 Hi Pak. Welcome back. Welcome to 2024. I'm loving it. Hope you're all having a great year so far. I hope you've enjoyed your holidays and the very beginning few weeks to the new year. We've missed you. It's been so long, but we're very happy to see you in the new year. And we also want to start by saying thank you for a wonderful 2023. We love our community so much and we had such a great year with all of you. We hope you enjoy coming along for our journey. This year is going to be super fun. We're making this video to tell you how we're doing. Recap the year and get you excited about what's to come for this year ahead. We have some big changes on the horizon. Also, yeah, we are just on a random island. And we're not the cabin. And when we go through all of what we want to talk to you about, all of this will make sense of where we are and why we're here and everything. And this is kind of a hint as to why we're doing this video because you probably didn't expect this. So expect the unexpected and we have a lot to share with you. The conversation we're about to have with all of you is something that Crystal and I are having probably every single day for the last year. Yes, you're going to get in our heads for a couple of minutes here and get right into everything we're thinking about and get amped up for the year just as we are 2023. It was an amazing year. We don't want to just skip ahead and start talking about 2024 right off the hop. Let's just go back and reflect on so much of what happened last year. It really was a transformational year, especially at the cabin. This past year was the year the cabin was no longer a construction zone and it truly became a home somewhere where we actually could recharge our batteries and not look at a million and one projects. And yes, I know the beams aren't finished everyone, but that is much more relaxing than figuring out how I'm going to get power, water, or heat. I get honestly emotional even just saying that I allowed the cabin and home in the same sentence. It has such a nice place in our hearts. And I know it has a nice place in all of your hearts as well because we're constantly getting that comment that you've really transformed a hunt camp to a home now girls. Home. Home on the range. I want to hit you with the numbers and the facts because once we actually realized and reflected, which felt really good because it hit me. I had no idea. We've posted 43 videos on the van lives main channel and 12 videos on the pack chat podcast channel. We'll talk about the pack chat soon. Don't worry. So just a reminder, there are 52 weeks in a year and we posted 55 weeks of content. That's a lot. It's more than a video week. And I'm so happy we did it. I love it. I feel like we were able to really show all of you who we are with the pack chat because we're sitting down talking for an hour and in our videos more than ever before as well, showing the real ups and the real downs and bringing you along for so many different pieces of our life this past year and connecting with you on a whole new level. Yeah. From just having coffee together to Bella and Izzy going to surgery from building huge projects this year and just hanging out. You know, I really feel like we are able to show the entire spectrum of what our little alternative life looks like. We also dropped the pack merch, which is so exciting and even more exciting because all of you are getting it right now and we love receiving the photos and the videos of you all wearing it and hearing that you are super impressed with the quality and the design. So thank you all for supporting us from the bottom of our hearts. Thank you. We have bullet points right now everyone. So we don't miss anything because we really want you to be in on the convo. You know, I think it's just going to make more sense if you're in on it. Yes, it's a good way to start the year. So much of what 2023 was and all of what 2024 will be is because of everything we experienced in the last few years at the cabin. When we first got to the cabin, the first year or two, we honestly really had blinders and we were so focused on getting to the point where we could be comfortable and have things like electricity and water. Yeah. So it's like just the point perspective, blinders. All I saw was cabin built, built, built, built, built, built, built, built, built, built, built, not a science guy. Which was so good and so important. A huge thank you to the sponsor of this week's video, BetterHelp. This year a lot like last year, we are focusing on communication as individuals and in our relationship and we are working on balance. So much of that goal is possible because of therapy. Therapy has truly changed my life. It has made me a better person, more patient and less reactionary. Reactive. Reactive. You don't match with your therapist right away at the beginning and that's what's so great about BetterHelp is you can constantly change your therapist until you find the fit because there's nothing better than feeling safe in a therapy session. You can do video, you can just do a phone call, whatever you're comfortable with and also messaging your therapist works as well. It's that simple. So there's three ways. Whatever is comfortable for you? I personally like video. I did start out as a phone call though. I think it's easier. It's obviously very intimidating going into your first therapy session, but it's 100% worth it. I think that's the hardest part. If you're scared to start therapy, we were also scared. I feel like each and every year therapy becomes more a topic of conversation and becomes more relevant in everyone's lives and BetterHelp is offering 10% to our viewers. You can click the link in the description or head to betterhelp.com forward slash van wise for 10% off your first month of therapy. But last year finally achieving... Wait, wait, wait. You're skipping ahead. We've been there for three years. Year two. Okay, Blunder. So I'm a very visual person. Yes. Year one, year two. We opened up a bit and we were able to see beyond the cabin just a little bit and that was very nice. And probably very healthy for our own relationship and just overall, yeah, way better for your mental health when you just aren't so fixated on one thing, you know? Balance. We started to reintroduce balance into our life and then this third year, 2023, we opened up and we were able to see... We were flying away. I just spit. We were able to see the world again. We had such balance. I feel like we spent time with our friends and family. We were able to produce better videos. We were able to get more creative and we were able to do bigger and better projects because we could see more clearly. Yeah, it's wild. What modern-day amenities will give you, even though they're off-grid modern-day amenities, they still gave us just a little bit more comfort so we could do other things, you know? It gave us a little bit of security, a little bit of stability and peace of mind. And I can't begin to explain how thankful we are for all of the knowledge and all of the help all of you have given us. We've learned so much from you. We've said this before, but everything that you comment really helped us get to where we are today. We've learned an immense amount of skills from you all. So thank you. 2023 is the year of home. Finding home. A place to recharge. How many times have we said home in this video so far? Home. Home on the range. Little update on how we're doing as individuals. How are all you doing as well? How are you doing? Let us know in the comments. Let us know, yes. How are you today? How is your year? What are you looking forward to in 2024? I know like New Year's can be like a little, you know, people make goals and stuff. It's a lot of pressure sometimes. Yeah. Or like New Year's resolutions. I don't do that. I just kind of make like an intention of like how I want to be as a human being on this earth, you know? Yeah. And like what we want to do. We're not very, I don't have a resolution. We're not very goal people. Goal. Goal oriented. Goal. Yeah. I think it's just like to do your best every day and do who you are and do what makes you happy. And just being honest. So we're going to be honest with how we're doing. Vulnerability. Yeah. So how is this year for you, Crystal? This past year I had the most balance I've had in my life in a long time. And I think that's something that we both actively tried to work towards each day. I don't think we always achieved it. And that's a good reminder for all of you. You go like this in life. But overall, when I look back, I feel like we did this. Yeah. And I think that's important. I think if you fix it on every single day or just week by week, you'll never really see the bigger picture. But by looking at it over a year, I think that's when you really like you see something and it all kind of makes sense more instead of just focusing on day by day. I think when we are working, working, working, working, working at the cabin, I didn't even think about the end goal sometimes because I was so in the moment of like just go, go, go, go, go. And now it's like you look and you're like, wow, we have a beautiful place to rest our heads at night and a place to wake up and make coffee and that's special place to host people, which is unreal. And I love it. I feel like also our relationship is thriving. I feel like we're doing better than we ever have because of that balance, because of that communication, because of therapy, because of all the things that we've been working towards. And yeah, I just am so proud. I know you're hot, but you're getting a hug. No, it's fine. I'm sweating, but I love you. I love you too. Yeah. And it's not to say it's always perfect. You know, we have ups and downs. Absolutely not. We're on year seven now everyone. And I feel like year seven is just a lucky number. You know, I don't know. I feel like year seven, you really, you really get to know a person by then. I'm sure if you've been married for 40 years, you're going to laugh at me. But you know what I'm saying? You know, I would also say we're very, very happy and grateful for our job, for our YouTube channel. We love this space. We love sharing. I know a lot of people have been really concerned where, where we took off to for a few weeks. You watched the end of the video though, everyone, our last video, we said, we'll see you in the new year. Sometime in the new year. And the reason we didn't give a date is because we honestly didn't know a date. We've been on a lot of adventures the past few weeks where when we haven't been online and everyone's been like, where are you? We have no service. Are you coming back? Did you abandon the channel? Never. We will always talk to you and be open with you. And that's part of the reason why we had to make this video. We are not abandoning the channel. We're not disappearing. We're not abandoning the cabin. We're not abandoning anything. We will always come back and we signed and sealed y'all. We always take a break if you're new around here at this time of year in between the holidays at the beginning of January for a few weeks, not only to recalibrate, to reflect, but to plan all of the most amazing, exciting things for the year ahead. But most importantly, also to spend time with friends and family because we live 18 hours away from them. And what we've learned more than ever is rest equals creativity. And we've really had a great few weeks to plan. And although everything's very loose and we're not big planners, it is very important to have some sort of idea of what we want to be doing this year. And I cannot wait to talk to you all about that. But thank you for being patient with us and we're happy to be back. I have to like actually I think I might have to read this because I get crazy. There was a lot that happened in 2023. We broke this into categories basically of what happened this year. We basically finished the interior of the cabin. The walls have been all shiplapped. We learned how to drywall, micro cement. We now have a kitchen. We have a living room. We stayed our first ever winter at the cabin, experienced a polar vortex. A big thing that we are really proud of is that we tried new things. That meaning we went hot tent camping and truck camping, as well as all the new things that we learned with building. We met up with ambition strikes. And although we didn't try roofing for the first time, we did it again. And we flew to Idaho and learned how to live the Idaho mountain life, off grid, off grid Idaho mountain life, which I really enjoyed. And I have to say I want to put them under the tried new things because they honestly, with talking with them, opened up a horizon of different things to do. It just was super nice to connect. Yeah. It was a very inspiring experience. And I hope that this year can bring, you know, new people into our lives. It was a great time. Yeah. I love to- Wappy baby Oliver. My favorite baby. Story of family and friends. We opened up the most in a Q&A and I'll link it right here if you want to know all of our dirty little secrets. Good for you for talking about that. I might cry now. And in our podcast, we got electricity. We also feel like a lot of the big jobs that we finish were because all of our beloved Clementine. Oh my darling. Oh my darling Clementine. Without Clem, I don't think half the things would have got done due to the fact of Clementine speeding up everything from just moving materials to I just love Clementine. That's all I gotta say. Now let's go speed round here. Huge, these are the huge projects everyone. Ready? Go. Window installation, siding, the spa, the outdoor shower, drainage for the whole yard. We landscaped, started the greenhouse and the garden. We found three ways to heat. We built a woodshed and we gave the garage a makeover. And that's how everything came together. 20, 24. That's the title of this part. You're the voice person. What's to come? What is to come? Nailed it. All right. Well, first of all, we're going to tell you everything that we wish for this year. First of all, health, happiness, all those beautiful things for everyone. I think that's number one priority. The number one thing, of course. Because without it, we're not here. Yes. But we do have big plans for the year. We are so excited to tell you a little bit of what we have going on. I don't want to give it all away. First of all, take everything we say the grain of salt. We're sitting here on this beach. We weren't planning to be here. This was not planned. And here we are. Our slogan for this year is what, Crystal? What? You said it and you don't want to show. That's why I can't say it. Expect it, expect it. Oh yeah. Expect the unexpected. And once you said that to me, I said, Crystal, did you watch Big Brother? Because that is their slogan. So we're not taking it. Don't want us to feel like I'm ripping it off. But honestly, I've never watched it. She's never watched it. That's the best way to describe this year is we just want you all to expect the unexpected. And we might be at the cabin, we might be at the bandit cabin, or we might be somewhere in the world. We are starting something new, a huge project. Hint, hint, wink, wink, nudge, nudge. We are excited to do a little bit of everything. We plan to spend a lot of time at the cabin. We plan to spend a lot of time in new places with new people, challenging ourselves to do new things. And we want to prepare you for that. So you know that if we're not at the cabin, it doesn't mean we've sold it. It doesn't mean we're not coming back. We will always be at the cabin. We love the cabin. We built it with our own two hands, as you know. And we just love alternative living. We want to get back to our roots too. You know, long before cabin life, we were living in a van. Long before van life, we were living in a car. Honda. And a long before car life, we were living in a tent. So I think we just want to... We are more than just the cabin girls or the van life girls. We are a spectrum of things, just like all of you are. And we really want to just dive into those passion projects. No matter what we do in life, no matter where we go, we are bringing you with us. And we want you to know that. And that is so special. And I cannot wait to show you what we've been out to. And I think it's even more exciting for all of you because you're not even going to know what's going to happen. Every week you're going to be like, wow, what are the girls doing now? Yes. I think that's quite fun. And I think... I like surprise boxes as a kid. Begs. I like surprise bags too. We want to get started at the abandoned cabin, whether that's building a new cabin for it or something up in a tree or... On a lake. So we have these ideas that are spring in our heads. That's the type of stuff you're going to experience. And a little bit of this. And a little bit of that. And a little bit of that. And a little bit of this cabin. And it's just going to be exciting. Let's get into the weekly schedule, everyone. We have been weekly since we started YouTube, which was... Four years ago. Four years we've been posting weekly content. Yes. Hello, everyone. I'm Crystal. I'm Jazz. We are The Van Wives. And it's been the best experience. And I still want to do it. And we're still going to do weekly. However... Some months you may see us for weeks. Sometimes you may see us for three weeks. And that is because simply and what we discovered last year is our projects are getting bigger. And sometimes building an entire woodshed, trying to film it and do all of the background work and produce that in one week. And just drinking water. We can have water in the week. It can be a lot for one week. So sometimes when we have larger projects... Like building a complete woodshed. We would probably try to do that in two weeks. And we may be able to do it better. And we may be able to do things. I don't know. That woodshed's perf. Yeah. But I'm just saying like... Other projects. Yeah. We may be able to get more creative. And we may be able to do even better things or more exciting things. Or just have a little bit more time for rest. Who knows. But our goal is to work at a more realistic pace. If we have a big project. Give ourselves time to do it. So that way we actually can experience that. Like if we want to do something really cool down at the lake. I want to be able to fully capture it and make it feel like you're there with us. And not be scrambling just to like finish it just because the Sunday is coming up. And we're telling you all of this so you don't worry where we're at. Just know we will always show up Sunday for you all. Of course. You know what I mean? Our philosophy on... I don't know if that's a thing. But our philosophy on our channel is that we like quality over quantity. I think that's one of the most important things. I want to be proud of what I'm putting out. And I can say I was actually very proud of all the videos. Mine is the siding videos. I feel like that was just a... I'm just kidding. You didn't laugh at that. So I'm not putting that in. No I was laughing. Okay guys. It was funny. Mine is the siding videos you know. Like that was just a... I was a headache. And that's what I reflect on. I would have actually done the siding and made a video about it. Like two to three videos. Not six. It did take us so long to get through. It was harder. And part of the stress of like the blue skin like behind the scenes now. Part of the stress of the blue skin like wasn't sticking is because we were like Sundays coming up. We've literally put on one piece of blue skin. I can't just put up this video. All I know is that after that experience we really did reflect and said to ourselves like we were kind of rushing to get it out and we could have just taken our time. And I think that's important. Yeah. So that's all I have to say. That's what we've learned about balance. And what Krista was saying how our videos are different now is we're no longer just shooting our van life morning routine in Mexico. And our videos now take five days to film and do the actual project which is construction. It's hard on our bodies. Like that doesn't account for picking up the material doing the research before of how to build it. We like to build things proper. When it came to like our morning routine in Mexico we were chopping up a pie jumping in the ocean and going for a walk maybe seeing a waterfall now. No not a waterfall. That's that's even stretching it. Whatever. That's a day in the life. But like nowadays we will always include those things. We still want to show our morning you know show what we're doing in between projects. But the reality is now is there is a bigger workload than there ever has been before. And we want to keep it that way because we enjoy that. It's not just it's cutting papaya or making coffee but also building a word chat. But also building a word chat. Right it's double. Yeah. Yeah I just think 40 like however many videos we posted in this year just on the main channel I really think shows like how dedicated we are. And another thing that I've been thinking about and I've talked to other YouTubers about is sometimes when YouTubers go down in videos it's because tragedy has happened. And I just don't want the reason that I have to like how do I say this. We don't want the reason that we slow down or that we stop making videos is because we get to the point of burnout or we get to the point where it becomes hard or we don't want to produce as many videos. We're resenting things. That's simply not the case right now and we are one so grateful for that. But two we do really just want to we are really focusing on balance. And we are doing that now before it's too late or before it does get to a point where it's too hard. You're like why did I why did I do all of this and like not you know like not do this or not take care of yourself or not spend time with your Grammy or not do this or this or this. Life is very short it is very precious and we don't want to forget that. And I feel like this year I had one goal and that was to reconnect with my friends and my family and I've spent more time. No it's good I'm gonna cry too. It's like that's why I think this year is like one of the best years of my life is because I was able to see my friends my family 10 times more. Yeah and that is such an amazing feeling and I am so so grateful I was able to reconnect with so many. These are happy tears by the way. My friends and my family so I want to continue on that path because it's so important. Yeah I just think it would it just brought me so much happiness seeing so many people so many times. My grandma was out here for the first time at the not here at the cabin for the first time and I honestly think that weekend like made my life so yeah. Anyways happy tears. Always see your loved ones it's the most important thing in life. Oh what is this helping with this word? It's um help me. It's like what do you why you take like your vitamin stuff it's a preventative. I try to be preventative so other things don't happen. Prevent burnout. Prevent obviously you can't prevent everything in life like life could have a completely different ball they're gonna throw us this this year but I think with rest and I think with balance you're able to react to these things that ball and catch that ball you know and with the back so anyway she's fired up. Yeah so thank you all so much for being a part of the pack and showing up every Sunday. Without you yeah it just wouldn't be possible. It still blows my mind that we have all of you you know like I just yeah wow Sundays are like absolute favorite and cabin life would not be the same without all of you. No not at all life wouldn't be the same without all of you. No so thank you for being in it. Thank you. We really appreciate all of you I hope you're as excited as I was as a nine-year-old kid going into the convenience store and getting a surprise bag. Expect the unexpected. Boom love y'all. Hit it Bella love you all bye back ciao. Our podcast we almost forgot entirely to address the fact that we posted 12 episodes and it was a place for us to open up and share with you on a whole new level which we loved everyone's wondering where did it go is it coming back one day absolutely. We really enjoyed doing the last 12 episodes I feel like it was such a gift to open up and be so vulnerable and let you know certain things about us that we just don't share on our YouTube channel. One episode was taking many many hours each week. Probably over 10 hours just like the behind the scenes it's not just like you sit there record and it gets offloaded it is like a 10 hour a week I would say for one episode yeah we're saying that not because we're complaining because it was honestly such an amazing thing and I still wanted podcast one day I just think it will look a little bit differently it's that it was taking away from our main channel and our building and also which is our main focus yeah van wise will always be our main focus I think like you just have to nurture your first baby which is van wives forever and that's what allows us to have a podcast is this channel so and when we have the time and the passion to start it back up we will and you will know if you're subscribed to the channel and you hit the bell you'll know we'll also announce it on our main channel or leave it in the pin comment always check the pin comment and it'll come back one day just not right now and YouTube is something I want to do until I'm 90 if you all want to still watch me and I just think that YouTube is a marathon not a sprint and the more we fill our cups up just like anyone the more time you fill up your cups the longer you can do something and that's my overall goal yeah also it can look different maybe it won't be weekly maybe it'll be a different schedule there's yeah there's a way to figure it out or there's a way to make it that's less structured we can find yeah formula that works for us it was fun yeah it was a lot of fun and it just is going to look different no matter where it is I don't want to give too much away we have some ideas on how it's going to look and I'm really excited to share that but just know the pack chat channel will not be going anywhere anyways we're over now we're constantly brainstorming and thinking on how to do it