The Van Life Diaries Part I

We left for our trip Tuesday afternoon. I said goodbye to my fur-babies (who I hope aren’t developing an inferiority complex because I’ve been gone so much lately). We drove through Indiana, Illinois, and Kansas, and finally on Wednesday got to Colorado to meet up with Candle, Levi’s sister. We walked through Garden of the God’s which made us really want to head straight for Utah and do some climbing (one day soon)!

Thursday we got on the road and drove through Utah which was just absolutely incredible. I could totally move there (we’ve talked about it…). By the time we crossed the border to Wyoming it was snowing, which is about the only cool thing to say about Wyoming. I looked up the population in there, and it’s a little over 500,000 I can’t even. That’s crazy. When we got to Idaho, the sun was setting and levi drove the van off the highway to get some cool pictures of the van.
Friday we drove through Oregon which was so cool with all the rolling hills! I’m already looking forward to going back to Colorado, Utah, and Oregon.

It’s so amazing to wake up before the sun, watch the sun rise every morning, and set every evening, always with different scenery. Watching the sun rise from behind the mountains, turning them pink and purple is a sight hardly capturable by a camera (yea, I just made up that word ).

Washington state though, I’ve never seen anything like it. No picture could possibly capture the scenery of the towering evergreens, the golden leaves of the maple trees, the red bushes popping up every so often, the river skipping over the grey rocks, and the sight of Mountains Hood and Rainier in the background. Maybe I’m more awed because I grew up always seeing the beach, but I’ve never seen such simple beauty in my life. Driving through Washington (specifically Mt. Rainier National Park) is like driving through a dream because only in my dreams have I scene such perfection.

When we (FINALLY) arrived at Mt. Rainier, we pulled up to an empty visitor’s center, and since Levi had been there before, he said we could do this easy hike to see some pretty views, and watch the sunset. So we strapped on our Salomon’s, put on some warmer clothes, and set out for a quick hike. The “quick hike” turned into a full-fledged hike through the icy snow (thankfully Salomon’s are great for unexpected snow, too ). AND as someone who is deathly afraid of heights, the ice, and hiking up a fairly good incline was yea a little scary for me, but I have to say, the views were worth it all. It felt like we could have been in the Alps (not that I’ve ever been to the Alps), but yea, that was gorgeous.

We decided to camp the van near a trail we wanted to do in the morning, which also happened to be near this incredible waterfall. It made for a very cold, but gorgeous, and unforgettable camping experience. The next morning we woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed at 4:30A (which was 7:30 to our bodies), so we had quite a while to wait until we could see anything, not to mention it was freezing cold! We killed time by watching the stars, and eventually went back into the warm van to read our Bible’s and play monopoly deal.

That’s probably been my favorite part of this trip so far When it got light outside, we set out for part of the Wonderland Trail (which was incredible and we’ll definitely be coming back to hike the whole thing before too long!) When we got back, we both did a workout of our own, cleaned up, and ate a simple, peaceful dinner out of the van before taking off for North Cascades National Park.

We got to North Cascades late on Saturday night. Sunday morning we set out for what we thought was going to be a 20 mile hike, but (much to our surprise and delight) turned out to only be 10 miles because half of it was the gravel road that we drove up. Lol. It was a GRUELING hike, though, so we’re both pretty glad it was 10 miles and not 20!

This morning we just did a small hike because we wanted to get back on the road. Now we’re headed to meet up with Levi’s friend, and explore downtown Seattle, including Pike Place (the original Starbucks)!

Thanks for joining us on this trip so far! More to come!!

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Venturing in Mammoth Cave

By charity sampley • August 1, 2023

I've been trying to get to Mammoth Cave for 6 years and today I finally made it! Woohoo! I have a bucket list goal to visit every national park in the US (hopefully I can get to them faster because they just keep adding more), so there's another check mark to one! One of the things I've been realizing lately is just how many national parks are within 8 hours or less of where we're located. An 8-hour drive isn't too bad with the kids, and several are even closer. Mammoth Cave is about 1 hour from us (I know, it's almost wrong that we haven't gone before now). Prior to making the trip, I had looked on Pinterest for different recommendations and I had seen where the guided tours fill up quickly so it's best to register for them online before going. However, I decided that with the kids being the ages that they are, I didn't want to do a guided tour and would rather do the self-guided (called Discovery tour). I'm also not a big fan of guided tours anyway, but I did see some pictures of some cool views that you can only get to through a guided tour, so I think it would be worth it to do that one day. However, we spend 45 minutes in the cave, and I couldn't imagine spending any more time in there because the kids were about spent. I'm very content with the decision I made for this trip! All the information you'll need can be found on the national park website here . I had also read that the park is free to enter, but you have to pay for all the tours. This ended up being the case for us as well, even though we did the self-guided Discovery tour. It was a bummer because we have the annual national park pass, so I feel like we've already paid to enter all the parks for the year, but the tickets were only $8 a piece, and kids under 6 are free, so it wasn't expensive. As it turned out, I was very glad that we did the Discovery tour because the kids ended up being scared in the cave! We walked all the way down from one end to the other, but by the time we were leaving, they were definitely done with the cave. Killian is 2, and Reagan is 3, so if you have toddlers, I recommend just keeping that in mind when you choose the right option for you and your family.

I Finished My Nutrition Certification!

By charity sampley • June 23, 2023

I hope your week is off to a great start. A couple of weeks ago, on a Friday morning, I woke up early (okay, not that early), opened my laptop, and took the final exam to my Precision Nutrition Certification. It has been, and continues to be, so important to me to be able to continue my education in order to better serve my clientele, formally or informally. This certification is just one more step on my journey to improve myself as a coach and expert in the field of nutrition. I started it back in October, and continued to work through it during all the phases of life with two toddlers: sleep regressions, meltdowns, potty training, and all the things in between. At times it felt like I was never going to finish, and just like that I'm done, and it didn't seem all that rough! 😅 Soon after finishing, I decided to register for an NLP and Life Coaching certification, and who knows what else is in store. The sky's the limit!

Why I Started Coaching

By charity sampley • June 16, 2023

I didn't grow up being athletic, in fact, it was the opposite for me. When it came to races or playing tag, I was always the slowest. When it came to a sport, I was always uncoordinated. When it came to body weight strength, I was the weakest. When it came to being picked for a team, I was always picked last. Throughout high school and college, I managed to improve this predicament slightly as I played sports, began training on my own, and eventually made it onto my college basketball team. But I still always struggled. I always tended to be the most uncoordinated and the least athletic. When I started CrossFit in 2018, I was surprised at how my body adapted to the training. With what I felt like little effort on my part, I was able to do pull-ups and skills I had given up on ever having the ability to do. It taught me that everything is learned for everyone at some point in time, and we all have the ability to change what we've known about ourselves even if what we've known to be true about ourselves is something that has haunted us since childhood. While it was amazing that I could change my ability to perform physical movements, it wasn't until I improved my nutrition in 2019 and began to see the start of a 6 pack (which genetically speaking, wasn't really in the cards for me) that I started to truly realize how every decision we make and every step we take is an action either in the direction of what we want or what we don't want, but either way, we have the ability to choose in any given moment. Often times our ability to choose is determined by the beliefs we have about ourselves and about our circumstances. I think what shocked me the most is that I wasn't doing what I had always thought would be required in order to see these big physical changes. I was leaning out while eating ice cream sandwiches, chips, and fast food. And it wasn't just on my "cheat days" either. Although my diet was balanced, it didn't fit what I always believed I would need to do. It didn't fit m idea of "healthy" and it definitely didn't fit into most of society's definition of healthy. Most people would have assumed this was my way of having a "cheat meal", or that I was allowing myself to "be bad". But neither were the case. This was simply my way of life. And I was seeing amazing results with a very flexible approach to my diet. If we believe it's our calling in life to be fat, or weak, or slow, or addicted to food (all of which I believed about myself at one time), then those beliefs are what we'll live by. Those beliefs are what will dictate our choices. When I realized it was a choice for me to live in food freedom, and eat from a place of celebration and joy over how I can live my life and how my body can perform physically, that's when everything changed. I want all women who are where I once was to know that if they want to see change, then it's possible. But I don't want to just tell you. And I don't want to just show you. I want to help you get there. And that's why I started coaching. I started for you, and for all the women out there who are living a life making choices they're not happy with, in a body they're not happy in, but who don't want to sell their souls in order to see results. I'm here to tell you that there is freedom on the other side.

The Van Life Diaries Part I