Sharing the Love: Road Trippin' with Littles

We just returned from a twelve day journey around the state of Iowa and Wisconsin.  We experienced a lot of incredible places right here in the Midwest.  We tried new restaurants and slept in different beds.  We traveled to the middle of Tourist Trap USA and roasted hot dogs in the middle of nowhere Iowa while staying in a log cabin.  And we endured lots and lots and lots of tears and sibling disputes.  #keepingitreal

Yes, our road trip was equal parts magical and hard.  It was amazing to be together nonstop for twelve days and also a teensy bit crazy.  It stretched us and challenged us and made us a more united family.  It was probably one of my most favorite trips of all time, some because of the slowness of it and mostly because I was with my people.  And we stayed within a seven hour drive of our house.  Proof that you don't have to travel far to have a good time.

Our trip started off seeing family.  Our home base for four days was at my brother-in-law and sister-in-law's home in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  We saw great-grandparents and the kids were able to play with their cousins for three nights in a row.  It was a full four days, but so worth it to see our babes make memories with extended family members.

Next, we headed to New Glarus, Wisconsin to an old farm house.  The kids played for hours upon hours on the tire swings outside and we enjoyed visiting some coffee houses and breweries in the area.  I'll be honest, this wasn't my favorite stop, mainly because of the VRBO we were staying in, but it was good for me to be out of my comfort zone.  My mom came for a night (she was in the area) so Kevin and I could go out for a day date.  Bacon and eggs every morning made us feel like we were living on a working farm.  We also were able to visit a dairy farm and milk a cow and feed a calf.  Who knew that the most exciting thing would not be bottle feeding a calf, but playing with baby kittens?

After New Glarus we went to the Wisconsin Dells where we stayed at Great Wolf Lodge for two nights.  Guys, the kids couldn't get enough of it.  It was our first time and they loved it.  It is sensory overload, for sure, but getting a cabana helped and so did a set of grandparents.  Kevin's parents came to the Dells to help and it made our time there so much more enjoyable.

Our last spot was Fort Atkinson, Iowa near Decorah.  We stayed in a real life log cabin.  It was comfy, tastefully decorated, and had every amenity for a family of five.  The home was surrounded by woods and corn fields and we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows and enjoyed it immensely.  I might have had to visit an optometrist at this stop because I had a small glass bead in my eye (so random), but it was still one of my favorite parts of the trip.  I'm already trying to talk Kevin into a weekend getaway to that very spot sometime in the future.

I think the #1 thing I learned from our time away from home as a family was it was worth it.  It was most definitely hard, but so worth the uncomfortable mattresses, endless sibling arguments in the back seat, and living out of a suitcase.  The uninterrupted time together as a family was priceless, so was seeing our kids stretch themselves in the water at Great Wolf Lodge and figuring out that in fact Luke can sleep in a big bed off the floor all by himself.  I also learned that it's okay to be uncomfortable and not let my OCD get the best of me.  Kevin and I both learned to bite our tongues when things got a little hairy.  (This is what saved us.)  Although I would not classify those twelve days as a vacation at all, it was most certainly a trip that I will look back on fondly for a long time.

And the second most important thing I learned on the trip: take lots of family pictures.  GUYS, I did not get a good family picture over our span of twelve days in the car together.  I got precisely one family picture, you can see at the top of this post where Luke is hiding and Lily's face is still scarred from her run in with a poisonous plant in our yard.  What the what?  I know.  How is that possible, you ask?  I think it's because I have three babes?  I think it's because my husband isn't into pictures?  I think it's because I was more worried about nap time than a cute family picture on Instagram?  I think it's absolutely because I just kept forgetting.  Ugh!  Next road trip I will be that woman asking strangers to take pictures of her family at a random rest stop because no child is crying at that very moment.  Lesson learned.  

We are already dreaming up our next trip together as a family and if it is anything like this one, it will be just what we need when we need it.

No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow. -Lin Yutang

How lovely it is to travel and how lovely it is to come home.

Sunny Saturday: Road Trip Edition

Road trip.  Two weeks on the road, away from our beds, exploring small town Iowa and Wisconsin.  That is exactly what we have been up to the past twelve days.  We have finally returned home and you have no idea how much you miss your bed until you're away from it.  We love being on the road, but coming home just feels right.  

On our trip no one had to go to the emergency room (just an optometrist appointment for me), no one lost their cool (mostly), and no one decided to leave the group.  A win-win-win. 

I will share more details of our trip in another post, but today I’m sharing some things that made life on the road a bit sunnier.

Jen has done it again.  I can’t put down her newest book, Of Mess and Moxie.  It is absolutely what I expected of Jen Hatmaker, except, as always, much much better.  I have nodded my head and laughed out loud and gotten that true, deep down feeling that someone else completely gets my life.  Thanks Jen for writing the words my brain is thinking and my soul is feeling. 

Queen Annes Lace has made our driving so sweet and beautiful.  The ivory blooms are sprouting along every highway and interstate and I’m absolutely not tired of seeing them.  I did the unthinkable and pulled over to pick some to place in a glass at the VRBO we stayed in last few week.  These blooms make me happy.

Small town bakeries.  My heart of hearts loves a good bakery.  The smell of fresh bread and sweet pies and cookies and brownies makes me feel like I’m exactly where I should be.  The past few weeks I was able to visit a few bakeries and enjoy cherry donut holes (my very favorite donut), a kitchen sink cookie, a turnover, a scone, chocolate cake, and other calories I am trying to forget.  I had to hold myself back from taking home a whole pie to feed my crew for dinner.

This trip included lots of family time with a sprinkle of seeing friends.  Although the time with family wasn’t long, it was much needed and filled my bucket.  Our kids playing with their cousins and seeing their great grandparents was super special.  We played in parks, went on boat rides, ate brownies in our pajamas, and learned how to fish and hunt for eggs that hens have layed.  My prayer is our babies will remember moments of this time with our family.

This is no secret, but my husband is a rock star.  As I write this, I am sitting at a bakery eating that kitchen sink cookie and having an hour to myself.  The kids are at the farmhouse napping and he shooed me out of the house to go enjoy some time away.  I wouldn’t want to do a two week road trip with three babes with anyone but him.  Bless his sweet little heart.

I hope you are having a Sunny Saturday wherever you may be today.  We are going to be enjoying home sweet home as much as we can.  Hope you have a Sunny Saturday, all!

Traveling Fosters Gratitude

It's 6:45 on Saturday night.  We pull up our driveway, all of us weary and dirty and famished.  We topple out of the car, lugging bags and toys and books over our shoulders and heading straight upstairs to open our styrofoam containers holding the contents of our take-out dinner.  Luke and Lily scurry outside to have a picnic of chicken nuggets and ranch dressing on the swing set.  Kevin eats his dinner as if it's the first food he has eaten in days as I feed Jude with my feet slung over the side of the chair.

We are home.  After eight hours in the car, ten hours of travel, we are home.  

Last week we headed to the Windy City to hang out with city people and do city things while Kevin went to a conference.  I know an eight hour road trip is not a big trip, but it is our first trip with three babes.  So, it was most definitely a BIG trip for us.

While in Chicago, we went to a museum, played at a dreamy park, ate deep dish pizza, 'watched' a Cubs game, walked what seemed like one thousand miles, and spent some fun time with friends.  It was not epic, but it was just the change of pace we needed in this season.  While not able to go on a long, beach-y vacation at the moment, a road trip to Chicago was perfect.

We stayed in a VRBO (which I highly recommend for family travels) and it was just the right size and had all the amenities we needed for our family of five plus one grandma.  #whatwouldwedowithoutgrandmas  My mom was completely necessary on this trip and I am so so glad she decided to come with us.  We did some new things together and ate some yummy food and just did life the Chicago way for a few days.  I love a good getaway and the four days we spent together in a 14th floor condo were ordinary and exciting and out of our comfort zone in a good way.

Kevin and I snuck away the night before we left for a date night at the cutest spot my friend, Anne, recommended.  RM Champagne is a sweet patio-forward restaurant tucked away in an alley in Chicago.  As I sipped on my glass of white wine and nibbled on the shrimp cocktail, Kevin and I discussed our favorite parts of the trip.  Although he was gone during the days, we were able to spend quality time with him at night.  I mentioned the Cubs game and watching the kids play at the fountains after epic meltdowns.  He talked about riding the city train (aka the 'L') with Luke and going on the boat tour of Chicago.  After chuckling at the way Lily waved to all the passengers on the 'L' and coming to the conclusion that I probably have a fear of heights, I told Kevin I am so thankful for our home, back in wee little Macedonia, Iowa.

In the middle of a crowded restaurant with glasses clinking and servers scurrying around to bring plates to and from tables, I re-discovered that I love our home.  On the trail.  In the middle of nowhere Iowa.  I love the quiet and the green space and the slow pace.  I love cozying up under a blanket, even in the summertime, after the kids go to bed with a good book.  I love the ordinary hum-drum of Luke and Lily playing in their rooms or reading books on our worn couch.  I love the home we have made and am incredibly grateful we get to live where we live.

  
Yes, I love a good getaway.  I love experiencing new places and tastes with my people.  I love discovering my new-favorite cherry donut at the local donut shop down the street in a new city.  But, I love coming back home to my bed, my cozy spot on the couch, my dishes to do and laundry to wash and weeds to pull in my overgrown garden beds.  I love home.  My life on the trail is exactly where I want to spend (almost) all of my days.

  

Travel and Priorities

Written last week in Nanaimo, British Columbia...

Snuggled under a soft, dreamy, cream-colored blanket, my book and laptop sits upon my lap.  My toes are being warmed by the fire in front of me and the guy I'm doing this life thing with sits to my right.  My ever expanding belly bulges before me as a place to rest my hands.  I am staring out a massive picture window at the sea with islands littered beyond it and raindrops falling slowly, almost silently on the water. 

I am calm, centered, free, and uninterrupted.  I am cozy, breathing deeply, peaceful, and (almost) bored.  As a pregnant mom with two littles, I never really thought I would be bored.  But, here I am, 1800 miles away from home, tucked under a blanket (almost) bored.  My littles are at home with Grandma and Papa having the time of their lives while my husband and I reconnect, dream about this baby, explore and experience new places, and read big, thick books, uninterrupted.  

Traveling is our 'couple thing'.  If you've been reading for long, you know our family enjoys travel whenever we can get it, and Kevin and I try and take a vacation, just the two of us, as often as our time, schedules, and little ones will allow. 

If I'm being honest, I was hesitant about this trip.  It's much easier to stay home and do daily life together as a family.  Plus, I always get this queasy feeling just as we are about to be apart.  I like when our family is together, a puzzle with all it's pieces intact.  I don't like the idea of being scattered, some of us on one side of the country and some on the other.  I like us together, as a unit.  So, as I readied us all for being apart, something nudged at me and started to make me feel guilt for leaving Luke and Lily at home.  It made me feel like a 'disconnected mom', a mom not winning, but failing at this motherhood thing, a mom who needs to retreat for a few days to recollect herself.

That feeling and those thoughts sloshed around in my head and my heart and as I said my good-byes to my littles before we left, I couldn't help but feel like a 'bad' mom.  

But, as He always seems to do, God reminded me as soon as we reached our destination why we do this.  Why Kevin and I travel.  Why we pour time and energy into our marriage.  Why we make sacrifices and humble ourselves to ask for help from grandparents.  Why we make this a priority.

  

It's because our marriage is important and a priority.  It's because we want to not just survive, but thrive.  It's because I want to be the best mom to my babes, and getting away for a few days allows me to do that.  It's because I want our kids to see their parents love each other well and someday know what a strong, thriving marriage looks like.  It's because adult-ing and parenting is hard stuff and sometimes time away is exactly what is needed to refresh the spirit and mind and rewind the patience.  And also, because we enjoy it so so much. 

And you know what?  I feel like a better mom and a better wife, in this chair, feet up, listening to the rain fall (not so silently now) while Grandma and Papa care for and love on our kids and Kevin reads next to me.  I remind myself that this is good, good for our marriage, good for our kids, good for our family.  And it is. 

I sit and bask in the stillness of this place with no noses to wipe and no meals to prepare and no books to read to little ones on my lap.  But, I miss them and that is good.  Because when I wake them up on Sunday morning after this trip is a memory, my reserves will be replenished and I will be a better mom and wife for the days I spent away.  I will wipe those noses without a sigh and prepare meals with love in my heart and read books to my littles with the kind of energy they both deserve.  

And when, inevitably, Luke takes a toy from Lily or Lily screams the high pitch shrill that only us and dogs can hear, I will remember this place, this cream-colored blanket, my toes being warmed by the fire, count to ten and do the parenting and adult-ing that needs to be done with patience and joy accumulated from the time spent apart from my babes.

Treasures from Magnolia Market

If you have been following my blog lately, you already know I had a girl's weekend in Waco, Texas home to Fixer Upper's Chip and Joanna Gaines.  We visited Magnolia Market and took in the beautiful grounds and did a little shopping.  I picked up a few things I will surely be loving long after the trip is a distant memory.

First up, this yummy smelling candle.  There were many options, but I chose this one because of the pretty blue stamp on the front.  It is the 'summer' scent and even though fall is almost here, I know I will be burning this one often.

There were three different options for mugs at the Market.  I liked all of them, but this was probably my favorite and the most practical option.  I will be sipping peppermint hot chocolate (pregnancy craving) out of this thing all winter long.

In my last post about our trip, I mentioned the garden area.  It truly is immaculate and there is just something magical about the teepee with vines growing up it all around the miniature mushroom stools inside for kids.  They had lots of air plants for sale and I picked this pretty one up along with a small tin watering can to place it in.  My air plant collection is growing.

Probably one of my favorite purchases of the trip was this Waco t-shirt.  I'm really not a go-on-a-trip-buy-a-t-shirt-kind-of-person, but I love the simplicity of this tee and it doesn't hurt that Joanna has worn it on the show a few times.  In this stage of life, t-shirts are pretty much all I wear on the top half of my body, so having a cute one that will stretch with this growing belly makes me happy.

My last purchase isn't pictured.  It's a large white sign with the words 'it's just the nearness of you' scribbled across it.  It sums up how I think about my Kevin and I'm excited to hang it in our bedroom.  

Today I am switching gears and we are hosting our annual Iowa/Iowa State game day baby shower.  We are in the stage of life where there is always a friend pregnant, so we celebrate every year with a baby shower on game day.  My sweet friends started it the year I was pregnant with Luke and the tradition lives on.  

I hope you have a Sunny Saturday wherever you may be today and...GO HAWKEYES!

Road Trip to THE Silos

You Fixer Upper lovers out there know all about Waco, Texas...the Silos, Magnolia Farms, Chip and Jo.  All of it.  

This past weekend some friends and I loaded up a car with as little as we possibly could, so we had enough room for our lovely purchases, and headed south to Texas.  These girlfriends of mine are the real deal.  They don't really watch Fixer Upper and two of them had never even heard of it.  They just blindly said yes to this road trip and lovingly accompanied me all the way to the Silos.

Our trip started early Friday morning as we drove down our gravel road, giddy from the chance to have uninterrupted girl time.  13 hours later, we arrived in Waco...just about three hours more than we had anticipated.  Traffic was awful and I'm pretty sure we hit every possibly rush hour in every large city on the way down.  Luckily, we had each other and plenty of things to talk about.  We met another friend who flew in at a cute steakhouse called 135 Prime that served the best bruschetta with escargot.  We laughed until we cried, found out Chip and Jo frequent the place and then headed to our VRBO.

Guys, I was pinching myself when I found this VRBO.  It is a Fixer Upper house completed in Season 3.  It's episode 9, and if you remember right, Max Lucado is in the episode.  His daughter and her husband were the ones on the show. This house is perfectly done top to bottom and I wish my pictures could do it justice.  As we arrived at the house and explored every nook and cranny, I got nervous I wasn't going to be able to sleep because I was so excited.  I guess I needn't have worried about that, because we stayed up half the night chatting and then collapsed for a few hours of sleep before we were up again getting ready to check out the Silos.

If there is any advice I can give to those of you going to Waco, it's go early. We pulled in at 8:30 and were some of the first people on the property.  We grabbed breakfast at the new bakery and had time to relax and enjoy the scenery on the patio.  The pig biscuits are heavenly and I could eat one everyday. Around 8:45 a line started to form at the warehouse doors, so I headed over to stand with the rest of the excited customers.

The warehouse is beautiful and has so many fun and unique decorative items as well as Magnolia Farms shirts and keepsakes.  Jo has her paint and rugs for sale as well.  I'm pretty sure there were like one thousand people working and every single one of them was as sweet as pie.  They didn't rush when we checked out and were so kind to tell us things to do around Waco. 

We couldn't leave without checking out the garden area.  It is so well done and I'm still not sure how they keep it so immaculate.  It might be the one thousand employees they have working happily around the place. 

Around 10:30, we had seen everything I wanted to see and we headed to do some more shopping within walking distance of the Silos.  The crowds were getting bigger as we left and I was so happy we made it there early.

After shopping, we waited in line for cupcakes to take back to our house from the bakery.  They were worth the wait.  The cake and frosting ratio is on point and I couldn't say a bad thing about them. 

The rest of the afternoon was spent at a Mexican restaurant and then our amazing little house.  We opted to stay in for dinner and my friend, Amber, made an incredible meat and cheese platter.  Our bellies hurt from all the food we had enjoyed throughout the day.  We watched football, chatted, and even watched Season 3 Episode 9 from Fixer Upper, because one of the girls had never seen the show.  It was fun to be in the house watching the episode.  The couple who owns the house even stopped by to say hello and were the sweetest pair.

The night ended with a few 80s movies and we all went to bed earlier than the night before.  We left Waco a little after dawn with hopes our journey wouldn't be as long as the way down.  We made it in 11 1/2 hours, with one minor hiccup along with way.  

I was so happy to hug and kiss and snuggle my babies when we got home.  Three days away was oh so good for me, but I missed their sweet faces.  We picked tomatoes and took the girls around the farm before bedtime.  

Labor Day was spent at the Quarry.  Paige took off in the morning to get home to her family and my friend, Anne, left late afternoon on Monday, so we were able to spend some extra time with her.

It was a trip I will not soon forget.  The Silos were great, but the time with my girlfriends was even better.  That time is priceless and I will always be grateful to them for making this journey with me. 

My final thought is that if you are a fan of Fixer Upper, the Silos are truly better than you can imagine.  It's beautiful and well done and just a teensy bit magical.