travel
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the itinerary.
Here’s the itinerary for our trip! I have plans to blog while we travel — and Amie has promised to help me — but if you’re wondering about the plan, here you go. Day 1: Drive, stay outside Chicago Days 2-3: Chicago Day 4: Drive to S. Dakota (Amie’s 12th birthday!) Days 5 & 6: Badlands National Park, Mt. Rushmore, Custer State Park Day 7: Black Hills National Forest, drive to Billings, Montana Day 8-11: Yellowstone National Park Day 11-15: Grand Teton National Park Day 16: Drive to Boulder, CO Day: 17-18: Boulder Day 19: Start the drive home!
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road trip prep.
We leave for Gentino Road Trip #2 in three days, and things are busy around here. This past week was for all.the.shopping. Which is my very least favorite part of a road trip. Amie and I drove to Harbison on Thursday morning and made nine stops. We got home at 1:30 and I immediately collapsed on the sofa and slept for an hour. But we got all the pet food (for while we’re gone) and paper goods and first aid and underwear and rain jackets we need to travel. I think! Then yesterday, my friend Joni took me to Costco and I stocked up on food and snacks. …
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anniversary getaway.
David and I celebrated 17 years of marriage back in May, but decided to save a trip for sabbatical. We spent three nights at a lake in Georgia this week, and it was perfect. Well, it ended up perfect. We kicked off the getaway with an argument in the car. Of course! We are still trying to feel out Sunday worship for this season. David wanted us to start our anniversary with a visit to a church in Augusta, and I thought that was a terrible way to begin a romantic anniversary getaway. Not terrible to be worshiping God, but I just crave to step outside the identity of “pastor…
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myrtle beach, 2020.
Thanks to some friends at church, we got a lovely, week-long lake vacation back in May. Typically we take our family vacation in September, so David and I decided to do a shortened version this year. May was only four months ago, but we were exhausted and in need of some rest. Our Classical Village co-op, meets Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so we planned a Myrtle Beach trip from Wednesday afternoon to Monday. From the very beginning this vacation was less-than-ideal. About an hour into the car trip, I realized I forgot the neatly packed bag with my Bible, journal, and books to prep for teaching when we got…
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june 2020.
We kicked off June with a road trip to Florida to meet my family at the beach. But before we left, important decisions needed to be made. My anniversary gift from David was living room bookshelves, which is something I’ve wanted for the seven years we’ve owned our home. But as we took a good long look at the living room, we realized that it could use a new coat of paint. This turned into, more or less, a total living room update. Cue hours spent on Pinterest, trying to find the perfect paint color. I settled on two favorites: Sherwin Williams Anew Gray (left) and Agreeable Gray (right). I…
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may, 2020.
Hi there blog readers, if there are any of you left by now! I don’t blame you if there aren’t, I’ve been a fair-weather friend. Since I have some serious catching up to do, I’ve decided to do it by month. Here goes the end of May: 16-year anniversary Very few restaurants were open for our anniversary on May 22, so David and I decided to celebrate with an at-home date. We shopped together at Whole Foods for ingredients for a fancy dinner: a cheese board, filet mignon with roasted potatoes and salad, and a sampling of dessert from the bakery case. It was delicious, and very relaxing to…
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a week at the lake.
We’re happy to announce that CPC plans to resume in-person worship services at the end of this month. So before work picks back up for David, our friends gave us the gift of six nights at their lake house in Chapin. It truly couldn’t have been a more perfect week, and it’s hard to beat a vacation that’s just 40 minutes away. David drove back to Columbia mid-week to get a few things done, and he could bring back the things we’d forgotten at home! We’ve never taken a lake vacation before, but decided we might like it even more than the beach, simply because we could all come…
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backpacking trip (by david).
I took Judah and Gabe backpacking in the northwest corner of our state this fall. We love the outdoors; the boys tolerate hiking. But none of us are campers. So this was an experiment in a two-day trek. I need these times away with any combination of my family to cut out distractions, make our worlds very small, and spend quantity time together. We pieced together gear we’ve collected over time and borrowed what we didn’t have. Judah and I wore true backpacking packs and Gabe wore a hydration pack. The key to hiking with kids (and adults) is lots of good “food” – breakfast bars, candy bars,…
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kiawah, part 2.
Yesterday we wrapped up a wonderful vacation. It was the perfect amount of time. I always feel panicked the first half of vacation at the thought of going home, but by the last day I know that it’s time, and I’m even looking forward to it. It’s hard to pick a favorite part of this year’s vacation in a new place, but if I had to say one thing, I’d say it was the quiet. In other settings there are always people around us: in the hotel, on the elevators, in national parks. It’s not a bad thing, but our regular lives feel so very full of people that sometimes…
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kiawah island.
Hello there, dear readers! Thanks for being very patient with me and this blog. It’s been nearly impossible to work up a post in recent weeks. Great news: As of last week, our kitchen is officially finished! And the crew is at work on our new back porch. I’ll show you pictures of the kitchen next week, but for now, we’re far away from house projects, at the beach, and it feels very nice. Some friends offered us their family’s condo on Kiawah Island for this year’s vacation, and we were excited because we’ve never been to Kiawah before. It’s just as magical as everyone says it is,…
