May. Whew. What a flipping whirlwind… We had an amazing adventure in South Dakota to celebrate Mother’s Day. We found out that my mom has breast cancer, but we also found out later in the month that it’s state one, so we have that to be grateful for. The kids finished out their school year, and we ended the month with my best friend, Stacey, getting married.
Travel Planning This Month
This month Rocky Mountain National Park Timed Entry opened up. I honestly kinda forgot about it, and was a couple hours later than I intended, so I ended up getting mid-day and beyond instead of getting the early ones, but we’re looking at it from the positive side – slower mornings filled with pancakes, fun, and solid nap times for the kids – especially Bub.
My dad and I finalized our Patagonia plans for next February. We have flights, extra accommodation (we’re throwing a couple bonus days onto our trip), and, of course, travel insurance booked! It’s exciting to have that taken care of!
Travel This Month
We went to Conway, Arkansas with my family for Toad Suck Daze… Yeah, you read that right, Toad Suck Daze. It’s a really fun little festival and we had a blast at is this year. We also got to spend a little bit of time with family friends.
Our big trip of the month was to South Dakota for a week to celebrate Mother’s Day. We were able to squeeze a lot into seven days, even if it meant we were in a car for a lot of hours. We went to Badlands and Wind Cave National Parks, Custer State Park, Mount Rushmore and Devils Tower. We did some really cool hikes, saw some incredible wildlife and fell in love with new landscapes.
The last weekend of May, Matt and I were up in St. Louis for Stacey’s wedding! It was such a beautiful weekend celebrating the fact that she has found her partner in life and in love. I was honored to be part of her day! Matt and I also snuck in some bonus things: we went to Pappy’s for lunch the first day up, we had a lovely breakfast date together, and then went to REI and got some essentials, including Charleigh’s first daypack!
Travel Laughs and Mishaps This Month
Matt managed to get a stomach bug… again. Bless his heart, he wasn’t able to spend any time at Toad Suck Daze. Instead, he stayed in the hotel and we just spent a couple of hours at the festival before picking Matt up to head home.
Our camper decided to do a few funky things on us on our Badlands trip. Our tongue-jack stopped working just in time to start heading home, we lost a sway bar on the way home and the biggie was our camper fridge crapped the bed. This sucks extra bad because if you read my pre-camping Camper Diaries post, you’ll remember that we packed a ton of groceries to save money. The majority of those went bad on us and we camped a bit more remotely meaning that we not only had to buy food out, therefore not saving money, we also had to drive a minimum of 40 minutes (each way) to get food out. Ugh. We tried to make the most of it and work our days around it, but it was a bit of an effort, led to weird meal times and a lot of meals in the car. It wasn’t ideal, that’s for sure.
My dad and I had to cancel our father/daughter hiking trip. It was a little last minute because my mom was diagnosed with cancer literally 4 days before we were supposed to leave and her next appointment would’ve been while we were gone, and we wanted to be here for that. My dad and I are hoping to make up for it eventually.
Blog Posts from May
April 2025 – A Monthly Roundup: This is a monthly roundup, just like this one, but from our adventures in April.
Camper Diaries: Prepping for Nomad Summer: This is a short little post about how we prepared for our summer of traveling, starting with our weeklong trip in South Dakota and Wyoming.
A Semi-Spontaneous 30-Hour Girls Trip to Memphis to See Some Trolls and More: In April, my mom and I went to Memphis to see a Thomas Dambo troll exhibit and just had a super lovely time. We absolutely spent 1/3 of our entire trip driving and it was 100% worth it!
Books I’ve Been Reading to Deepen My Nature Connection: I’ve become obsessed with reading books about nature, spirituality, rewilding, wild parenting, etc. It’s become just about all I read when it comes to physical books and this is a bit of a summary post on those books including my personal takeaways from each of them.
Our Week Camping in South Dakota: This is a post on the things we did on our week-long camping trip in South Dakota including the Badlands, Mount Rushmore, Custer State Park and more! Plus, I’m trying to add more candid “Camper Diary” portions to the end of these posts as well! This one definitely had some learning curves for us…
Local Adventures in May
We took the kids to their very first play, thanks to my in-laws! We all went to see The Little Mermaid at our local theater and it was incredible! Liam slept through the first act, thankfully, because we were worried about him sitting still for 2 hours, but Charleigh did beautifully through the whole thing.
I did a lot of walks with my friend Shea. When our friend Keira was in town, we did a little hike down in Busiek which was absolutely lovely. Shea made a bomb picnic for us and it was just so nice to get outside with my friends. A lot of laughs were had, great memories made and just good quality outside time.
Shea and I also took her nephew and Liam to Wonders of Wildlife one day and that was a lot of fun!
Best Thing I Ate in May
I have a strong hunch that anytime I go to Pappy’s it’s going to be the best thing I ate all month! This bbq spot in St. Louis, just simply never, ever disappoints. Matt got ribs – which truly fall off the bone, I got a pulled pork sandwich. We both got fried corn and then fries and made-in-house applesauce. It just does not get better than that.
What I Read in May
Earth Worship – I am very slowly making my way through this book. It feels like life doesn’t have quite enough time in it for all of my hobbies. I’m so close to finishing this book, as well as many others, on our extended camping trip this month!
I’ve been on the free audiobooks from audible kick and listened to several new books this month: The Housewife’s Secret, The Life We Bury, Him, Secret Sister, and Body in the Marsh. It’s been nice to discover that audible has several free books because I’ve been able to listen to something new while opening or closing at the brewery, cleaning the house or even when I drive alone.
Quote of the Month
“This is my life. It is my one time to be me. I want experience every good thing.” – Maya Angelou
A Piece of Gear that I’m Beyond Obsessed With
For Mother’s Day, Matt got me a Garmin Watch – A Garmin Instinct 3 AMO LED to be exact! I had been an Apple Watch user initially because I loved the idea of the fitness competition. But, as I’ve become a more avid hiker and am more active than I ever have been in my life, I found myself being less and less satisfied with some of the things that the Apple Watch didn’t track and more than anything else, the crappy battery life. I have a hard time pulling the trigger on expensive items, especially for myself, but holy cow, I have zero buyer’s remorse about this watch! I will be a Garmin Watch girlie for life now.
Most Popular Blog Post in May
The most popular blog post form May was Best Hikes in Northwest Arkansas, which makes sense because spring is one of the best times to hike in the Ozarks and we’ve had a ton of rain in this part of the country which means the waterfalls are flowing!
Most Popular Instagram Post & Reel from May
Home and Life Updates in May
Charleigh and Liam are out of school for the summer, which is a big change around our house and rearranges my workweek a bit, but I’m also so excited to get so much more time at home with them. They push me in such interesting ways and I love that I get to soak up so much time with them in the summer.
My favorite little at-home activity we did in May was make a fairy garden! Charleigh, her Mimi (my mom) and I went to get some fairy garden decor together, then my mom and I bought plants. When Charleigh got home from her dentist appointment – we got to put it all together. Charleigh killed it and it was just simply so cute and so fun!
What’s Coming in June?
It’s Nomad Summer, baby!!!! Matt and I will be hitting the road as soon as he gets off work on the 6th and we’ll be wandering around Colorado and Utah for essentially the rest of the month. I seriously cannot wait for that! I have a feeling it’s going to be one of the most memorable summers of our lives.
Matt and I will celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary in June as well as celebrate Father’s Day. Two great reasons to celebrate Matt.
I hope everyone had a spectacular month of May and everyone is looking forward to an adventurous, inspired, peaceful month of June!
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