Road Trip!

We set off the other night, our truck packed full of marshmallows and bear spray, and our kids snug in the backseat.



"'Stuffed' is more like it," Caleb corrected me.

But our car rides have turned out pretty well after all. We drove through beautiful alpine meadows and aspen groves as we listened to Aslan sing Narnia into creation on The Magician's Nephew.


The audio book proved to be very captivating for most of us, although it was punctuated every two minutes or so by Joshua:

"Mommy, where going?"

and,

"I want outta here!"

Overall, though, that little boy has been a great traveller and a good listener. People we meet everywhere have made comments like, "That is one seriously happy kid."

We have had the opportunity to meet all kinds of interesting and nice people from all over the world. It's usually in the middle of conversations about where we are from that Joshua pipes up enthusiastically, "I fwum China!"

Here are the stats of our trip so far:

Days travelling: four

National parks visited: two (maybe more on those later)

Junior Ranger badges earned: three


Wildlife spotted: numerous deer, pronghorn (second fastest animal in the world), bison, blue jays, ravens, woodpecker, chipmunks, kaibab squirrels, and no bears!


Total miles driven: about 950

Total miles hiked: about 3 1/2





Showers taken: zero

Yes, we're having that much fun.

Looking forward to showers, laundry, and rest tomorrow...