Wanderlust

Every winter we make the drive from Los Angeles to mid-Missouri for Christmas with our families. But we planned to have Knox baptized in Missouri in October and decided to make that into our yearly journey instead. We typically power through the 28 hour drive in two long, miserable days, but knowing that wouldn't be remotely possible with a 4 month old, we decided to actually enjoy ourselves and turn it into a weeklong road trip. I was THRILLED to plan our detours and to finally get the chance to see some of the countryside we traverse so often. And there's just something about a road trip - drinking way too much coffee, rocking out to 90s jams, crashing for the night in janky motels, seeing truly awe-inspiring landscapes and getting the chance to have legitimate, meaningful conversations with someone you love because you're so deep in no-man's land that wifi can't even reach you.

We visited the Hoover Dam, Lake Mead, the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, Aspen (where Colorado's autumn views seriously did a number on my soul) and Salvation Mountain in California.

And now, I'm officially full of wanderlust.

Ryan and I aren't especially well traveled (neither of us has been outside the country even) and that's something I really want to improve on over the next few years - traveling to new places and putting some stamps in our passports (which we don't even currently have...details). We live in an area that's incredibly beautiful itself, but we're also within driving distance of so many other amazing landscapes - from oceans to deserts to mountains - I feel like it would be such a complete waste not to take full advantage of that.

I have this vision of Knox's life as being filled with lots of different experiences. I want him to learn to be open-minded, curious, thoughtful, adventurous and aware of and enamored with the big, wide world that exists outside of the familiarity of home. And I want to share as many of those experiences with him as we can.

So, here's to the quickly approaching new year being as full of adventurous new experiences as can be!