The Luckiest No Matter What!

I honestly can't believe we are nearing the end of 2020. Most of it felt so challenging, often shocking, and so pain-stakingly slow sometimes that I wasn't sure the end of the year would ever come. I'm sure this year, especially, has us all reflecting on a lot: thinking back to where we all started, how we first felt when the pandemic hit, when we were smack dab in the middle of it, and how we've adjusted to what is our new normal for the foreseeable future.  I have so much I want to leave behind and never revisit: the memories of all the time I lost my patience with my family, crying in the shower more times than I'd like to admit, the feelings of isolation and loneliness, the worrying. I chose right now, however, to focus on the bright spots of this year. It was hard, indeed, but it wasn't always  hard. Here are some of the things I'm incredibly grateful for in 2020... Starting 2020 on the Right Foot On January 2nd, 2020, I started taking care of myself. I...

I had heard Montana was beautiful, but it truly surpassed any and every expectation. When we weren't spending our days at Yellowstone National Park (read about that part of our trip here ), we stayed close to where we were staying in Emigrant, Montana and took in all the big sky country. Emigrant is located smack dab in Paradise Valley- an area between the Absaroka Mountain Range to the east and the Gallatin Mountain Range to the west. I know things are named for a reason- this place was as close to paradise as my eyes have ever seen. It was green, hilly, and mountainous. You could see for miles and miles and miles and the stars?! I've never seen them so bright. Out every single window at our Airnbn rental, there was a gorgeous view and it never ever got old. Why fold laundry inside when you can sit on a deck with this background? Because Emigrant is such a small town (not even 300 people), civilization was pretty far away and nature was our playground. There was so mu...

The first thing I have to say is that our trip to Montana absolutely enchanted me. I don't know when or if we will be back, but this trip will stick with me... huge.  Sigh, the beauty NEVER got old. As we continued to explore, I would make Josh pull off the road (a lot) so I could try to photograph the scenery. It was just never good enough. I kept trying to preserve it, bottle it up, have something so I didn't forget. I'd look into the lens of my camera or the screen on my phone after taking a picture and I kept getting frustrated! What my eyes were seeing was too magical, too big, too vast to ever be conveyed appropriately in the confines of a photograph. Emigrant Peak Gibbon Falls We are all SO grateful that we were able to have a full week there to experience and soak in all the beauty that we could. During our trip to Montana, we visited Yellowstone National Park for three days. This was our first national park as a family! The north entrance to the par...

Josh and I have always tried to add flair to decision making.  Often, when deciding wear to go out to dinner for a date (remember when that was something we could do?!), we would put a few restaurants in a hat and pick- let fate choose.  When selecting our children's names, we did a name bracket and would submit individual lists, ranked. We made a giant poster and had matches, via discussions and persuasive arguments, until there was one boy name winner and one girl name winner of the tournament. That would be the name choice going into the hospital.  As Josh and I talked about the possibility of a June trip we could take safely during this pandemic, we realized the decision would be difficult with a lot of factors to consider. How would we ever narrow things down? How would we divvy up the research?  How would we ever decide?  Well, we started by doing what any thoughtful, sane person would do- we sang the Fifty Nifty United States song!  ...

#halfdozenhundts have gotten to be a pretty well-oiled machine when it comes to overnight road trip travel. We've done Florida to St. Augustine several times and Disney World, as well as driving to Colorado. There are a few things we always include as a part of our road trip... 1.) We leave as little next-day-driving as possible. Once the boys wake up in the morning, they are sick and tired of being in the car and rightfully so. If we still have more than 5ish hours to go after wake up and breakfast happens, it gets real dicey. The earlier we can arrive at our destination in the morning, the better. This sometimes means we have to leave in the afternoon the day before and do quite a bit of driving. That seems to go better than leaving a lot of driving for the second day.  2.) We do most of our stops at a gas station so we can refuel and do bathrooms at the same time. Getting in and out of the car takes time. Stopping and starting takes time. We try to eliminate the amount of ...