Wife

Probably 6 months ago I challenged myself to write my own definition of what it means to be a wife. I chose to do this for many reasons and those reasons are probably why it has taken me this long to write it. I want to write this because I believe my chosen path in life is different from the typical one and I feel I need my own definition of “wife” to continue living a fulfilling life.

To start a little background might be needed as I don’t think I have ever really written anything about my path to where I am now. I was raised to be extremely independent and a hard core feminist. Growing up I was not popular, never wore makeup, and didn’t have much confidence in myself or my body. My Dad has always told me that I was naturally pretty and did not need to wear makeup or dress a certain way. I have always taken this to heart. In high school I dressed in a way that hid my body. During college I started dressing in a more “flattering” way, but always in a way that showed respect to my body and beauty. I have never worn makeup on a daily basis and when I do it is to accent my natural beauty. The next person to come into my life and influence who I am is my husband. From the very beginning he has shown me more respect than any guy my age. As we went down the path of our relationship he constantly worked to help me out of the walls I had built around myself. He has helped me to become who I am today. Through this he has not changed who I am at my core but helped me to realize what I really want out of life and what society is telling me to do. Through him I have come to realize that I can be both a feminist and a wife. I have begun seeing that society’s idea of what a wife is does not have to apply to me.

The other part of this is the culture of where I grew up versus where I became an adult. I grew up in an area where most people were concerned with their career and living life to its fullest. Few people worried about finding a partner, getting married, and settling down to have kids. I grew up with the expectation that if I got married it wouldn’t be until I was at least 30. I went to college in South Dakota where I was frequently asked if I was going to school for my Mrs. degree. Most of the females I went to school with got married within 3 months of graduation. I am choosing what I consider to be the best of both worlds, marry my best friend young and live life to its fullest.

Maybe a better word for what I consider myself is companion. I want to be by J’s side through the thick and thin. I want to be standing next to him when we summit Everest. I want to be with him when he gets promotions at work. On the other side I expect him to be beside me when I win my first triathlon and finish my first marathon. I want him to him to be next to me when I start my own business. For me J is my ever reliable companion. I want him to be the person that will always be there through all of the triumphs and failures in life. For me wife means companion and it can take on many different forms. I find myself happy in both the traditional role as homemaker and his companion on crazy adventures. 

30 Day Photography Challenge - Day 11

Something Blue

I had a really hard time getting my camera to focus today. This is a cool sticker I got from the First Ascent Airstream last night. I dream of the day I can buy First Ascent cloths for all of my adventures. 

30 Day Photography Challenge - Day 10

Childhood Memory

The day we went to see the Warren Miller film just so happened to coincide with the childhood memory prompt. I have been going to this movie for as long as I can remember. It is considered the start to the ski season. 

30 Day Photography Challenge - Day 9

Someone You Love

I chose to take a picture of Jason in a place I consider to be kind of magical, Pearl Street.

30 Day Photography Challenge - Day 8

A Bad Habit

I have a very bad habit of starting something and not finishing it. Here is about 10 un-finished cleaning projects. 

30 Day Photography Challenge - Day 7

Fruit

Not the best picture of fruit. I was trying to do a bokeh effect, but could not get my little camera to do it. 

30 Day Photography Challenge - Day 6

From a Low Angle

This is a very old chime my mom has out front of her house. I thought it would look cool to take a picture of it laying on my back. 

30 Day Photography Challenge - Day 5

From A High Angle

I stood on the fence and took a picture of my mom looking down. The full body shots make it look like her legs are facing backwards. While this makes for a humorous picture it doesn't make for a very flattering picture of her. 

30 Day Photography Challenge - Day 4

Something Green

Honeymoon - The Drive To The California

This is the first of five posts on our honeymoon that we took in June. We got married last year and spent almost a year planning a two week road trip. We drove 8,000 miles through 8 states. 

We left South Dakota and drove to Colorado to celebrate my birthday with my family. My brother had turned 21 in May so we went to the bar and took shots as a family. My brother wanted to take a birthday cake shot, which is way to sweet for me and my dad. My dad decided to pay him back by ordering shots of tequila. Drinking with family is something I have always avoided, but I must say it was actually a lot of fun.


After the bar we headed to the mountains to sleep at a rest stop for the night. Our plan was to stop at the top of Vail Pass. When we got there it was 30 degrees out so we headed down to find a warmer place to sleep for the night. Thankfully there is another rest area just past Edwards where the temp was 60. 

Day 2 of our trip we went white water rafting down the Eagle River. There was so much snow last year that the river was extremely high and we weren't able to raft all the way to the normal take out point. We had a blast and plan on going many more times.

Once we were done with the rafting trip we were on our way to Ely, NV where we planned on spending the night at a friend’s. Driving through Utah was a lot more fun than we thought it was going to be. I'm pretty sure we stopped at every scenic spot, but I am so very glad we did. 

Since it was my birthday I really wanted a treat of some kind. The original plan was to stop in Grand Junction and get some yummy fruit. This turned out impossible. Who would have thought that buying fresh fruit in the place where most of the states fruit is grown would be impossible? Since we couldn’t find any fruit stands we continued on and planned on stopping in Utah somewhere. We stopped in the biggest town along the interstate and felt like we were in Radiator Springs. To get to the town you take an exit to no-where and drive for a little ways. There was a gas station at each end of the town and nothing in between. I got a popsicle and we continued on our way.

This was one of our favorite stops, the San Rafeal Reef. It was absolutely beautiful. Driving west through it blew our minds. I am really glad that I was able to show Jason how beautiful the desert is. I have always told him how amazing it is, but he never believed me. I’m pretty sure he thought it was more like Nevada where we went over 100 miles without seeing any other vehicles or buildings. Thankfully it was dark out, which made this part of the drive less painful.

We stopped in Ely, NV for the night.

 Day 3 was started with a drive threw a town that made us think we were in Mexico instead of Nevada and deciding how to get to Yosemite since the Tioga Pass was still buried under snow. The drive was beautiful to Lee Vining, California was beautiful. One part of the road was like a roller coaster. It was so much fun driving the truck over the little hills was one of the highlights of the day.

Once we got to Lee Vining we had to decide how to get through the mountains. After studying the map for ever we decided to take the Sonora Pass Hwy. 

30 Day Photography Challenge - Day 3

Clouds

The clouds were too low for us to take the picture at my moms house. So we drove to the top of the hill and took some pictures at the dog park. I was talking to my sister in-law on the phone so I wasn't putting as much attention on my pictures as I usually do. This is the best one I got.

30 Day Photography Challeneg - Day 2

What you wore 

I decided that today was going to be a lazy day so I wore sweats. I tried to put up a good fight with the light, but in the end had to revert to using a flash. Without the flash the pictures were very orange.