Carlsbad Caverns

Our 2017 road trip begins with Carlsbad Caverns as our first stop! Hubs and I loved exploring here years ago, and we are excited to bring the kids along. We decide to leave in the middle of the night. Nothing screams road trip failure like sleeping for a few hours, then waking all the little kids to make them sleep in unbearable, upright car seats while we drive after no sleep. :) Surprisingly, this is many people's primary mode for kicking off and ending trips. Who knew we were in with what is trending?!?! Our departure is timed well. We pull out of our driveway at 4 am with three very wide awake and excited kids. Thankfully, not even an hour into the drive and all are back sleep. We stop for coffee and a stretch in Clyde at 7am, and again…

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Southwest Road Trip

It's that time of year. Summer vacation and family travels. This past school year was the first year that we did a co-op. My oldest has finished his last year of "preschool". That means.....we are officially on summer vacation! (at least in our family. ;)) Since we hit some bumps in the road last year, this year's National Park journey/see all the states will be a Southwest Road Trip again. We are planning a revisit of some of our spots from last year, plus some places we are super excited to explore for the very first time! Here are the highlights for this year's Southwest Road Trip. This is currently our game plan, and I cannot wait to see how it plays out! As we visit the various parks, I'll come back and blog/journal about the hikes we actually did and what we liked…

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