What a great park to begin our adventure into the desert country!
Making our way thru the sites of the park towards the Santa Elena canyon of the Rio Grande.
Hiking the trail into the canyon.
Amazing terrain…
…beauty…
And culture.
Madi measuring herself by the dinosaur bone at the visitors center.
And another set of Junior Ranger badges.
Canoeing on the Rio Grande…and stopping to have a snack in Mexico 
After a few days in NWA, we headed out again – this time to the southwest. We had a few days of driving thru Oklahoma & Texas to arrive in Terlingua / Study Butte – just outside Big Bend National Park.
More to come!
We are spending the week in Manhattan to celebrate our 10th anniversary on Valentine’s Day 💗
Today we closed on the sale of our house…whew! It’s been a VERY busy week of going thru & sorting everything left in the house – good & bad. It was both physically taxing but also emotionally exhausting. Some stuff brings back sweet memories of the beginning of our family & our lives together – much of which it we kept or passed on to friends / family so they could share in the love it brought to us. Other things we no longer needed & it was a sense of relief / release to let it go – hopefully the FIVE truckloads of items we donated will help others in need. The kids also got a lil bit of time to soak up some sunshine / play-time in the tree house & jump on the trampoline.
We are excited to have it done so we can now fully engage in the adventure before us!
We are back in Northwest Arkansas after the first loop of our trip.
We have a busy week in front of us as we do the final stage of our declutter / minimalism / get rid of what we don’t need / move out of the house / all-in our our trip! 🤙🏼✨
We are staying in Gatlinburg, TN in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. There are areas of the park that are closed due to snow & ice so we won’t get to do the hikes we really want to do – we may come back to do that later this year.
Yesterday we were planning one day here this time due to the cold, but we discovered that there is a small ski resort. So we decided to stay an extra day & enjoy some family skiing.
We rode the sky-tram up the mountain then explored the ski village before we got to the slopes. Both kids did ski school again & did great! Jamon really mastered the bunny slop & Madi did her first trip on a real ski lift & then did a green run – so proud! Drew & I also got some time to try out the blues & blacks. As Jamon said, “best day EVER” 💗⛷
We are making our way back north & starting our loop back towards home. It’s been a great start to our adventure!
We made our way up the east coast of Georgia and into South Carolina. We stopped for a short visit at the Congaree National Park. Once incorrectly named the Congaree Swamp, it is actually a floodplain and the park protects the last old-growth floodplain forest in the US – an area that once covered 35 million acres of the southeast.
We arrived late afternoon & took a quick tour of the Visitors Center where we enjoyed the displays then the kids turned in their Junior Ranger workbooks to get their badges. We then took the 2.5 mile boardwalk trail through the forest. The old-growth bald cypress & loblolly pines don’t match the redwoods & sequoias of the West coast, they are massive by East Coast standards. And while I wouldn’t plan a family trip just to visit this small park, but it was a very cool opportunity to see this historic place, and such a cool ecosystem.
We are making our way into North Carolina & Tennessee tomorrow. We are planning a stop at the Smoky Mountains before continuing our journey towards home.
We spent the week at our first aviation show of the year in Sebring, FL. This is a small show but it was a good one this year.
After we got the booth setup on Tue, we spent the rest of the days in show mode. We’d get up & get Drew off to work the booth, then the kids & I would work on school in the morning. Then bring lunch to daddy & spend the afternoon at the airfield – touring the grounds, checking out any demos, and “helping” in the booth 🙂
I am grateful for all the new friends we met and how supportive, kind, and patient everyone was letting the kids be a part of the show.
Here’s some random pics of the week –
Today we traveled north from Melbourne to the Kennedy Space Center. We were all so excited after seeing the ULA launch on Friday night. We only had the one day so we wanted to make the most of it.
We started outside looking at all the rockets the powered the early space program.
Took a break to play for a few minutes.
Next we learned about current & future Mars missions.
The space shuttle Atlantis was one of the best parts! It is the actual space shuttle that flew 33 missions into space.
Waiting for the launch simulator. Jamon was just big enough to ride it – everyone had a great time!
Memorial to Challenge & Columbia, and to honor all those that lost their lives serving our important space programs.
To be honest, I shed more than a few tears at the memorial. I remember seeing the Columbia as a young child before the Challenge tragedy. Even though I was only 5, I remember the Challenger well and how sad I was. This was my first time seeing the memorial, and I was overwhelmed.
We didn’t get to do the bus tours out to the launch sites. Even though we really wanted to see the Falcon Heavy, we were all tired & hungry. We finished up the day at a great seafood grill in Port Canaveral watching big cruise ships go by.
Tomorrow we are off to Sebring to get setup for the trade show.
~Drew
50 in 365 