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!