Wow, 2019 is over and 2020 has just begun! What a year it has been for us here at Yellow Van Travels. We hope you have enjoyed following along with what we’ve written here on the blog and what we have talked about in our podcast. We also hope you tune in to Instagram Stories while we are traveling so you are up on where we are at.

Because it takes us time to write content a lot of travels from 2019 have not even made it onto the blog yet, so I just wanted to take a moment to review where we have been and some of the highlights of our travels this past year.

January: Cuba and the Bahamas

At the end of January we were able to take an incredible trip to do a cruise to Cuba and the Bahamas. We love visiting these amazing islands. Lucy had so much fun on the beaches and we learned so much more about Cuba and the Cuban people.

March: Hawaii and Minnesota

In March we made two trips, first we went to Hawaii with Meagan’s family. We were able to spend about a week on the beautiful island of Oahu. Lucy again loved being on the beach, other highlights included visiting Pearl Harbor, and snorkeling at Sharks Cove (there are no sharks there, only tropical fish).

Shortly after our trip to Hawaii we were with Meagan’s family again at there home in Minnesota (drastically different weather) so that I could present at the library technology conference. While we were there we got to take Lucy to a marvelous children’s museum where she had a lot of fun, we also were able to take her to very large indoor playground with huge slides that we could go down with her.

May: Idaho

After a busy March we took April off, and then in May did a short weekend trip north to Idaho. We went to the Bruneau Dunes state park where we sandboarded and sand sledded for the first time. It was a really fun trip not very far from home. You can see our adventures in this video.

June: California and Natural Bridges

In June we did two more trips with members of my family. First we went with my mom and sister to visit my grandparents, uncle, aunt, and cousins in California. While there we were able to spend lots of time with family and also visit Children’s Fairlyand with my uncle and cousin which was a super cute theme park, we have a video of that here.

On that trip we also went to Yosemite National Park for the first time, which blew me away completely even though it was only for a few hours. We have video from Yosemite here. We also visited the open house for the Oakland Temple.

Later in June we went with my youngest brother down to Natural Bridges, one of our favorite National Monuments in Utah. It was a fun camping and hiking trip. My brother and I were able to go out near one of the bridges and witness and incredibly colorful sunset. We have a short video of the Sipapu Bridge trail here.

July: Gall Bladder Surgery

In July we had plans to travel to Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado and then on to a family reunion with Meagan’s mother’s family. But those plans were derailed due to Meagan needing emergency gall bladder surgery just before we left on the trip. If you want to hear more about that you can listen to this podcast episode that I recorded alone while Meagan was in the hospital.

August: Yellowstone, Bountiful, and Montana

During August we had a few trips to wrap up the summer before Meagan started her first semester of graduate school in September. Even though Meagan was still recovering from her surgery we were able to keep our appointment to go to Yellowstone because my mom came with us to help with Lucy. Yellowstone has been on my list of places to go for a long time, and several times we have had plans to go that have not worked out, so it was great that we were able to do it this time despite the challenges. We camped in the park and went on several hikes and saw a few geysers erupt. Unfortunately the wildlife was not very present on that trip, but I’m sure we will be back there another time.

Next we had a reunion with my family in Bountiful Utah. It was a chill few days all hanging out and doing things together. It was nice we could all be together before my nephew who has aplastic anemia received a bone marrow transplant from his brother and went in to six months of isolation. We were all able to go swimming together at a fun pool there and go on a short hike together.

From Bountiful we actually left to go visit Meagan’s Uncle’s ranch in Montana. It was really beautiful up there and we had a lot of fun with Meagan’s family there. The only unfortunate part was when Lucy, who normally loved camping this year, screamed the whole first night in the tent.

October: New York City

Because of school we did not have another trip until the end of October when Meagan’s mother came to stay with Lucy while we went to New York City. I had been to the city once before while I was in college, but Meagan had never been, so we had a fantastic time there. We were able to see a lot of the sites around the city and also see a broadway production of Aladdin. You can see some video from our trip here.

November: Disneyland

Over the Thanksgiving holiday this year we went to Disneyland, taking advantage of a trip there before Lucy needs her own ticket. It was Lucy’s first trip to the happiest place on earth and she loved it! Even though it rained all day long on Thanksgiving she still loved going on the rides and meeting the princesses. It was a fantastic trip for all of us, although Lucy has started not being as much fun to travel with in the car.

You can read about our wet visit to the new Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge area of Disneyland here.

December: Arizona

We finished off the year with a post-Christmas trip to Arizona where Meagan’s grandma lives. Meagan’s mom, dad, and sister also came. While it was pretty chilly by Arizona standards we still had a fun time with family and visited an Ostrich Farm and Casa Grande National Monument while we were there.

Sum Up

Whew, what a year 2019 was. We were able to see and do so many new things. We are very blessed to have been able to travel so much and especially to do so much of it with our families this past year. We hope you have enjoyed being along for the ride with us. In the comments let us know where you were able to go this past year and where you hope to go in 2020. We know we won’t be traveling as much this year because of school schedules, but we still be trying to get out there as regularly as we can, seeing the world and learning new things!