Posted by Tagged with card games, Family travel, parenting, scavenger hunts, travel games Posted in Uncategorized

Ideas for Rainy (or snowy) Days

When you are traveling, there are bound to be a number of rainy (or snowy) days when your outdoor plans don’t go as planned. Here are a few fun things we have done on the days when we need to be inside.

GAMES

Since we have very limited space in the van, we could only choose a few favorite games to bring. Here are our the top 3.

Scrabble – a timeless word game that never gets old. To be fair, we didn’t bring this game along. We borrowed it from people we stayed with. It’s a game that most people have sitting on a shelf, even if it doesn’t get played.

Quiddler – Another word game involving cards. In round one, players get 3 cards to spell a word. In each round, one card is added. By the end of the game, players have 8 cards to make as many words as possible. A bonus is given for the player with the most words and the longest word during each round.

Monopoly Deal – I always hated monopoly because it took too long and involved too many small pieces. This version of the game can be played in less than 30 minutes and all you need is the deck of cards. Anyone who is able to read can play. No difficult math skills required. It helps to have someone who has played the game before teach it to you. It’s worth learning because once you get the hang of it, you will LOVE it.

Scavenger Hunts

Most kids enjoy scavenger hunts. Especially if there is some type of prize at the end. I created these two and used them with the kids on the trip. One is for the grocery store and the other for the library.
I’ve included links below to the printables I’ve created. If you have trouble getting to them, just send me a message and I can email them to you.
Free downloads below ⬇️

Grocery-Scavenger-Hunt-Download

Library-scavenger-hunt-Download


A few other little activities we have done almost every day rain or shine are:

Wordle – the online daily game put out by the New York Times. You have 5 guesses to figure out the chosen 5 letter word of the day.

Marco Polo – a great free app where you can send videos to family and friends and they can watch them on their own time and return videos back.


License Plate Search – when we are traveling, we are always on the look out for new license plates. When we find a state we haven’t seen before, we take a picture of it. Here are just a few.

Feel free to share your favorite games and travel activities in the comments. We still have 2 months left and could use some fresh ideas!

Posted by Tagged with Arizona, roadtrip Posted in Uncategorized

Tucson, Arizona

As I write this post, our home state of Minnesota is getting dumped with snow and I am thrilled to be missing out on the shoveling. I do miss the feeling of being cozy in the house while the cold wind blows outside, everything is cancelled, and we are forced to hunker down and do a jigsaw puzzle. We have not needed to double layer our socks or wear long underwear at all this winter. We’ve spent our time in Georgia, Florida, Texas, and now Arizona.

We arrived in Vail, a quiet little desert town about 20 minutes South of Tucson on February 7th. We are staying on a gravel road off the beaten path at the home of Dean and Lisa Kindle for about 4 weeks. They have given us new experiences such as learning about our life path color, providing us with art supplies, and introducing us to a cacao ceremony. Dean and Lisa have named their property Solquest Retreat and that is exactly what we were seeking. We craved a few weeks to slow down in one place, center ourselves, and listen to God for direction. Part of this trip’s purpose was to rekindle our marriage and family relationships and re-center our lives for the next season.

There is a labyrinth in the front yard, and each morning we’ve been able to walk the stone-lined path to the center of the 40 foot circle. Before beginning the walk, we remember what we are grateful for. The walk to the middle is a time to release (intentionally let go of the things that are troubling us). In the center, we take time to receive what God wants to give us for that day. The walk back out is a return to our work and play for the day. It is an active form of prayer and reflection.

Some of our daily outings in and around Tucson have been driving up Mount Lemmon, attending a rodeo parade, hiking in Sabino Canyon, studying saguaro cacti, riding horses at Medella Vina Ranch, and playing tennis at Reffkin Tennis Center in Tucson. We will end our month here with a Disco in the Desert on March 4th. If you are in the Tucson area, you are invited!!
Here are some photos of our adventures in the Arizona mountains.

Rocks are all the rage here. We went to a gem show the first weekend and now we can’t stop seeing rocks everywhere.

We watched the Super Bowl at a little restaurant in Vail called Dos Hermanos. We had the place to ourselves and they served the best tacos we have tasted on the trip.

Being so close to mountains has been a highlight from this part of the country. The kids had never seen a mountain before this trip.

The road has become home (for now) and it’s hard to believe we have made it almost 4 whole months.
Next stop, California!

Posted by Tagged with Family travel, family US roadtrip, Theartistsway Posted in Uncategorized

Take a Risk or Play it Safe?

#1. Are you a risk taker?

#2. What’s the most dangerous thing you’ve ever done?

My answer to these questions before this year would be

# 1 – NO

#2 – I don’t believe in doing dangerous things!


Then came the decision to travel for 6 months. We moved out of our house of 10 years and hit the road with a rough plan, but many details yet to fill in. I struggled with how people would react to this choice we had made. It seemed reckless and crazy. It was out of character from the play it safe environment I had been raised in. What would people say about us? Would we fail, and come running home to a chorus of “I told you sos”. Would our younger kids resent us for taking them out of school? How would our older kids react to not having a home to come back to on breaks? What if there was a crisis or things didn’t go like we expected?

We packed up our van and hit the road on November 1st, 2022. I felt confident that this was the year to take this trip, and that God would take care of us and take care of our big kids who were not with us.

I had read that when you know that you are meant to do something and you step out and move toward that idea, things begin to work in your favor. That’s exactly what began to happen. People got excited for us and began to give us gifts, introduced us to people they knew, and offered practical suggestions.

“Leap, and the net will appear” is a phrase originally penned by James Burroughs, and re-quoted in countless other places. I clung to this phrase in the days before we left when I felt scared or unsure.

Oftentimes when we take a chance, others respond with help, and circumstances align in our favor. Julia Cameron in her book The Artist’s Way calls this synchronicity. The miracles of everything falling into place to support our travel vision cannot be denied or dismissed as luck. Many times during the trip, we have seen God open doors for us to stay in places we weren’t expecting.

If we wait until we are ready to do something that seems big or scary, we may never do it. We will never feel ready to take a risk.
Living this creative life takes faith and trust.

I don’t pretend to have it all figured out. I still struggle with fear and doubt, but taking risks gets easier the more I do it.

I’ve been looking at the life of Jesus lately and have been noticing that He never called his disciples to be safe.
If Jesus were walking with me right now, I believe He would not say be safe, but instead, be brave.

Brave means stepping outside my comfort zone. Brave means doing things that scare me. A few examples for me are

  • saying yes to being a guest on a podcast
  • becoming who I want to be instead of who others expect me to be and
  • calling myself an artist and a leader

What does being brave look like for you right now? Is there something you need to step into, but don’t feel ready? Take a couple steps forward. You can do it!

Posted by Tagged with family US roadtrip, national parks, new mexico, White sands Posted in Uncategorized

White Sands National Park

Our 2nd National Park visited was only 3 hours from Carlsbad Caverns, so these two amazing wonders could be seen in one weekend. They are both in New Mexico. We stayed the night in El Paso and then drove the hour to White Sands in the morning.
Nothing can quite prepare you for this park. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen. There are over 200 miles of white sand. A road winds through the park and there are several places to stop and park.

In the pictures, you will see that the sand can almost be mistaken for snow. Especially since they give out sleds at the visitor center for visitors to slide down the massive sand dunes.
We didn’t see many other people there in January. It was a bit chilly and we needed our winter coats, but the sun shone brightly so it was comfortable. We spent about 2 hours wandering around, just us and the sand…..miles and miles of it. I could see how it would be easy to get lost since there are no paths and everything looks the same. The only landmark is a paved road winding through the center of the park.
The kids said it wasn’t as fun as sledding in snow – of course! We wrote words in the sand, took deep breaths in and out, and just enjoyed the peace of this sacred place. Here are a few videos to give you a glimpse of the grandeur of this magical place that looks like snow in the desert.

It’s nothing like sledding down and icy hill. It’s SAND. At the bottom of the hill Malia yelled, “that was leisurely!”
Posted by Tagged with Carlsbad Caverns, Family travel, family US roadtrip, national parks, new mexico Posted in Uncategorized

Carlsbad Caverns

Three months into our USA road-trip, we finally visited our first National Park.
Carlsbad Caverns is located in New Mexico and is home to an incredible cave that you can walk down into and explore. Millions of bats live in the back of the cave and fly out at sunset. The bats stayed well hidden on our walk through. I watched videos ahead of time, but nothing could prepare me for the massiveness and wonder of this cave.
After reserving an entrance time online and paying your entrance fee (free with a National Parks pass) we took the 1.5 mile path down, down, down into the cave. There is an option to take an elevator down, but we opted to walk down.

The great room on the bottom of the cave is 750 feet below ground, so it is quite trek down. It was not very busy the day we were there, so it was dark, quiet, and eery. Ivy, our 8 year old, was scared and had a hard time enjoying the cave. I can imagine those with high anxiety in dark places may want to take the elevator. It was quite a workout on my leg muscles since the entire path was a steep downward slope. Once you are in the great room at the bottom of the cave, it is well lit and the ground is all flat. To walk through the entire cave it can take about 2.5 hours – it’s HUGE. We skipped the final mile loop so spent about 2 hours total from start to finish with lots of breaks to rest and drink water (bring a water bottle!)
Here are some photos of the cave. I highly recommend visiting this natural wonder. It is truly a work of art that far surpasses the beauty of any church or cathedral I’ve ever visited. It almost felt like a holy place.

The road into this National Park is about 7 miles long. When we arrived it was so foggy we couldn’t see much more than a few feet in front of us. By the time we left the park, the fog had lifted and we were able to see the beautiful landscape leaving the park. As we drove from Carlsbad to El Paso, Texas, we had the most gorgeous views of the Guadalupe Mountains.