We’ve grown accustom to a certain percentage of things going wrong in our lives. We could blame it on the kids, but truthfully things going less than perfect is nothing new. We’ve learned to lower our expectations, which may sound depressing, but actually has made it easier to enjoy life. When we planned a weekend getaway to Winter Park, CO we tried to bridle our excitement since we knew getting our hopes up is always a bad idea. As the day approached…
Two years ago we went camping at Maroon Bells. It was an enjoyable experience and we’ve been wanting to go back ever since. Campsites at Maroon Bells itself are pretty hard to come by, especially on weekends, so I had a reminder in my google calendar to make a reservation the second the sites opened up for our chosen days. Months ago that Google reminder popped up and I made a reservation hoping for a nice calm getaway, completely unaware…
It’s been a long dreary winter and now that everyone is feeling better we took an opportunity to get outside. We’ve been itching to get to the beach for a while now. Since there is no ocean of reasonable proximity camping at Great Sand Dunes seemed to be a worthy substitute. After playing an intense game of 3 dimensional Tetris, we got all our camping gear in the car and headed south and away from civilization. Great Sand Dunes Great Sand…
Traveling anywhere can be expensive, but some places are more expensive than others. Alaska is one of those places. Now we aren’t the type of people that enjoy throwing money around, so planning a trip to Alaska proved to be somewhat tricky. However, we were determined to plan a fun trip that didn’t break the bank and would like to share some of our secrets with you. Obviously, not everyone is dying to go to Alaska (I myself would rather…
Those were the words Noel texted his mom after we’d organized and strapped down the chaos that happens when you have four people, one car seat, and four bags that have all stumbled into one tiny airplane aisle. Our kids are pretty experienced travelers (Cooper has flown twelve times in his three years and Ellen has flown five times in her eighteen months), but I still get nervous every time because you never know what’s going to happen with kids,…
Screeeeech! Crash! I was torn from a restful sleep instantly. Whatever that was, it sounded heavy. It wasn’t someone tripping over a lantern on the way to the bathroom. Beep! Honk! Beep! Honk! Beep! Honk! Audrey stirred next to me looking a bit annoyed at the ruckus. We lay frozen in our sleeping bags listening to car horns blaring throughout the campground. After a few moments the car horns stopped and it was eerily silent. Outside the tent I could…
I always like to clean my house before I go out of town. That way everything is nice and inviting when I get back, at least for a few minutes before it turns into a post-vacation disaster area. You know what I mean, a frenzied inventory of the kids’ toys is strewn across the floor (unfortunately they’re always still here), stacks of suitcases block the entryway, and piles of laundry loom in each clothes hamper. That about sums up where…
The wind whipped through the desert hurling dirt blizzard-like across our windshield and lodging a tumbleweed into the front bumper of our car. The road stretched before us, desolate. Noel and I looked at each other wondering aloud whether this was a good idea or not. As we drew nearer, the dunes appeared, surprising all of us with their magnificence. Still, when we stopped at the entrance to Great Sand Dunes National Park to take a picture even the kids…
Last weekend we drove to Utah for a quick trip to see my sister graduate with a Masters of Social Work from the University of Utah. Logistically, the whole thing was a bit of a fiasco, but once it unfolded it was quite fun. We’d found a great deal on a rental car, that according to our calculations would actually cost less to rent and drive than to drive our 18-year-old car. (See what a difference fuel efficiency can make?)…
The only reason we were able to go on a trip without our kids is because we have the only grandkids. If our kids weren’t such a hot commodity, I don’t think we could have convinced my parents to spend their spring break watching them. Fortunately for us, doing what we do every day sounds like fun to them, so they were more than happy to pretend to be us for a few days. Now that they’ve done it, we’ll…