15:33
I seem to mess THIS UP EVERY YEAR. HAPPY NEW YEAR. WOW. [screaming] HAPPY NEW YEAR. There was like smoke. Yeah, my ears are kind of ringing. We're not in a hotel room this year, so you can do that as MUCH AS YOU WANT. I think this is the longest standing tradition on the channel. This is our fifth year starting the year with a life update video. And this is the beginning of our 11th year on YouTube, which is absolutely wild. We're old, but we're still kicking. I love this tradition because it holds us accountable to reflect on the past year and make plans for next year. It's really easy for life to get busy and
that not to ever be a priority, but I'm so glad that we're forced to do this every year. to sit down and look at what we've actually done this year. It blows my mind and I just can't believe we did all of these things. As usual, I have my handy dandy notebook. This one's actually fun. It's from the Zambzi Queen, the boat that we rode in Batswana. So, we've been taking a bunch of notes, and these are the categories for this year. We'll start with stats from last year, then we'll do superlatives, life update. We'll give you a little peek behind the scenes of other things that happened in our life this year that didn't make the YouTube videos. And finally, we will finish with our plans for next year, which
are on giant calendar right behind our bed. Travel stats. We flew on 22 different airlines. We took 46 different flights, not counting layovers. And this year, we flew a total of 113,000 mi. But you want to know what's crazy about that stat? What? Last year we flew 200,000 mi. So this year we flew almost half of what we flew last year. But to give that some context, 113 mi is 4 and 1/2 times around the world. So, we still flew a lot. In 2025, we visited 16 countries. We did 21 last year and we went to two new countries this year, which brings our total country to 112 countries. It still blows me away that we went to 100 countries in 4 years and then we've only been to 12 new ones since then.
Any more travel stats? Yes. Oh, the only the biggest and the best one. This is your thing. My favorite stat that I've been keeping on my phone for years now is how many beds we sleep in. So each time that we pack our bags, move to a new spot, that's a new bed. And the bed count's getting like slowly smaller each year, but I'm still pretty surprised at this year's bed count. So if you remember last year, our bed count was 2.9 nights per bed, almost three. And Nate said, "Our goal next year is to be above three." So, in 2025, we slept in 113 beds, which equals 3.2 nights per bed. Woo! Wow, we're so rested. When you travel as much as we do, like moving from place to place gets really exhausting. And that's why getting that number to be above three felt like a
good goal. And it helps me feel better when I'm tired and don't want to leave my house. But I will say last year I set the goal to sleep in less beds and I don't feel like I need to do that moving forward. I think we finally found balance even though 3.2 is a really small number. Ready to move on to video stats? Yes. I really enjoy looking back at this because at some point all the videos start blending together and then some videos will like perform really well at the beginning but then when I look back over the year I'm actually really surprised at which videos did best did worst. So, the goal that we set at the beginning of last year was to post a video every other week, which is 26
videos, which is exactly how many videos we published. Play us. Our average length of video this year, continued to creep up. Gosh, 46 minutes and 35 seconds. Are you serious? We are filming fullon TV episode length videos. Yeah, the Taylor Swift documentary was about 45 minutes per episode. We don't have an excuse, but if I had to make one, because we're only posting every other week, it allows our trips to be that much bigger and longer. Like, we used to film for like 1 to 3 days max and that would be like one full video. And now we feel like we have all this time and we're doing these massive
seven or more days into one video, which we've never done before. We chisel it down so much, but they're still getting longer. Our longest video of the year was Marathon Desab in Morocco at 1 hour 32 minutes and 44 seconds. But you want to know what's wild? We had a second video that was only shorter by 24 seconds. No, it was another running video. Moab 240 was 1 hour 32 minutes and 18 seconds. The running videos have turned into fullon documentaries. I don't know how they couldn't be. There's no way we could have made that any shorter. Trust me, we tried. But you want to know what's crazy? My brother pointed this out. The Moab video is 92 minutes. It took 98 hours for me to run Moab.
Wo. We have cut that down so much. You were seeing 1 minute per hour that I'm running. That's an awesome way to look at it. We were talking after we posted the video and he was like, "It's actually crazy how much doesn't make it into the video." Like the stories that aren't told. Shout out to our editors. Y'all are the best and we're sorry and we love you so much. Please don't leave me. More running things planned. Our most viewed video of the year was the overwater villa in Saudi Arabia with 6.5 million views. Like it wasn't even
close. Honestly, I'm not surprised. But that could have really gone either way. Not a lot of people travel to Saudi Arabia and it was this place that no one's ever heard of. So that could have meant that like nobody cares. But it must have gone the opposite way. It was extremely unexpected and I don't think it was like one of our best videos of the year. It just shows you how important an interesting thumbnail is. Like the thumbnail for that video is amazing and hard not to click on. Second most viewed video, this was also a massive surprise was hiking in the Grand Canyon. If you would have told me that a hiking video would have made it into our top
three, Havsu Falls has been on our bucket list for a long time. It was a fun weekend trip that we wanted to take and then it turned into one of our best performing videos. Like this sounds really cheesy, but like it felt like a date, you know, like it was just the two of us. We saw like two people. It was just like so romantic and sweet. We swam in that gorgeous waterfall. Our third most watched video and the only one on this list that didn't surprise me was Robos Rail through South Africa. Okay.
It's so fun when there's an experience that is actually top tier. Like one of the best things we've ever done and the views match that. That like never happens. It's so hard to pick a favorite train trip. But 100%. Pairing a safari with a train. Like the train actually went through a national park. I was going to say a savannah. I couldn't think of the word. It was. We saw animals from the train and we got to stop and go on a proper safari off the train. But it was like you didn't have to drive anywhere. Like you got off the train and
you were immediately on a jeep. Oh, and before we move on, I should point out that this is the first time in 4 years that Earth Rober has not been our most watched video. For the past 3 years, it has been our most watched video by a lot. Least viewed videos. My tattoo video was our least viewed video of the year with 588,000 views. I feel like tattoos are polarizing. It doesn't surprise me that people chose not to watch it. But reliving all of those stories, I guess, was just fun for me cuz we did it. Maybe for other people it wasn't as fun. The video turned out more fun than I thought it was going to. I loved the video. And the fact that you gave me a tattoo was crazy because that was not the plan going into the day.
I gave Nate a tattoo. No, that would be a lot of effort. I have to take my pants off and then the video will get demonetized and it'll be a whole thing. Uh number two was your epilepsy update video at 737,000 views. Okay. Yeah. And then last I was going to say but not least, but it is the my heli skiing video got 772,000 views. That was a bummer. I understand why people wouldn't watch a skiing video that I make. Like you're not Yeah, you either like want to watch Shawn. Why you want to watch like a Red Bull video? Like I'm not a good enough skier to make it that interesting, but I
do think the video could have been way better had we had better weather and better snow. That's it for the stats we normally do. I will say for a second year in a row, I feel like the channel is ending in a slump. And I didn't realize that last year ended in a slump until I watched back our old life update video. So either we get lazy at the end of the year and our videos aren't as good or it's just a winter thing. like people are doing things for the holidays and busier like end of year is just always busy for people. But it does feel like our videos have gone like this the end of the year.
This used to would used to No, in the past this would have really bothered me. But I feel like now that we've been on YouTube for 10 years, I've learned that it kind of goes like this. Like it is a roller coaster. There's seasons where videos are doing well. There's seasons where videos aren't doing as well. used to. I was like, "And in the past." Does anyone else say used to? Obviously, that has a place. Like, I used to do this. That's what I just said. No, you just said used to.
Oh, car told me that's something my family says that nobody else says. You could say it used to bother me. It's like a contraction. Used to. And the only other thing that I'd like to point out is that all of my running videos got over a million views. Thank you for watching because it's genuinely the part of life that I'm enjoying most right now. You ready for the most fun part of the video? If you've never intermission, same thing. I just I'm excited. I want to not have a pee during this part. A1 has been supporting our health and our channel since 2020, which is crazy. So, thank you A1 as always for sponsoring our first video of the year.
Now, lots of people make health related New Year's resolutions, as did I. But it can be hard to maintain. Um, for example, for lunch today on the slopes, I had a pretzel bigger than my face and French fries. And not that AG1 erases those poor decisions, but it does make me feel so much better when I start my day with AG1. I know my body got so many beautiful nutrients that it needs to keep functioning as best it can. AG1 supports your immune system, your gut health, and your energy levels because of all of the nutrients that it has like vitamins and minerals, superfoods, pre and probiotics. It's like a multivitamin on steroids.
It takes like 2 minutes of your day. We love it. Everyone we share it with loves it, and I know you'll love it, too. And I have really, really good news because right now, AG1 has a very limited time offer. So, don't miss this. Your first subscription comes with this duffel bag, which I've really been loving, and the entire welcome kit for free. So, just to clarify, when you buy a 30-day supply of AG1, you will get the jar, the scoop, the shaker, the vitamin D drops, and all three flavors to try in these travel packs. So, start your 2026 by treating yourself to the easiest healthy habit. Just click the link below or scan the QR code here on the screen. Thanks for watching. If you've never watched one of
our life updates before, the way this works is we have eight different categories. So, we're going to give out some superlatives to our videos. But what makes this fun is that we both know the categories, but we haven't talked about it before. So, we're learning each other's feelings about the year right now. I'm nervous. Nate usually has a rule that we can only have one answer per superlative, and like usual, I have two for a lot of them. Most fun video to film this year. Okay, this was so hard. I found it very easy. Really? Yes. Oh, the other rule is that you can't use any video twice. Three, two, one. Bana.
Really? Moab could have fit in like every category for me. But when I think about just purely fun, Batswana River Cruise. It's interesting. That video is not one of the videos that got the most views this year, but like talking to friends, family, and just like people we meet, everybody brought up that video. It was epic. It exceeded my expectations so far. A lot of kind of like the fancier experiences that we do. I'm always thinking like, how do we make this a good story? And for that video, all I had to do was just pick up the camera and point it at whatever was happening. Like there was almost zero effort in making that video.
Yeah, the wildlife was obviously the highlight. Like mindblowing experiences, but even just the boat itself and the crew. I mean, we just had the best time. So, have I convinced you? No, I still say Moab. The reason I loved Moab is because it was like a week long. Obviously, you running 240 mi is super fun and awesome. Nate's entire family, including our two nieces and nephews, were there. It was just such an amazing like family experience. I was so happy we all got to do it together. We're all working as a team to like make sure you stayed alive and we just got to hang out for so much of it cuz we could only see you in certain places. So, we were just
together a lot and for all of your siblings to get to pace you like it was just no doubt that was super fun. It just goes into a different category for you. That's right. Least fun video of the year to film. So, to Morocco that was my best one. We have gotten in trouble for expanding on these answers, specifically this one at times in the past. So, I think that's all I'll say. It was hard and not very fun as you can see. I think like we did it because we thought we could make the world record, which how often do you have the opportunity to do that? And I think it was just pretty clear pretty early on
that wasn't going to happen. Okay. Anyway, the video on our channel that's called 10 days of chaotic travel. The part for me that wasn't fun was I lost my bag on the way to Morocco and I was flying by myself. Nate was already there. I stayed home for my dad's retirement party and then I was going to meet him in Morocco for his MDS race. It turned into a whole dramatic saga and I won't relive the whole thing, but it obviously wasn't fun. Short story was Cara forgot to put her epilepsy medicine in her carry-on bag. Her checked bag got lost so she wasn't going to have her epilepsy medicine, which means that she could have seizures. So, it was all really scary
that video. Can I make a new category right now? Least fun comments to read of the year. The comment section was brutal. Torch me. So, here's what happened. Nate was getting ready for NBS, but he had to go early to do another race and so I could qualify for something else this year. Yeah. Nate's last minute on everything and so am I. So, a lot of the stuff he needed for this Mora race didn't come in before he had to leave, which meant I had to bring it all. I am so happy to do that. Like, we're a team. If you only knew the stuff that Nate does for me off camera, it was fine. People were attacking Nate for this. And then when I had this huge dramatic emotional travel day, people were still blaming Nate for
that somehow. It was really hurting Nate. And it was sad. I don't think it hurt me. You were hurt. I was surprised. I did not see that being the takeaway from the video, but I won't say I was hurt because we were good. Nice. Thanks. Most underrated video of the year in we got one that I'm bothered by this is sitting on the channel at 959,000 views. It's not terrible. It's almost a million but it should have been for a long time. It was one of the coolest things we've ever done as far as like remote authentic travel goes. And I think I'm a little um have some attitude. I feel
like we get a lot of comments that are like, "I miss when you did like real travel and like met local." We were sleeping. That's how the negative comments sound to us. Village in the middle of nowhere, Peru. No one speaks English. And we're building a bridge out of grass that goes across this like 600 ft canyon. It was the best and the craziest thing. We were like cooking potatoes in the ground and eating them with the dirt still. We ate 900y old potatoes or something crazy like that. No, that's not true. I mean, it was just one thing after the next, like, where are we? What is I was getting like blessings from shaman.
I was buying beer for the workers. Cara was joining a dance crew. I think to me, what was really cool about it was we were the first people to ever make like a fullon documentary about that experience. We had found this thing because a lot of videos that we make like other people have made, but this was like unique to YouTube. That's enough. I have to think. If you haven't seen it, go watch the Peru bridge building video. Scariest video film. Oh, I got one. Three, two, one. That's a good answer. I had forgotten about that cuz it was such a small part of the video. Why don't you go?
Oh my gosh. We dangled over Victoria Falls. I can't even remember the stats. It's like a million feet high. People are going to go, "Y'all are so stupid for doing this. Why would you sign yourself up to do this?" So, let me try to defend myself by showing our friends Tim and Ben's video. This is what we thought the experience was going to be. 100 people do this every single day. You go sit on the edge like, "Yeah, it's a little scary, but it's the right balance of like scary and safe." We were there at the very end of the season. I would have thought that the tour operator would have shut it down well before they took people when the water was as high as it was. You know, I think it was just one of those things where
they were like, "We can squeeze a little bit more money out of this and operate this for a few more days as long as we just hold on to people's feet so they don't go over the waterfall." It all happened so quickly. Like obviously looking back that was a terrible decision, but it just one thing after the next and then we just found ourselves like next in line and they're holding on to our leg. If they would have let go, we would have gone over and died. Like that was one of the stupidest things we've ever done. I mean, I'm glad we did it. It looks epic and we survived. But I would not recommend it unless it's like in the cal season.
Hely skiing was like my dream trip. Unfortunately, the snow wasn't great when we went. We were there in the season. It was too warm. Avalanches were being triggered and the last day of heli skiing, the day before, somebody in our group had gotten caught in a small avalanche. Thankfully, it was fine. But that same day, three people had died in another avalanche on another mountain not too far away from us. Our guides knew some of the guys had died. So, there was already this like weird feeling over the day. The helicopter ride already feels sketch and then we get on the mountain and that feels sketch. It was wild and scary. And I would love to redeem that experience.
Uh, I think we added most pinched me moment just so we could talk about being inside of Christ the Redeemer a few years ago, but I've got one this year. You do? I have two. I have two as well. You do? Yeah. One, two, three. HEY, specifically the moment where the mom and the cubs are walking straight at us. M. We've been out there for days waiting on an experience like this. Y'all, we're lying in the grass with wild brown bears surrounding us. You could throw a rock and hit them. The whole thing was the craziest thing ever. But this moment,
the mom just basically brought her cubs within 10 ft of us. Like brought them up to like meet us. I hear them breathing. I mean, I like I'm getting all It was so magical. It was like very clear day one versus day four how much more comfortable the mom got bringing the babies towards us. It's crazy. Can I give my honorable mention? In Bosana on the cruise, Nate and Charlie got up at sunrise to go fishing and had this insane elephant family encounter while I was still on the boat and they came back and told me and I'm like literally crying cuz I missed it. It was like my dream and I missed it.
Is going to absolutely kill us. And then later that day, we got on the boat and then I got to see the family of elephants, but it was even better. And there were babies drinking out of the water and they were all just right there. We were just watching the family of like 20 pinch me. James feeding me caviar on the global air flight. Like that was just So James is an entrepreneur from the UK who started an airline, Global Airlines. I'm not sure what's going on with it right now. The plane is not flying. We were flying in first class on an A380, but we were there with the founder of the airline, who's like a super fun guy, and it felt like we were flying on a friend's private jet, but it's an airplane.
That's just like one of those moments that you could probably never recreate. Hardest. We laughed. It's still hilarious. In case you missed that video, we were in Namibia with Charlie and we booked this like one luxury night to roll the bed out onto the porch, which we did. And we came back after dinner. There were literally thousands of bugs on the street. Not exaggerating. In the sheets, in the pillowcase, up my shirt. But the best part is Charlie's had a different bed in like the next house. So, we're like having our own laughs and then we look up at Charlie. We could just see him like with the sheep being like, "Oh gosh, Charlie's doing the same thing." That whole trip, we just laughed. Like never ending
video that we're most proud of. This was probably the hardest one for me because I'm really proud of all of our videos. Obviously, we work very hard on all of them. Three, two, one. Um, so I use Moab for most fun, so I had to choose UTV. I'm proud of the physical effort that went in to finish those, but also like we are producing hour-long documentaries of those experiences. Yeah. And I'm proud of them. Like I think they actually turn out really fun to watch. They're really cool and we love watching people's documentaries of these things. So to get to do it ourselves feels like such a privilege and such a cool thing.
But also it was just so hardcore. Before UTMB, the only other 100 mile race they had done was level 100 like a year prior. you know, like I didn't question his ability to do it again, but it was just kind of like this is totally different. Like it just felt like maybe we got lucky at Leadville. UTB was twice the vertical elevation. Nate's parents and his brother and sister-in-law came and we just had the best time. But also that is without a doubt the lowest moment I have ever seen Nate have. Like that could have gone into scary film. I was shook. The first night there was like super unexpected cold wind rain in the mountains at like over 10,000 ft.
I'm not going to say that I was for sure hypothermic, but I was dangerously close if I wasn't. Um, but I had a little moment. Okay. Yeah. Go, go, go. I think I have a lot of ownership over this one. My proudest. Really? I was joking. I did not think that's what you were going to say. It's true. First of all, I love my granny and I love that I got to spend a week with her, but like Nate usually like we always make videos together.
It's very rare that we're apart. So, for me to be down there making my own video was like really scary and like in the villages which is a retirement community and like I didn't know how granny was going to do on camera and I also didn't want to like you know make anyone uncomfortable with the camera. But I loved how it turned out. Like we told the story of the villages I think in a really fun way. like we had the best time, but also like I learned so much about Cranny during that time and we had the best conversations and I just was really proud of how the video turned out.
Good job. I love you, Granny. Best culinary experience. 11 Madison Park. After we rode the subway, we went to our first ever three Michelin star restaurant. The food and the wine were just as amazing as you would expect. But what happened after? It didn't make the YouTube channel, but we did publish uh Instagram reel about it. Welcome to 11 Madison Station. Tickets are required for entry. A few nights ago, we ate at our first three Michelin star restaurant, and the food was amazing, of course, but what happened next is the experience that we will never forget. Quick backstory. Just 24 hours earlier, we had attempted to
set the Guinness World Record for visiting every subway station in New York City. We didn't tell the restaurant, but apparently they had been stalking our Instagram. After dessert, they let us into the kitchen and handed us metro cards. Then they took us down a hallway where our server was suddenly wearing a full MTA conductor uniform, hat, badge, the whole works. He collected our tickets and told us he was taking us to a secret subway station. We walked through the door and instead of a train platform, it's the restaurant's wine seller. But they had transformed it. They had subway sounds playing overhead. And to top it all off, the Somalier was holding on to a rope,
swaying back and forth, pretending to ride the subway. It sounds like we're in They've added this sound effect. And at the very back of the cell, they handed us the official drink of the subway, a beer in a brown paper bag. And there we were sipping cheap beer surrounded by millions of dollars of wine in the back of a three-star Michelin restaurant. The meal was amazing, but this over-the-top personalized experience is why we're going to be talking about this night for the rest of our lives. Unreasonable hospitality. Okay, my bonus category is hardest video to film. I think it's MDS without a doubt. That's so funny cuz my bonus category was most uncomfortable video to film and it was MDS.
We lived in a sandstorm for seven days with no shower. I had sand in my teeth. It was in my clothes. It was in my sleeping bag. I will say that made it that much harder is trying to protect our cameras. I will say there is a casualty. You do the funeral music. Let me just Is there funeral music? I don't know. Here comes the casket. I really, really hate to share this news, but my bag eventually made it to me in the middle of the Sahara, which was a miracle. But little did she know, that's the last trip it would ever take. I think the sand just really got in here. It was banged around in the back of a truck every day. This got completely stuck. Like I couldn't open my bag and had to use a screwdriver to just completely break it off.
We had to break it open cuz all my stuff's in here. So I have to officially retire my aluminum bag with all of this character and memories. I've never been so proud. In fairness, Away did offer to send us a new bag. Away has a lifetime warranty. They will replace, but they won't just fix the clasp. They just send you a new one. but I have to give this to them to get the replacement. And I said no. Um, in the meantime, if anyone has any ideas to how to like meaningfully recycle a suitcase, like I was thinking about making it like a coffee table or a wall mount. Okay, funeral's over. Thank you for that time.
Okay, so this category, life update. Really just three big things that are going on in our life that we've talked about a little bit that we just want to give you quick updates on. Three categories. kids house epilepsy. Let's start with the terrible one epilepsy. So, I started the new meds shortly before our last update. So, I switched meds after like a year of being on the same one. Wasn't working. Started a new one. Been increasing the dose slowly. Unfortunately, it's not 100% resolved yet. Much better than it's ever been. So, I think it's just a matter of like continuing to slowly increase until it's all covered. Um, and I feel really good about it.
It feels like we're finally making progress. Yeah, I have an appointment in a couple weeks and that's probably when I'll increase again and then I have a really good feeling that like that's it. And they're like way fewer and further between than they ever have been. Yes. And much just like smaller and less um Yeah. Scary. This is the first ever life update video that we haven't filmed in a hotel cuz we have a house. This is our bed. a house. For those of you who missed last year's video, we said we were buying a house in Colorado and then we did.
We've done that. And we don't plan on making this like a big part of our content. It honestly felt weird to even like film this video here because it's just nice with so much of our life being public to have like a little bit of a private space. It feels weird not sharing this with you. It does. I have the urge all the time, but there are enough people that watch these videos that all it takes is like one weird person. Yeah. Thank you for letting us have this little private space of our life. Yeah. All right. I feel like this is probably the reason that a bunch of people clicked on this video.
Kids, where are the kids is? So, in last year's video, we said towards the end of the year, we will start trying to have a kid. Quick summary. for years. We were like, "Yeah, we'll probably have them, but like maybe not." And just kind of went like this for a really long time. And we've just been like doing this YouTube travel thing and just didn't really have time to think about it. Beginning of last year, we stopped to think about it and we're like, I think we should do it. And that was the first time we had ever both been on the same page about that. And then we kind of December felt like a nice time to shoot
for like one last year of just like hardcore travel. Yeah. It was kind of like an arbitrary date and like really far away. I think at the beginning of last year, we were like 80% sure that we wanted kids. The shest we were, but not 100. Plus, we thought for sure by December my meds will be under control. And that's still not the case. So, the closer December got, the more we were like, e, did we really say December? Like, we were both still a little scared. Plus, it was like, we can't like I actually can't until under control. But then uh Cara is not no like the biggest reason that we haven't started trying yet is because we want to
make sure all of Cara's epilepsy stuff is under control. And it feels like we're really close. And so at this point it's just kind of like as soon as that's like dialed in, which I mean she has a doctor's appointment next week, could be then. It feels really weird. Like we've never been this serious about it. Even though we said we were last year, like this feels really different. And the fun part is we came to this conclusion separately and then came to each other with this feeling and we were both like to me the first time in my life that I wouldn't feel like I was forcing it. Not to say it's not terrifying and not to say that it's still there.
You know, you can't just decide yes or no like that. So, who knows? But, um, I would say there's a good chance by Wow, this feels weird. Um, next year's life update video, you could be pregnant or we could have a child. That's insane. Which, now that I'm saying that, this calendar is making less and less sense. We'll just cross that bridge when we need to. I mean, we are kind of old. This could take years. We could not have kids or be pregnant at all. There are so many avenues for this conversation, but just know that's where we're at and we'll keep you posted.
We've got another category called behind the scenes, which is things that happen in our life that didn't make the YouTube channel this year. We bought the house and it was so fun getting to spend winter in Colorado. So, we got to host my family and we got to take my nieces and nephews skiing and that's like super cool to me because we're from Tennessee and like I didn't grow up skiing. So, I think it's cool that they get to. We got our van very stuck. Yes. Oh gosh, I already forgot about that. Um, got to ski some epic powder days and hosted a group of good YouTuber friends here at the house, which was really fun. That was awesome.
We did not have the like relaxing downtime that we thought we were going to because we like constantly had friends and family here at the house, which was great. And then we quickly went back to Nashville for a couple days for my grandfather's 90th birthday. And this is the only picture that I took. Sorry, pop. Me and my sister got to plan and execute my dad's retirement party back in Nashville. So, it was really cool to get the chance to go back and do that. Might have been one of the best nights of my life. Retired looks good on you. Then, probably one of the coolest things we did off camera was after NDS.
Yeah, it's on my list. When you were recovering, we went to the coast of Morocco with Rick and Beck and Amy and Frankie, some of our best friends, and surfed at these epic like small towns on the beach. I didn't even know that existed. It was like Bali meets Africa. It was awesome. And like people were renting surfboards right next to people renting camels. Like it was such a weird whatever this is. Let's see. We went to Panama City Beach with my family for my niece's birthday.
Probably the highlight of my year. like involved in this and off camera kind of. Not really. For some reason, I knew that was going to happen. You know, I love you. We had so many good times this year. However, asked me to officiate their wedding, which was the shock of my life, but then it was just the best. Me and my brother went out to Salt Lake City and ran an event called 29029 Trail. It's actually created by the same guy that makes the calendar that we use every year, which is pretty cool. But it's three marathons and three days in the mountains.
And they won. Well, it's not a race, but they won. But the last day we did come in first. We took the Daily Drop team on a raft trip this year in California, which 2 years ago we went to a billionaire's private island. This year we went rafting through California, but everyone acted like they had a really good time. Your family came out to Colorado for a week. And then last but not least, I guess this was technically 2026. Cara, Sarah, Dusty, Rick, Beck, and Charlie all signed up for an ultra race at literally 12:00 a.m. It opens on New Year's Day at 12:01. Uh, so yeah, we have that to look forward to. Sneak peek into 2026 plans.
Last category. I don't know how long this has been for you, but it's been a very long time for us. We're going to wrap it up. Plans for next year. Woo. So, a few years ago, we were posting every other week. We did that for a long time. Then we cut back to three videos a month. Then last year we cut back to a video every other week. So this year several years we posted every single day. This year if we continue the trend, we're moving to videos pretty much every other week. It's a month. I was like making a joke.
I ruined your joke. We actually feel like we found the perfect balance this year. So we are going to continue making videos every other week. So 26 new videos next It's been a really awesome year. Like the amount of times we got to come home and recharge or just not go from one thing to the next has been like perfect. Um I would like to make it known that until like what 2 days ago, we had no idea what 2026 was going to hold. No, I would say we had the calendar was empty. I would say we had like 50 different ideas and we had trouble narrowing it down.
Right. also known as we had zero plans. [clears throat] Also, more importantly, when we bought this house, this photo was already here. We did not pick this out to go above our bed. Is this going to I'm sorry, I jumped on my spit. Gross. Before we talk about the calendar, I just want to give a little context. We did spend quite a bit of time talking about like less about exact experiences that we wanted to have and more about kind of like a theme for the year, what we enjoyed doing most, what we wanted to do more of. And then we built the calendar based off of kind of like three main pillars.
Yeah, there's a theme every single year where we say this is what we have planned, but there's a chance we do all of it or none of it or a mix of some of it. You know, don't hold us accountable. In 2026, we want to do more stuff with friends, bigger adventures instead of just like different things every two weeks and more physical challenges. And now, ALL RIGHT, THE 2026 calendar. Woo! Plans for 2026. We are revealing them all. Let's go. The problem is I can't see it now. Move your knee back just there.
Do you want to hold it from the back and then I'll try to go in front? Yeah, you do that. All right. This is going to be my face way close to the camera for way too long. We are the most ahead we've ever been on videos. So, we did a massive China and Japan trip the last two months of this year. And right now, we have videos all the way through March. They're so fun. Okay, so here is what you have to look forward to the first few months of the year. First thing we did was a camping trip on the Great Wall of China. Didn't know you could do that. It was incredible.
We on the Great Wall. Next, we visited the only way I can think to categorize these places like unbelievable like places that I saw on the internet when I was researching for the trip that didn't look real. Yeah. So, we visited unbelievable places in China and they look unbelievable until you're standing there in person and they're real. Remember the VFRA that we did in Austria a few years ago? Yep. Thanks. Uh, China built one way bigger and way scarier. I don't think I can get up from this position. And Charlie, who's afraid of heights, was nice enough to join us for that. So, that just made the whole experience hilarious.
Yes. The craziest wild thing I could ever do and I'm never doing it again. I'm thankful to Nate, but I'm also completely covered in sweat and I quiver. Then we did a video that's like pretty random and I wouldn't say like really fits our channel. Like it should have been MKBHD, but he wasn't in China and we were. So, we did a video that focused on interesting tech in China because it was nuts. We got a tea delivered by a drum and that's not like a special thing. Like that's something anybody can do in China. Absolutely wild. And then we filmed two videos in Japan. We waited in a lottery for 2 years to be able to ride
one of the most luxurious trains in the world and the best in Japan. So, that was incredible. And then we did kind of an old school video. We' never been to Osaka or Kyoto before and we just kind of like took you around and tried to find some interesting stuff there. The Fire Ramen. Watch the video just for that experience. Yeah, that was Do I still have eyebrows? So, now with that context, let's uh let's get back to the calendar. Our goal is to be at the house or with friends and family all January, February, and March, which is going to be amazing. The big overarching theme for my races this year is going to be trying to run a 100 mile race on all seven continents.
You just dropped that out of nowhere. So I've already done the US, Europe, and Africa. So that means I have four continents left and this is the plan for doing it. The Patagonia 100 in April, Dead Cow Goalie in May, which is my first ever last man standing race. It's where the record was set last year for the most miles ever run in one of these races. I don't know what last man standing means. It's going to be completely different from anything else I've ever done. So that'll knock off Australia. And then I just learned that this was the thing like 2 days ago, but it's the GOI 400.
So it's 400 km through the Gobi Desert. So it'll technically be the longest race I've ever run. And unlike MDS, it's not a stage race. So you just go all the way through. This is Havalina 100. My first race. Carrie is running 31 km. Rick and Dust are signed up for 100 miles. Sarah and Charlie are signed up for 100k. And I am crewing, which is going to be a really fun change of roles. And then last but not least, I'll be traveling down to Antarctica in November to run the one and only ultramarathon that they have there every year. The furthest anyone has ever run on the continent of Antarctica in 24 hours is 100 miles. My goal is to do more than that. I want to set the
Guinness World Record for the most miles ever run in Antarctica in 24 hours. Well, this is news to me. It's not a thing a lot of people are doing, so I feel like maybe I can pull it off. I love that for you. So, that's all the running challenges. Yellow is Carara's Beach and Sunshine Time. So, we've got the Komodo Islands and Hawaii, which somehow we've never been to before. Circle. I missed the big one. We just casually put Swim the English Channel. Oh gosh. I don't I'm not signed up. This is like a The idea is like a tag team event. It was Charlie's idea. So me, Cara, Charlie, Dusty, and Sarah. I
think it's like 21 miles, so we could all swim four miles and tag team swim across the English Channel. It scares me more than anything, so it makes me want to do it. Last but not least, the purple monster, the purple blocks. This is a 6W week chunk of our entire year and it's something we've talked about doing for so long and that is the Mongol Rally. Oh man, if you remember the monkey run that we did in Peru where we got on those tiny motorcycles and drove across the country and they specifically gave us bikes that were like supposed to break down so it would be really hard and we almost died multiple times.
You almost died. It's the same company that organizes that race except you get a crazy car. I think it can't be over like $1,000 or something. And you drive that car all the way from the Czech Republic to Kyrgyzstan. So in six weeks. So I think we'd end up hitting about 18 countries. And should we tell them the big like the dream? Why don't we I don't think we need this anymore. A I liked having a drone. I kind of want to keep the like dream a secret. So it's like the shock factor. Okay. This is not set in stone, but I think we have everybody talked into it. like it's going to be a big crew and we
have an idea for a vehicle that we don't know if it's legal for the race but would be quite something. Yeah, this is one of those like I already know it's going to be type two fun. Like it sounds really fun right now when we're sitting in our bedroom. We're like, "Yeah, what an adventure." But Monkey Run is top three hardest things we've ever done and scariest. And last year we said no more series because series don't perform well. This year we decided we don't care how they perform. This is probably five or six videos this year. do any series this year, but I think it's going to be epic and worth it. And I love these big year defining things. And if we're going to have kids, then that would mean we couldn't do the Mongol Rally for like 10 more years. And
then if you're thinking like, "Oh, I don't like these like physical challenges. That looks like a lot of running." It is a lot of running, but there's a bunch of blank spots on this calendar. And we will fill that in with more travel stuff for sure. It feels surreal still that we just like buy this funky calendar and put a bunch of post-it notes on it and Sharpie and plan our year and it's just such a good reminder that we love what we do and can't believe we get to do it. And thank you for watching. 2026 is going to be epic. It's going to be epic. It's one of the most excited I've ever been and it's just one of the most like content I've ever been with the way our life is and like my stress has been down, my sleep
has been up. It's just been such a beautiful year and I'm so thankful we got to have it because not every year has felt this way. I feel like the last couple years has been like how can we slow down and create balance and you could probably tell by the things that we've added to the calendar that we're feeling very energized going into 2026. Yeah, we were um re-watching last year's life update video and I laughed when I saw this because I completely forgotten about it. But at the end of that video, Nate symbolically took off his 1100 bracelet and said, "And it's time to pick a new accomplishment for the year." I had
completely forgotten that I did that. And then sure enough, they gave me a bracelet for Moab that I've been wearing ever since. So, I guess no, it's time to take it off and get a new one. It's just so much more recent. Got to go on some new adventures. Got to add some more tattoos to the leg. It's going to be a fun year. The Asia stuff is going to be amazing. I'm so looking forward to all of my runs. I really hope we get to do the Mongol Rally. Oh, and one more video that's not on the calendar because it's up in the air. We did choose a winner Oh. of our giveaway. So, if you missed it a few weeks ago, we posted a video saying that we are going to take one subscriber
and their plus one on a completely free trip with us and be in a video. If you didn't watch that video, we already took it down. You missed out and you should be signed up for Daily Drop and then you would have known about it. Rachel R, who we have not had the pleasure of meeting yet, will be starring in a Cara Nate video in 2026. I've got another big goal, but I'm going to save it. M here's what I really want your opinion on before we go. How do you feel about the Rally? Is that fun and exciting? Because it's a huge commitment for us next year and like I'm very much on board, but it might be six of our 26 videos. So if you want to watch us do the Mongol Rally, let us know in the comments below. If you don't want to
watch us do the Mongol Rally, let us know in the comments below. 2026, our 11th year. Can you believe it? Thank you for watching this video. Thank you for watching this year. The only reason we get to do this is because you watch. So, this is just one big fact. Thank you for watching our videos and for all your support and all your love. I'm emotional all of a sudden. It's going to be such a good year.
