Done with 2021—onto 2022!

Watching some of our best buds get married at the top of a mountain outside of Fairbanks, Alaska.

For those of you who didn't catch our end-of-the-year Christmas letter this year, here it is!

With 2020 behind us, Spank and I leapt into 2021…

We kicked off the New Year with a trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico with our friends Jared and Heather from Wisconsin. Spank promised Jared that if they tested positive for COVID on our way back into the States, we’d stay the extra 10 days with them in Mexico and buy the beer. Thankfully, we all got to home as scheduled and saved our pocketbook a big Corona bill (in multiple ways!)

Exploring Puerto Vallarta on our way to go ziplining (for the first time in all of our travels!)

Our Alaska friends, Josea and Anthony, were supposed to get married in April (4.3.21), but postponed their wedding because Alaska still required a negative COVID test to enter at the time (I see a theme here). However, they decided to still throw a trial run wedding party—so we went! That was the first of four Alaska trips this year. We also finally made our way back for Chickenstock this year and hit the sockeye salmon run. Spank and I spent another three weeks in Alaska at the end of August when we met up with Spank’s dad on his retirement trip. Finally, we made our way back up north one more time in November to watch Josea and Anthony tie the knot on the top of a snowy mountain above Chena Hot Springs on a balmy -4-degree day.

Top three: Chickenstock shenanigans! Bottom left: Spank showing Dan around Chicken.

Bottom center: 6-hour quad adventure through the mud. Bottom right: Josea & Anthony saying "I do"!!

Besides nearly two months in Alaska, Spank and I spent most of the summer on our property in northeast Washington. We towed our RV up and boondocked on our land, but left our home on wheels for a couple weeks for a road trip through Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. The road trip started with Under the Big Sky music festival in Whitefish, Mont. After that, Spank and I headed into Wyoming where we hit Jackson Hole and hiked around the Tetons. From there, we made our way into Idaho where we did lots of fishing and more hiking through the Sawtooth Mountains.

Earlier in the summer, we attended our first post-COVID concert of the year: Justin Moore in Colorado. We made a special weekend trip there for Spank’s birthday in May and also met up with our friends Micah and Andrea. Of course, we did some hiking through the Garden of the Gods and Red Rocks while we were there.

Hiking outside of Colorado Springs.

Our first post-COVID concert watching Justin Moore in Colorado Springs.

After four months off in the summer, Spank eventually had to go back to work. Our Wisconsin friends joined us on a road trip from Spokane to California, where Spank picked up his next line gig. We spent the rest of the year in our California home-away-from-home, Placerville.

World's worst road trip with the best people! At least we got to see Jason Aldean and Toby Keith!

My big news of the year was finishing and publishing my first children’s book! Thanks to COVID and supply chain issues, the book was delayed by a month and really grew my patience, but it showed up just in time for the holidays! God is good! The book is the first in a series about the trades and begins, of course, with linemen. It’s called “Light Up the World: When I Grow Up, I Want to Be a Lineman” and it can be purchased on my website: www.tinytradesmen.com.

Spank and I already have a few trips planned for 2022 and are praying we get to add international travel back into our lives again—we miss it desperately!

As always, we are blessed by your friendship, and we hope this letter finds you well! May God bless you richly in the New Year!

Love and Blessings,

Spank & Sarah