Excitement and Anticipation

Sometimes for me, looking forward to things can be almost as fun as the actual experience itself. Kenton and I are heading out next week for a fun summer road trip. We’re driving from Oregon to Durango, Colorado to visit my aunt and uncle, stopping in Boise along the way to visit another friend of the family. Kenton has his free National Park pass for just finishing fourth grade, so we’re planning to hit up as many national parks and monuments as we can during our time on the road. 

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=10I90NfKLAsiNEEHcKJc9UJ6mVunZc4lZ

We are definitely stopping in Arches and we’ll do Mesa Verde since it’s only about 45 minutes from my Aunt and Uncle‘s house, but the rest is up in the air, and I kind of like it that way. It’s a little overwhelming for me to plan out a trip on a day by day or hour by our basis. I like to plan a general route and have a few things in mind, but one of my favorite things to do when out exploring on the road is just to wake up in the morning and use Google maps to search for interesting things nearby. So if it’s something that takes reservations months in advance, it’s probably not gonna be on our list of things to do this trip. Lol

I haven’t been on a National Parks road trip since the Covid days when we set out in our RV and made some of the best family memories. My girls are teenagers now and weren’t really excited about the idea of coming along, so it’s just my 11-year-old and I and I’m honestly looking forward to the quality time with him more than anything. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m super excited to see family, and I always love visiting beautiful parts of our country and planet, but the thing I’m looking forward to the most is the one on one time with him and the core memories we are going to make together. 

I love sharing my travels on social media, and Kenton is still at an age where that doesn’t bother him, so we’ll be sharing bits of our trip along the way.

If you have any suggestions of fun activities or things to see along the way that would be of interest to an 11 year old boy, I’m all ears! 

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