Category: Travel

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Giveaways

Where Have You Wandered This Summer?

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It’s Labor Day. The annual end-of-summer holiday. I can’t believe that soon we will be feeling the crisp autumn air, eating pumpkin pie, and getting ready for Halloween.

Our travels have motivated us to ‘wander’ in the places we visit. We wander to parks, visitor centers, forests, and towns just because there is something interesting there. Our current wandering habits have helped us realize how much we missed out in the places we lived, simply because we didn’t wander enough! We lived in Lehi, UT for about 5 years, and somehow didn’t make it up to visit the Timpanogos Caves, just a few miles from where we lived! Upon our return to sell the house, we rectified that situation and got ourselves up there, and we had a great time.

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Part of our motivation for blogging and sharing the stories of our own exploring and wandering was to encourage and motivate others. We don’t expect everybody to take off in an Airstream, but we DO hope that our adventures have encouraged you to explore, wander, and enjoy life just a little more.

Is there a local adventure that you have managed to miss out on? Is there some place that you are waiting to visit? GO! Live your Dream! Then share it with us.

Seriously, we’d love to hear about your adventures. Where did you wander this summer? Was it full of lazy days spent by the pool? Did you finally take that amazing family vacation? Where did you wander to?

Please share a bit of your adventure with us. If you blog, instagram, or facebook, share us a link of stuff already posted. Or email us directly (samandjesscurrenATgmailDOTcom) with some pictures and your story. We would like to periodically share the stories of others and further promote wandering awesomeness.

We hope your fall is just as amazing as your summer!

Categories
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!

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This Week on Instagram Video

This Week on Instagram: July 9-15 2014 & Wandering Update: Patrick’s Point

This Week on Instagram August 9-15, 2014 “Mom. Do you want me to take photos? Lots of them?” Cara asked.

“Yes, Cara. As many as you want!” I answered.

“Okay. And then after I can show them all to you. Except they are invisible.”

This week we haven’t moved much and moved a lot all at the same time! We’ve stayed near Trinidad, CA for most of the week (Eureka, CA last Saturday)  and split our time between the beautiful coast at Patrick’s Point State Park and Trinidad Head, and the Redwood National and State Parks. Two completely different landscapes and both stunningly beautiful. We have a few more days near the coast and redwoods before heading inland again for a bit! Our highlight this morning was agate and tide pool hunting on the beach. Check out our most recent Wandering Update: