It has been a while!

It has been two years since we returned from our first adventure in our van, Sheila. A lot has happened in the last two years. Let me give you a little run down.

Four months after we returned from our van trip, we moved from San Francisco to Santa Cruz, CA. After the van trip, we spent a lot of our weekends in Santa Cruz and after a job opportunity presented itself, we felt like it was the right move for us. And it was. We have both enjoyed living in Santa Cruz so much.
John got a job at Santa Cruz Bicycles. After almost a year at Fox Racing Shox, the job that brought us down here, John got an offer to work at an awesome mountain bike manufacturing company. He gets to ride his bike to work every day and still has time to go surfing after work in the summertime.
I (Emma) am following a dream of mine to becoming a Pilates Instructor. When we first moved to Santa Cruz, I was unemployed and ended up finding myself taking pilates at the studio across the street from our new apartment. Eventually, I returned to work at Mike’s Bikes (after quitting for the second time to move down to Santa Cruz) and filled the role of Sales Manager at the San Jose location. If you have never driven from Santa Cruz to San Jose, you should know that a literal mountain range sits between the two cities. My commute was on average a short 45 minutes but reached a top duration of 5 hours. My frustration with the commute led me to start examining my priorities. After a long commute one day, I came home beyond frustrated and John asked me, “What is your favorite part of your week?” “Pilates,” I replied. “Then you should see if you can do that all the time,” he said. I had toyed with the idea of being a fitness instructor in the past, but I had not considered it with Pilates. After some research, I realized that now was the time. I found a studio to do my training at, gave my notice at work and got a part-time job to cover some of the expenses. And now, I am here. Almost a year later and I am four months from becoming a Certified Pilates Instructor. And it feels good.
Oh. And we got engaged this summer while on vacation in the Caribbean. It was awesome and we are getting married this coming October (hurray!).
Lastly, we are starting to build Shelia Version 2.1. We have run into a few hiccups, but otherwise, progress is moving along nicely and we should have her done in time for some summer camping trips. We will share a build post soon.