annnsvan

Sometimes I disappear so I can take a moment to reset. These last couple of days I really needed that. At first, anxiety krept in as well as “I am going to fall behind.”

Life is a balance, and happiness is found somewhere in the middle. Whether you're a content creator, doctor, receptionist, farmer… we all need to put ourselves first sometimes, even over doing what we love or what we hate.

A couple days ago, I found myself on my knees. My friend’s sister died from a brain bleed. She went to the same neurosurgeon I was supposed to see from when I had a brain aneurysm. It affected me in so many ways, I cannot explain.

It sent me into a panic because I have been ignoring making that doctor's appointment, that MRI appointment, that follow up appointment. I’ve been too busy living that I forgot the balance. Forgot to do what doesn’t feel good as well.

A couple days ago, I told my family I needed help. To make that doctor’s appointment, to face my actual fears. My sister and brother in law have flooded me with love, support, and strength… now I feel so lucky. As I write this, I cry happy tears and Charlie is jumping on me to cheer me up which has made it hard to type! HAHA!

I love to create posts that inspire people - if you could see the messages I receive in my DMs, some would just bring you to tears. These messages keep me going and inspire me to continue to create and to continue to share my life… because even if it just helps one person, then I did my job here on the gram.

I get messages telling me how strong I am… but honestly, sometimes I am weak. Then I remind myself that life is a balance. We can’t be strong all the time.

Photo by
Kimono:
My sister:
Location: posting tomorrow

Look back at it 🌵

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ORIJEN Petfoods] has been Charlie's favorite dog food since she was a puppy to adulthood!

Charlie loves the taste of ORIJEN and I love that it gives her nutrition for a full life! New AMAZING GRAINS recipes are packed with 90% quality animal ingredients and a premium blend of grain ingredients like oats, quinoa, and chia. Charlie is always excited for her next meal and it keeps her healthy for all our travels and outdoor activities! Check out the link in my bio to learn more and find ORIJEN near you, or online at Chewy, Petco and Amazon!

Here’s a picture of my van

It’s Friday, so this is where we’ll be. What are y’all up to?

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I’ve been taking some much needed time the last few days to hang with my family and relax. Here’s a picture of me in a cedar hot tub at just outside of Mt. Rainier.

Thank you for coming by and taking this photo of me. People ask me a lot who’s taking my photos. Truth of the matter is that I use tripods, Bluetooth remote on my camera, selfies, and I also hang out with friends and family. I might be doing solo Vanlife but I’m not always just by myself. That would be weird. Lol

There’s also a tripod I’m eyeing that moves the camera for you while following movement in the frame.

If y’all have any other tips and tricks let me know because I’m still learning. Ryan’s taught me a bunch, so go follow his page. 🤎🤎🤎

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Lately, I have been giving Emilie some yummy treats that include patés.

These are made fresh with only 1 or 2 ingredients and without adding any artificial colors, fillers, sweeteners, or preservatives.

Emilie goes crazy over the protein rich paté and its creamy texture, so it makes meal time easier with this kitten diva.

Believe it or not this is my first hydration backpack and I’m pretty stoked. Thank you for sending me a backpack, I put it to good use right away.

I’ve always wanted one for hikes and now y’all can get one too for only $26.25 with discount code SAVE25. It’s just in time for holiday gift shopping for yourself or friends/family. I put the link on my website in my bio.

If you get one, let me know what you think!

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I recently found these photos from when I first bought my van. Before I put any work into it. I was super eager to get in my van and drive out of LA and to get back into nature. It was one of the best and worst trips ever. It’s when I learned that I was scared of my van. That it had issues. That I had issues. I slept in it on it’s bare floor with only a couple of blankets and rusty bare walls.

It’s also when I learned that you have to check weather first before you travel because it was so freaking hot in Alabama Hills, that I thought I was going to die. But I did it any way. I also learned that my phone camera sucked (at the time) and I needed to buy a real camera to take better quality photos.

This was Ann’s Van in its infancy, I didn’t know much about much back then but I sure was learning. This was the beginning of my dream.

Thank you to Jessica for escaping with me and putting up with our trial and error weekend. There were times I thought we would die either from heat stroke or my brakes going out on a mountain incline. I have so many stories and so many learning lessons from my first trip in my van that catapulted me into wanting to learn more.

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The last couple days I stayed at in Packwood, WA close to Mt. Rainier! It’s always awesome getting out of my van and into a cozy home to relax in a cedar hot tub, cook meals with an oven, take a real shower, and then decide on which of the 5 beds I wanted to sleep in. 😆

If you’re ever on an adventure to Mt. Rainier or need a weekend getaway from Seattle or Portland, definitely book at Millard’s.

I also started a destination guide! This cabin will be the first of many I create. You can check out my website in my bio and click destinations and choose which city of country you’d like to see my guides to! As of now, this is the only guide live but I’m working hard to add more!

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We all know that Emilie has major Cattitude. The way I get her to adapt to new outside environments when we are traveling to new locations in my van, is to have on hand her favorite PureBites freeze dried treats.

She's an adventurer but even more so when she has a treat she loves and recognizes, so our new camp spot seems familiar.

These treats are single ingredient and made with human-grade tasty proteins and NO fillers, artificial flavors, or preservatives added. It’s our go-to and a perfect reward for Emilie to feel at home wherever the next adventure takes us!

Today’s the first day I felt like fall is finally here. Actually winter. Time to break out my heater & I can’t decide if I’m stoked about this or not. 🥶

and I need a crossroads trip again 😏

When Charlie & Emilie were babies! I adopted them both at 8 weeks old and they grew up in my van.

🐶 Potty training Charlie in a van was funny because I thought she was potty trained until I took her into a house, and she only knew not to potty in my van lol. Charlie is half lab & half golden.

🐱 Emilie was the easiest. She has a small litter box below my passenger seat and she also goes outside! How I met Emilie: One day, in a random town in Idaho, I walked into a vintage store to buy wooden bowls. I came out with a kitten. The end.

Together, they are best friends. My sweet children that got me through some dark nights. They gave me a reason to wake up in the morning and kept me going when I didn’t think I could. Love my babies sooo much 🤎

One year ago I had to convince to take this photo of us. In life, I tend to be on the prude side, so once in awhile I like to show my butt to remind myself that I’m lucky to carry this freedom of expression.

I love feeding Charlie the best of the best and that means ORIJEN! features WholePrey ingredients, meaning recipes include all the succent parts of the animal including meat or poultry, organs and bone. I also love that the first 5 ingredients are always fresh or raw. This way Charlie’s diet mirrors the diet of what her ancestors ate in the wild! Because Charlie is a wild dog out here living the vanlife! Link in bio to learn more and find ORIJEN near you.

Just a pic of my friend Laura and I when she came to visit me. Hanging out in my front yard next to my bathroom, just another Tuesday.

Who else wants to travel with me? Fill out my survey if you haven’t already! Travel Survey Link in bio ♥️

Good vibes only ✌🏽

Many of y’all ask me where I keep my clothes in my van! I don’t have a lot of storage so I have to be careful about how many clothes are in my closet. I wear a lot of Buffalo David Bitton] clothing because they’re classic, meaning it’ll stay in style for a long time, and it’s made to last.

I wear a lot of their denim pieces but also love wearing their different style dresses, T-shirts, and crop tops.

My “closet” are three woven baskets I store in the space above the cabin and I also have a special drawer I installed that pulls out from under my bed!

I love that I get to partner with a brand like Buffalo David Bitton]. What’s your favorite denim brand?

My mom’s going to like this one. Hi mom 👋

Wow! 100k followers?! I feel so honored any of y’all would even follow me! Thank you so much and thank you for all the kind comments. They don’t go unnoticed and they make my day!

I’m going to make new content soon and focus on how you can build a van for a low budget. Not everyone can afford these expensive vans you see all over “Vanlife.” I’ve been doing it for 2 1/2 years, so I know!

Otherwise, I would love to know below what you would like to see so I can start sharing that with y’all. Thank you again so much from myself, Charlie, and Emilie!!!

Ps no kittens were hurt while taking this photo 😂

How I Shower: this isn’t an ad but I get a lot of questions asking how I shower so I figured I’d just make a post about it.

I have a membership at Planet Fitness and pay $24.99 a month for their Black Card so I can go to all their gyms (there’s so many all over the U.S.) and I get to take a guest for free. I plan my showers around these gyms when I’m traveling.

When I’m out in the wild and staying in the middle of nowhere, I’ll use my shower. I’m pretty obsessed with it. It was $450 and came with an outdoor kitchen sink. It pulls water from a pump with a filter on it so I can literally run the water line to a body of water like a river and it’ll pump water and filter it to my sink or shower. It also came with a hot water heater and someone had given me an extra propane tank they had, so I connect it to propane and I get hot water for my showers and dishes.

You would think that living in a van, it’s hard to shower but I honestly have never found an issue with access to a shower. If all else fails with finding a planet fitness or using my outdoor shower, then I’ll just go pay $10-15 at a Love’s Truck stop! They are safe, secure, and clean.

Hope this helps! Drop me any questions below and I’ll answer them!

sent me on a mission to chase buffalo. After leaving Montana, I made my way to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. Due to the recent floods and mud slides, some of the park was closed, but with a slight detour I was able to stay on my mission and find Buffalo!

This friendly fellow hung out next to my van when I broke down for a solid 2 hours. What a guy! Swipe to see 👉🏽

My home is on wheels so I go where the buffalo roam. put me on a mission to find Buffalo and my first stop was Montana!

St. Ignatius and Bridger, Montana had so much wildlife and buffalo. I was in awe of these majestic creatures once I saw them from the comfort of my van.

Have you seen buffalo in person before? Where is your favorite place to see them?

Last week was insane. I wonder where this van will be taking me this week. 🚌

Who misses photos on Instagram? Charlie does.

Charlie loves the taste of ORIJEN and I love that it gives her nutrition for a full life! 's new AMAZING GRAINS recipes are packed with 90% quality animal ingredients and a premium blend of grain ingredients like oats, quinoa, and chia. Charlie is always excited for her next meal and it keeps her healthy for all our travels and outdoor activities! Check out the link in my bio to learn more and find ORIJEN near you!

Little exploration stop on my journey north.

Traveling in my van, it’s not always easy to find clean water. I’m a huge advocate against using plastic bottles and jugs as less than 10% of plastic around the world is recycled… even when you put them into your blue recycling bins!


Recently I got a water filtration system by that replaces more than 2,200 plastic water bottles per filter and removes 99% of 77 water contaminants in seconds! So now I can get water from sources that isn’t always potable and know that I’m drinking clean water wherever I go.

It’s hard getting both my kids in the same pic sometimes. So here’s Emilie, then Charlie. Don’t know how I’d survive life without them. ♥️

My first year of Vanlife, was hard. I look back at what I was doing a year ago and the struggle was real.

“Instagram vs Reality”

“Vanlife is so hard! It’s nothing like what you see on instagram!”

These negative thoughts were constant on my mind.

As I now embark on over a year and a half in my van with year two on the horizon, I can say that life is sweet. I feel so lucky, so humble, and so grateful for this life.

Life is hard y’all, whether you live in a van or not. It’s your reaction to the hard times that makes the difference.

Here’s some pics of me on a hammock kicking summer off right 🥰🥰🥰 Thank you for following me on my adventures.

has me smelling fresh wherever my van takes me.

These adorable, sustainable products fit my adventurous life perfectly! They’re travel friendly, so easy to use and I feel good knowing I’m making a difference. Bite has a whole line of eco-friendly, cruelty-free products including this adorable deodorant that come with compostable refills! Make the switch with me today ♥️♥️♥️

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