June was a whirlwind! It felt like such a month of growth. I definitely felt the energy of the summer solstice season as the days grew steadily longer and even though they’re slowly waning now, I am still so energized by it all. I’ve amped up my solo hikes – hitting 100 trail miles this month, we’ve set some exciting goals for ourselves and together and I’m really settling into enjoying the summer with my kids and I have a lot of fun local adventures planned for July with them.
Trip Planning This Month
The biggest trip planning I’ve done this month is that I’ve decided that this fall, I’m going to take on the 37-mile upper section of the Buffalo River Trial solo over a weekend this fall. This will be my biggest trail to date and the first time I’ve done something solo like this. I’m really excited, a little nervous, and honestly, super freaking proud of myself. This is something I’ve wanted to do since learning about it 10 years ago. So, I’ve been looking at route, I bought a few pieces of gear this month and I’m looking forward to continue training for it throughout the summer and fall.
Travel in June
We kicked off the beginning if the month on a camping trip just outside of my favorite state park in Missouri: Ha Ha Tonka State Park. It was our first time at this campground, and it was a great location for getting to hit those trails. Biggest bonus, though, is that my best friend, Stacey, came down and camped with us for a night – and surprise for me she had gotten engaged the night before! I’m so excited for her and Dave! Matt kindly gave us some time to just hang out – we did a hike just the two of us, and went to a brewery as well!
We had our family beach trip this month! My parents, my brother’s family and my family all went down to Fort Morgan, Alabama. This was probably the most fun I’ve ever had at the beach. I enjoyed having the kids be of an age that they were having fun. They both sat on boogie boards and caught waves, we walked on the beach, built sand volcanoes, caught & released ghost crabs, and more. We saw sunsets, we rode go-carts, we visited the actual fort of Fort Morgan, went parasailing, took Liam to Florida for the first time and dozens of other little adventures in between and loads of family time.
Float trip with friends! I did a 7-hour float – yes, you read that right, seven hours – with a big group of friends! We floated on the North Fork River, which was a pretty river, the water was pretty clean, but good lord, it was packed! There were loads of laughs, there was a small hike to a spring which we all promptly jumped into, of course, and I got the worst sunburn of my entire life!
Matt and I finally took a camping trip without kids! My parents watched the kids for 4 nights for us to get down to Ponca for our anniversary and it was incredible! We shoved so much into our weekend. We did our favorite hikes, explored a couple new ones, swam in the river, jumped from a rope swing, zip lined, went to a brewery, walked through Eureka Springs and discovered some fun new things in Jasper. We got to talk about anything we wanted, be spontaneous, truly relax, wake up as early or as late as we wanted, and we just truly made the most of the time. Seriously, huge thank you to my parents.
Travel Laughs and Mishaps
I think this is maybe our biggest camper mishap to date. When we were camping outside Ha Ha Tonka, it was raining, not heavily, no wind, just a steady rain, and all of a sudden, we heard a super crazy noise and our camper’s awning had just snapped off one end. It was catching on our door, making it hard to get out, so we were trying really hard to figure out a fix just to get home. Matt went to Lowes to find the right size drill bit, he looked on YouTube for fixes and all the things we were supposed to be able to do were not working. Because it broke completely out, we couldn’t drive home without fixing it. So, we had to have someone come out to do the bare minimum so that we could use our warranty that we, honestly, paid a lot of money for. The man came out, was there maybe 30 minutes, had Matt do half the work and the only material he used was about 10 zip-ties…. he charged us $414! We were almost sick to our stomachs. That said, we did learn exactly how to fix it, so we will not make that mistake again.
My own personal travel laugh was me being over-ambitious on a rope swing at Steel Creek. When we got down there, a huge group of kids were doing the rope swing. Of course, me being a kid at heart, I went to join them. They were the sweetest kids ever, giving tips and encouragement. I made it to the deep of the swimming hole and I was filled with that child-like euphoria of just living, even in the simplest moments. Then, after a bit, Matt decided he wanted to do it! He had the pleasure of really studying everyone who jumped and he freakin nailed it. His feet didn’t drag in the water and he got some good air. So, of course, I was competitive and decided I needed to beat him – or at least do just as well. So, I went for a second time. The trick to great air time is to get your second hand as high on the rope as possible when you jump off the little rock platform. I reached my first hand as far as I could and decided I was going to get my second hand two knots up from the furthest I could reach – I was going to fly. Guys… I missed the second knot which meant my hand slid hard down the rope, I couldn’t catch myself and I bit it. I landed so hard in the shallow part of the water. Every bit of me hit the river floor, I cut my ankle, inhaled so much water and it was in front of dozens of people… and, of course, on video… My favorite part of the experience, though, was the little boy who was catching the rope for everyone asked, “Did you hit the bottom?” Haha! I was like, “Oh yeah.” Haha
Blog Posts from June
Monthly Recap: May 2024: A little monthly recap, just like this one from the month of May.
Lost Mine Trail in Big Bend National Park, Texas: Our trail guide to our, unanimously voted, favorite trail in Big Bend National Park.
Local Adventures in June
I’ve spent a lot of hours on local greenways. I’ve started getting up at 5am many days each week to get some trail time in before the heat of the day and I’ve been continuing my weekly evening solo hikes. So, lots of time on trails this month, for sure.
Best Thing I Ate in June
Fried shrimp at Bahama Bob’s in Gulf Shores, Alabama! I love fried shrimp – so does Matt – so, of course, we ate it at 4 different restaurants while we were on the gulf. It never got old, but Bahama Bob’s was definitely the best! Of course, I didn’t get a single photo of our food, but here’s a pic of Charleigh and me there.
What I Read in June
I finished Climate by Whitney Hanson, which was a really lovely collection of poetry. Sometimes I feel like some of these poems were written about different times in my life. The collection is beautifully written and once again I highly recommend her work. I’ve not completed any of the other multitude of physical books I’ve been reading. Instead, I’ve just added more that I’m working on. Haha! So, I’m currently reading Braiding Sweetgrass, How to Raise a Wild Child, Fourth Wing, and Instructions for Traveling West: Poems.
I listened to the entire Harry Potter Series in June. I love reliving one of my favorite fantasy series over and over. I’ve started listening to these about once per year and they always just bring me so much joy and so much nostalgia.
Most Popular Instagram Post & Reel From June
Life Updates in June
Matt and I have been getting really active these days. I’m juggling yoga classes, solo hiking and taking bike rides while Matt is also taking bike rides and just renewed his gym membership. We’ve seen such a trickle down in so many other aspects of our lives because of this. If you’re in a slump, if you’re uninspired or feeling blah, find a way to move that inspires you!
We’ve been organizing and cleaning our house. First up has been the garage. We needed to find good ways to store our things like our mountain bikes – we’re obsessed with these hanging racks we bought, and we hung our Burley Bee to free up a lot of the floor space of our garage. We also bought a freezer for our garage to try to make more bulk meals, to waste less food, to waste less money and just make life easier so we waste less time too! We’re just in a phase of minimizing clutter and waste and maximizing our money and our time. I see a post on this coming soon…
Matt and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary this month! It’s so crazy that we’ve already been married that long. It’s always fun to go out and talk about all the crazy things we’ve accomplished, seen and done in 8 years of marriage and almost 10 years together! Shoutout to my in-laws for babysitting while we went out for a meal on our actual anniversary and to my parents for babysitting the kids for 5 days while we took our anniversary getaway!
What’s Coming in July?
We have a couple little adventures coming in July and they’re both city escapes which is not our norm, but we’re really looking forward to it! We’re going back to Chicago this year and we’re excited about that. The major point of this is to take Charleigh and Liam to the Camp x Bluey collaboration to go play at Bluey and Bingo’s house! We’ll also be taking a trip to St. Louis with my in-laws! We’re going to explore some fun sites up there, some that we’ve done and some that we haven’t!
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