Travel

When I signed up to do this Dude Ranch blogger press trip I made a promise to myself – I would do every single activity they offer even if I was scared.

I didn’t know what I was getting into exactly but this trip turned out to be a huge personal challenge for me. I had never done any of these things. Never ridden a horse, never rock climbed, never ziplined, never shot a gun (never been away from my kids for five days!). It all made me very nervous. But I’m sick and tired of being scared of the unknown. So I went for it. I was BRAVE and conquered all my fears instead of talking myself out of new adventures.

I’m so excited to finally make this announcement as I’ve known about this for months but had to keep it quiet! I’ve been wanting to get more into travel blogging and this here press trip to Horseshoe Canyon Ranch is kickin’ it off!

Starting tomorrow, I will head south with four other awesome bloggers to an authentic Dude Ranch in Jasper, Arkansas! I’m taking this trip to get a real, behind-the-scenes look at how a Dude Ranch operates. I hope to share a glimpse with all of you and inspire you to take a vacation that might be out of the norm!

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Bestway. All opinions are 100% mine.

We probably won’t make it to the beach this summer and I gotta tell you – I’m super sad about that! I love the beach so much. In fact, there’s a part of me that feels like I was meant to live near a beach. The sand in my toes any time I wish would be amazing. But, that’s just not to be.

Do you or someone you love hate winter? Do you find yourself wanting to hide under your electric blanket even though your friend told you it causes cancer? Do you feel like you just can’t ever.get.warmed.up after being outside?

Then you’re in the right place. There is a whole slew of people out there who hate winter just like you and me. Oh, they may not openly admit to hating winter. Because there is a whole slew of people out there that are like – LOOK, IT’S SNOWING! HOW PRETTY! DO YOU WANNA BUILD A SNOWMAN?!

We’re back from our four-day getaway to Breckenridge, Colorado. The simplest way to describe it is wonderful, awesome, romantic and of course, snowy! It snowed so much while we were there. Our first day of skiing was sunny and 55. But the next day it started to snow those fat pretty flakes. And it didn’t stop! No worries, we still skied our hearts out!

We booked our condo through VRBO and being that it wasn’t a hotel it made me a bit nervous. But the vacation rental could not have been better. It was so adorable. The perfect mountain getaway!

The last time Naaman and I took a real vacation alone was in 2007. I swore before we had kids that I would never let us go that long without an adults-only vacation. But the the kids came (in rapid succession). Jobs were gained and lost. The kids were super young and needed us all the time. The opportunity never felt exactly right.

Last year we were in the throes of paying off our credit cards and it just wasn’t financially feasible. But this year? This year I knew we had hit our breaking point. It is no longer a want. We NEED a vacation. A vacation just for us. It has been 5 1/2 years since we got away together. That is way too long in my opinion.

1. The boys are both in that weird clothing stage where nothing fits perfectly. For Landon, 3T is now too small while 4T is still too big. For Brigham, 18 monthw is definitely much too small (he’s 30 lbs now!) while 2T is a bit too big. It’s so annoying. I feel like they both look a bit homely with their too small/too big clothing because I do not want to buy new winter clothes. I am trying to wait it out long enough for new spring and summer clothes. Sorry, boys.

My trip to West Palm Beach, Florida was wonderful. I can’t tell you how good it felt to take off my shoes and feel the sand against my winterized Missouri toes. A couple days were rainy but I could feel the balm of humidity on my skin.

But a couple days were gorgeous and we headed to the beach in search of a beautiful view. I think we found it (see above).

Traveling has always been a huge part of my life. From the time I was able to walk my parents were packing us up in search of new adventures.

My dad was a marching band director for a large high school for many years. Each school year he took the band to march in a parade or perform somewhere big. But before he took the band on the trip that year our family would do a “planning” trip the summer before to organize all the details.

Although a bit late, I thought I would give everyone a tour of why I’m so thankful using some of our vacation photos . .

The most loving and supportive husband a girl could ask for and the best father to our son . . .

The cutest, smartest, funniest and most loving little boy a mom could ever ask for . . .

The best family ever. If you only knew how great it is to have them as my family, well, you’d know what a lucky girl I am!

Well, we’re all packed and ready for our first big family vacation to Orlando, Florida. Aside from the flight (I absolutely hate flying if you didn’t already know that), I am so excited and happy to just be there. I have not seen my sister Cindi since June or my sister Jennifer since August. I’m ready for our entire family to be together again. You cannot imagine all the fun we have when we’re all hanging out! We have so many fun things planned including . . .