On Edge

If you followed our trip last year and read about the time we spent at Grand Canyon, you’re familiar with my fear of edges (precipices, to be exact). I don’t mind heights, it’s just the edge between my high point and the distant low point (the plunging, cavernous chasm below) that causes my heart to race. Unfortunately (as I don’t want to pass my anxieties along to my children either genetically or behaviorally) Julianna seems to have the same fear. So, we were quite the pair in Mesa Verde National Park as we toured the Balcony House, an ancient cliff Continue Reading …

Mountain Moments

As we broke out of the expanse of west Texas, we felt the landscape rise and change, taking it in like a breath of fresh air. We love entering the National Forests of New Mexico. Last year Lincoln National Forest took us by surprise, an oasis between the deserts of Carlsbad and Alamogordo. Cloudcroft stopped us for two days and left us enchanted with giant dandelions, murals painted on dumpsters, and fairy gardens. We found nothing we had planned for and all that our little family could have wished for. We relaxed fully into the moment. This year our path Continue Reading …

Spirit of the West

I wonder at our destinations, and the surprise joys we find, as they unfold along our journeys. If not for choosing Vail as our anchor destination (the place we aim toward to spend a week relaxing), I may not have explored what there is to see in the Texas panhandle. Heading northwest, however, put it right in our path, and one day to the next, we moved from a tribute to America’s pioneering spirit to a tribute to its free spirit. When I saw we’d be passing through Amarillo to northern New Mexico, I reached out to my friend Jeanne, Continue Reading …

Play All Day

Recently, my children have each insisted to me, passionately and frequently, that I do not play with them enough. They’ve actually said, “you NEVER play with me,” which I’m sure isn’t true, but their general protestations aren’t completely unfounded. I do let the busyness of my days carry me away. Faced with an opportunity to wrest some cleanliness and order into our home or sit and play a game, I most often choose cleanliness and order. But I do listen to our precious ones, and I have planned fun and play on this trip!! When we pulled into our first Continue Reading …

Westward Bound

Last year was a transformative experience for our family. After years of living overseas and working internationally, I settled completely into married, family, and local life, contracting my travels from international to national to nil. The same was true for Tim: international travel for work and fun was replaced with the local concerns in our life. By the time Theo was two, we’d mastered the art of the family Staycation and making the most of what our hometown had to offer. Then three of my closest friends moved away at once, and the comfort of home, though still real and Continue Reading …