her first taste of Starbucks (have I ever mentioned it’s a really, REALLY small town we’re from),
and faced the raging bull.
On a previous trip to NYC the 9/11 Memorial was still under construction. Being from Somerset County, Pennsylvania – not far from where Flight 93 found its resting place in a field – it was important to me that Emily and I visit this place and read the names along the memorial fountain.
While we were there I watched this man weep over a name and captured this image. I choose to share this picture to remind us all that although it’s been nearly 17 years since these attacks, the horrors of that day and the memories of those lost are still very fresh wounds for some…
Needing a mental break we walked to our next destination to clear our heads. Doh was a much needed treat to pull us back into a happier place before dinner with my friend Ty.
On Wednesday morning we packed our bags and set our sights back on Pennsylvania. Little did Emily know that her adventure did not end with our return home. While waiting for her family to get back we walked around the land enjoying all the animals, especially the baby ducks that had recently hatched. Em received an early birthday gift she’d been wanting for so long. Enjoy your time with Mo!
**It should also be noted that while I did take my nephews on a special day trip with just them and myself, they have also requested I take them on ‘an awesome overnight trip like their sister’s trip when they’re old enough.’ Ben would like to drive an RV to Hawaii and Aron has set his sights on Hollywood. I better start saving (and figure out how to drive an RV to Hawaii)!
Life has been all over the place lately and it’s going to stay that way for some time now. I’m okay with that. What I’m also okay with is all the time spent with family. 🙂
