Hocking Hills State Park – the last road trip of summer

Last week we wrapped up our last road trip of the summer: camping in Hocking Hills State Park in Ohio. The weather promised to be dreadful for camping and hiking: hot, humid, and rainy throughout, but somehow we ended up having a wonderful time. Just two days ahead of time we found ourselves scrambling to buy sandals that aren’t flip flops for the two of us who didn’t have them, and lightweight raincoats for the four of us who didn’t own one (in all the right colors for the kids, of course, which complicates the matter). It was surely the muddiest camping trip we’ve ever had. The hiking though? Breathtaking. I had no idea that Ohio had such beauty in it.

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Camping in Leelanau

Somehow it’s already mid-July. Time feels hazy and confusing, but even though our days and weeks don’t feel terribly different than they did in the spring, the march towards fall and the unpredictable school year that lies ahead is bringing a sort of dread. Somehow I’m simultaneously confident that we’ll be fine in the long run, while also expecting the logistics of managing online learning for three small children while working full time, possibly with no second adult at home (since they may send her back to the school building) to be a hellscape unlike anything I’ve juggled before.

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Becoming a camping family

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If you’d asked me a number of years ago if I considered myself to be “outdoorsy” I probably would have said no. For years I told people that I didn’t especially like BBQs or picnics because eating outside with insects on a table that was very likely stained with bird poop held very little appeal. Somehow though, over the past few years I’ve developed a mild obsession with homestead-y outdoorsy things, following strangers on Instagram who share perfect images of spotless yet wild looking children in modern-hippie-prarie garb (I think that’s a thing), in breathtaking homeschool landscapes in the mountains of Montana, reading amidst goats and chickens or tending to succulents in a stunning backyard greenhouse.

I wanted in. Kind of. I have a tiny vegetable garden, we started composting, and now I wanted to become a camping family.

Did you know that Kristin and I fell in love while camping? True story. It was a required part of a class and to be honest we both kind of hated that trip at the time, but that’s beside the point. It feels full-circle somehow. Continue reading