Introduction to our 2026 Glacier National Park Trip It’s one of my favorite times of the year - vacation with my favorite people, exploring one of America’s national parks! I love blogging about these trips each summer for a few reasons. Perhaps primarily, I like having the memories written down as we go so that …
Grandparent Yellowstone RV trip Days 12-14 – Fun Valley, South Fork, Colorado
This was our fifth trip to Fun Valley; it holds a special place in our memories because it’s the very first place we took our RV when C was 6 months old, and the boys 4 and 6. We’ve returned every summer since except last summer when we had to cancel reservations last minute. Fun …
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Grandparent Yellowstone RV Trip, Days 9, 10 & 11 Moving through Wyoming and Colorado
Day 9 - moving from Grand Tetons to Cheyenne, Wyoming Nick wanted to begin this day early and we left by 6:30am, which provided a beautiful and quiet drive through the Tetons. We drove for a few hours before the kids awoke and we stopped in a little town. I loved this drive through Wyoming …
Grandparent Yellowstone RV Trip, Days 7 & 8 – Grand Teton National Park
Day 7 Well, today included a lot of learning moments that concluded with how we would do things differently in the future, ha. Since our next stop was not that far away, we planned to stay in our RV park until checkout time at 11. This worked well for allowing everyone to rest later after …
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Grandparent Yellowstone RV Trip, Days 5 & 6 in Yellowstone National Park
Before I jump into sharing about our two days in Yellowstone National Park, I want to highly recommend Ash's itineraries at Dirt in My Shoes. She does offer ambassador programs where people can benefit from referrals, but I was denied for both of the programs (not influential enough, ha), so please know that for me …
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Grandparent Yellowstone RV Trip, Days 3 & 4 – moving days to Big Timber, Montana and West Yellowstone, Montana
Day 3 - Moving Day to Big Timber We experienced our chilliest morning yet when we awoke Wednesday, following rain that dropped temperatures in the middle of the night. For the first time, I started my workout outdoors wearing a sweatshirt! We pulled out shortly after 7am since this day was a moving day, traveling …
Grandparent Yellowstone Trip 2025, Day 3 – Mount Rushmore
We awoke in Ogallala on day 3, enjoyed coffee, exercised in cooler weather, and heated breakfast prepped items before leaving before 8 again. The kids and I did another day of school work during the morning hours as we drove, and we stopped at a gas station at noon, grabbing Subway for our lunch. We …
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Grandparent Yellowstone Trip of 2025, Intro, Prep and Days 1-2
What a treat it is to title a trip with that name! We are thrilled to take this summer’s adventure with Nick’s parents and my mom joining us! When Nick was going into the eight grade, his grandparents, Ma and Pa, took his entire family on a trip that centered around Yellowstone National Park. Although …
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2024 RV Vacation to California Day 10 – Kings Canyon National Park- Grant Grove and Cedar Grove regions
This was the day for Kings Canyon National Park! Although we could have taken the same path as yesterday for the first portion, we chose a different route, which sadly still required the use of multiple vomit bags by the same child. It took us almost two hours to get to our first stop on …
2024 RV Vacation to California Day 9 – Sequoia National Park – Giant Forest Region
Although our RV park was only 8 miles from the entrance to Sequoia National Park, it took about an hour of driving to get to our first stop. I knew the road would be windy, but no idea how intense it would be. Thankfully, this product proved to be useful for these two days at …
2024 RV Vacation to California Day 8 – Moving Day to Sequoia RV Ranch
We spent our eighth day as a moving day from Yosemite down to the edge of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park. We knew the road out of our RV park would be challenging so we started with me driving the car to make the trip easier on the RV. I drove the first few …
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2024 RV California Vacation Day 7 – our third day in Yosemite National Park – John Muir trail to Vernal Falls
This day was the coolest one yet in regards to temperatures, and I’m so glad it was because it’s the day I think we accomplished one of the most challenging feats. I’d read on one blog and learned from a friend that this trail was not for the faint of heart. It’s STEEP and pretty …
2024 RV California Vacation Day 6 – our second day in Yosemite – Bridalveil Falls, Glacier Point, Tunnel View, Meadow Boardwalks, El Capitan Picnic area and West Valley Loop Trail
We started today even earlier than we did the previous day, leaving for the park by 7am. Although it’s recommended to be at Glacier Point by sunrise, I just didn’t see us making it that early after the tiring day we had yesterday. It turned out that we were still early enough to find parking …
2024 RV California Vacation Day 5 – Our first day in Yosemite National park – Biking the Valley Loop & Hiking Mirror Lake and Lower Yosemite Falls
Wow, what a day! Let’s see how many of our adventures I can remember. We experienced multiple failed plans where we needed to shift and adjust (I only felt like crying once), but managed to cover about 15 miles of biking and hiking in this one day! The resounding tip I read from other blogs …
2024 RV California Vacation Day 4 – Moving day to Yosemite Lakes
Day 4 - Moving Day to Thousand Trails Yosemite Lakes Today was quite the adventure when it came to driving. We opted for the quickest route to our RV park, located about 7 miles outside of the entrance into Yosemite National Park. This meant we took several smaller highways and even private roads with little …
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2024 RV California Vacation Day 3 – Marina, Monterey, and Big Sur
In our planning for this trip, this day was the last we finalized, shifting and considering plans until we hoped to create something that allowed us to squeeze as much out of the day as possible. Technically, we could have planned a longer moving day and arrived at Yosemite on Tuesday evening. However, the only …
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2024 RV California Vacation Days 1-2 – Moving Days to Flagstaff and Bakersfield
2024 RV Vacation to California is underway! This trip plans to include visits to Big Sur, Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. I enjoy blogging like I’ve done on previous trips- mainly to help record memories, but also to share with others what may be helpful who are planning similar trips. I’m always so …
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RV Vacation Tips: what we learned from our two week trip to Montana
Since this trip is fresh on my mind, I decided to write about some things we learned that hopefully apply to both RV’ers and non-RV’ing families. It’s taken me a few years to learn some of these principles, but hopefully others will find at least some of this helpful. In your planning, consider your people …
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Montana RV Vacation, Days 11-12 in Estes Park, CO
Day 11 - Estes Park, Rocky Mountain National Park Today was a big day with lots of firsts for us! We all slept in a little bit, which was nice, and since Nick had seasoned his new Blackstone griddle the night before (which we gave him for Father’s Day), he cooked breakfast for us on …
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Montana RV Vacation, Days 9-10
Day 9 - Grand Teton National Park I awoke at my normal time and could tell it had gotten really cold during the night, so I turned on the heater and enjoyed coffee, reading and writing for several hours before anyone began to stir. We decided to head to the lodge restaurant of our camp …
Montana RV Vacation, Days 7-8
Day 7 - Two Medicine and St. Mary We didn’t begin this day quite as early since the previous day was so full, but we started out after breakfast and drove south an hour to the Two Medicine portion of GNP. I’d read that this is less populated with visitors and yet still just as …
Montana Family RV Trip, Days 5-6
Day 5 - Glacier National Park, Many Glacier and St. Mary Today we headed to the park and drove a bit around the St. Mary entrance, gathering our bearings with the park map before deciding to head north toward Babb and the Many Glacier Entrance. I previously printed out the main areas we wanted to …
Montana Family RV trip 2022 Days 3-4
Day 3 - Bozeman, Montana Today was our longest driving day yet. We made it a priority for our driver to get in bed first and early, so he was ready to pull out from Cheyenne, Wyoming by 7am. With stops for fuel and considering how slow we sometimes have to take our 2003 Fleetwood …
Goin’ on and Goin’ to Montana, family RV trip 2022 Days 1-2
The longer I’m married, the more readily I embrace the sanctification and adventure of following my husband where he wants to go. It really can be a joyous thrill of a ride when I agree to do things that I probably would never have done if it were up to me. For example, having children …
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Morning time: what it is, whether or not it’s only for homeschoolers, and how we structure ours
Over two years ago, when my oldest was in first grade at a local public school, and I began exploring the idea of homeschooling, the term "morning time" kept coming up in various places where I researched. Some homeschoolers term this "morning basket" or "circle time," but the principle of the concept remains the same, …
Lent and Easter family traditions and resources
As Lent approaches this week, I wanted to share some traditions and resources that we've used for our family in the past. Before you dive into what you'd like to do, though, I encourage you to read this post I wrote last year around Easter. As always, the principles and motivation behind what we do …
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How we schedule our homeschool year-round using sabbath weeks
We just finished our sabbath week break from our homeschool, and I thought I'd share how this works for our family in case others want to consider it. For the most part, we school year-round. This is very flexible, and depends greatly on our summer traveling schedule accompanying my husband to camps and mission trips. …
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A Day in our Homeschool: some principles, rhythms, values and resources
Several people have asked me recently to share what a day in our homeschool looks like. I want to begin by sharing some principles I've found helpful in the two years we've been homeschooling. I really feel like these principles can be applied regardless of if you homeschool - any time that you have with …
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Motivation behind our goal-setting; the empty promise of self-improvement vs. growth for the purpose of blessing others
It's February, so maybe the talk of goals and new-year-new-you has died down a bit, but the self-imposed pressure can still linger, right? Those who are successful are sharing about their victories in their goals of weight loss, new habits, new learned skills, etc., and the temptation to do something and do it well is …
January Family Tradition: An Annual Memory Box
Before I had children old enough to even understand what we were doing, a wise momma suggested this idea of keeping a memory box each year. It’s become one of our family’s favorite traditions, and can really be started anytime! Through this idea developed one of our family values - the art of remembrance. "I …
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Sowing seeds with toddlers; my answer to how to disciple a two-year-old
Trying to do anything intentional with a two-year-old can feel a bit like walking with them on roller skates, pulling them along while they try to balance and don't yet know how to even pick up their foot and glide! I recently had a friend share with me that one of her goals for the …
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My Word of the Year for 2022
It never fails; when I go through the process of my powersheets (from cultivatewhatmatters.com), a theme begins to show up through what I journal and sketch as I pray through a focus for the upcoming season. Contrary to the past several years, I didn't really have a lot of big, audacious goals that came to …
Obedient, cheerful generosity over practicality; some post-Christmas reflections
The post-Christmas blues. It hit me even harder than usual this year, which is weird because I had it all planned to be the opposite. You know, I had planned on leaving the decorations out until the twelfth day of Christmas, and keeping the Christmas music playing, and other similar festivities. But, for some reason, …
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Where is joy really to be found? Cheerfulness in our duties
The Proverbs 31 woman. When you read those words, what is your first reaction? (If you've never read it, go take a moment and read it first.) Perhaps an anxious overwhelm and biting of nails as you wonder how you could possibly imitate her? Or do you swing in the other direction and smirk with …
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Christmas Gift Ideas based on what we’re gifting our children
Years ago we heard the idea of giving gifts that fit into these categories... something you wantsomething you needsomething to wearsomething to read For the most part, this guides our gift-giving for our children, although there are times when something we want to give them doesn't necessarily fit into these categories...and that's fine. 😉 I'm …
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Advent Traditions and Rhythms
It’s that time of the year when our schedules fill up quickly, and we usually can slip into one of two ditches if we are not careful. One ditch involves never slowing down long enough to consider and choose family rhythms and traditions due to the feeling of being overwhelmed by all the things. When …
Our 2021 Advent and Christmas Plans
Consider this blog post the "what the Gaineys are doing for Advent and Christmas" post. I simply wanted to get this shared sooner rather than later in case you're considering plans for your own family. However, I have a more important post that will be coming next regarding the principles behind family rhythms in Advent …
What do Christian faithfulness and Christian friendship have in common? Part 2: True encouragement in friendship
In Part 1 we talked about Christian faithfulness and how obedience in our work glorifies God. One of the ways our work can be God-honoring is through it's implications for how it affects the church, too! I've been learning through this webinar that one of the greatest ways we can encourage others around us is …
What do Christian faithfulness and Christian friendship have in common? Part 1 – Faithfulness in our work
One of our pastors preached on the parable of the talents recently, and the truths in this teaching seemed to coincide with several ideas that God has been teaching me lately regarding faithfulness in my work. Be sure to check out the sermon here. If you're not familiar with this parable that Jesus tells, it …
Two responses to fear
I found it interesting recently in my reading through the book of Mark 5 the reaction of fear that appears on two different occasions. The first occurs at the beginning of Mark 5, when Jesus crosses the sea into the country of the Gerasenes. He immediately encounters a demon-possessed man whose condition seems hopeless - …
To the married, Christian woman: Submitting to your own husband vs. all the other women
It sounds odd, right? Most Christian women wouldn't claim to be submitting their time and energy to other women rather than their husbands. However, about a year ago, a friend shared a podcast with me that convicted me to see how I was doing that very thing. Now, if you ask most Christian women who …
Intentional holiday plans…both for homeschooling and non-homeschooling families
I know the busy season of holidays can come upon us rather quickly, but I wanted to share a resource that my family will be using for the weeks leading up to Reformation Day (October 31), Thanksgiving and Christmas. Christmas, and sometimes Easter, tend to be holidays that Christ-followers try to celebrate in an intentional …
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Halloween: A hallway to hospitality
When we first moved into our neighborhood ten years ago, we were the youngest family, surrounded mainly by elderly couples. We didn’t have children at the time, and the neighborhood remained pretty dark and quiet on Halloween night. But through the past decade, younger families have slowly moved into the area, which has encouraged us …
The Race Set Before Us; Fighting the “if onlys”
I read a very familiar passage during my time in the Word recently. "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the …
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Part 2: Sustenance in Christ alone yields a dutiful, glorifying life
In Part 1 of this post, I addressed the ditches we can slip into regarding the topic of self-care. While both ditches focus on ourselves rather than the Lord, they will yield nothing more than bitterness and temporary self-glorification. Since I'm talking a lot about the second ditch of elevating self-care, please let me caution …
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Part 1: To the women in the ditches of self-care, or those feeling lost in the pursuit of it
I believe an idol has crept into the church today that possibly started withwell-meaning purpose. Most idols usually do, after all. Self-care has become a popular topic in society lately. I thought about listing a few of the quotes that appeared when I googled self-care, but I'll just let you try it yourself. Many of …
Replacing horizontal expectations with a vertical hope, Part 2
As mentioned in Part 1 of this topic, despite the depravity of the human heart, we tend to go on heaping expectations on each other. And these expectations often go unmet, and we respond with shock, bitterness, anger, etc. about practically everything. Why do we do this? I think the answer can be seen in …
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Replacing horizontal expectations with a vertical hope, Part 1
I recently chatted with a dear friend who is about to move overseas to do mission work full-time. As part of the training she undergoes beforehand, she takes an inventory of her expectations in practically every area. Just hearing about it overwhelmed me, so I cannot imagine what she is feeling about having to do …
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Our 13 Day Colorado RV Vacation Travel Journal
While traveling on our 2021 family vacation, I began a travel journal more as a way for me to remember and record God's goodness as we traveled on our longest trip yet. So many people enjoyed our journeys, so I decided to put it in one massive post here, just for fun. I tried to …
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jami lee gainey 