What I’ve Learned and Discovered This Trip

July 4, 2022

Discoveries this trip:

POG (passion orange guava) juice that we tried in Hawaii
Mini tacos from Jack in the Box (CA)
Huckleberry dark chocolate and licorice (MT)
Lychee Hawaiian shaved ice (HI)
Hula pie (HI)
Liam’s growth this trip. He’s been making more sounds…approximations for all done and yogurt, I wanna go there, and the p sound. He’s also gotten more comfortable being around new people and transitioning easier to new environments and activities.
A kid’s meal is not enough food for Caleb. My almost 13 year old is eating off the adult menu!
Dave’s new favorite show is Yellowstone and he now dreams of owning a ranch in Montana.
Our kids are troopers when it comes to hiking, trying new foods, and road tripping
Nebraska fans are everywhere (found 5+ in Hawaii, one in Arches NP, one at Bigz Burgers in TX) and they all want to chat about NE…football, who they know, places they’ve been and things they’ve done. NE fans are chatty.
We love huckleberry flavor, but not prickly pear
Dave was the best in his tour group at the “controlled slide” down rocks in Moab and Caleb was so proud. He told everyone that the tour guide said Dave was #1!
We have awesome friends and family. I need to remind myself when I feel lonely, when I get discouraged by our military life style and how many times we’ve moved our kids. So many people have opened their home to us, met us for meals, taken care of and spent time with us. The friends and family God has put in our lives are true gifts.
JOMO (joy of missing out) is real and sometimes needed. The day the boys went on their Razor ride tour in Moab I had this sudden thought that I needed to drop them off and take the little ones to get ice cream or to a park or DO something in Moab. Then I remembered I didn’t have to push it, didn’t have to do one more thing to blog about. Instead, we had an indoor picnic watching Paw Patrol and went to bed early. There is joy and peace in rest and sometimes missing out.
I’m so grateful for the privilege and opportunity to travel. It has truly been an adventure of a lifetime, one we hope our kids have fond memories of.