Everyday Adventure.

You might hear this time and time again. This everyday adventure phrase or #everydayadventure. But what is this? What does it mean? What does it look like? Am I just making something up - maybe. Or it’s a super important part of life that we don’t tap into enough.

By definition an adventure is: “an unusual and exciting, typically hazardous, experience or activity.”

An everyday adventure zooms in on that first part - “unusual and exciting”

At least in my mind it zooms in on that first part. I have been blessed with a mom who has instilled the gift of wonder, exploration, and discovery. I remember having her guide my brother and I on nature walks. We would stop whenever we saw something neat and she would stop right there with us and talk to us like we just discovered the coolest thing ever. Even if it was just one of those spiky balls from a sweet gum tree.

She taught us how to listen to others, how to look for those sitting alone in a crowd, how to slow down and savor a moment, and how to find the joy. All of these things I later learned help support and create what I know call everyday adventures.

What is so unusual about an everyday adventure? Well, honestly not much. It is all about how it is done. My typical day includes, work, feeing of dogs, dishes, cooking, more dishes, working out, more work, other house hold chores, dogs, more dishes somehow, and then bed. Day in and day out that gets old. Especially for someone who is use to traveling, exploring, and not being stuck in one spot for too long.

In a world that makes work, technology, and self the main focus creating these everyday adventures are MORE needed than every before! Why, because everyday adventures require you to disconnect with the tech world and reconnect with the live performance of life! An everyday adventure makes you slow down and savor a moment instead of rushing through it to check it off the list. Everyday adventures make you stop and think of someone else and how you can make them smile.

It is turning simple everyday ORDINARY tasks into memorable UNUSUAL moments! How can you help make cooking an everyday adventure? What about your daily walk? Can you spice up laundry time? Can you team up with someone and make these smaller moments, invaluable? How can you turn a simple movie night into a moment you will never forget?

Adventure doesn’t have to be a trip to Mexico to help build a church, or a trip to Scotland to work with a church, or backpacking across Europe, or running off to Canada when you just graduated, a surprise trip to Kansas, an overnight run half way across the country just to see a baseball game (and some of my favorite people), or going straight from Arizona to the Atlantic Ocean, or going to Latvia to work with an orphanage, or pullin’ a “Cali or Bust” in an old RV that falls apart around you. It can be the movie nights outside on a projector, dinner in the middle of nowhere and a sunset, watching the sunrise over the ocean, a surprise coffee stop after a long hike, a game night on a work night, dancing in the kitchen as you cook TOGETHER, a sock snowball fight. The options are limitless.

Make the usual unusual. Add your flair. Add your fun. Add your memories.

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When did I stop thinking adventure had to be HUGE and MONUMENTAL? (Don’t get me wrong I love all of the larger adventures and I am secretly trying to plan out how I can hike the AT, UP, and back over to Europe…I still get antsy when I have stayed in one place too long…)

I had to switch my thinking when I got married. Yes, I know that sounds awful but stay with me. MY plan was to buy a truck bed camper (because that’s the adult pick over a run down VW bus right?) and jump from job to job across the country. Going wherever the next job took me, seeing the world as I went, and meeting new folks along the way. Just my black lab, my truck, and me. Apparently I needed a “real plan” and a “real career” which long story short - took to me to a middle school teaching job in my home town and which also…landed me a man. ha ha ha.

Don’t get me wrong the hubs enjoys traveling but he can stay in one place longer than I ha ha. When we were planning our wedding (read here for what I wanted instead of a wedding) we were watching the movie Up by Pixar…yes we picked a kids movie…and we found ourselves hysterical over how Ellie & Carl met and the wedding scene. This summed us up. I am still the one with the messy hair, random ideas, and can be a bit loud while the hubs has his hair combed, glasses, and is more reserved and uses larger words. And yes, even the wedding scene is spot on us. Remember I didn’t have my wedding planned out since I was little I was loading up a truck bed camper so my side didn’t think a wedding would actually happen. (Oh, and yes we each brought our own side chair to this marriage like in the movie.)

The other part of this movie I love and is the perfect example of everyday adventure is the ending. Carl goes on this EPIC adventure for his wife. He endured so much change which left him heartbroken. He FINALLY moves to the location Ellie had her eyes on since she was young. And what happens. He is again faced with the empty feeling. Because it is not the adventure he wanted but his wife, Ellie. So, he takes out her adventure book where she stored all of her photos from her pre marriage adventures. When Carl looks through this album he gets discouraged because he saw “stuff I am going to do” written in Ellie’s handwriting. Almost like she didn’t live the dreams she wanted. Instead of finding the pages behind that title page blank he finds them full of images. Of him. And her. Doing things together. The day to day usual that became the unusual because of who they were spent with and how they were spent.

Carl then decides to live an everyday adventure and be the laughter, support, and love for Russel. The movie ends with them sitting eating ice cream savoring an everyday adventure together. This isn’t a movie review but if you haven’t seen the movie Up go buy it and make a fun movie night with it - build a fort, make milkshakes, whatever you need to make it an #everydayadventure.

Make time for your people and create everyday adventure any chance you get!

“It is the little moments that make life big.”

These photos should look normal to you but when I see them…they are my everyday adventures. You don’t know what happened/was happening but that is the beauty of everyday adventures and the importance of photography. Create these moments, capture these moments, and savor life!