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Our Way Out West

Get out there, folks.

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🏜🌵🌞desert dreamin🌞🌵🏜 • #Canyonlands #MesaArch #IslandInTheSky #LaSalMountains #NationalParks #FindYourPark #ItsAllYours #GoParks #Moab #MoabUtah #Utah #Desert #DesertSeason #DesertVibes #RIMBY #MountainStandard #SuperBueno #DreamSeason #PowerOnCompadres #AdventureReadySpirit #OptOutside #GetOutside #GetOutStayOut #GetAway #Outdoors #Outside #WildernessCulture

🌀What. A. Whirlwind🌀 • It has been a WILD few weeks. Among the biggest life event I’ve had in a long time of moving to Chicago to begin PA school, I’ve also had tons of other things going on that have taken up a lot of time/energy/focus etc. Here is a list of some of the most recent significant happenings in the life of ev • (5/3-5/4) My brother @sr__lopez graduated nursing school and we spent a night in Scottsbluff, NE to help celebrate • (5/5) We had an amazingly fun graduation party to continue celebrating Tay • (5/6) @zachariah.west , Tay, and I drove to Moab, Utah to spend a few nights in the desert • (5/7-5/10) We mountain biked, hiked, swam, and explored Arches, Canyonlands, Dead Horse Point, and many more spots in the beautiful Southern Utah desert all the while dancing around Utah’s insufferable liquor laws 😑 • (5/10) Two years since my incredible stepdad, Craig, passed away 💜 • (5/12) We celebrated Mother’s Day with a wonderful brunch alongside my three favorite ladies: mom, stepmom (@westherdmom), and grandma • (Also 5/12) Tay, @ktsovine , Z and I went out on the town to celebrate Zachariah FINALLY turning 21 🎉🍻🍾 • (5/14) Tay, Z and I drove from FC to Des Moines and were pleasantly surprised by the pretty prairie views and 🔥 gas station pizza • (5/15) We drove from Des Moines to Chicago managing to hit my first taste of this awful traffic 😤 • (Also 5/15) MOOSE TURNED 8 YEARS OLD, YOU GUYS 🎉🐶🎂 • (5/16) The brothers left at 4 AM and I began spending the next few days exploring my neighborhood and getting my room setup in a new house/city/state/universe • (5/18) I went to a Sox game with the roommates - what felt like an inaugural step to becoming a true (temporary) Chicagoan • (5/18) My 4th year in burritos wrapped up (😜). And while I didn’t get very many this year as expected due to financial/location/caloric restrictions, I will continue to document every burrito I eat for... science? Yeah, for science 🧬🔬🌯 • Thank you to everyone that has helped make this move and this insane last few months (years, even) happen. You all are more important to me than I could ever express and I’m grateful I get to walk this earth alongside y’all 🙏

I said goodbye to Colorado today. • I wanted to write something deep and profound. Something gracious and optimistic. Something about opportunity and growth and embracing the change. • But I just don’t feel like that today. • It is hard to leave the mountains, my family, and so many friends behind. Say goodbye to the only place I’ve ever called home. Hug my parents the last time for months and watch the foothills fade into prairie behind me. • It’s tough. But I don’t want to ignore my emotions, because they are there for a reason. I’m going to sit with these feelings tucked close to my chest: the loss and doubt, discomfort and fear. Move forward with them. Honor them. • Maybe tomorrow the excitement will set in and the opportunity will be more apparent and the sky will be brighter and I’ll be able to see the city as the incredible home it’s likely going to be. • But I feel sad today. And I think that’s okay 💙 • #Colorado #Home

🚍💭🌄l l e g a n d o🌄💭🚍 • Golden hour dissolved slowly into sundown as the bus curved gently toward Fitz Roy. Suddenly the mountains that had seemed so distant in my dreams were so near in reality. The very same peaks I had dreamt about in my teens were there right in front of me, framed perfectly by the windshield. • Bugs splattered the glass and seat-backs obscured the view, but it felt so perfect and whole. It had been messy and scary and at times so doubtful getting to this point in my life. But somehow I managed to be sitting at that moment in that seat facing those mountains. I had been awaiting this scene for years, saying to my friends and my family and anyone who’d listen, “I’m going to Patagonia one day. I’m going THERE. I don’t know when but I am.” • The bus came to a halt on the edge of El Chaltén, just before the final minutes of sunset. Peaks of deep purple peered over the hill in front of me, an impossibly pink cloud motionless overhead. A sign with the same mountains in the background greeted us. “Bienvenidos” it read - and I thought, ‘Welcome to your dreams’

🌴❄️🐢¡Happy 🌍 Day!🌊♻️🦋 • Our poor mother has been under a lot of stress recently. And homegirl needs some help from you and me and everyone else out there that’s living on her sweet soil and breathing in her lovely air. • Here are 3 simple things that I do and you can too to help this little planet of ours be a little cleaner and little greener. • 1️⃣ I carry my reusable water bottle EVERYWHERE. Seriously, that thing is my damn security blanket. Ask most of my friends or coworkers and they’ll vouch that it comes with me on every trip from those to the grocery store or restaurant down the street all the way to the other side of the world. My favorite brands are @hydroflask and @nalgene but there’s tons of great stuff out there. Get yourself one and say goodbye to those single-use plastic bottles once and for all 👋 • 2️⃣ I try to eat less meat. Meat production has a HUGE carbon footprint, particularly beef. Sure, I love the occasional hamburger or chicken burrito just as much as everyone else, but I try to be intentional about consuming less meat than I used to. I only cook vegetarian at home and never buy meat at the grocery store. And when I do eat meat out at restaurants, I try to choose chicken more often than beef. If everyone made an effort to just eat LESS meat than they are currently, our planet would be a whole lot healthier (and maybe we would too!) • 3️⃣ I say no to plastic bags whenever I can. I try to take my backpack or reusable grocery sacks to the store. I deny a bag for any to go food that I can carry in my hands. And I use the plastic bags I do get to pick up my dog’s waste on walks. Easy and efficient! • Try these things out yourself and let me know if you have some simple habits that help this 🌎 • PS I love you Mother Girl - every day should be your day 💚 • 📷: Laguna Torre fed by Glaciar Grande with Cerro Torre towering above

Finally editing some Patagonia photos from my camera. If you need me I’ll be on my computer/phone incessantly clicking and tweaking images until school starts in June 😳📷🏔

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