Now that we're a good three weeks into the new year, and all of the dust has settled from the other 2022 recaps, I figured it's as good a time as any to post my own.

Since I have to make up for publishing exactly zero blog posts in 2022, this is a pretty long post. TL;DR: 2022 was a great year, and I'm looking forward to 2023.

In 2022, I began to settle into my new role at Leisure Travel Vans as the Marketing Manager. Travel, both for business and personally, started trickling back. Our oldest started kindergarten and our youngest turned two. We had a lot of quality family time, and lamented the departure of some of our closest friends.

First Quarter

Winter felt a little bit more challenging than past years, but we made the most of it and got outside almost daily, regardless of the weather. We typically like to break up our winter with a Hawaiian vacation (this was an ongoing tradition pre-pandemic), but we didn't quite feel ready for travel at that time – Olsen was still 1yo and travel was still in a bit of a state of disarray.

We spent a lot of time trekking through my parents woods, just exploring and enjoying the natural beauty of winter. There's always a few deer or foxes to be seen, and plenty of sunshine (even though it is a bit cold).

Skating on our frozen rivers and creeks is a truly Canadian pastime, and we take advantage to the fullest. Lainey loves to skate, and Olsen was content to just enjoy the ride in the stroller.

Second Quarter

As the spring came, along with it came a lot of hope for the year. The snow starts to melt, and with the flowing water washes away all of the challenges of winter. I was able to take my first work trip in a couple of years, where I visited one of our Travelers Clubs in the Outer Banks, North Carolina.

I had the opportunity to plan a new office for myself in our marketing space, as we planned to grow the team in within the year. I was able to get my hands dirty with some of the design and ideation, and I'm quite pleased with the end result.

I also (reluctantly) became a truck owner, taking delivery of the model I had ordered the previous December. We were planning on taking a long road trip in the summer and needed something more substantial than our XC90 to pull the camper.

Spring felt like it settled in nicely, and we took full advantage of the outdoors whenever we could. Olsen was still waking up very early, so I started taking advantage of that time and took him golfing with a friend and their son.

We took a family trip down to Minneapolis for the May long weekend – our first family trip for the year. It was a great little getaway, and the hotel pool was a hit with the kids. Minneapolis is a fantastic city, I'd liken it to a Portland of the Midwest.

Third Quarter

Settling into the full swing of summer. The kids (meaning me) got Katie a paddleboard for Mother's Day, so we spent a lot of time out on the water with it. I continued my 6am golf dates with Olsen.

We planned and booked a camping trip out to Vancouver for the end of summer, so I began eagerly working on some upgrades to our camper. We have a 2021 Winnebago Micro Minnie 2100BH. Most of the sites we booked were unserviced, so I wanted to do some power upgrades to ensure we had enough capacity to handle our off-grid sites. You can read more about those upgrades in the logbook entry.

I spent some time on my bicycle throughout the summer, but not as much as previous years. I tried to balance that deficit out with some running. Even still, I made the most of my time in the saddle and got a few solid rides in.

Top purchase for 2022 was probably our Arctic Spas Summit hot tub. It really helps makes our backyard into even more of an oasis. We enjoy a soak in it every evening, bring the Kindles and read a few chapters when the kids are in bed.

Summer is also when things get into full swing at Leisure Travel Vans, as we have to take advantage of the limited good weather that we get in southern Manitoba. Our video team headed out on our annual product video shoots, which tend to take us all around Manitoba.

We also launched two all-new products this year, and we made a plan to head to Kelowna to shoot the launch videos.

In August, we headed out on a three-week family camping trip, intending to end up in Squamish, BC. Our plans changed a little bit due to the extreme heat of the Okanagan Valley combined with a lack of serviced campgrounds, but I think the trip was better for it. We ended up spending a bit less time in Kelowna, and then made our way directly to Vancouver Island, to reconnect with the friends that had just moved away. I'll detail the trip in a logbook entry soon.

Highlight of the trip was probably the Triple Ferry Ride, starting in Victoria, BC. It's a 120 kilometre bike ride that takes you on three different ferries, from Vancouver Island to Salt Spring Island, and then back to Vancouver Island. A full day affair and an absolute blast — wine tasting, coffee stops and all.

We returned home just in time for Lainey to start kindergarten, and then I headed off with the team to Hershey, Pennsylvania to launch our brand new Murphy Bed Lounge floorplan.

Third Quarter

Much like the rest of the year, we spent a lot of autumn getting outside and enjoying the changing of the seasons. Fall is short lived here, but we make the most of it.

Since Lainey started school, we went through (what sounds like it's the usual) bouts of sickness for the first few months of the year, and finally all got COVID-19 for the first time. Thankfully it was very mild for the kids, and pretty non-consequential for the (fully vaccinated) adults.

We celebrated both Lainey and Olsen's birthdays in October, and had a rare snow-free Halloween (also Olsen's birthday).

Fourth Quarter

The last part of the year was a bit of a blur, as we settled into new routines with school, and I had the opportunity for a couple more work trips.

We spent a lot of time with family and friends, eating lots of good food and drinking good wine. I made a lot of charcuterie boards, both at home and at work.

After a long hiatus from a lifetime growing up Nordic Skiing, I finally got back on the skis this year. Katie and I both purchased a new set of skis which we've been really happy with. They are the Saloman Escape 6 Skin – I've been really impressed with the skin technology.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed the review, and I hope you have a great 2023. I'm looking forward to breathing new life into my personal site, and I hope you'll join me.

You can also follow me on Twitter/Mastodon and Instagram.

2022: In Statistics

Travel:

• 26,014 kilometres flown on 22 flights
• 6,500+ kilometres driven with the camper, across three provinces
• Stayed at 13 different campsites
• Commuted over 300 kilometres via e-scooter (I have the Apollo Phantom v2)

Activity:

• Cycled 1,201 kilometres
• Ran 91 kilometres
• Walked 2,708,130 steps (about 2,400 kilometres)

Media:

• Read 24 books
• Listened to as little podcasts as possible
• Wrote 0 blog posts (but that changes now)
• Listened to 7,481 songs