Our Epic Vacation: Day 2 (part 2) As a reminder, we spent the (very hot) morning touring the Ingalls Homestead in DeSmet, South Dakota, where my two younger daughters both got to try their hand at driving a covered wagon. Then we were on the road again. I like to take pictures of my feet…
Our Epic Vacation: Day 2 (part 1) After spending the night camping in a thunderstorm, the first 3 or 4 hours of Day 2 were spent at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Homestead. Now, if you’re a Laura aficionado, you know that her family moved around a lot, but Pa finally settled down in South Dakota,…
Our Epic Vacation: Day 1 The day started bright and early. We had packed the car the night before (and believe me, packing for 26 days that include camping, cruising, and staying with family is no easy task), dropped off the puppy at a friend’s house (you’ve never seen sadder girls), and were ready to…
5,000 miles, 26 days, 13 states and a million memories later…we are home. We took an EPIC vacation for the last 26 days. That is nearly a month, people. We camped, we cruised, we swam, we ate, we national parked, we historical sited, and we drove and drove and drove. Most importantly, we spent a…
An overview of what a visit to American Girl Place in Chicago might include My girls are obsessed with American Girl. Totally obsessed. Before our trip to Chicago, they combed the catalogs, trying to decide what they would buy when we arrived at The American Girl Place, where all of their dreams would come true. On…
The Art Institute of Chicago. My favorite painting of all time (on which one of my favorite Broadway musicals is based). My beautiful little family. Fun with photography. Who could ask for anything more?
We just arrived home last night from spending a week in Chicago. We’re completely exhausted, but only because we had a ton of fun and did as much as we could possibly cram in for the week. I took hundreds of photos and we made millions of memories. Hopefully, I’ll get a chance to go through all…
After we got back on the ship from Belize (where the baboon pooped in my hair), my brother rented out the FlowRider on board for just us to use. It was amazing, even though I wasn’t about to try my hand (or feet, or any other part of my body) at surfing. I had a great…
How a baboon pooped on my head and other adventures Our second port was Belize. We took the tender boats into shore this time. The kids thought it was a blast to ride on the smaller boat, and it was quite the ride, too. I think it took us 15 or 20 minutes to get to…
Dolphins. And Swimming. Just Not Together. After we returned with our oldest daughter from visiting the Mayan ruins, we ate lunch on the ship. We then picked up the other two kids from the kids’ club and headed back on shore. The Costa Maya port was pretty boring right off the pier, but since that’s…
Our first port was Costa Maya, Mexico. We decided to leave the two younger children at the Royal Caribbean kids’ club and take our oldest to see the Mayan ruins of Chacchoben. My parents also chose to do the same excursion, so we all went together. The first thing we saw when the ship docked…
After getting down to the Port of Miami on Sunday morning and standing in several lines for what seemed like hours, we finally met up with my whole family in the last line. That was cool. Then we got onto the second largest cruise ship on the water: The Liberty of the Seas. First we…