For family vacation this year, we went to a mountain “resort neighborhood” that might have been the most confusing place we’ve ever visited. But that’s not what we’re here to talk about yet. While we there, my mom, Ali, and I decided to take a tubing trip down the river that ran through the resort. […]
On the Growth of a Man.
Noah has been busy lately, growing up and stuff. He’s become a puzzlingly model student (he has for his entire life held a staunch non-education policy), his imagination is running wild with ideas of commerce, and he got his first loose tooth. He tried to play the tooth thing cool, just slipping it into conversation […]
On Learning the Art of Theme Parking.
On Friday morning of our two mom/five kid adventure, we sat out for our first true undertaking – to Dollywood, the theme park. I am quite inexperienced at the whole theme park thing – remember Disney? Yeah – they didn’t even let me in the front gate. So I was beyond thankful to discover that […]
Not-Crazy-Renee And The Dollywood Adventure.
A couple of weeks ago when we were on our way home from our beach trip, during the window of “Last Hour of the Road Trip Home” which has a very strict rule of “No serious conversations because we WILL get snippy with each other”, I got a text from my dear friend and neighbor, […]
Kidtopia.
We spent most of last week making our children’s dreams come true, as we attempt to do every year. Okay we attempt it every day but at least once a year we actually succeed – and more often than not, it’s on this trip. The time had come for our formerly-semi-annual-but-now-annual beach trip with their […]
It Gets Easier. No Really.
There’s a universal set of lies that mothers of adult children tell mothers of small children. 1. Enjoy every second – I sure did! 2. You’ll blink and they’ll be graduating high school! 3. Oh honey, keep your chin up – because it only gets harder. I’ve spent the last nine and a half years […]
How Hamilton is Actually a Parenting Self-Help Guide.
Haven’t you always assumed that life would be more fun if it were a musical? Me neither. I never did understand how people could sing their lives in perfect rhythm and rhyme in real time – not to mention in harmony with their fellow life-livers. However. Hamilton has changed my mind. Due to the constant […]
The Highs and Lows of Camp.
In June, I planned my first ever Week Off Since Becoming a Mom. Or at least, five days straight of 9am-4pm Vacation. Noah is finally old enough to go to our church’s fantabulous multiple award-winning summer day camp (where every week has a different theme and it’s complete kid wonderland and I’m a little jealous […]
How PokemonGo Will Make Your Momming Better.
As I purposefully shy away from trends and adamantly avoid hopping on bandwagons, I was ripe to avoid PokemonGo completely. But I saw potential. Potential for entertained kids and interesting hikes. I mean, I’m pretty dang good at making hikes interesting. Sometimes we even find abandoned boobs! But despite how AMAZING I am, and despite […]
Short Stories From A Busy Week.
On Saturday, we went on the newish-annual Road Rally. This isn’t new for my family, as my Dad has driven in epic road rallies (like, China-to-Paris epic) and has created many slightly-less-epic road rallies for different groups pretty much our entire life. But last year was the first year he revived the practice to share […]