making space for creativity
A generous family from Evan’s school invited us to spend four nights at their amazing Door County house just south of the little town of Fish Creek. Even though we love the Great Lakes and have traveled all over Wisconsin, we had never been to Door Country! I think that maybe I went when I…
Our big adventure this summer was our trip to Rocky Mountain National Park with our kids ages six and four! We stayed in Granby, Colorado for six full days of hiking. (Fancy hand drawn map of our hikes below.) It was nearly a two week road trip from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Granby, Colorado. We drove…
I love to remember a romantic anniversary. All spring I’ll give my husband Evan a running tally of our anniversaries: late February was 16 years since our first awkward date to see the play The Good Person of Szechwan, early March was 16 years since I asked you to drive me to an Ash Wednesday…
We’ve playfully been referring to our early Summer 2021 trip out to Maryland as “Spring Break 2020” because that was the first thing we had to cancel mid-March as the Pandemic closed the world down, and it’s the first thing we’ve really done as the world opened back up. There is nothing like having tiny…
One of the wonderful bits of living in Milwaukee is that we can jet down to our alma mater Wheaton in less than two hours if traffic cooperates. This Fall has been unusually full, but we carved out a great day to go down for homecoming. Last fall we went down for Evan’s 10-year…
Over the last year and a half we’ve been so blessed to be able to take our baby to both coasts to meet great-grandparents and enjoy the ocean. We first took 4-month-old Jackson to Southern California for Spring Break last year and then this summer for our 10th anniversary we took the then 18-month-old…
To kick off summer break and celebrate our ten-year anniversary, Evan and Jackson and I headed west to gorgeous Sonoma County in Northern California. And now we know where—if someone were to drop a few million dollars in our laps—we’d move: the Russian River Valley where ocean and redwoods, wine and mountains meet….
My parents met while traveling, and I think that has always made travel a part of our family. The summer before their last year of college, my parents spent the summer semester traveling through the Holy Lands taking Bible and archaeology classes and sharing a first kiss over the old city of Jerusalem just…
When I was tiny, vacation felt like leaving for the airport before dawn. It was exciting to feel the bumps of an empty highway as we rushed with our bags full of swimsuits and books to make an early flight. And once we were there, Florida or California, vacation was full. It was full…
Today, I am highly honored to be a part of celebrating the upcoming release of Caroline Starr Rose’s newest verse novel: Blue Birds. It’s a tale of going to a strange land and being brave. At the end of high school I went to France for a few weeks with about 8 girls…
I have nine first cousins, all on my mom’s side. I’m the fourth oldest, which puts me smack in the middle of admiration (boarding on adoration) for my cool three older cousins and complete acceptance and enthusiastic adventuring with my five younger cousins. As a child, I loved seeing my cousins. Comedian…
Eating well while traveling is a delicate dance between being flexible and proactive. On the one hand traveling is often hard on your body. You are sleeping in strange places, at strange times, and often not well or long enough. You’re exposed to different (and usually more) germs as you go through crowded airports…
At Yellowstone, there are signs that ask people to not throw coins (or anything else) into the whimsically named colorful springs and pools. Since ancient time, waters have been seen as places of healing and life, where little water spirits might dwell and grant a wish whispered with a coin thrown. The sacrament of…
When my brother and I were little, we used to play a game on long car rides called “In My Suitcase.” One of us would start out saying, “In my suitcase you will find” and then name something, like “five pairs of teal polka dotted socks.” The other person would then respond, “In my…