Year 8 is here!

Summer is here! We'll be heading out in about a month and we are all beyond ready.  Our destinations take us to the diagonal opposite of where we live into Washington State, Oregon, California and many places in between. We will be revisiting the North Rim of the Grand Canyon again as this park is what started it all 8 years ago. And it just so happens it is their 100 year anniversary this year so hopefully we will be able to help celebrate it!

It's a bittersweet time to plan our trip out west this year. This trip will finish visits for the kids to all the 48 contiguous states. Such a feat for a teenager!  With this goal reached I'm not sure if we will continue these monster trips. There are a few places we have all dreamed of returning so who knows.

Each year when we return I am always asked what my favorite part of the trip was and I can never answer. There are so many touching or peaceful moments, stunning views, struggles overcome, and belly laughs that I just can't choose! I will be forever grateful for the opportunity to do this with my family though and so thrilled I wrote our daily posts every year. Some days I'm dreading spending the time editing pictures and writing but I make it happen knowing people at home are making sure we are safe and enjoying the pictures and stories.

The photo above is the point where Dave will be joining us - Crater Lake National Park in Oregon. He has opted out of coming along for the trip again this year as it's frustrating to find signals sometimes and to watch us leave on an awesome hike while he stays behind to work. Grammie will be tagging along this year again for the majority of the trip in her RV. She is staying in the woods during some of our city stops but we'll always be pretty close.

We are ready to trade the 90s weather for 60s, sleeping bags for beds, and the Pacific for the Gulf. If only we could have about 10 more hours in our days. See you on the road!

Summer Trip v6.0

It's already year six. Hard to believe my kids were so little that first year and they're so grown up now!

About 5 months ago I had an epiphany. Why in the world were we leaving Dave every summer when we could just take him with us?! I carefully planned out a proposal similar to what I'd crafted when we made the switch to homeschooling. And in much the same way to that conversation, he said yes before I even finished. So he's going with us for all 45 days! I'll have something to say about this decision in my "Lessons" post I'm sure.

And if that isn't enough, Grammie is retiring this year. And she's purchased an RV. And will be joining us for the entire trip. As well as her lovable chocolate "Lola" dog. As if we didn't already get enough crazy looks with mom and 3 kids traveling the country!

In all honesty though, it's going to be a fantastic trip! I'm usually completely exhausted one week in, now I will have help the entire trip. My kids usually have to race to hold one of my two hands, each child will now have an adult. I'm usually sorely outnumbered being the only adult, but now the scales will be balanced!  A few weeks in I'm usually holding deep conversations with the librarian or grocery store clerks, now I will have adult conversation anytime. It will be an adjustment for sure, but everything is more fun when it's shared!

So on to our plans. I believe it was during our trip last year that Grammie asked me if we were interested in going to see the 2017 solar eclipse. Well, of course we are! So that's where we're headed first.

Then we're heading to this breathtaking place among many others. We'll be leaving quite a bit later than normal this year in just a few months, but I'll be updating here as usual.  Come join us on the road!

On The Road Again!

Another year of school and another 6 months of planning has come to an end.  We are leaving for 48 days in just a few weeks and I wasn't sure this was going to happen just 2 weeks ago.  Our lives were turned upside down in a just a few hours when Dave had a small stroke.

In hindsight there are so many things I would have done differently, but suffice it to say we are so tremendously thankful he is recovering so very well and progressing by leaps and bounds.  The doctors have said with his age he should recover fully, but I think it also has a lot to do with his stubbornness and desire to be the amazing dad he is to his kids.  I guess I'm pretty stubborn too because I wouldn't even discuss this trip until the last few days because there was no way I was going to leave him.

Until the list.  I listed about 40 things he would have to be able to independently and easily do without frustration before I would even consider going.  And as of right now he only has about 2 things left.  So we're going.

This year will be a little bit different as we will be focusing on a theme for our trip: American History.  We have just wrapped up our history studies for this year focusing on the 1500-1850s time frame and have enjoyed every single page we read and activity we did, so now we want to see many of the actual places we have learned about.  Fortunately, there are so many battlefields, museums, and historic places all along the east coast that we will be able to hit many of them in these weeks.  As with every trip though, it will be impossible to fit in everything we would like to see.

Our major stops this year will be Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C.  While we haven't really studied D.C yet, it's impossible for me to just drive past a city with so much history in it! We will be studying modern times this coming year 1850-present, so I will just call it a preview. While many of the photos on the blog this year will be us roaming the cities, rest assured we will still be camping in the woods.  Except for Philly, I have found parks that are close enough to each city so we can use public transportation to make our way in.  I definitely don't want to be caught trying to navigate Times Square at 5pm on a Friday again!!

We are so lucky to have Grammie with us again this year enjoying the first three cities with us! She is always our biggest cheerleader and a very welcome traveler along with us.  Dave was all set to spend 17 days with us on the road this year until his health issues and resulting use of all of his paid time off to recover.  We have managed to figure out a way for him to spend about 8 or 9 days with us, so I'll take it!!

This is our fifth year traveling with the kids around the country.  Many people ask me how long I'm going to keep doing this.  I'm not sure if they think it's a fun, adventurous idea or simple a crazy one. My answer stays the same.  I'll do it as long as they want to come with me.

See you on the road!

Looking Back to Look Forward

As each journey gets closer I like to read through the last post from the year before to get back in the frame of mind of a calm, thankful, grounded person just home from an amazing trip.  It also refreshes my memory of all the quirky, annoying, and wonderful things that happened along the way.  But mostly it just makes me itching to pack up and go!

I also choose an image as the mascot photo for our trip and this is it!  Last year we so loved Lake Erie and Ontario the kids and I decided to embark on a Tour O' the Lakes!  I really felt like we missed out on the experience of camping in Canada as well so we'll be heading to seven provincial parks in Ontario.  The photo above is from the halfway point in our trip at beautiful Bruce Peninsula Provincial Park.  Any time you can combine beautiful water and hiking for me, I'm sold!

We will also have countless other stops at museums, parks, and strange places along the way. We're leaving considerably earlier this year so we can attend a family reunion I just learned about last year. I'm also hoping to meet up with several friends along the way and of course Grammie will be traveling along side us for 2 weeks too!

We'll be leaving in a month, but the preparations are starting much much sooner.  With this being our fourth summer trip, I feel like I'm getting closer to perfecting the preparation and packing process.  I was a girl scout and still live by the "Be Prepared" motto, but I do err on the overpacking side. We're changing it up this year in hopes to downsize all the containers, boxes and bags.  We are lucky that Dave will be traveling with us this year for 11 days so we'll have to actually have some leg room for him!

If anyone wants to ride along with us, please pack up and come along! See you on the road!

Here we go again!!

  

We are getting closer to our 3rd summer trip and this time it will be totally different....again.  Our main destinations are Niagra Falls and Maine with about a thousand stops in between and after. This week begins the first of our preparations with lists upon lists and my brain working overtime trying to remember all there is to get done and prepare.

I am hoping this trip is a little less soggy than the last two, but I will take soggy over sweltering humidity with no water in sight any day!  The kids are a little older and are taking charge of some of this trip along with me. They are having fun negotiating through all the options with each other as well as mom!

This trip will be quite long at about 37 days and still we will be zooming through cities at a record pace.  Dave will be joining us again for the beginning and end and Grammie will be spending a whole lot of days with us right in the middle!  Driving along with Grammie in her car always seem to make the kids feel so special and is something they talk about long after we are home.

The kids are I are extremely excited about heading out again - the weekly/daily/hourly question of "How many more days until the summer trip?" have started.  We are so very thankful to be able to take these journeys and we hope you enjoy riding along with us.

Please take a minute to comment every once in a while - the kids absolutely LOVE to read what you have to say!