Category Archives: Wanderlust

Highlights & Challenges of 2014: Pregnancy, Home and Family Life

Posted by Mama Bear on November 27, 2014 Comments Off on Highlights & Challenges of 2014: Pregnancy, Home and Family Life

Highs and lows of navigating life this year so far.

January – Got pregnant with #3 after making some health changes and seeing a holistic chiro.

February – Found out we were pregnant with # 3 due in Oct.
  Took the boys to Destin, FL and stopped to see family in Alabama on the way.
  Knocked the rock wall out of the dining room and pulled up the old wood tile.

March – Went to my first homeschooling convention.

April – Potty trained G.
   Got our first chicks.
   Went to Devils Den State Park in Arkansas. Walked the trails and took the boys to their first cave at War Eagle.

May – Lost one of our apple trees in a windstorm and planted several more fruit trees to replace it.
    Moved the chicks to their outdoor coop and run.
    Finally got the solar panels up and running and connected to the electric company.
    Bro in laws dog was hit and lost Mittens to an inoperable blockage.
     Built boxes for our garden and planted tomatoes, peppers, beets, carrots, cucumber, radishes, sunflowers, corn, green beans, sweet potatoes, blueberries, raspberries, rhubarb and several rows of pumpkins (the rows of pumpkins we planted all got eaten by squash bugs😔).
    Found out at our gender reveal party we would be welcoming sweet baby boy #3.

June – I finally ordered a Young Living starter kit so I had an arsenal of high quality oils to give our family an extra boost in the health arena.

Went Blueberry picking with my sis in law.
   Took the boys mini golfing at Paradise Park for the first time

July – Picked 15 tomato horn worms off our tomato plants and fed them to the chickens (they make great recyclers) 😅
   We hosted our annual 4th of July party.
   Went to Kauai just the two(I mean 3)of us. Took a catamaran around the coast, did lots of snorkeling, rented a mustang, saw and hung out with friends & family.

August – Started Kinder homeschooling with J.
   Went to Destin, FL with some of the fam. Stayed in a condo. Rented a boat and drove to Shell island and saw lots of dolphins on the way back.

September – Got out first eggs from our chickens.
   Bought the boys a bunk bed and got lots of things ready for the baby including needing to switch midwives in the last few weeks.
   Corey injured his leg/back/hip pretty bad at work.

October – Finally welcomed baby boy #3 after my water had been leaking for about 36hrs before going into active labor. Active labor lasted about 1-2hrs and pushing stage almost 2 hours because he had his hand above his head. https://therewegrow.com/home-sweet-homebirth/

Royals went to the World Series.
Hosted our annual hayride/bonfire

And that pretty much brings us up to date…

Day 14 – Heading Home

Posted by Mama Bear on July 14, 2012 1 comments


Heading from Estes Park back to Kansas City today. Not looking forward to being cooped up in the van for that long but hey, theres always books, movies and internet ha! 🙂 At this point we have traveled approx 3,800 miles, stayed at 6 campsites, visited 3 national parks and been gone 14 days.

We’ve made some wonderful memories and crazy ones too… now we have to get back and get some work, ebay and car repair stuff taken care of and sell the pop-up and maybe the van before the end of summer.

I could use a little refreshing myself and then I’ll be ready to hit the road again!

Day 13 – It’s a Beautiful Day

Posted by Mama Bear on July 14, 2012 None comments

Enjoyed our time in Yellowstone and Rocky Mountain National Park. So much to see and do plus not good signal everywhere. I obviously didn’t keep up on the blog posts.

Today we hiked around Bear Lake and down to a waterfall. Fell asleep to the rain and thunder. Trying to take the last bit in. I can’t believe how two weeks have flown by.

Camping Anyone?

Posted by Mama Bear on May 13, 2012 None comments

I’m excited… slightly hesitant, but mostly excitedly anticipating the upcoming weeks. We have decided to do some much needed traveling, exploring and hopefully squeeze in a little R&R. The R&R, with our version of adventure and throwing a 10 month and almost 3 year old into the mix remains to be seen but ultimately we are looking to have some wonderful family bonding and memory making times with each other and the littles. We have become the, possibly temporary, proud owners of a Coleman popup camper and Chevy conversion van. Ok, so I’m the proud owner of the popup. I was more than a little concerned about the complications of driving and camping all over timbucktu with my two little wild men and highly suggested we try it with a camper first. My husband on the other hand the proud owner of the conversion van. Why the van? Not because he loves vans mind you. Only, and I quote, because he “refused to be whipped by driving a soccer mom van”. Apparently my slight embarrassment about the ginormous van and the fact that I laughingly emphasized that I plan to ONLY drive the beast for unavoidable work related tasks, somehow made him feel he had stayed a little higher on the manliness chart. I must say, I have unexpectedly begun to fall in love with “the beast”. Compared to driving in the Jetta it feels like a bus as far as room goes, of course it probably guzzles gas like a bus too, but I’m able to help the boys without feeling I have to do yoga poses to get into the back and the seats are super comfy.

I hope to keep up the blog and post about our travels on the road. If anyone has any tips on best camping spots, Yellowstone, Tetons, Glacier National Park or camping with small children in general we’d love to hear them!

Our 1st Family Vacation

Posted by Mama Bear on February 16, 2010 None comments



Well we are back from our last minute trip out of town and what a new adventure to say the least. I have to admit “vacation” with a six month old takes on a whole new meaning. Things actually went a whole lot smoother than I thought though with the only rough day being the flight back because Boo couldn’t fall asleep and proceeded to scream and cry for everyone for quite awhile. We also arrived at the parking lot to find the car battery dead. Other than that though it was a pretty enjoyable trip of sunshine and warmer weather. We flew into Orlando Tuesday and drove down through Miami, all the way out to Key West and back up the gulf side through Ft Myers and Sanibel Island, stopping for the night at different points along the way. I had dolphin (mahi mahi) tacos and curry shrimp during the time we were there. We walked by alligators in the everglades that were only a couple of feet away from us, stuck our toes in the sand at Key West and took a very interesting glass bottom boat ride which I’ll let my husbands review on tripadvisor explain to you. https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g34344-d102401-r55913603-John_Pennekamp_Coral_Reef_State_Park-Key_Largo_Florida_Keys_Florida.html

All in all it was fun and memorable to say the least!