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day 6 and 7: estes park, trail ridge road.
On our last full day in Estes Park, the kids and I wanted nothing more than to laze around and enjoy the YMCA camp, so we sent David on another hike in Rocky Mt. National Park alone, and we had an Uno tournament, then explored the walking paths and threw rocks in the creek. Our family stayed for 4 nights in the cabin, but if you wanted to do your whole vacation here, I’d say it’s well worth the long drive (from Columbia, at least). You could easily stay 7 nights and not get bored, and we saved money by staying in a two-bedroom. There are lots of activities for…
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day 5: estes park.
One of the best surprises of our trip is that the church gave us gifts before we left: a fun U.S.A. travel journal, and this pack of envelopes. There’s a card and gift from a person or family for every single day we’re gone. We’re overwhelmed and humbled by this creative gift of love from our church family. We gather around in the morning to open our “card for the day,” and I cry at each one. Thank you more than words can express for your words of encouragement, generosity in giving us money and gift cards for special treats along the way, and for celebrating this trip with us.…
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day 4: estes park, rocky mt. national park.
Although David and I have talked for years about one day making a big trip west, our dream crystallized when we learned that every fourth grader in the U.S. gets a national park pass for the year, enabling them and their family to get into all the national parks for free. This seemed like motivation enough for us. I told David that Noah needed to be five before we could make a trip like this, and lo and behold, his fifth year of life has coincided with Amelie’s fourth grade year of school. Our swim team friends were all real-deal travelers — I mean, regularly making huge road trips with…
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day 3: driving.
We’re only driving this route west one time, and there are things I want to remember. The lush emerald green of Missouri, the highway lined with Black-eyed Susans. Wide-open land around the University of Kansas, the Fort Riley airfield with its rows of dark, stern Chinook helicopters. Great big swaths of cornfields of Kansas and the wind, always the wind. In Kansas I keep company with a few of my friends: Dorothy of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Henry of 100 Cupboards, Laura and Mary, just as I kept company with Hannah, Nathan, Jayber, and all my other Port William friends driving through Kentucky. I want to remember…
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days 1 and 2: driving west, laura ingalls wilder home.
Hello from the open road! I’m writing from the rolling prairie farmlands of Kansas, with the highway stretching straight in front of us as far as the eye can see under an enormous pale sky. We’re in wind turbine country, with the tall white towers rising all around us, and when I stepped outside the van at a rest area just now, the wind whipped my face and hair. What would it be like to live in this wide, flat, windy land all of the time? After a whirlwind weekend packing and cleaning and making last minute trips to Publix, we hit the road at 7:15 Monday morning. We had…
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cpc retreat 2018.
Retreat Scripture passage: Every time you cross my mind, I break out in exclamations of thanks to God. Each exclamation is a trigger to prayer. I find myself praying for you with a glad heart. I am so pleased that you have continued on in this with us, believing and proclaiming God’s Message, from the day you heard it right to the present.…
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august.
Hi there! So, I’ve had a bookshelf post in the works for a couple of weeks now, but the truth is, between school and trip prep, my brain is mush. I love writing Bookshelf posts, but there’s a good change this one will never, ever be finished. So how about this: Can I tell you about our month in photos, and then pretty please, just give you a list of books I read at the end? It feels like a cop-out. But it’s better than nothing, right? Despite the craziness of starting school and planning a long road trip, and just normal life with a family of six, August has…
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the first four weeks.
Hi friends! The new school year is off to a great start. We added in Classical Conversations this week, and everyone was happy. It’s good to be back. We feel so welcomed at our new campus. Judah and I were a bit shell-shocked after our first afternoon of Essentials (Grammar, Writing, Math games), but after two days of doing the work at home, we feel a little better, and we’re even learning the lingo. He was excited to show his dad his first ever Key Word Outline. If you’re looking for school tips, I feel like I owe our smooth start to: 1. Working hard to get…
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road trip prep.
August has been the month of starting school and the month of getting ready for our road trip to the Grand Canyon. David and I have been dreaming of this trip on and off for years. Awhile back, I told him “Our youngest kid needs to be five before we can do it.” How did it get here so fast? Noah is five and a half and can hold his own with family hikes, the church approved David taking his first ever 3-week vacation, and so this is The Year. By the time we leave, our kids will be 11, 9, 7, and 5. Great ages for a big adventure.…
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side ventures (an ode to my husband).
David and a friend from church own several rental properties, which have been an interesting side venture over the last few years. David loves being a pastor but is also very interested in business and investing, so this is a good way for him to experiment and learn some skills. As they started buying properties, we all read the book Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, which we highly recommend. I was so moved by the stories in the book, by the battle many people in our country wage daily for stable, safe places to live. I’m the kind of person who reads a book like that, feels…
