Author: Jess

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Video WanderLog

Grants Pass, Medford & Video of Hiking Wizard Island at Crater Lake NP

Travel Dates: August 23-29, 2014

Every week when I do these posts I think, “Holy crap. We get a whole lot done in one week. We’re nuts.” Every. Single. Week.

This Week on Instagram Aug 23-29 2014

Ashland, Medford, and Valley of the Rogue Oregon State Park hit a chord with me. The area is beautiful – towering mountains, golden hills, interesting people, fun outdoor things to do, and some culture. Oh – and a Costco. That always ranks a city high on my list.

We celebrated Andrew’s 7th birthday with a day at the pool, the kids and I visited the Science Center in Ashland, we got a ton of work and errands run, Sam and I attended temple sessions (separately), and we even made it on a DATE. This is epic you guys. A friend’s parents babysit our kids for 6 hours so we could take a jetboat tour up Hellsgate Canyon. It was awesome. Both the tour and being sans kiddos.

We ended the week with a gorgeous drive through southern Oregon up to Crater Lake National Park. This park has pretty much hit the top of my favorites list. I loved everything about it. We loved exploring some of the trails and scenery off the rim, as well as a boat tour of the lake and a hike up to the top of Wizard Island (such a cool name btw). It was a great week!!

Here is our most recent Wandering Update taken from the top of Wizard Island (sound warning – it was windy and he took this with his cell phone):

 

Categories
Homeschool

Hack Schooling

“Much of education is oriented, for better or worse, towards making a living rather than making a life.”

My thoughts about public education are seemingly on a roller coaster. Some days I want to hand off the education of my children to someone else, some days I’m ready to keep them by my side forever, and some I’m lukewarm indifferent. Really, a lot depends on how difficult my children were being that day, or what I’ve read recently about different home school philosophies (not that I read much), or other non-related influences currently in my life.

Recently, however, I happened upon a Ted Talk by 13 year old  Logan LaPlante who talks about his idea of “hackschooling” and how its helped him in his education. In summary, what he wants to be when he grows up is “happy” and having the freedom to study what he is interested in outside a classroom does just that.

I’ve always said that I have no desire to homeschool my children past the traveling phase of our lives, but every once in awhile I get that twitch. The “what if” twitch that says, maybe there really is a different and better way.

Take a look and let me know what you think:

Categories
WanderLog

Leaving the Redwoods and Heading to Oregon

Travel Dates: July 16 – 22, 2014

As we were driving the scenic highway in Jedidiah Smith Redwoods State Park the kids in the backseat were getting a little carsick. The rode was pretty narrow and unpaved, but it wound through some beautiful Old Growth Redwood Trees and Sam and I (at least) were enjoying the drive immensely.

From the backseat Andrew pipes up, “Mom? Dad? Why are we driving this way? I wish we had gone the other way home.”

“For a blogpost,” I answered immediately.

“For kicks and giggles,” Sam chimes in at the same time.

“Because we can,” we finally decided.

Andrew replied with, “You guys never make sense.”

This Week on Instagram July 16-22 2014

We finished up our stay in the Redwoods and along the coast with a visit to Crescent City, CA and Jedidiah Smith Redwoods State Park. Having thoroughly enjoyed our time, we decided to get out of the fog a little and headed inland to camp at the Smith River National Forest area and then head on to see the Oregon Caves National Monument. We landed in Valley of the Rogue State Park near Medford and Ashland for the weekend!

Categories
Featured Destination National Parks Utah

The Wildflowers at Cedar Breaks National Monument – Utah

Wildflowers at Cedar Breaks National Monument. One of Utah's lesser known but beautiful National Parks.Going to southern Utah in the summer is generally not a good idea. Its hot. Really hot. However, there are a few places that are high enough in elevation to escape most of the stifling summer heat. On our post-move out southern Utah loop, we spent a week at Bryce Canyon and then drove over to Cedar Breaks National Monument. Both are high in elevation with Bryce around 8000 feet and Cedar Breaks closer to 10,000. While not “cold” the weather was pleasant, cooled off at night, and definitely manageable.

When We Visited: Early July 2014
Ages of Kids: 8, 6, 4
Tips: Only about an hour out of Cedar City, this could definitely be a day trip. Earn a badge, go on a hike, enjoy the view. However, they do have a Night Ranger Explorer Badge that has some nighttime requirements.

The campground at Cedar Breaks is small, but situated close to a meadow. At first glance, the park doesn’t seem like much and we weren’t particularly excited to stay as there was no Verizon signal for Sam to get any work done. Then we went on a walk from the campground to the visitor center and fell in love. There were wildflowers everywhere and they were beautiful! After talking to the camp host, Sam learned of a spot in the nearby Brian Head Resort that had complimentary wi-fi. The next morning he drove the 20 minutes in to participate in some meetings while the kids and I started working on their Jr. Ranger Badges.

Cedar Breaks also holds an annual Wildflower Festival where they have volunteers on hand to help visitors search for different flowers and other activities. We were there a few days to early to actually attend the event, but it sounded really great so we were pretty sad we missed it. Having been to both Bryce Canyon and Fort McHenry during special events we are generally fans! While connected to wifi, Sam downloaded the Cedar Breaks Wildflower app to his phone and we had a lot of fun identifying the different types of wildflowers on our hikes. You can search by color, shape, size, and we were generally able to find the ones we were looking for.

Along part of the Alpine Pond Trail we came upon this rock formation called “The Apartments”. We pulled out the binoculars and spotted some marmots scrambling around in and out of the rocks. Aptly named.

Alpine Pond

There are redstone cliffs (similar to Bryce Canyon) that you can view from the rim. Deeper and steeper than Bryce, Cedar Breaks has no trails that lead from the rim down into the valley. It was still a beautiful view!

We loved our stay here and are glad that we managed to spend a few nights instead of just a quick visit!

 

 

Categories
Mommy Diaries

11 Years Is Definitely Not Long Enough

We had a great day. It consisted of no babysitter, not really anytime alone, and lots of time spent with our kids. Maybe that would bother some people, but we’ve never been much for anniversary gifts or overly elaborate celebrations (well, except for last year when he bought me an Airstream). We decided earlier this year that instead of celebrating us as a couple, we’d celebrate us as a family.

Currently Celebrating 11yrsThe kids knew about a week ago that Sam and I wanted to go hiking for our anniversary and then take them out for fish & chips. That’s it. Simple, easy, no fuss. However, it couldn’t be just a simple, easy hike like they were used to. We wanted a LONG one. They were dreading it.

“Too bad,” we said.

“You get to come.”

“It’s our anniversary and we get to pick the activity,” we argued.

We’d recently done a 5 miler up to a glacier and back, so we figured an easy 5 miles with little elevation wouldn’t cause too much whining while still giving us some time on the trails. Thankfully our arguments worked on the kids and we set off on a trail after lunch.

And then our kids hiked 8.5 miles. What we lacked in elevation we more than made up for in distance.  If this is any sign of what our future together as a family will look like, it is bright indeed.

The best part?  I get to spend it all with him. How lucky can a girl be?