Exploring Our Family History in Tannehill State Park: A Beautiful Place to Take Your Family

Tannehill Ironworks Historical State park

Last year my cousin Amber sent me a VHS video clip of an interview she did with our Maw-Maw back in the 1990s. In this video, Maw-Maw told us there is a cabin in Tannehill State Park that once belonged to our great-great grandparents. Once I learned we have an ancestral home on display in Birmingham, Alabama, I knew we had to go check this out! My kids love it so much when I drag them out on these sorts […]

» Read more

Successful Annual Road Trip to See Family During the Rona

covid road trip to see family

We make this trip down south to see our family every single year. Alan had to switch jobs back in June, so this year we pushed the pilgrimage back to August. I kept thinking by August “things” would be better. But alas, August is here, and things still look like a bowl of mush. Alan had to get special permission to even take leave and travel so far during all this mess. With permission secured, we packed our bags and […]

» Read more

25 Inspiring Photos of America the Beautiful for July 4th

25 Inspiring photos of America the Beautiful

Happy 4th of July, friends! There’s this one DIY/home decorating blog that I love, even though this blogger’s home looks the polar opposite of mine. Seriously. She has 4 kids, and yet she decorates in white. And yet it looks beautiful. Her blog is Tidbits-Cam.com,  and if you want to be inspired by photos of sheer beauty (who doesn’t?), give her a visit. Today on her blog, she is showcasing inspiring patriotic images, and I liked it so much I decided […]

» Read more

Cross-Country Road Trip 2016: Cali to Bama in a Pick-Up Truck

Next Stop: North Rim of the Grand Canyon!! And on the road again… Once you finish chuckling over their eye covers, check out the FOUR CORNERS behind them: You can be in Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, and Colorado all at the same time. Mesa Verde National Park Next Stop: Oklahoma City Oh yeah, and Alan also took them to Pops, a soda pop factory/store. (Thanks for all the ideas, Greg!) They brought back a cooler full of sodas too. I […]

» Read more

Cross Country Road Trip 2016: The Man Show

It’s purely a man show this time, y’all. Last time it was just Alan and me. This time it’s Alan, Joshua, and Caleb.They are crossing the country mostly on I-40 riding in a full cab pick-up truck with a camper-cover. Is that what you call those things? I don’t know.  It’s a truck with a hut built on it to keep your luggage dry. If you follow Alan on Facebook, then I have no news for you because Alan used […]

» Read more

Running Away from it All: Yosemite Day One

Day One: You know we love a road trip. Today we did something wild and crazy. We left our children with Alan’s parents, and got ourselves out of town! Does Alan have big, important projects due on Monday? Yes. Do I have important things to do Monday? Yes. Do we have children recovering from illness? Yes. Do we have a wonderful life that we are thankful for and don’t actually NEED to RUN away from? YES! We just needed REST. […]

» Read more

Day 1 of the Trip to San Diego. Vacation renews a tired Mom.

San Diego Day 1: I have never been so badly in need of a vacation as I was this Spring Break. Actually, I’ve lived in need of a vacation since June 2013. I promise I wasn’t always this tired and whiny. There were actually lots of years where I felt relaxed and happy. I was busy, but it was a healthy level of busy. I want to get back to that healthy level of busy, but happy again!!!   Forget […]

» Read more

Beautiful Point Lobos State Park is the Easiest Place to Find Seals in the wild Near Monterey

best place to find sea lions and seals in the wild

We visited Carmel by the Sea this week, and I am completely in awe at the state park we found there. This stunning state park is called Point Lobos, and if you have been, then you know. If you have not been, allow me to introduce you to my favorite state or national park in the entire U.S of A. Carmel by the Sea may be the ritziest area that I have ever visited. I’m used to walking through streets […]

» Read more

But where are your children? Moving Cross Country

Off and on for the entire month of June, our family has been in the process of tackling this cross-country move. There has been stress, travel, excitement, anxiety, and a whole lot of “we’ll see when we get there.” Oh, and by the way, ‘this process’ won’t even be somewhat-finished until the first week of August, when we finally move into our new house, and our household goods arrive. In the meantime, we spend a lot of time crashing at […]

» Read more

Exploring California, In Pictures Part I

Of course, I have taken way, way too many pictures of California to squeeze them all into one post, especially with slow wi-fi, so I’m breaking this post into two parts. Today we will focus on the desert, mountains, and agricultural regions, and my next post will feature  the coast. I know, that next part sounds like a lot more fun, but the mountains have their own beauty, so hang with me. When we first entered California, on I-40, which […]

» Read more
1 2