40 in our 40s Bucket List

My 40th birthday was approaching and for the first time, I found myself dreading a milestone birthday. I’m not sure why exactly. Perhaps it was because our 30s had been an amazing decade of individual and collective growth and I wasn’t ready to let go of that decade. Perhaps it was because I clearly remember my mother’s 40th birthday and I could not find anything in common with her life at 40 and my life at 40. Whatever the reason, I was struggling!

A friend and colleague suggested that, instead of looking back at the previous decade, or comparing myself to some sort of imagined ideal of a woman in her 40s, Steve and I create a bucket list of things we want to accomplish in our 40s. We had a lot of fun coming up with ideas; some adventures we wanted to take together as well as some things we wanted to accomplish.

We didn’t foresee a global pandemic making the first two years of our 40s so complicated and setting us behind on our pace of checking off at least 4 items on this list every year! We may have started out slower than we intended, but we still feel great about checking off these items before 2030! Below is our bucket list and dates of accomplishing each item. We shared almost every item on the list. I mean, a couple gets to have a few secrets from the internet, right?

We will update this post with pictures as we check off more items from the list. We hope our list inspires you to create a bucket list of your own! What would you put on yours?

1. Spend three weeks in Italy 4/9/23-5/7/23

2. Fly in a seaplane 2/5/23

3. Hot Tub boats on Lake Union: 10/9/21

4. Eat at Willows Inn on Lummi Island in the summer: 6/19/21

5. Drive the Pacific Coast Highway: 7/18- 7/27/20

6. Drink a bottle of Dom Perignon: 7/30/22

7. Complete a half marathon

8. Eat at a James Beard Best Chef NW winner the same year they win

9. Ride a tandem bicycle

10. Take an Alaska Cruise (visited Juneau 6/22-6/26/23...close enough!)

11. Attend a concert at Red Rocks Amphitheater 9/9 & 9/10/22

12. Take a fancy cooking class together 12/11/21

13. Make a Great British Baking Show recipe together

14. Take a hot air balloon ride: 8/19/21

15. Bottle our own alcoholic beverage

16. Donate our time to a charity that inspires us

17. Go snowshoeing

18. Go to Disneyland or Disneyworld 1/4-1/7/23

19. Blow our our glass sculpture

20. Ride a zipline

21. Foster a dog

22. Attend a symphony concert with Brett Mitchell conducting

23. Do a Polar Plunge

24. Take an overnight backpacking trip

25. Attend a Roller Derby event

26. Create a time capsule

27. Visit another European country besides Italy

28. Ride jet ski/wave runners together

29. Do a Tarot Reading: 10/16/21

30. Fly 1st class 6/22/23 and 6/26/23

31. Visit all National Parks west of the Continental Divide (current status 21/26 parks visited)

    1. Crater Lake: July 19-20, 2016

    2. Lassen Volcanic: July 18, 2016

    3. Mount Rainier: too many times to count!

    4. North Cascades: August 16, 2015

    5. Olympic: August 27, 2016

    6. Redwood: July 20, 2020

    7. Grand Teton: July 1-2, 2016

    8. Rocky Mountain September 7, 2022

    9. Waterton-Glacier: June 23-26, 2016

    10. Yellowstone: June 27-July 1, 2016

    11. Channel Islands: July 25, 2020

    12. Death Valley

    13. Joshua Tree: July 29, 2020

    14. Pinnacles: July 30, 2020

    15. Sequoia & Kings Canyon: July 13-14, 2016

    16. Yosemite: July 15-17, 2016

    17. Arches: July 4-5, 2016

    18. Bryce Canyon: July 6-7, 2016

    19. Canyonlands: July 3, 2016

    20. Capitol Reef: July 6, 2016

    21. Grand Canyon: July 5, 2013

    22. Great Basin

    23. Mesa Verde

    24. Petrified Forest

    25. Saguaro

    26. Zion: July 8-10, 2016

32. Go to a horse race

33. Finish a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle together: 3/1/20

34. Recreate our first date watching the Perseid Meteor shower

35. See a Giant Panda

36. Eat Vegan for a month

37. Do a couples boudoir photo shoot together

38. We only kept 3 items…

39. On this list…

40. To ourselves… ;)

Clockwise from top left: hot tub boats, fancy cooking class, ride a hot air balloon, drive the PCH, dinner at Willows Inn, 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle