One of the best decisions we ever made as a family was to move to Colorado for Adam’s fellowship for one year. Living in this beautiful place, having no money, and being forced to enjoy quality time whenever we could snag Adam for a free weekend, caused a huge shift in our family into becoming lovers of adventure. Obviously, having a son with autism and a daughter with Down syndrome… Our meaning of the word “adventure” is quite different than most. You won’t see our family doing major hikes, we go slower than most, we can’t rent E bikes to go to other fun places, and even the places we eat are dictated by Sam’s feelings that day.

As time has gone on, we have also made the decision to keep Sam at home when we travel. He misses us in his own way, but he is so much happier at home. He needs his routine, he needs his bed, he needs to swing… He needs familiarity. And while we might revisit traveling with him again in the future, for now we have made peace that our travel family consists of only us five.

Every summer we plan a 2 week road trip to see our beautiful nation. Last year we even hit up Banff on the way home. This year we decided to do California. It has always been on my bucket list and we had the most incredible time. Sure, there were sibling fights, and Claire spent equal amounts of time demanding to be carried and then refusing to have her hand held and walking across narrow bridges and roaring rivers. Always a fun time and not at all anxiety producing {sarcasm}.

We spent our first two nights in San Francisco. We live in quite the bubble in our hometown, and this was the first big city our kids have really explored (other than the Twin Cities in Minnesota). We had to explain a few things to them, but overall I can say that it was absolutely fascinating, and we had the best time here. We always rent from Airbnb, and the house we stayed in was just darling. All of the amenities of home and in the sweetest neighborhood right in the heart of San Francisco.

Cable cars. Lombard Street. Seafood. Alcatraz. Ghirardelli Square. Chinatown. In-N-Out. Golden Gate Bridge. Neighborhood walks. We loved it all, and it was the perfect start to our summer adventure.

Our next stop was YOSEMITE! On the way, we stopped for groceries at Costco and Target. It was a long day of travel – traffic in California is no joke.

We spent 3 nights at our place in Yosemite (also an Airbnb and located right in the park). Yosemite’s snowmelt in June can be pretty dried up, and we were told by many locals that we picked the perfect time to go. I needed to hear this because the massive amount of snowmelt this year has caused tons of flooding – meaning a lot of the stuff we wanted to see was completely inaccessible.

The runoff made every waterfall we saw just breathtaking. I can’t imagine not seeing the powerful falls. The absolute highlight of Yosemite, and likely our trip, was hiking Mist Trail. Sometimes ignorance is bliss – we knew it’d be hard, but not *that* hard 🤪

6 miles, through a waterfall that absolutely drenched us, and a daughter who refused to give up (and a Dad who had to carry her some and at one point got called a Marvel superhero by a stranger 😆).

Not to get too emotional, but after the hike and laughing nonstop over how much fun we had – I teared up. Never in a million years did I think we’d be able to do this when I heard those words “your daughter has Down syndrome.” But here we are – checking off one of the most iconic hikes at Yosemite. Memories to last a lifetime.

The third leg of our trip brought us to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park! Please keep in mind that I am eternally grateful to have the opportunity to even say this on my blog… But we (the kids and I) were pretty bummed by the actual parts of the park we got to see. We have been so spoiled the last several summers, and by this part of our trip, the kids were tired and telling them they could see big trees just did not excite them. But I think the house we stayed at right outside of Sequoia was the best house. It was right on the river and because we were forced to kind of just hang out there and not do much else, we had the best time. We played a million card games and laughed and just really bonded with the kids. We just don’t do those types of things when we are at our home. I will always look at this part of our trip with such fondness.

My favorite parts of vacation tend to be the unexpected – and as we left Sequoia for the beach, we stumbled across an annual berry tasting! This tiny town in the valley of California has an incredible botanical garden. It was such a unique experience! For $5/person, we were able to taste any berry we wanted – off the tree even. Relaxing in California, at a berry tasting, picking fresh oranges and mulberries off a tree…Heaven.

We rounded out our California trip in the small beach town of Aptos. It was right on the water, and we all needed this. Claire surprised none of us by being absolutely head over heels for the ocean. 52 degrees outside, and this spitfire dove right in – clothes and all. Her energy is infectious, and when her brothers saw her soaking wet and still giggling with excitement, they promised to join the next day.

Adam and I had no plans for this part of the trip, other than the Monterey Bay Aquarium and to drive Highway 1. We quickly found that we preferred to eat at home instead of in restaurants. Adam and I enjoyed wine and takeout and they ate pizza for dinner 3/4 nights.

Time with our kids has been so fun. They’re at an age where we can leave the boys alone for a while, Claire continues to love any and all adventures, and Adam and I get to actually talk and catch up because we can neglect the laundry, yard work, etc. With Adam’s job and our schedules, we just don’t get this quality time together at home. It was an amazing kickoff to summer, and we can’t wait to experience more adventure soon!