The first national park on this grand adventure was Hot Springs National Park in Hot Springs, AR.

It seems we are passing on the sign picture tradition… as everyone wanted a picture of the sign with their camera. 

The town of Hot Springs was built to capitalize on the hot springs of water coming out of the ground in that area. 

Numerous bath houses were built here in the early 1900s.  

You could actually feel the heat coming from the ground near the spring. 

And we were able to stick our fingers in and touch it.  It was indeed hot. 

After touching the hot spring we took a walk around the promonade.

  It was wonderful to get out and stretch our feet.  It was a beautiful evening for a stroll (or cartwheels). 

And we even found some dirt and rocks!

Before we left we filled our water bottles with fresh, hot spring water. 

One of the rangers told us that people will drive monthly from hours away to fill up jugs of this fresh, unpolluted spring water.  While I don’t think Hot Springs will rank amongst the top of the National Parks we visit this trip, it was a fun stop and it exceeded my expectations.

Saturday we left Nashville and continued further west.  Our goal for the day was to reach Ft Smith, AR (on the border of AR and OK) and to visit Hot Springs National Park in Hot Springs, AR. 

Mission Accomplished

We were in the car from about 9:45am to 11:30pm… with the exception of 3 hours in Hot Springs. 

No one seemed to mind though.  They had video games, movies, books, coloring pages, and crafts to pass the time. 

We “dined” at the Golden Arches for lunch. 

We read about Arkansas, the Mississippi River and Elvis Presley.  We also listened to some Elvis on Spotify since we were going to be driving by Memphis.   The kids were not impressed with The King.

Aunt Karen gave the kids each a little bag of activities for the car ride.  They have been a BIG HIT. 

We saw 3 skylines as we trekked across route 40.

Nashville

Memphis (and the Mississippi River)

Little Rock

We also passed several military convoys.

And hit some traffic due to construction.

Scott drove the entire way.  Isn’t he a stud?

Today we will cross OK, the top part of TX, and enter NM.  We will stay with friends for two nights in Albuquerque.  Then we will slow way down on the miles per day and begin the camping portion of our journey. 

We started on our grand adventure yesterday morning.  We set off a little later than we had hoped due to some storm preparations we had to make in case the forecasted impending storms took out our power while we were gone. 

Our plan for day one was to drive from Annapolis, MD to Nashville, TN.  Our route took us through DC which was a fun start. 

We left our house around 10:15 in the morning and pulled into Scott’s cousins in TN around 10:30pm.  The kids did great on day 1.  We made 2 bathroom stops and an extended stop at Chick-Fil-A for dinner, the playground, and ice cream .   The kids stayed pretty entertained through the car ride. 

We then spent Friday relaxing with Scott’s cousin and her family.  She has 6 kids and 2 cats and the circus kids had a blast with all of them.  Not to mention they had a pool in their back yard.  We went swimming three different times in one day.  

For those that have been following our 5 year olds please for a cat… looks like we now have 2 circus kids pining for one… anyone care to wager how long till the circus fam adds a cat to the crew?

After weeks of round the clock prepping and to do lists, it was so refreshing to just spend a day chilling.  A wonderful start to our grand adventure.

I know I’ve posted some of them before, but as we prepare to add 11 new pictures to our collection, I thought I’d post the pictures we currently have in our flip book.

2002

2003

2005

2006

2007

2009

2010

2011

I had so much fun looking back over these pictures and recalling the stories behind them.  And I can’t wait to add to them in just a little while!

You know how sometimes a movie or book will portray how one decision or one event changed the momentum and current of the character’s entire life?

Well for Scott and I, that momentum shifting/life altering event was our vacation in 2002.  Somehow or other we got to talking about cross country trips.  And somehow an idea blossomed for a large out west vacation.  We had a huge map of the US in our laundry room and we began plotting our course.  We flew into and out of Las Vegas b/c we didn’t want to waste any of our vacation time in getting out there.  We then spent 21 days touring the mid west…. the majority of it was spent camping with a few hotel stays as well as visits with friends and family of Scott’s…We saw the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Zion, Arches and then we went into Co and saw the Rockies… from there we headed north to family in Wyoming and then Mt Rushmore before trekking west to Yellowstone, Titans, and then onward to Salt Lake City, Lake Tahoe, visiting Scott’s grandparents in Sacramento, San Francisco, Yosemite and back to Vegas…. it was incredible.  We saw so many amazing places and had such a fabulous time together.  Somewhere around the Tetons I recall saying to Scott, “This is amazing… these parks are amazing… we should visit EVERY NATIONAL PARK.” 

And he agreed.

And our lives were forever changed. 

This singular vacation and following decision would shape all of our family vacations to come.   It would shape the frequency of our vacations. It would even shape our budget.

We actually bought a coffee table type book of National Parks on that trip and began dreaming/planning our future endeavors.  We soon discovered that the National Park System encompasses quite a few parks.  We then set boundaries.  Our goal is to visit every National PARK… not monument, not forest, or battlefield or seashore.  Simply the parks.  We also decided that for the purpose of our quest, we do not need to see every park in Alaska (as much as we’d like to).  Alaska has so many parks and so many square miles that it would be a quest in and of itself to see them all.  So for the purposes of our quest a visit to Alaska and some of her national parks will qualify as a check mark on our spread sheet.

Yes, we have a spreadsheet with all of the National Parks in them and the dates we have visited them.  This is important, because not long after making our quest, we learned that the US govt can add national parks to the system!  So we could visit Co, see all the parks in that state and then a few years later a new park could pop up.  Therefore we have an original list of parks we are attempting to see.  If new parks are added after the date our original quest was set, those are considered optional.  We are not deemed failures if we haven’t visited those parks. 

What that you say?  A little type A?  Listen people… when you make a quest, it needs to be obtainable, therefore guidelines must be set.  Besides, I want to have a HUGE party with friends and family when we reach this goal and we can never have said party if this goal isn’t reached because the rules keep changing.  

We have a collection of magnets on our fridge from each of the National Parks we visit.  We also have one of those flip frames with pictures of us in front of each National Park sign we visit. 

Since that first trip, we have gone on 5 other National Park vacations.   We have seen 28 of the 52 parks on our list.   Because our family has grown significantly since then, we can’t afford to go on vacation every year… or even every other year.  Our last major vacation was in 2010.  It takes a long time to save up to cart 6 people around the country.  But, for us, it is totally worth it.  I love it.  I love seeing new places and seeing different geography…and I love the time spent in God’s beautiful creation.  I love camping and I love road trips.  And I love seeing these things with Scott by my side and through the eyes of my children.  Which is a good thing because the Circus Family is planning their next big adventure… next week we will leave on a 3 week cross country adventure… by MINIVAN.  We’ll drive roughly 6000 miles and log around 100 hours in the van.  We will also get to take our picture in front of  9 new park signs and 2 repeat signs for Scott and I.  And I am realizing that planning a 3 week cross country vacation for 6 people is a TON more work than it was 11 years ago when we planned one for two people.

A year ago today Scott and I dropped the kids off at a friends house and went to sign on the dotted line about 20 gazillion times. 

We left with keys to our new home!

Scott and I headed to the new place to enjoy some take out Chinese on the back deck as we celebrated the immense blessing of this new home.  Then as is the case quite often for us… our busy lives resumed… Scott back to work… me to grab some stuff from our old house to bring to our new house for our camp out that night… then we met up at the gym for our daughter’s Mini Olympics performance and I think we might have had a little league baseball game in there too… we got home much later that evening…

Wow!  Someone grew up this year!

Our realtor had surprised us by stocking our fridge with food… we ate our first meal as a family in our new home… picnic style in the kitchen at 8:00 at night… and then we camped out on the living room floor.

The next day our friends helped move over our stuff and we couldn’t believe how by the end of that LONG day it truly felt like we were at home.

We were so excited and overwhelmed as this house was way more than we dreamed we’d have.  It was exactly the house we wanted for our family.   Even though the newness as worn off… the toilet runs, finger prints cover  the walls, the grout in the floor never seems to stay clean… the appreciation for this house hasn’t faded.   I can honestly say that almost daily in the past year Scott and I have reflected and commented to each other how very grateful we are for this home.  How much we truly cherish it. 

I LOVE, LOVE the back yard.  I smile every time I look out the kitchen window and see the kids playing in the back.  I love how much room they have and how much privacy we have.

I love the layout of our main living floor.  We have room for our chaos to to spread without it feeling like we are all on top of each other.  There’s room to homeschool in the kitchen and not have to clear the table for lunch or dinner.  I LOVE that! 

It’s been a year… we still haven’t decorated the kids rooms at all… I hope to get to that this summer.  And I have a few other walls that I’d like to hang stuff on and make homey.  But, it is home… been home since we camped out together on the living room floor last June.  And I hope our deep appreciation and gratitude for this home never fades with time.

Our littlest man was so, so excited about his third birthday.  I wish there was some way to truly capture his joy and eager anticipation.  He talked about his party daily since his brothers birthday in April.  He’d tell me the date of his birthday and that he was turning “free” and that he wanted a choo choo cake, and a choo choo balloon, and a present, and a party.  Then after his Daddy had his birthday in late May and had to leave to go to a meeting on his birthday, he then would add that he wanted a meeting on his birthday too. 

The night before his party I pulled out the Thomas plates and napkins I had gotten for him.   And let me tell you they were worth every penny I spent on them.  The look of joy and excitement on his face as he pulled out EACH and every one and placed it on the table and showed his Daddy his party stuff was truly priceless. 

This was the first of his birthdays that he really cared about.  The first he looked forward to.  And he was at this perfect stage were he was so, so excited and yet so, so easy to please.  Scott remarked to me the night before his party (after watching him pull out all 32 napkins one by one with total glee) that he (Scott) would be so sad when the party was over, b/c this eager anticipation was just too priceless. 

We really kept it simple…we had both sets of grandparents over and 2 families that are close friends of ours.  (of course that still totaled 11 kids).  It was so fun to see the three three year olds running around in the back yard together.  I remember when we were all three carrying those boys in our bellies. 

When it came time for the cake and ice cream he actually sang along with us… the loudest of the bunch. 

When I saw this picture that someone snapped of him blowing out his candle, it instantly reminded me of one of my favorite family pictures snapped at the hospital when the kids came to meet him.  Three years later and we are still totally enamored by him. 

Happy Birthday little man!  I can’t believe it’s been three years since you entered the world and made our family complete.  You have brought us so very much joy!

This weekend we snuck away for to celebrate our anniversary.  We spent the night in the nations capital.  And we had a blast.  No agenda.  No plan.  Just hanging out in DC just the two of us.  Confession:  I love the monuments in DC.  Living in MD, I have seen them a lot.  Growing up summer visits from cousins ALWAYS meant trips into DC.  And I know they are very touristy.  But, I didn’t really appreciate them until I was older.  Now every time we go in to DC, I say, “Man, we should come again soon.  I love this place.”  I do.  I love the history.  I love the monuments.  I feel so small as I stand before this giant monuments immortalizing heroes of our nations past. As I read their words I am always amazed at how they are still timely today.  When we visit the war memorials I am humbled at the courage and sacrifices made by our soldiers.  I love the architecture of this fine city.  And I still get a little star struck standing in front of the White House.

Since we spent the night in the city, we were able to walk around the monuments at night… something I haven’t done before.  They look totally different lit up at night.  

And in recent years I have loved learning my way around the city… finding restaurants and shops just blocks away from the tourism rampant on the mall.   This trip I was taken with the architecture of the buildings.

I was also surprised by how many places these monumental landmarks would pop into view from various places in the city.  I’d get so excited as I’d cross the street and look over and see the Capital…

…or walk around the tidal basin by the Jefferson Memorial and it would pop into view again. 

I also didn’t realize you could see the White House from the Jefferson Memorial.

After spending the day walking around the city, grabbing some Starbucks, browsing around Barnes and Noble… truly two of our favorite things to do on a date… we went back to claim our car and luggage from the hotel and head out of the city.  But, I had wanted to see the new to us MLK memorial and we hadn’t made it to the Jefferson Memorial the night before, so we decided to look for some parking on that part of the city and take a walk before heading home.  Storm clouds were rolling in, so it was a nice cool walk along the basin.  Our time at the MLK memorial was cut a bit short as we noticed NO COVER anywhere near by.  But we arrived at the Jefferson Memorial at the perfect time. Crowds were clearing out. 

Look there’s the view of the White House I was talking about… with storm clouds lurking over head.

And then came the downpour!

Bye-bye view of the White House!

Pretty fabulous place to watch a rain storm though!

And afterwards…the memorial steps to ourselves!

I was all giddy as we walked back to our car… what a fabulous end to our fun weekend… and then Scott spotted this rainbow over the Jefferson Memorial.

Couldn’t get more perfect than that!

I am thankful for the time alone with my love… a little over 24 hours… no responsibilities, no distractions… just the two of us.  I am also thankful for the past 12 years with him as my husband.  I love him with all my heart. 

We celebrated my Dad’s 60th Birthday this week with a party at Hershey park.  Dad, Mom, their kids, and their 8 grandkids. 

We had a blast riding the rides, but truly the best part was being together as a family and enjoying watching relationships grow. 

When you’re the oldest cousin sometimes you have to do time in the kiddy rides.  He was quite the sport… and was rewarded with roller coaster time in the evening.

My mom prepared tons of food for lunch and dinner.  We tailgated in the parking lot for lunch before we went into the park and again in the evening with cupcakes and party horns.

My youngest niece is def a future thrill seeker.  She had her hands in the air before the ride even took off.

Thanks Dad for sharing your special day with all of us… it was a fun day filled with sweet, sweet memories.