This was an exciting month for us! Matt and I left the country together for the first time since 2018, and I left the country for the first time since 2019! We also did a good amount of exploring in the Ozarks, that said, we did a lot more at home this month than we did traveling, but it was a great balance. Enough intro, let’s jump into our June 2023 recap!
Trip Planning This Month
Early his month we did our trip planning for Mexico City. We also decided on taking a trip to Asheville in November! I’m so excited about this because we’ve not had a solid trip to Asheville since 2021. We went in early 2022, but I was super sick in my first trimester of pregnancy with Liam and we cut the trip short because of it. I can’t wait to see friends, explore new places and visit old favorites. We also booked one or two more weekends away for camping, in Ponca, of course!
Travel This Month
As seems to be the case with our year, we kicked off the month in Ponca to explore the Buffalo National River area again! The temps are starting to rise here, so we’re definitely staying in the camper or going into town for the afternoons because it’s so insanely hot! We went to the Tyler Bend area of the National River for the first time found a gorgeous hike there. We also visited a brewery and saw some of the most epic mountain fog we’ve seen in the camper so far!
Stacey and I met up for one of our hiking meetups! We went to Onondoga Cave State Park and hiked about seven miles in the morning and then grabbed a beer and a snack at a Route 66 cafe called Skippy’s!
Mexico City, Mexico was simply a dream. Matt and I had essentially three full days in CDMX and we fell deeply in love with it. We ate so much food. Like, truly sunup to sundown. We went to coffee shops, markets, museums and parks. We wandered streets of quaint buildings with balconies overflowing with tropical plants. I loved everything about it there. It inspired us to want to try to take some time to learn Spanish and most of all, it felt so amazing to have the time with Matt. Just us. Doing our thing. Our twenties were spent traveling and exploring, so having this weekend to do that as just us was nothing short of perfection.
We had one other sort-of day trip! Stacey was in town so our family, Stacey and our other friends (Allicyn, Justin and Dylan) all went for a half day of hiking, playing in the river and then going to a brewery/winery where none of us took any photos whatsoever. Haha. That’s what happens when you get together with three kids 2 and under. It was another great day and we always love exploring places close to home to keep those wanderlusty feels at bay.
Travel Mishaps and Laughs This Month
Our travel mishap turned laugh comes from an awkward moment made by yours truly. Guys, I do not speak Spanish, not even conversationally, just basic stuff over here from 2 classes in college. But we went to a juice stand inside a market in Mexico City and I had one of those miraculous moments that happen sometimes when the stars align in the wonderful world of travel. I had quick, but decently thorough conversation ordering a juice combo they had but leaving something out and adding others. When I finished ordering and received exactly what I wanted, I looked at Matt and said, “I am so impressed with myself right now.” He said he was impressed as well. I sipped on my juice for a bit and then we decided to explore more of the market. We hopped up and started to mosey on. The juice stand owner starts to speak to us in Spanish. I’m frantically trying to pick up on any words that I recognize, there are none. I finally admit defeat and say, “Lo siento, no hablo Español.” He looked taken aback, like, another person had ordered or something because I did really well, truly. He searches for a word and finally says dinero. I had been so impressed with myself that I forgot to pay. Guys, I was mortified. Not much makes me blush and I was so embarrassed that my face was on fire and the deepest shade of red. Needless to say, I left quickly humbled by my lack of ability to speak Spanish.
Blog Posts From June
I have to admit, I slightly dropped the ball in June. In between our travels I had some serious lung issues going on. Luckily, I was able to rest and feel better by Mexico, but that meant I let the blog and social media sort-of fall by the wayside. That said, though, I did still manage to get two posts live.
A Monthly Recap: May 2023 – This was our May Roundup post. I’ve really fallen in love with writing these posts and having the opportunity to be both candid and brief in more real-time descriptions of our travels.
Buffalo Outdoor Center RV Park – A Campground Review – This is our first campground review! I’m still feeling out the structure of how I want to do these. But I enjoyed getting my first under my belt. I have dreams of posts like these being a regular series, similarly formatted to make them easy to both read and compare.
Most Popular Reel + Instagram Post This Month
Best Thing We Ate This Month
Hands-down, the best thing that I put in my mouth this month were the tacos al pastor at Taqueria Orinoco in Mexico City. It was so good that we ate here multiple times on this trip, each time changing up our order ever-so-slightly. But the simplicity of the ingredients on these tacos, the marinade on the meat, the salsas to add, everything about them was just spectacular. I also highly recommend adding a Carta Blanca beer as a perfect pairing.
Life Updates in June
In June we had a bit more time at home than usual. We filled it with a lot of family time. My nephew turned 5, we had Liam baptized at a lake joined by his family and community and spent time saying goodbye to a couple of friends & gathering together with some others.
Liam started crawling this month and still has that smile that steals everyone’s hearts. He’s continuing to be a super easy baby and loves making all kinds of noises at us, in addition to saying Mama and Dada, but mostly when he’s upset. Charleigh’s just getting smarter and smarter everyday! We’re currently working on identifying her letters out of order by sight and I’m wanting to start looking for some Spanish lessons for her.
Our biggest house-related update would definitely be that we built the kiddos a play set! Liam is still a little young for it, but we’ve ordered a swing for him to swap out one of the big kid swings. Until then, though, he loves laying outside on a blanket with us while we all play.
What’s Coming in July?
Travel-wise we have a few weekend trips coming up! First, up we’re returning to Ponca – I know you’re shocked – and we’re excited because my parents will be joining us. Then, we’re all going to the Current River and we’ll be trying to find some new trails there as well as visiting old favorites. This will also be a new campground for us too! Lastly, we have a weekend trip to Tulsa, Oklahoma on the books. It’ll be a kiddo-focused weekend as we travel with my brother, sister-in-law and two nephews! We’re looking forward to that a lot because we’ve never really been there before!
Personally, my dad / ultimate hiking buddy is turning 60. So, we’re really looking forward to celebrating him! We’ll also celebrate my brother’s birthday this month. We have a few other random things planned with friends throughout the month as well and we’re going to try to survive the heat of summer, which I’m always very dramatic about. Ha! As best as possible, though, we’re going to get outside, explore and
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