The Random of Steph

Separate from our two camping trips planned for the summer, I have been longing to check out Olympic National Park.  It's one of the closest to us and we've never been there.   Specifically, I saw this picture and I just wanted to go check it out myself. Sol Duc Hot Springs.   In a National Park.   With a campground near by.    Why in the world have we not checked that out?!? So back when I was planning out grand adventures I suggested that we go there over Memorial Day weekend.  Everyone was game.   There were plenty of campsites available.  That was surprise to me, apparently I was just early enough because now they're completely full. While this trip was just a separate little adventure from our summer gallivanting, it seemed like a good time to practice for the future.   I've been packing, double checking my lists and planning.  I'm calling this the baby step into our camping summer.   We are taking things we might not ...

It's amazing how fast a summer can fill with an event here and an event there, despite being a half a year away. We found ourselves needing to accommodate a family wedding, a family reunion, an epic solar eclipse and last but not least, the kids ever extending school year.   Snow days can create havoc in the future too it seems. Then there was conflict over where specifically to go.   I longed to go to Yosemite as it had been over a decade and the kids had never been there. Scott pointed out we had already been there.  Sage wanted to go to Yellowstone to see a geyser.  Scott pointed out we had been to Yellowstone several times and Sage had been once.    Sage called him out on that one.  She doesn't remember that trip.  Which seems accurate, since she was 2. Scott wanted to go to Glacier, where none of us had ever been.   We all would like to go to Glacier but there's a reason we hadn't been there before.  It's by nothing else. 'Lil...

Looking back, I'm not sure where it started.   Was it my husband's sabbatical for which we had no plans?  Was it the "every kid in a park" program?  (www.everykidinapark.gov)   I can't recall where the plan hatched or at which point my husband said yes.   Let's go on a national park camping trip when Sage is in 4th grade.  Let's plan a big trip. It's been in the works for so long I can't even recall where it started.   I know that is part of the reason we bought a minivan a year ago.   Not just a replacement minivan but one with roof racks, lower milage, a tow hitch and DVD player.   This was a roadtrip machine - not just a soccer mom van. It was last year as well, I purchased a book from the library foundation sale, a older edition of National Parks of the American West.   I read it.   I asked my family to look at it.   I begged my family to look at it.    Finally last Sept, Scott picked it up and said we shoul...

Because if finding a strange selfie of your kid on your phone doesn't sum up motherhood, I don't know what does.

Does anyone even blog these days?  Read blogs?   I mean, it was a thing.   A real thing and everybody had a blog.   I had a blog.   I guess I still have a blog.   This thing is a blog.  While we're on the subject, blog is such a weird word.   What does it even mean?  Who came up with it? I get derailed sometimes.  Sorry.   Or not sorry.   I've been thinking about blogs and decided they died with the popularity of Fbook.   Remember when you had to have a college address to get a fb account?   Now our parents are on fb.   My childhood babysitter is on fb.  And when I get fed up with fb as a platform and the way it can feel like "everybody look at me", I check myself and post pictures of the kids because the grandparents live in different states.   I know those pictures are part of the reason they joined fb in the first place.   As much as I would describe my relationship with fb as love/hate, the t...