The Great Moon Road Trip of 2016

4,650 miles.  15 days.  10 states.  13 bears.  4 moose.  Hundreds of bison.  Over 600 photos.  The laundry is done and we're mostly unpacked.   What a trip!   I want to share some pictures, but man, it's hard to narrow them down.  But here's a little glimpse into our crazy road trip! 

Vacation Part 1:  Buena Vista, Colorado - cabin
This is Chris' favorite place on Earth.  His grandparents built a cabin years ago and the entire family has enjoyed it since.  We got to spend a few days with Chris' parents and our niece Lucy.  We had so much fun together. 

Mountains! 

 

Chris' happy place....drinking coffee staring at Mt. Princeton.

 

 

Shopping Fun.

 
 

 Cottonwood Pass.  So. Much. Snow.

 

Family Pic.

 

We met two guys in their 60's who were climbing up to the top of the mountain to ski down.  They were planning to "hook a ride" back up to the top to do it again, then hook another ride back up to get back to their car.  Crazy!

 

Pizza fun!

 

Swimming at the hot springs.





 

Kayaking on Cottonwood Lake.

 

 

We lucked out and hit Buena Vista during their annual Paddlefest!  There was so much going on down at the river and the kids had a ball! 

 

Learning to paddle board.  I watched several adults tip over, but our kids did great!



 

 

 

 

They loved trying out the hamster balls! 

 

 

Everyone had a great time in Buena Vista!  

Vacation Part 2:  Boulder, Colorado - wedding
Next, we headed up to Boulder for Chris' brother's wedding.  Anna was sick the day we travelled.  And I will spare you the details, but it was bad.  Really, really, bad.  Luckily it lasted less than 24 hours and we were back in action!  I didn't get many pictures, but it was a beautiful couple of days. 

Before the wedding! 

 

Giant Jenga was a big hit! 

 

 Cousin Lucy looked beautiful at her daddy's wedding!

Vacation Part 3:  Yellowstone! 
This vacation was about 5 years in the making.  We've dreamed about taking the kids to Yellowstone.  Every year we said, "maybe next year we can do it."  Well we finally did it!  And Chris already wants to go back!  It's the most amazing place ever. 

 

The Grand Tetons!  

 

Our first night we pulled into our campsite, set up, and started dinner.  And a herd of 30 bison walked through the campground, about 20 feet from us.  The next morning we heard grunting outside our tent and they were passing back through.  We quickly learned the bison kind of rule Yellowstone!

We hoped we would see bears.  And man did we.  We saw 13 bears.  3 Grizzlies, 4 black bear mamas and 6 baby black bears.  At our first sighting, we got WAY TOO CLOSE!  We were right by our car when the mama turned and came in our direction.  We had to rush to get in the car, but the bear was seriously within 20 feet of us.  I stopped taking pictures at that point because getting the kids in the car became a priority. 

Mama bear and one of her cubs.  This one got VERY close to us! 

 

This man was fly fishing and there was a bear just across the river. 

Another mama bear and her two cubs. 



On our last morning we were able to see 4 moose.  They were a bit far away, so the pictures aren't great, but they were really beautiful!  We also saw elk, deer, pronghorn, coyotes and one snake! 

This guy was across from our campsite! 

So many cool things at Yellowstone!

 

Max at the campsite!

 

We definitely need more time to explore Yellowstone! 

Vacation Part 4: Badlands and Home.
On our way home, we headed directly east through Wyoming and into South Dakota.  Chris wanted to check out the Badlands.  We passed through the Bighorn Mountains, and I'm just going to say that pulling a trailer through those mountains was a bit of a challenge. 

The Badlands.

 

One little note about our travelling.   We spend a lot of time in our car.  So our kids (and our dog Max) really are very good travelers.  Two of our travel days we decided to skip the motel and just pull off at a rest stop and sleep in the car for four hours and then keep driving.  Chris is a champ.  This is how we slept.  Nice!

 

There are really great rest stops across the U.S.  One of them had a little chapel you could go in.  Very cool.  



 

Sophia gave a good sermon!

 

We had a really fantastic time on our road trip!  And I know it was worth the wait getting to Yellowstone because now our kids are old enough to remember it!  And I know all of us can't wait to go back soon! 

 

The family that rocks together...from rock climbing to rocking at concerts!

This past week has been an awesome week for our family. We truly love contemporary Christian music and love getting the opportunity to worship together as a family.  Last week we got to do that twice!  On Wednesday we went to Lexington to see Rend Collective and Saturday Night we were in Mount Sterling to see Matt Maher.  And in between, on Friday night, we squeezed in a little rock climbing fun. 

You guys.  This was such a great time.  There is nothing like going to a Christian concert and standing next to your four kids who know all the words to the songs and are singing right along side of you.  God designed families to enjoy doing things together so it's always great to find something that all six of us love! 

Rend Collective....Seriously, they are amazing!  They play the coolest instruments and are such a high energy worship experience.  Once the concert started, we basically were on our feet for 2 1/2 hours! 

Matt Maher....This is just getting back to the heart of worship and it was awesome!

Both concerts were in churches so we were only a few rows back.  It was really so much fun!

Now for the rock climbing...well, only Chris and Sophia went climbing at Torrent Falls.  But I took the other three kids to watch.  They watched for a while, and then quickly found some ropes to play on.  It was another great night with the family!

This shows how high up they were...

So much fun!

 

And, of course, a little military battle going down!

Our kids are at really great ages now where we can do fun things together, stay out late occasionally, get dirty, make messes and have so much fun as a family! 

Sleepovers...

We don't host a lot of sleepovers at the Moon house.  Maybe it's because we already have a lot of kids at our house at all times.  Or maybe it's because having four kids means there's always someone to play with already.  Or, maybe we're just pretty lazy parents!  Or smart, maybe?

But six years ago, we had a big sleepover.  We had 10 girls spend the night for Sophia's 7th birthday.  These things are pretty tiring for parents.  Because, well, there just isn't enough sleeping going on!   

 

Weren't they cute?  Good kids.  Who did not want to sleep.  And look at that stage Chris and his Dad built for the kids?  Curtains, stairs, lighting.  Maybe we weren't always lazy parents!

 
This is how little Sophia was at seven...adorable.

Six years ago.  That's how long it took for us to do it again.  But the girls begged us to have another sleepover with some of their swim team friends.  Our house is definitely too small for that.  So we reserved the church gym.  Seriously, an entire gym for a sleepover is pretty perfect!  We did some fun games, ate, and I'm not going to lie, those girls can really make a mess.  Imagine popcorn EVERYWHERE!  And six years later, they still don't sleep!  But they're older and it doesn't matter as much.  

It was Easter weekend so several of the girls couldn't make it.  But we had so much fun with those that could come.  Sam was able to spend the night with his little swim buddy Ethan - his first sleepover and, according to him, "the best day of his life!" 

These kids work so hard!  They train 10 months out of the year for a sport most people don't really understand or appreciate.  Training for 1 1/2 to 2 hours five days a week.  And these kids love their sport!  But, I think they love each other just as much!  They are all really good kids and have been great friends since we moved here to Kentucky!  They've been on break for two weeks and they were so excited to see each other again.   

So, six years from now, when Sophia is 19, we just might do it all over again!  Maybe.  No promises. 

Weekend Fun!

Just a few pictures from our weekend... We needed to pick up all of the fallen limbs in our front yard so we decided to have a little fire in our fire pit and cook s'mores.  As you can imagine, Max thought this pile was created especially for him.  He was in doggy heaven! 

 
 

I'm not sure about the sunglasses.  Isabella said it was to keep the smoke out of her eyes.  I think Sam was just going for a certain look.

 

 

We spent a lot of time Saturday just relaxing.  And for some reason, Sophia and Isabella spent a lot of time snuggling.  I still can't figure out why, but it was sweet. 

Sometimes, I think you just need a day to rest! Our Sundays are always so buys that it's nice to have a Saturday to just spend time together! 

 

 

The Big Room Renovation

When we moved to Kentucky almost two years ago we knew a big challenge for us was going to be comfortably fitting into the three bedroom parsonage.  Our house in Kansas had really spoiled us with 5 bedrooms and 3 baths. 

Honestly, we really had too much space.  Because the more space you have, the more you fill it.  Slowly, over the seven years we lived there, we really filled it.  Not only did we have the furniture to fill it, we also maxed out our storage capacity filling an entire storage room and half of our garage.  Easy to say we had too much stuff.  It just seems to happen over time and you don't really even notice it. 

But in order to downsize, we knew we had to get rid of literally half of what we owned.  We started going through our stuff, having garage sales, making tough choices with sentimental items, taking books and toys to our church, and taking so many trips to Goodwill you might have thought we worked there!  But in the end, we fit everything we owned into a rental truck and moved across country.  And we had just the right amount of stuff for our new home.  Less space, less stuff, and less mess! 

In a smaller space, every single thing has to have a place. And I think generally, we've done a good job with that.  But one room in our house just wasn't working - the girls' room.  Three girls sharing a 12x12 room isn't ideal.  So we squeezed 2 bunk beds and three dressers into the space.  It worked.  Just not well.  The room was always a complete disaster because they didn't have anywhere to put anything.  Sure, they had a place to put their clothes in their own dressers, but sharing the closet didn't work great because it was so crowded things were always falling to the floor and getting wadded up.  Clothes were everywhere!  The only place to put any of their possessions was on the top of their dressers. They really just craved their own little personal space.  Sophia was so desperate she carved out a tiny corner of the room for herself. 

We spent months trying to figure out how to make this space work better for the girls, and for Christmas, we finally made it happen!  We put in a triple bunk bed which instantly doubled the floor space in the room.  Now, headroom is minimal, but this is just for sleeping so it works for them. 

Then we built a countertop desk with shelves so each girl would have their own workspace and display area.  They have LOVED it! 

Last, we ditched the dressers.  They just weren't working. At all. So, we went to Ikea and bought some more of our favorite cubbies.  We love them!  We bought the cheapest fabric drawers to make sure our idea would work before investing in cute baskets.  Each girl has 8 drawers and they store their clothes, some shoes, and I know a few of them up high just hold "special" junk.  But it's all beautifully hidden!  In know it's sort-of a big beast, but we have to tap into all of our vertical space in this room and it is totally working for the girls! 

On Christmas Eve we installed everything!  That sounds simple, right.  Some.  Assembly.  Required.  Three little words.  Yikes.  In actuality, we started working at 10pm and didn't go to bed until 4am.  Six hours!!  Folks, we are way too old to pull all-nighters!  But, the kids were so excited!  And, a few weeks later, honestly, it's still working great! 

Their room has generally stayed pretty clean.  Here's a picture I took this morning.  Now that everything finally has a place where it belongs, they can actually put it away!  Such a novel concept!  It is so nice to walk in and not try to clear a path in to say good night to them!  And really, not having to yell at these kiddos to clean their rooms has been a life changer for us! 

Confession # 327; Sometimes a little bit of Christmas can last an entire year!

It is November, and I know some of my friends are already busy decorating their homes for Christmas.  They're putting lights on their house, setting up the tree, and making things beautiful.  I'm not there yet.  I usually wait until Thanksgiving is over to decorate for Christmas. 

 

But I have a little confession to make.  I still have something hanging up from last year's Christmas.  Last year I started hanging up all the Christmas photo cards our friends and family mailed us.  Well, technically I've been doing this for years.  I just love to look at them during the holidays, and who doesn't love actual snail mail these days?  But last year I just never took them down.  Never. 

 

Some time in January I decided that if I left them up there, every time I walked by them I would be reminded of a family.  Someone to pray for, a nice memory shared, or just admiration that they could get all of their children to look at the camera and smile at the same time.  I pass by this wall dozens of times a day.  I can pray for the family that last year adopted two sweet children as they added to their family.  I can think about our Kansas friends and family who we haven't seen in 19 months, and I can feel good about new friendships we've made.  But each time, I can pray for one of these beautiful families.  And I know without the reminder of seeing their picture on the wall, I would probably forget.  

 

So I know how hard it is to take family pictures.  We do it every year and it still doesn't seem to get easier.  Yes my kids are more bribable now, but smiling and looking at the camera at the same time is still a struggle!   I know the time it takes to order cards, address them, and mail them.  I know the expense in mailing them out.  But seriously, it's worth it!  I have enjoyed these for almost an entire year now!  And I'll take them down soon, it is November already!  

 

When Did Halloween Become So Much More Than a Day?

Okay guys, I'm going to be honest with you.  This week has about killed me.  It's Halloween week.  Yah, I don't know when it became a week instead of a day, but it's a week now.  Things started up last weekend with different church and community events and have continued all week long.  This week, my kids have been invited to three different Halloween parties, two birthday parties, there's a middle school dance and church Halloween event.  It is too much folks for this mama to handle!  Some of you are super moms and this is no big deal, but I am not. 

It's not even Halloween and I am completely over it.  Seriously, over it.  Like no trick or treating for my kids this year over it.  Gasp!  I know, just being honest, even when some of you will think I'm completely crazy and a terrible mom.   

Added into the mix of Halloween - It's national red ribbon week and while I support the cause, I'm exhausted by the effort it takes to fully "celebrate" it with my four children.  The elementary school had different things the kids were supposed to wear each day.

"Hat's off to being drug free"  - wear your favorite hat.
"I have the power to be drug free" - dress up as your favorite super hero.
"Follow your dreams, don't do drugs."  - wear your pajamas.
"Join the fight against drugs." - wear camo.
"Peace out to drugs."  - wear hippie attire.
"My character counts, I'm drug free" - dress as your favorite book or movie character.
"It's cool to be a nerd, say no to drugs,"  - wear nerd attire or your Halloween costume. 

The middle school had other things the kids were to wear each day and, of course, they were on different days from the elementary school.  And I'm not even sure how to tell you that when my kids asked Chris what a hippie was he described a group of people that was, in fact, generally known for high drug use. So why dress like them?  A bit ironic!  He told the kids to ask their teachers more about that, but I think they all ignored him.  You're welcome teachers!  Now, I'm not sure if it overwhelmed my kids or if some of them are just not "joiners" but none of them dressed up every single day.  It was just too much for all of us I guess. 

So last night was trick-or-treat night.  We went to swim practice in a neighboring town.  We didn't get back to town until almost 7pm.  And then we had a choice.  Throw on our costumes and trudge through town for candy (you can only imagine how much candy four kids can accumulate), or skip it.  So I did the natural thing, I bribed my kids.  I told them if we skipped trick-or-treating I would take them to Wal-Mart and let them pick out any bag of Halloween candy they wanted. I promised it would be there's to keep and not be thrown into a big shared bowl.   Oh my gosh, they actually agreed!  So we went Wal-Mart, got our candy, and then went out to dinner.  It was so much better!  And, don't worry, my kids still got to dress up today for school.  Who knows what we'll actually do on Halloween! 

At Applebee's.

 

My little kitty cat.

Captain America.

 

Missy Franklin, Olympic swimmer.

 

An American middle schooler.  "I think I'm getting too old to dress up."