How We Spent Our 10th Year of Marriage
Updated: May 4, 2023
Last Friday, November 25, was our 11th wedding anniversary and if we have heard one thing a lot lately, it's "We wish you would post more." This blog is for all of you who want more. Truly, we are probably giving you more than what you want as we reflect on the extremely special year 10 of marriage we have had together. Happy reading, dear friend, and feel free to take movement breaks along the way if you need them.
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Final Thoughts
2021 Holidays
Our 10-year anniversary landed on Thanksgiving day last year, so we popped champagne and celebrated with the Millard family (friends who are like family). We also went on an adventure to chop down our first real Christmas tree and enjoyed a trip to beautiful Sedona as part of celebrating our anniversary. We went to a Rend Collective concert with friends and spent Christmas with the Chrzan fam (Carolyn's family) in sunny CA.
Becoming an Author
In January, Carolyn published Warrior Mom with one of her best friends, Annika Kristen. They got to meet up later in the year to celebrate.
Putting into Motion a Major Life Change
And then, of course, there was the time that we made a big life decision, Carolyn tore her ACL and had to have reconstructive knee surgery, we bought an RV, sold all of the things, and Carolyn transitioned careers to work remotely. Thank you to all who supported us during this time, but due to time, we are going to skip ahead to the fun part.
First RV Trip
The Haar-V was christened on Memorial Day weekend with a whole pack full of Arizona friends. We camped in Prescott and enjoyed cooler temps, a beautiful lake day, lots of laughter and yummy food.
New Jersey Wedding
In June, and prior to leaving on our full-time RV adventures, we flew out to the East Coast for Izzy (Jon's cousin) and Hana's wedding. We had the best time seeing and celebrating with family.
Living with AZ Family
Before we took off in the RV, we got to do life with the Bade family (Jeff, Ann Marie, Alegra, and Isaac) while we were still preparing for departure. We lived in their backyard casita and enjoyed spending summer evenings together. The dogs also had fun playing. It was such a huge help to have a landing place to get organized before the official take off. Connection: Jeff and Carolyn are first cousins.
Colorado
Mid-June the RV adventures officially began. Nola became an RV cat and Chester began the lifestyle of his dreams. We were able to visit my colleague and former teammate, Chelsey (who was expecting) in Denver; and we visited the Zillinger family (Carolyn is first cousins with Sarah Zillinger) and Aunt Carol in Colorado Springs.
Nebraska
We knew we wanted to spend a chunk of time in Nebraska when we started RVing. We have good friends and family there and it served as the perfect landing spot to get more organized while Carolyn started her new job as a curriculum developer for TPx.
We stayed with Bill and Deb for 3 weeks which was a huge blessing. Our refrigerator had broke the day we left on our RV adventures and this was the perfect location to deal with the situation. Deb made us coffee every morning and spoiled Chester with treats twice a day. Jon helped Bill with projects around the farm and we enjoyed a lot of happy dinners together in the evening.
Connection: Deb was Carolyn's first mentor teacher back when she started student teaching. Annika (my illustrator) and I corn-detassled for Bill's company, and lived with Bill and Deb for a summer; they have been like family ever since.
We also got to do life with our good friends, Annika and Dan and their two kids Samara and Kyra. Carolyn enjoyed time with former teammates/colleagues and we got to join in for a family gathering (on Carolyn's side) in Omaha, NE.
Iowa & Minnesota
From Nebraska we drove to Sioux City, Iowa to see Jon's family. We got to see Grandma and Grandpa Schroeder (Haar-paternal side), Mom and Dad Haar, Uncle Frank, and Uncle Greg (who missed the family picture). We then continued on our way to Minnesota where we met up with the Dehoyas family (Becca, Daniel, Vinnie) and Jon's cousin, Zach. We enjoyed time with Jon's Uncle Nathan and Aunt Donna (maternal side) and loved staying at their beautiful lakefront property.
Minnesota Cousins
The next three stops were all cousins on Carolyn's side. We did life with each family for a week.
We started by visiting cousin Eric, his wife, Heidee, and their daughter, Elena, in Sartell, MN. Jon helped with some projects around the house and we were spoiled with wholesome cooking and homemade ice cream paired with Georgia peaches. Highlights included colorful dinners cooked by Heidi, play time with Elena, meaningful conversations, and Holden Evening Prayer led by Eric.
Next, cousin Nathan and his wife Heather in Rochester, Minnesota. Highlights included finding out Heather was pregnant, evening walks and talks, yummy food and drinks made by Nathan and seeing more friends and family. Nathan and Heather's home served as a family hub since they are in a more central location. Carolyn got to see her good friend, Tiffany and her husband, Drew, who also happen to be friends with Nathan and Heather...small world! Carolyn's twin aunts, Jean and Joan, also arrived in town which made it all the merrier.
The last Minnesota stop was visiting cousin Josiah, his wife, Rachel, and their daughter Franny in Lanesboro, MN. Highlights included seeing Josiah perform in "Leading Ladies," river rafting, and being present for Franny's first birthday party. Rachel and Josiah gifted us Clifton Strengths personality tests which also led to some solid conversations.
Batavia, Illinois & Cleveland, Ohio
One of those places that we did not get enough pictures of, but where we truly treasured our time was in Batavia, Illinois. Here we visited our good friends Jamie and Erin and their two kiddos, Eloise and Francis. They moved to Batavia, Illinois from Phoenix, AZ a year before we started our RV adventure. Jamie is a gifted preacher and it was great to hear him preach in person again. Highlights included delicious food, bike rides, and meaningful conversations.
We were able to spend one night in Cleveland, Ohio, where we met up with one of Carolyn's former teammates, Mia, her husband, Cal, and her three kids, Cyrus, Simeon, and Asa. Mia had the nickname "Momma Mia" in college. It was fun to see her mom-ing it up in real life with her three boys. Highlights included watching Ripken and Chester play (their dog and our dog), going out for ice cream, and visiting Lake Erie.
Rochester, New York
Here we stayed with the Banta family. Katie and Carolyn were coworkers who became fast friends in Maryland during Carolyn's first years of teaching. It had been seven years since we had seen Katie and Ben and it was so great to pick up where we left of and do life with them for a week. Highlights included a downtown Rochester adventure, being served lunch by George, Ruth, and Holden at the "Keep it Rolling Ramen Cafe," and an evening at Lake Ontario. It was also so fun to see Katie right as she was transitioning into her dream teaching job (she is rocking it).
Niagara Falls & North Tonawanda
We were able to check off a major bucket list item when we visited Niagara Falls. There were more lines than what we were mentally prepared for, but the Maid of the Mist experience was worth the wait. On the same day, we squeezed in a visit to my mom's childhood neighborhood in North Tonawanda. We saw the house she grew up in, as well as the church and school she attended. As a Southern California girl, it was meaningful to see the places that were important to my mom when she was growing up. After, we grabbed a bite to eat along the Niagara River and enjoyed the view.
Stowe, Vermont
When we heard the Krieger family was going to be in Vermont for a week, we booked it to join them. Sarah has been one of Carolyn's best friends since college and this family is like family to us, so to be able to spend a week in beautiful Vermont with them was a dream. Sarah and Bry have five kids: Hans, Otto (who is also our godson), Fritz, Ingrid, and Ida. Whenever we wear "Strength is More than Muscle" or "Fritz & Friends" shirts, it is to raise support for this family. Fritz has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and his parents started "Fritz & Friends" to fight for a cure.
Highlights included surprising the kids, a bonfire night at our campground, visiting the cider mill and eating apple cider donuts, having an evening out together, and just catching up on all the things.
Maine
We were so excited to reach this part of our journey. Our first night in Maine was spent at a Harvest Host, Funky Bow Brewery, where they had a strict no-leash policy, AKA dogs roamed around off-leash and Chester partied hard. As we continued to discover, Maine is a dog friendly state, and Chester loved every moment of it.
Next, we settled into a campground that was a 10-minute walk to Old Orchard Beach and a 30-minute drive to Portland. Every morning before Carolyn started work, we would walk to the beach and let Chester play in the waves. We had so much fun exploring Portland and eating out. We met a couple, Jeff and Deb, from Maine who we cooked a lobster meal with and we met another couple our age, Caity and Stephen who just started full-timing; we met up with them again in Acadia and enjoyed a fun campfire evening.
When we arrived in Acadia National Park, the leaves were changing color. Acadia met expectations with its beautiful coast line views and memorable hiking trails. Highlights included the Jordan Pond Trail, Sailing (Chester got to come with us), and dinner in Bar Harbor.
New England Fall
When we left Maine we weren't ready to leave New England because fall was at its peak. We stayed at a campground in New Hampshire and took lots of drives and walks to look at the beautiful leaves. Highlights included more apple cider donuts, driving up Mt. Washington, and having dinner with Paul and Kathy, a lovely couple from CA who camped next to us.
Again we were not ready to leave New England after our week in New Hampshire, so Jon found a campground in Vermont (right on the border line with New Hampshire). After our week at this campground we spent one night in Connecticut with one of Carolyn's virtual coworkers, Laura and her husband. It was so nice to meet her in person and we were spoiled with good food and lots of gifts from her garden.
From Conneticut, we drove to New Jersey to spend an afternoon with family (Jon's side). We enjoyed time with Uncle Jeff, Aunt Ashera, Izzy and Hana (newly weds), and Nathaniel. It was fun getting caught up and reminiscing on Izzy and Hana's wedding in June.
Maryland
Around mid-October we arrived back to where we started doing life together, Maryland. Jon was born and raised in this state and has a lot of family here. We stayed with his youngest brother, Aaron, his girlfriend, Tori, and of course OUR beautiful baby niece, Evelynn. I must say, I have never seen Jon so smitten with a baby! They had the perfect set up for the Haar-V and we enjoyed all the time we got to spend with them.
So much happened in the 40 days we spent in Maryland. We attended a friend's wedding, spent time with Jon's best friend (Paul), enjoyed a crab feast, spent a day with our good friends (Jacob and Leah and their sweet kiddos: Scarlett, Nathan, Brielle, & Gabe), spent a weekend with mama and papa Haar, helped host a Friendsgiving, spent a getaway weekend with our dear friends, Darin & Michael, went out to dinner with Larry and Brenda (a former coworker/mentor of Carolyn), celebrated Aunt Lynette's birthday, met another one of Carolyn's coworkers (Jenny and her husband), spent an afternoon with good friends (Joel and Alicia and their adorable children Adam, Joy, and Hope), and celebrated Thanksgiving with family.
Final Thoughts
There have been so many moments over this past year that we have been brought to the point of tears...happy tears! Year 10 of our marriage was life changing and life affirming. We started a new journey together that has allowed us to cross paths and have quality time with so many people that we LOVE.
It must be said that we did not get to see everyone we wanted to see on our first RV trip. The fact that we have so many open-invitations is truly a blessing in itself. Thank you for being understanding as we navigate time, weather, and resources. We hope to see you the next time around.
This past Thanksgiving, and the last day of our 10th year of marriage, we were able to toast to year-11 with our Maryland family. This was the group that hosted Thanksgiving dinner, for friends and family around the country, the day before we tied the knot. Looking around the room, a lot had change in eleven years. We had lost an uncle, our flower girl and ring bearer were on their way out of high school, and we saw the reality of a loved one going through Alzheimer's disease. All that to say, we felt incredibly blessed to be present once again for a Thanksgiving meal with this family and Jon thanked everyone present for being part of our lives.
We'd like to end this blog by doing the same. Thank you for supporting us. Thank you for praying for us, uplifting us, hosting us, and sending open-invitations to come visit. Thank you for commenting or liking something that we share. Thank you for showing us acts of kindness in both the small and big kind of ways.
If this adventure has taught us anything it's that we have some amazing people in our lives, and we can't wait until our paths cross with each of you again.
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