Holy cow, I can’t believe month five of 2026 is over. Life seems to be moving at light speed, but it’s also unbelievably sweet! We’ve been living life to the fullest, especially this month, and life seems to just be falling into line in really beautiful ways. We have been working together as a team, my little family, and embracing the wildness of our children being, well, children from the road and outside.
Travel Planning this Month
This month has been dedicated to preparing for Nomad Summer. We had a crazy hail storm, so that meant we had camper damage that we have had to deal with. Matt has taken this burden on and taken the lead on getting the camper to and from the shop and taking those calls. I did preemptive baking, meal planning, cleaning and packing! So much work goes into leaving with your home-on-wheels for 38 days.
I bought my flight to Ecuador and I’m getting so excited for that! It’s only a few months out now and I’ve been prepping my little gifts for everyone upon arrival. I love the idea of cultivating a community of like-minded women; you can join in for our trip this September!. I’m also already looking at where I might go in 2027 – and I want to do a co-ed trip for at least one of them (I’m looking to do two). If you want to help me choose the destination, fill out the survey here!
Travel This Month
We took a really lovely camping trip this month in Arkansas for Mother’s Day. It’s one of my very favorite camping trips in general, and absolutely my favorite Mother’s Day. We camped at Withrow Springs State Park, which wasn’t especially beautiful for hiking trails, but it was a great place to camp. We did a few nearby trails, ate most of our meals outside, had campfires, went paddle boating and just spent a lot of time together as a family. It was absolutely beautiful. I love living life in the camper.
We’ve kicked off Nomad Summer! It feels so good to be back on the road. We’re nine days into this 38-day adventure, but so far highlights have been the alpine trail in Great Basin National Park (a new national park for all four of us), adventures in Zion National Park, slow mornings with the kids, gathering gems at Glitter Mountain and seeing petroglyphs! It’s been so much fun and I’m excited to have more detailed posts on so many of these places coming soon.
Local Adventures This Month
It’s been similar to most of my other local adventures! Lots of time on local greenways and hiking trails. This month Kate and I got outside together quite a bit, which was fun, and I even went down to Branson to try out a new trail – Stand Still Park! It was really pretty and I loved that it meant some bonus time with Kate before leaving town!
My hiking club met up twice in May and was 40+ for both meetups! I love connecting with women in my community! Also, we did our first collaborative hiking club meetup with a macrame moon class after one of the hikes, led by Kate’s crafting business she has with her sister, Dueling Needles! It was so cool and I was pretty proud of my final product.
Travel Laughs and Mishaps
MISHAP No. 1 – Our first stop on Nomad Summer was meant to be Kanab, Utah for 15 days. That, unfortunately, ended up only lasting 15 hours. Don’t worry, we’re still on the road, but what a saga at our first intended longer-stay campsite. We arrived in Kanab to our campground Crazy Horse Resort and they had given away our premium pull through site, which was frustrating, but we’re flexible – the most frustrating part was that I had to ask them to refund the difference in the cost between that and our insanely tight back-in spot we ended up with. But the saga isn’t over… only after getting all set up and settled in – I was literally putting the kids down for bed – we discovered that the septic pipe underground for our site had busted, so we had no septic and it was leaking around the connector. So, that night they took us around on their golf cart and showed us several options of sites we could stay in the next morning. We chose one and said we’d move bright and early because we wanted to hit the ground exploring. But, alas, that site wasn’t a 50amp hookup like they said and the water was broken. That was our last straw and we asked for a full refund including the night we stayed. They did give us that and technically “made it right” in that sense, but we lost a day of our trip and the campgrounds in Kanab weren’t able to accommodate us for the 15 days we had intended to stay there, so we had to find another place to stay – we ended up in the St. George area – and we had to recalibrate our entire trip because we planned it based on Kanab being our home base. So, while it did throw us for a loop, we recovered well.
LAUGH No. 1 – We take turns listening to music, stories or podcasts in the car. We try to give the kids turns, and on Liam’s turn he randomly asked for “We Will Rock You“. While I am a Queen fan, I’ve never played that song for Liam (3) and neither has Matt. We looked back at Liam when we started it and he nodded happily along. Then right before the guitar solo said, there’s about to be a guitar and then played air guitar. So he, like, knows this song. We were cracking up. I looked at Charleigh (5) and asked if my dad had played it for her and she said, “No, I’ve never heard this!” So, we called my dad – he said he hadn’t played it. Then, we called Matt’s dad – he said he hadn’t played it. It’s a mystery, but regardless of who showed it to him, we know he knows and loves Queen.
Blog Posts from May
April 2026 – A Monthly Recap – This is a monthly recap, just like this one, from last month.
Camper Diaries – NOMAD SUMMER 2026, Journal Entry No. 1 – After day one of Nomad Summer (our annual, extended summer trip), I was riding a high that made me want to put fingers to keys about this year’s journey, and the joy even one day on the road brings.
Quote of the Month
Don’t let anyone tell you that you’re dreams are too big – they have no idea what you’re capable of.
I’m in a very interesting stage of life right now. I feel like a see and know myself so clearly and I don’t care what limitations anyone else puts on me anymore. I know what I’m capable of and who I am.
What I Read in May
This month I finished Our Green Heart: The Soul and Science of Forests by Diana Beresford-Kroeger. I loved this book. This is a book about the connection of science and spirituality from the viewpoint of a woman who had one of the last Druidic educations in Ireland and grew up to be a botanist, biologist, poet and biochemist and she blends these to write a beautiful book that makes you look again, a bit more closely at forests, trees and plants in general. Now, I’m on another nature-connection book (shocking, I know) called Sacred Nature: Restoring Our Ancient Bond with the Natural World by Karen Armstrong. I’m only a couple chapters in, but I’m loving it!
I tore through audiobooks this month. I listen to them before open at the brewery, while in the car and while cleaning and I did a lot of all of those things, especially in the first half of the month. I listened to Remarkably Bright Creatures, The Widow on Dwyer Court, Horrible Husbands, Glass Dolls, Kill Your Boss, Secrets and Second Chances at Saffron Bay, An Unexpected Arrival at Saffron Bay, The Landlady, and Trad Wife and I only paid for one of these books. Audible has a lot of decent to really good free audiobooks! Try it out with a FREE AUDIBLE TRIAL!
Most Popular Post in May
Shafer Trail has finally been dethroned this month by my Things to Know Before Visiting Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky. I love writing this national park series as we visit more and more parks. If you’re planning a trip to Kentucky, or this park specifically, I highly recommend checking out this post!
Wild Motherhood Journey
This month was so busy while we were at home that I feel like I failed until we got out to Utah at giving them a lot of space and unstructured play time. We’ve given them so much time outside while on Nomad Summer, though. averaging hours and hours of time spent outside in some truly spectacular places. I’ve watched Liam bloom a lot on this trip to someone who is more awed by nature. I love as he says wow when we sees something new. Also, we’ve been a Junior Ranger family for 3 years now, but this year, CJ is able to do so much more of the Junior Ranger books with less direction from me and she’s reading and writing some. My mama heart just explodes at that!
I do also feel like I’m hitting a special stride in wild motherhood. I’m far from perfect, constantly overstimulated and snap at them way more than I’d like, but I’m practicing patience. Slowing down and seeing more looking through their eyes, and realizing that my professional accomplishments mean nothing compared to my personal relationships with these two.
Wild Motherhood Truth – I still am struggling with the pace of these kids hiking. Which is ridiculous. They’re doing great. I know and acknowledge that, but I do often mourn the pace at which Matt and I could tackle hiking trails.
Taking Care of Myself in 2026
This month has been one of self-reflection with friendship and community. It’s always hard to say bye to my friends for 5-6 weeks at a time, but I’m also lucky to have some really great friendships that we keep up despite the distance. I have been missing a larger community, it’s something I’m craving, especially as a mama, but also, remembering that we spend so much time on the road, that part of that lack of community is of my own making. I’m also thinking a lot about reciprocity within friendships. I can over give, and not always in a selfless way, sometimes in a way to try to prove I’m valuable to others. That isn’t the way to do it, so I’m focusing a lot on my own intentions behind my actions, but also making sure I’m given back what I do deserve.
Another thing I’m taking care of is my mental health, financially. I’ve been really budget-conscious this month and I want it to continue moving forward. I haven’t been the best with my spending, and I’m absolutely reining that it for the rest of the year – previously planned travel aside. Our biggest thing has been eating at home and preparing our own food, and cutting back hard on food waste. It feels good to see that benefit in my budget.
Lastly, I’ve taken up cross stitch. I love a craft project to unwind. It’s why I crochet and journal, but this is something new and I also found this Teeny Weeny National Parks Cross Stitch Pattern Book with a small pattern for each of the 63 U.S. National Parks. I’ve come up with an idea to crochet them in order of when we’ve visited the parks as a family of four, to make a wall hanging for our National Park themed area of our basement. This month, I finished our first one – Petrified Forest National Park!
Home and Life in May
We did a lot of cleaning ahead of Nomad Summer. We’re in a weird place of obviously spending money in the sense that we want to live our lives, but also trying to buckle down more so we can do more of the things we love. Life is just insanely expensive now, isn’t it? We’ve been eating at home a lot more, we’re optimizing outdoor play over visiting expensive play places and not shopping. We both have our vices, and this is a season of buckling down. Are you in that season too? What is that looking like for you?
Also, on a much more personal note, I officially have a kindergartener. Charleigh will start back at school in the fall in kindergarten. Did I say that enough? Kindergarten! We clearly made the choice to not homeschool yet. It’s largely a financial choice, but also because Charleigh loves her teacher and will have the same one next year, and she has a good little group of friends. So, we’ve decided to just take this a year at a time. We can always change our mind, either way.
What’s Coming in June
June is the continuation of Nomad Summer! We’ll be in Utah for the beginning and then we escape the desert for the mountains of Colorado for the rest of the month. Our last two weeks of Nomad Summer our families are joining us. First my parents, my brother and his family, and my uncle and his fiancée are coming to stay in town with us. My parents are graciously going to keep our kids overnight while Matt and I celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary. Then, Matt’s parents will be joining us for the last week of our adventure! Also, Stacey is going to be in Estes Park the same time as us, so I’ll get to hang out with her and hopefully hike with her on this trip!
I hope that you have had the best May. For us, it’s been one of learning, experiencing and exploring. I hope that it has brought you everything you had hoped for and that June brings lightness, love for your life, simple pleasures, and adventures – big or small.
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