Would you shut up already?

Well, I knew it had been awhile since I blogged but February??

My word. I've been a busy lady, I guess. 

I could review all that busyness, but this is not the time nor the place.

I'm talking about our family trip to Scotland.

It has become clear to me over the past couple years that when it comes to travel, I get a wild hair (from where, I don't know) and just run with it. 

I had never had any thought of going to the Galapagos, but when I heard about it from N's high school in October 2020 (for an April 2022 trip), I just thought, "Let's do it." 

So we did. And it was awesome. 

D and I had briefly talked about taking the kids to Boston because G had mentioned something about it from an interest in a video game (which inspired our trip with the kids to Las Vegas in 2021). With G being the most difficult to please (in all respects) out of the family, we sort of let his interests guide our plans. At one point, sometime in early 2022, I guess, I asked him, "Would you prefer to go to Boston or Scotland?"

Smart boy said "Scotland."

Why did Scotland pop into my head? It's cool there, generally, which has become the primary factor in where we go. G hates hot weather, and as an almost 50-year-old woman, I don't need any additional help being hot, so cooler is absolutely alright with me. 

But did I have a burning desire to visit Scotland? Not especially. 

Still, the words had come out of my mouth, so I proceeded to plan a trip last summer. 

Sometimes I think my unconscious brain is busy working while my conscious brain just dithers about because D and I did celebrate 25 years of marriage last fall. Why not make this trip the June after our anniversary a milestone holiday? And we took the kids because they are not quite old enough to be totally solo for 10 days, and our parents are just a little too old to be dealing with not quite old enough kids for 10 days. 

I worked with Tenon Tours to plan the trip and was very happy with how everything turned out. Could we have done it for less money? Certainly, but part of what we wanted was to spend a night in a castle, and that wasn't cheap. They selected a manor house for us to stay in for two nights, and that was an amazing experience. We got to do a falconry experience was that phenomenal. 

At the manor house, while playing pool, M said, "This place is really cool, but if I stayed in places like this all the time, it wouldn't be special." And I think that sums up this trip for us. 

We visited the following towns/villages/cities in Scotland: Edinburgh, Kingussie, Forres, Inverness, Findhorn, Portree, Glencoe, Ballachulish, Fort William, Mallaig, Stirling, and Falkirk. And we saw so many amazing things. 

It has been a complete drag to come back to real life. Real life is so dull. (I say or think this and then fight the shame/guilt that reminds me that I am so privileged to be able to go on such a trip and then come home and complain about my very easy existence.) I have been posting photos on social media (partly because it brings me joy and I do like sharing it with others; I try not to be too insufferable by posting only a few photos, not big photo dumps of 45 pics.) I feel certain at least several people I know are thinking, Would you can it?

Still, the most wonderful part of the trip was spending time with my family at a time when we spend less time together. In some ways, this may have been a last hurrah for us (I hope not, but life changes whether you want it to or not.)

Some highlights of small moments: 

Apparently, at one point I said, "Ice cream is calling my name," and my kids have now made that one of  the "mom" phrases they make fun of me about. 

They also made fun of me because every time D has a camera in his hands, I ask, "Are you taping me?" And he always gets me on tape asking that question. (After 25 years, you kind of know someone.)

The kids, while D and I were checking into our hotel in Glencoe, made several videos in which the boys spoke as their alter egos, Eugene and Theodore. Theodore (G) gave Eugene (M) a hug which made Eugene fart, causing uproarious laughter that was caught on video. 

N, in her excitement over being able to drink legally as a 19-year-old in Scotland, ordered the typical beverage that everyone orders at an Italian small plate restaurant: a margarita. 

G's socks stunk so badly that all their shared rooms smelled like corn chips until I could find a laundry on the Isle of Skye. 

The best thing I have discovered about getting away from real life is that it takes away all the distractions that keep me from noticing my kids---the laundry, the paperwork, the phone calls, the vacuuming. It makes me focus on the moment. And we're getting short time on moments when I have the opportunity to notice them. 

2022 like 2019

 In 2019, we went on a lot of small trips. 

Spring Break was spent in Atlanta visiting my cousins and exploring the city, which we had driven through a million times but never stayed in for anything more than a night while en route to or from Florida.

That summer, we visited Cape San Blas, a small peninsula in Florida.

That fall, we went to Michigan City, Indiana and took the train to Chicago.

This was all for the good because COVID made us very eager to go nowhere outside our state. We went to Land Between the Lakes, Cumberland Falls, and Red River Gorge until we had all been vaccinated when I felt it was probably a little more safe to go beyond the borders.

Since December 18, 2021, I've traveled quite a bit and failed to write about any of it. Until now.

The first trip was when the five of us went to Las Vegas, Nevada and Joshua, Tree, California. It was a pretty darn wonderful trip even though we were still having to mask inside (or should I say, we chose to mask inside even though lots of other people didn't). 

We spent a full day in Joshua Tree National Park and then stopped at Amboy Crater in the middle of the Mojave Desert on our way back to Las Vegas. In Vegas, we went to Meow Wolf and walked all over the strip and then drove to Hoover Dam. It was a trip that sort of wore us out but that I so enjoyed because I was seeing new terrain. It was some 1,856 miles there and back. 

The Mojave Desert at sunset as we were driving from Las Vegas to Joshua Tree.

Found a hole in a boulder where water had frozen overnight. 

Outdoor sculpture at Meow Wolf in Las Vegas. 

At the Hoover Dam

In early April, N and I went to Quito, Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands, a trip we had been planning and saving for since October 2020, when we thought innocently to ourselves, "This pandemic should be over by April 2022." 

The trip was amazing and exhausting and had I had the energy after puking some 12+ times on the ferry from San Cristobal to Santa Cruz, I would have thrown myself overboard and just drowned because motion sickness on the Pacific is no fucking joke. (I likely puked over 20 times in a 2-hour period but I decided suicide would be a good idea sometime after my 10th puke. I say this not to make suicide funny but to note that when people feel miserable, a wish to just die and get it over with is not irrational but a better option out of all bad options.)

When I finally staggered off the boat and could barely stand, the closest place to lie down was here. I spent the rest of that day in bed.

Pier at Santa Cruz, the Galapagos with another creature 

who may or may not have also been extremely seasick. One of the members of 

the tour took this pick which was only hilarious many days later. 

This was, however, the worst of my trip. Everything else was amazing and awesome, and I was so privileged to see it. It was my first but I hope not my last trip to South America and was some 3,000 miles one way. Plus, it was my girl's first international trip, and I love that she was able to do it. 

A view of Quito from Virgin of El Panecillo. 

A mural in Otavalo, Ecuador

The beach on San Cristobal, the Galapagos

The flight, somewhere over Nicaragua.

Since we've spent a lot of money on those two trips, we decided we needed to keep a summer trip short and therefore, cheaper. 

I'm not a fan of stuff but I value experience and time, and over the years, I've tried to combine both by inviting my parents and/or my MIL on our trips. Due to my dad's health problems in 2020, we asked mom and dad to come on a weekend trip with us to Tennessee in early May since it wasn't as long of a drive for them. I had learned about Pickett State Park and wanted to see it because it is a international dark sky park. It was around 170 miles away. 

As with the massive puke fest in the Galapagos, often you don't plan what happens, and we didn't plan for it to rain the entire weekend except for like 40 minutes on Friday and then another 40 minutes on Saturday of this extended weekend. We got out during those brief windows of time to explore. So much for seeing the dark sky when there was nothing but heavy rainclouds. 

Pickett State Park, Tennessee during one of those 40 minute non-rain windows. 

Big South Fork lookout trail during one of those 40 minute non-rain windows. 

The view from this lookout. 

The lovely cabin we stayed at. 

I also wanted to squeeze in another shortish trip (340 miles) and decided Kelleys Island would take us to water, which we like, and cooler temperatures, which we also like. After visiting Michigan several years ago, I sort of got it in my head to see all the Great Lakes. This took another off our list; only one left (Ontario). 

We spent 4 full days exploring Kelleys Island and seeing the African Safari zoo in Port Clinton, Ohio and Marblehead lighthouse. It felt like the beach without the heat or the salt or the jellyfish. 

Me on a ferry to Kelleys Island and not puking. It is possible. 

Herndon Gallery within walking distance of the house we rented.

Glacial grooves on Kelleys Island. 

African Safari drive where you can feed the animals who 

will stick their big heads in your car and slobber on the doors. 

We ate A LOT of ice cream at Papa T's on Kelleys Island. 

And so now, we are home and will stay home for a good long while to save up and hopefully plan for other adventures down the road to far off places. 

I know my love of travel is an addiction of sorts because I do feel this physical and mental urge to get out of my norm and get away from what I see all the time. I get a release of good-feeling hormones just looking up places I might like to go at some point, and that feeling is compounded by A LOT when I actually get to the someplace new I wanted to see. I tell myself that it is probably a better addiction than illegal drugs and sex with strangers. 

But there are costs to it. It costs time and money. It is tiring. And not everyone in our family loves travel the way I do so it forces me to not see everything I'd like to see and them to see more than what they care to see. 

These are very lowercase privilege problems. I'm thankful that I get to see as much as I've been able to see.

Missing travel and Grumpy G

Our family will be going on a very low-key trip some two hours from our house this summer. It is all the logistics I can handle with only three of us fully COVID-vaccinated. 

As I was thinking about how much I really am looking forward to being away from home, it occurred to me how downright unpleasant many of our trips have been.

Not the entire trip, of course. 

But when you travel with kids, somebody is usually unhappy at least some of the time.

For us, our usually unhappy kid is the middle one. 

He is notorious for hating hiking (which D and I have always enjoyed). When I say hiking, I mean low-key hiking. We're not backpacking. We're not hiking tons of miles. 

Really, we just walk in the woods a little bit. 

I went down a bit of a rabbit hole to find as many photos as I could of G being grumpy on trips. One day these will be collected into a book for him. 

In this first pic, you would think we had drug the kids out all day at Disney. Nope. We have long been the kind of parents that religiously made our kids nap even when it interfered with whatever good time we were having. This was early in the day. G just wasn't having it. 

Here we were during a stop at a botanical garden on the way to somewhere. The evil-looking kid in the center is G. He seems unhappy. 

Mostly G is known for his "lying down in disgust" pose. 

He's done it in Michigan. 

And Kentucky. 

And Colorado.

And at Kennesaw National Battleground in Georgia. 

And those aren't the only such photos I have. 

I'm pretty sure we might get a new one on this summer's excursion. 

A delight (#9)

I'm not a "stuff" person, but I'm definitely a "spend money on travel" person. 

That travel has been far (Greece, Italy, Iceland) and close (Cumberland Falls and Land Between the Lakes). 

I keep several large scrapbooks of the places we have traveled since becoming a family of more than 2, and they bring me incomparable delight. 

Last night, I spent time scrapbooking our within-state trips in 2020. 

I didn't feel comfortable last year traveling outside the state, nor do I feel comfortable doing that now. Our small trip scheduled for this coming summer is to a spot two hours away from home. We have invited my parents, my MIL, and my niece (which, if all are able to come, will be the same makeup as our trip in June 2020). 

Looking back on these trips brings me the delight of seeing my loved ones spending time together without masks and concerns for our safety. 

(Empire Bluffs Trail, Sleeping Bear Dunes, Michigan)

We have been supremely lucky to have traveled several times with my brother's family and our parents--to Michigan, to Colorado, to the Smokey Mountains. 

Upper Peninsula, Michigan

We have photos of the kids doing very simple things, including playing cards with their Nana. 

Hilton Head, SC

It is a joy to see the kids when they were little; when their hair was in different styles; when N still wore glassless glasses. 

 Grand Lake, Colorado 

These photos remind me of aggravation because G has never gone on a trip that he didn't do something that drove us freaking crazy. In the moment, it was supremely aggravating. In retrospect, funny and delightful. 

Forest Park, St Louis MO

These photos remind me of the locations we have taken our children to educate them both historically and empathetically. 

Martin Luther King National Site, Atlanta, GA

These photos remind me that even when we were within our house on our devices completely neglectful of each other we also had times when we are completely in the moment with each other. 

Cape San Blas, FL

Family remembering time

We have a vacation scheduled for June, but who knows whether we'll actually be able to go.

The pandemic makes me more glad than ever that last year we went three places--Atlanta on spring break, Florida in the summer, and Michigan City, IN/Chicago on fall break.

Last night, I decided that I would take the time to actually scrapbook our 2019 fall break trip, which led me to suggest that for family time after supper, we would look through our family travels scrapbooks.

(Ok, all the time is, technically, family time right now.)

The first trip in the albums dates back to 2009 when we went on our first trip as a family of 5 (although one of us was still in utero on that particular trip to Gulf Shores, AL).
We had gone on another trip to Gulf Shores in 2005, but those photos went into the N IS THE ONLY CHILD album.

The travels in these books are both near and far.
There are half-day trips to Salato Wildlife Center, 2-day trips to Santa Claus, IN, and longer across the country trips to Colorado.

For most of the travels, I have included memorable stories in the scrapbook such as when we went to Edisto Island, SC, and G got his hand stuck in a crab statue. I was convinced we'd have to call the fire department and have them destroy the statue to get his hand out.
(Lotion for the lubricating win on that one.)

On our fall break trip a couple years back to St. Louis, G and I recreated one from when he was a wee boy. The original photo was at our local zoo when he was terrified of animatronic dinosaurs even though he LOVED dinosaurs and begged me to take him to the exhibit.

The recreation was at the St Louis Science Center.

Oh, here is another photo of me packing around G. He wanted to go to Dinosaur World because he loved dinosaurs. He then refused to walk through it, so guess who carried him the entire time?

We have determined that G is a complete sh*t, but if it wasn't for him, our travels would be SO BORING.
We'd have zero memorable events.

There was our trip to Mason, OH to visit Great Wolf Lodge. We still ask M to do his imitation of Wiley the Wolf, which he perfected while there:
"Stomp, stomp. Clap, clap. Ya got that? Let's do it one more time."
(Must be said in a very twangy way.)

And then there were the photos from Battery Park, Charleston, SC. N was sitting on her gigantic pile of turds.

We had a lot of fun spending time reminiscing, and it made me immensely happy if only for a little while. 

Rocky Mountain High

We just returned late last night from a week's visit to Colorado with the five of us, my brother's family of five, our parents, and my MIL. Thirteen of us in total.

This is our third all-family vacation. We visited Great Smoky Mountain National Park in 2012, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in 2016, and now Rocky Mountain National Park in 2018.

The day we were all supposed to fly out, my niece woke with a stomach bug, which delayed their family's arrival by a couple days, but they eventually made it and (so far) no one else has gotten ill.

Day 1--Golden, CO

In order to get acclimated to the altitude, we stayed in Golden, CO our first 24-hours before heading up into the higher altitudes. We visited Red Rocks Amphitheater and Park, as well as a little part of Dinosaur Ridge. We also made it into downtown Golden, where we checked out Clear Creek and ate at Bob's Atomic Burgers.

At Clear Creek, Golden

Dinosaur Ridge Visitors Center

Red Rocks Park

DAY 2: More Red Rocks and then heading to Granby, CO

On our way to Granby, we stopped and ate lunch in Winter Park, CO at a restaurant called Denos.

This is the house we stayed at in Granby.

Deer walked through the neighborhood every morning and evening, and we had a family of prairie dogs we could watch from a window. We arrived too early to check in, so we took a little hike on the Fraser to Granby Trail.

This deer under the window was just resting.

Granby is a very small town on the western side of the mountains. It is a short drive to Grand Lake, which is a slightly bigger town with more shops and restaurants. Grand Lake is also the "locals" entrance to RMNP. Estes Park is on the eastern side of the Rockies and where most tourists go.

DAY 3--Grand Lake, CO
We went into Grand Lake on Monday and hiked to Adams Falls, which is part of RMNP.

My brother's family arrived on Monday afternoon, which meant that we could carry on with our plans to go on a morning breakfast horseback ride at Snow Mountain Ranch on Tuesday. The kids LOVED this!

DAY 4--Snow Mountain Ranch and Colorado River

This was my handsome horse, known as PoopChute.

The kids met a real-life cowboy named Tim. 

He has broken nearly every bone in his body from riding in rodeos. 

After riding, a breakfast of eggs, pancakes, and bacon tasted delicious!

G and M handled their horses so well!!

Since the morning ride didn't last too long, we thought we'd try Hot Sulphur Springs in the afternoon. We weren't impressed with the springs, so we opted to just dip our feet in the Colorado River.

DAY 5--Steamboat Springs, CO
We had promised the kids some water fun, so we drove to Steamboat Springs to visit Old Town Resort and Spa. We ate at BeauJo's and then walked around the town for a bit.

Sights around Steamboat Springs as we walked

It is a bad idea to take 6 kids into Rocket Fizz Candy Shop.

Day 6--RMNP

We started here:

At some point, we spotted these guys,

and then went here

More driving up the mountain. 

Took some photos at Farview Curve Overlook

We made it up to here and climbed the Alpine Ridge Trail

EVERYONE had a great time up there. 

 We had pushed the kids entirely too far so we ate lunch in Hidden Valley.

During our RMNP full day, we saw marmots, elk, a ram, a coyote, and FINALLY, we spotted this dude:

Day 7--RMNP with D, and Grand Lake one.last.time

D and I drove up to see Lake Irene and hike a wee bit before heading into Grand Lake with everyone later in the day.

Lake Irene

Green River Mountain Trail

 Grand Lake Lodge, overlook

 Grand Lake

Hummingbird feeders lining the shops in Grand Lake

G thought the baskets were cool 

(as you can tell from his enthusiastic expression).

Day 8--Headed back to Golden before our flight

We had time to kill before our flight, so we went back to Red Rocks to stroll around and then ate lunch at the Bridgewater Grill near Clear Creek.

At some point, in the airport, my grumpy middle child took 29 photos of himself grinning like a fool even though he mostly pouted the entire week prior.