We get two general reactions when we tell people that we are going on a monthlong roadtrip <specifically when said road-trip involves one of the three of us being 7+ months pregnant>. People either lean towards “cool, but I don’t think I could do that” or, they jump straight into “you’re crazy“. And I get it. Last year Graham had to practically beg me to take a road-trip out to Colorado with promises of return tickets home if being in the car with a four-year-old that long threatened my sanity.

But friends, in the past 6 months we’ve flown to Cape Cod, Costa Rica, Arizona, Boston and Florida and I can honestly say that I LOVE road tripping even more. When you spend thousands of minutes and miles in a car with people, you grow together and you have unexpected adventures; you learn patience and you compromise; you figure out what being a family means to you – and it’s one of my favorite things in the World. There’s no saying “we can do that tomorrow… next week… next year” – there’s being together and jumping in; taking advantage of now. Nowhere to go, and all day to get there.

A few highlights from the past 10 days on the road:

– Going to the splash park (and sharing countless laughs) in Dallas with cousins

– Junior ranger training at the Grand Canyon

– Running into friends and celebrating the 4th by grilling out with them on a Navajo Reservation

– Making my sixteenth roadside peanut-butter-sandwich

– A needed reminder that we can disappear for a while and life still goes on. Business doesn’t implode. The World continues to turn.

– Watching graham run, limbs flailing, trying to get a kite to fly on a windless day because his daughter asked him to

– The meteor crater. I’m not going to go so far as to say that everyone should go… but we thought it was fun… and we also might be part alien.

– Standing on the edge of the world, feeling like the only people on the Planet for a moment in time

– Watching Evie fearlessly climb mountains and stand on the edge of cliffs

– The time I put an outfit on Evie’s sticker dress up doll and she said “Mom. Seriously?! Why?!”. My coolness factor is waning.

– Seeing some of the big, beautiful World outside the place we live

– A hefty time out in the middle of the desert, complete with crying and hat-throwing.

– Falling even more in love with this amazing life and the beautiful family God has given me