Yosemite National Park Trip on Parenture

I had a guest post over on Parenture yesterday about our time at Yosemite National Park, when we went to California this summer.


Parenture is a pretty great family travel site, but it is not your average family travel site, where Disney is the main topic. This is a real travel site for travelers, who happen to have kids!   All kinds of cool and inspiring info.


Have you ever been to Yosemite?  Did you do tent camping or stay in Curry Village?  Or in a lodge?

By Best Kids Health Blog

Too Much Stuff

This is how much stuff I just cleaned out of my closet to be given away or sold at a garage sale.

How on earth does one acquire so much stuff?

Some of the things I am finally giving away are clothes from my freshman year of high school. Just craziness.

 After getting rid of all that. My closet looks like this.

And this.  Pretty full still.

I got the urge to purge after our trip to California.  It was mostly a road trip and my husband Peter and I got to talking about how we really need to travel more and how are we gonna prioritize our life so that traveling takes top priority.

We have a pipe dream of buying an RV and traveling the country.  Getting rid of all our worldly possessions down to the very bare minimum and just going. Once we really started day dreaming, I looked around my house and thought, well, none of this could go with us in an RV.  Do I really need this?  Do I really love this?

Once my perspective changed about what was really needed, I realized that it's nothing.  As long as I have my family, I am happy.  I don't need nice furniture or a big house, or trendy clothes.  I just want to live simply and not get caught up in This American Life. 

Peter and I always considered ourselves not your average American family, we have always tried to keep our consumption down, but we are ready to take it to the next level.  Peel away another layer.

Owning my perfect house has been really good for me, don't get me wrong.  I love my neighborhood and the opportunities it gives Penelope.  It's been really healing for me to nest and try out this kind of life.  But at the end of the day, and now that Penelope is actually here, I think it's not for me.   Peter and I both have such independent, sprited personalities.  Being tied down to a mortgage is not the best thing for our family right now.

Not sure what the plan is, but anyway, just wanted to share.  Whether we move to a smaller house or get an RV, we for sure, are going to be buying less stuff.

Do you feel like you own too much stuff?



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This Moment: Happy Family!

My family and I just got back from an amazing trip to California.  My husband drove out by him self and stayed with friends and went to several national parks.  Penelope and I flew out to meet him and we all stayed with friends in Ventura, California.  We planned on just going to the beach and camping while we were there, but a last minute decision to go to Mammoth Mountain to snowboard, also landed us in Yosemite National Park.  I have a buddy from high school that works there and the stars aligned perfectly for us to get a campsite.

Most of these pictures are from Yosemite and the last one is while camping in Leo Carrillo.  But they all have a theme.  Can you see it?  Relaxation and Happiness!

These picture clearly depict why I was so adamant about getting on that damn plane.  This family needs to travel.  We are happiest while on an adventure, exploring new things, and not having a detailed plan.  This was our first real trip since Penelope was born.  I am so glad we went!  Peter needed it so bad.  He is like a new person.  The person I fell in love with almost 8 years ago.  Thank God!  So this trip really made it clear to us, how we need to reprioritize our life and make sure that traveling is at the very top of the list.

I will do a  more detailed post next week and share some tips about traveling with toddlers, but moral of the story, we are one happy family!