Hello, my dear family and friends!
Once again, I've found myself reflecting on the year as it comes to a close, and it's safe to say that 2024 was a big year for me. I wasn't quite expecting this much of a roller coaster, considering I wasn't on trail this year and had actually managed to lock down a regular full time job at the end of last year. But God has a way of surprising us, doesn't he?
My biggest surprise this year came in the form of my sweet guy, Kevin. But you'll have to read on for that story...
In January, I started my job at the Nature Connection, and it's been such a wonderful fit for my skills and passions. As a team, our mission is to eliminate barriers for kids and families in our community to get outside, and my role in this includes managing and implementing outdoor programs in Delta County and Olathe schools. Over the course of the year, this has included taking 4th and 6th graders cross country skiing on Grand Mesa, teaching K-2nd kids how to ride bikes during P.E., taking 3rd graders mountain biking, running summer camp activities for 7-11 year olds, backpacking with middle schoolers during the summer, coordinating gear checkout with countless teachers, and working with an incredible team to pull off lots of community outdoor events. If you want to check out the annual report I designed for Nature Connection, you can read that here to learn more about our work.
While my job is a bit of a drive up in Hotchkiss, I'm still loving life in Montrose, and don't plan to move anytime soon! Life on the western slope of Colorado is wonderful, and living close to an abundance of places to explore never gets old.
In March, my married housemates Claire and Caleb began their foster care journey, and we welcomed Oriyn into our home and our hearts. He has certainly energized our house and livened things up! You never know when there might be pop-it under the toilet seat... haha. I'm happy to share that he was officially adopted later in the year!
I traveled to Cincinnati to celebrate my cousin Hannah's wedding over St. Patrick's Day, and went on a quick backpacking/rappelling trip in Red River Gorge with Kiki.
After returning from a full and beautiful weekend, the floor dropped out. My mom experienced a life-threatening medical emergency and had to have three separate surgeries on her stomach.
I flew to Indiana to be close to Mom and keep her company while she was in the ICU. I'm so thankful to everyone who reached out and supported my family during this time, as well as work for being so flexible so I could be there. And of course, I'm so grateful that God gave us more time with Mom.
After returning to Colorado in April, I totaled my car hitting a deer outside of Gunnison. Life was feeling pretty fragile, and I really had to lean on my community here. Shout-out to Marti and Jim Isler for letting me borrow their truck to get to work!
In May, I bought a Subaru Outback and prayed for life to settle down a bit. It did... until June.
I got a message from this cute thru-hiker guy I had become friends with on Instagram. Enter: Kevin, trail name: LarryBoy. After over a year of being friends online, he asked if I wanted to meet up for a hike in the San Juans while he was in the area.
Kevin and I actually met through this very blog, strangely enough!
He was planning to finish his triple crown of hiking with a PCT hike slated for 2023. With some gnarly winter storms hitting the Sierra, he started researching high snow year conditions on the PCT by reading blogs from hikers during other high snow years (like mine in 2019). He happened to notice in my writings here that I'm also a fellow Christian, and sent me a very sweet and encouraging message on Instagram in February of 2023. From there, we became digital pen pals of sorts as we were off on our own hiking adventures. I had been curious about Kevin for quite some time, but since he was living in Salt Lake, I wasn't sure if we'd ever meet or if there was anything there. Turns out, he really wanted to meet me in person too, so he just "conveniently" went backpacking in my neck of the woods this past June :)
We took a hike on the Colorado Trail, paddled around Little Molas Lake on Kevin's packraft, and came back to my house for worship night. It didn't take long for me to realize what a quality guy I had found. We started dating long-distance shortly after that.
I went home to celebrate my Dad's 70th birthday and retirement from local church ministry. It was so fun to be with the whole family, meet my newborn nephew, Caleb, as well as see dear church family from years past.
More summer adventures that followed include: a middle school girls backpacking trip, 4th of July campout in Ironton, birthday celebration, and lots of fun weekends with Kevin, including a sweet backpacking trip in the Uintas.
To celebrate my niece Julia's 13th birthday, my mom flew her out to Colorado for a fun adventure trip over Labor Day week! I was so thrilled that Mom felt well enough to come, and I had a blast taking them to the Black Canyon, San Juan Mountains, and the Colorado National Monument.
I also did a sweet canyon hike in Southern Utah with Kevin to celebrate his birthday weekend. So fun!
We celebrated Kevin and Cheer getting their triple crown awards at the American Long Distance Hiking Association gathering. Got to see my buddies Stevie and Cheer, introduce them to Kevin, and also bump into some familiar faces. One hiker I had given a hitch to as he crossed Monarch Pass, and another was Miss Information, the woman whose family I met on the PNT near Mt. Baker.
In October, Kevin headed home to be with his family in Grand Rapids as his grandpa's health took a sharp turn and he passed away. We had already planned to have some time with each of our families at the end of October, so I just flew out to the midwest for a short visit. I'm really glad we had already planned this trip, as it made it easier on Kevin to be there for his family during a tough time.
November brought a new job for Kevin in Montrose - no more long distance! Everything seemed to fall into place easily with his housing situation here, which is definitely not a given in Montrose. I was also reminded how awesome it is to live somewhere that we can drive to better weather for hiking trips! We headed to the Canyonlands Needles District for a great little backpacking trip. I celebrated Thanksgiving in Iowa with Kevin's family.
We squeezed in one final trip to see family for Christmas, and boy, it's nice that our parents live within driving distance. The Seitz family gathering was full of energy - I'm up to ten nieces and nephews now that make our get-togethers quite lively!
Christmas Eve in Michigan was a sweet time getting to spend more time with Kevin's family. His niece Daphne and I are already besties.
Kevin's sister Nichole flew back with us to Montrose for a year-end visit! We had such a sweet time with her, adventuring and doing lots of cross-country skiing.
It feels like this year took such a 180 for me, and it's a bit mind-blowing how different life can feel after just a year. I'm so thankful to be ending 2024 with so much to look forward to, and particularly for the blessing that is Kevin.
Whether you're in a high or a low place right now, I pray that you would grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ for you (Eph. 3:18) as you enter this new year. I've learned over the years that life is often unpredictable, but God is faithful.
Sending love to you all,
Steph a.k.a. Calzone