Roadtrip Recap {Yellowstone}

This summer our family moved from Nebraska to Idaho. It didn't take much to realize that we would be silly to NOT stop at Yellowstone!

We started out on June 1st and only travelled as far as Ogallala due to a late start doing a walk-thru of our Nebraska rental with our landlady.

The next day we traveled north through Nebraska and stopped at Scotts Bluff National Monument.

We ate lunch, took a short walk and a few pictures, then got our National Parks Passport stamped before continuing on to Thermopiles, Wyoming.

Day three brought us through more beautiful Wyoming country and Yellowstone!

This is our second time at Yellowstone in three years. You can see pictures from our last visit here and here. Both times we've stuck to the main road and made stops to take short walks and see the big attractions. We have plans when the boys are a little older (and now that we live closer) to go back for at least a week with a trailer or tent and see the back country.

We saw herds of bison and elk and a scraggly wild sheep. We walked to a waterfall and had our picture taken with a moose. :)

We stayed in West Yellowstone, MT, where there was plenty of posing with the wildlife (statues) and headed back to the valley for Day 2.

We took a walking tour of a plethora of geysers. It was stinky and hot! We enjoyed the colorful pools and were startled by one geyser erupting right as we passed by!

We ate a picnic lunch by a river and completed our driving tour of Yellowstone. We exited at the North gate and drove to Billings, MT, that night.

Montana is beautiful! We had a hard time finding a motel that night for some reason, but made sure the boys got to swim for an hour before bed. They love swimming! We knew sleeping in motels for a week and driving all day--even with stops to take walks and see wildlife in Yellowstone--was hard on our kiddos and made sure they got that evening swim every chance we could!

As we traveled through the rest of Western Montana and into Idaho, the scenery just kept getting prettier! We kept wondering if this was really true, that we were MOVING to this beautiful area and wouldn't have to leave in a few days. And in the time since (it's been two months) we still feel the same way! We're blessed to live in an incredibly beautiful part of the country.

Just to fill in the gap, we didn't have housing lined up for our first few nights in Idaho. We thought we might be waiting up to 6 weeks for our rental and we were tired of motels! Thankfully a church member volunteered their trailer for us for as long as we needed it. They even pulled it to a place where we could stay for free and have running water and a full bathroom to use. As it turned out our rental was available in just five days! Read more about the rental here.

Have you been on any road trips lately?

Project #walk365 {April}

I'm way behind in blogging about my walks, but I'm happy to report that I'm still walking! Even when life gets crazy, the weather is bad, I'm super tired or don't feel well, I still walk. That's an accomplishment I'm proud of!

I'm not going to take the time and recount my impression of or mileage for each walk here. If you'd like to follow along, you can join me on Instagram at gibsongirl365. I do want to point out the beautiful spring we had this year! It seemed prettier than last year, but maybe it was because I was out in it more, looking for it!

My goal for 2015 is to walk an average of 1 mile a day, hence #walk365. So far I'm keeping well ahead of my goal. In April I walked 42 miles, my best month yet!

I even managed to walk every day while our family flew to another state for business with my husband! Yes, I logged mileage in the airports, but Gary was keeping track on his Vivo Fit and airport days were over two miles!

My second goal is to walk every day, and I kept that this month. Yay me! In fact I've gone something like 14 weeks without skipping a single day!

As the weather warmed up during April, I found myself taking kids to the park more often. Hey, it's a mile and a half round trip, they get to burn some energy and have fun, and I get my walk in!

Project #walk365 {March}

What a difference a day makes! Sunny, 40 degrees, no wind or snow. Missing two layers that I needed to stay warm yesterday. 1.5 miles.

Just out doing my thing. 1.6 miles today.

My walk tonight was cold and windy! 25* with 15 mph wind. 1.06 miles. 

1.12 miles today. 28 degrees and sunny but that breeze is cold! 

I didn't even notice my walk yesterday brought me to the 80 mile mark! Tonight I walked 1.22 miles in 25 degrees. Looking forward to warmer weather! #walk365

Walked with my sweeties today! 1.21 miles, warm and sunny. 83+ total miles this year. Today completes an 8-week streak! 

My boys, MIL and two dogs were my walking buddies in the Ozarks today. 1.4 miles in 60 degrees and mud!

My MIL and I walked a mile down the road today. Our motto was to just get it done!

Can you see the path? I walked 1.19 miles in the woods following a path my FIL made. Kinda cool now that he's gone.

The Ozarks are ready for spring. 1.25 miles today.

I only went .68 miles today, but it included raking off the path in the woods. That's hard work!

My walk yesterday was a quick jaunt up and down Main St. in Salem, MO. My .6 miles brought my total to 90 this year!

I followed my middle boy and our dog along Grandpa's path in the woods. 1 more mile of #walk365. Today also marks 9 weeks without missing a day!

We're having a heatwave! It's 80 in March. Our 1-mile walk was hot and sweaty!

I didn't get to my walk until 8 pm and it was only mostly dark! One more mile toward #walk365

Wednesday's walk involved sunshine and a good chat with my friend! 2 more miles of #walk365.

One in the stroller, one walking, three on bikes. Sometimes walks with the kids (mine + daycare) kill two birds with one stone! 1 mile of #walk365.

Just me and 5 kids on my #walk365. 2 miles on a beautiful spring day!

Today's walk was with the whole family and in perfect 70* weather. It's also the century mark for me, and completes a 10-week streak! 100 miles of #walk365!

I so enjoyed my walk today! A good chat with my friend, warm sunshine on our faces, and signs of spring in the neighborhood! 2.5 miles.

It's a gray day out, but I took my boys on my walk with me to look for signs of spring. We found daffodils, crocuses, and this magnolia in our own backyard.

The benefit of putting off my walk until late was I didn't have to be out in the rain! One more mile of #walk365.

The grass is turning green! My 2+ mile walk was cold, but such is spring. #walk365

Two shorter walks brought my total to two miles today! Both times it was something I'd normally drive to. Yay! #walk365

There are plenty signs of spring, but these white specks aren't dandruff! #walk365 1.5 miles today, 111 miles this year.

Enjoyed the sunshine on my 2 mile walk today. This completes 12 weeks of walking every day without missing! 

Enjoying the heat of a jungle! Counting mileage at the zoo is totally legal. Runkeeper didn't keep up, but MapMyWalk figured it to be over 2 miles. I'll take it. 

I ended up taking a short walk yesterday because the kids got an invitation to play in a friend's backyard. That's important too! 1/2 mile of #walk365.

Last walk of the month! I'm somewhere around 43 miles in March for a total of over 120 miles this year. Runkeeper won't update. 

Project #walk365 {February}

I walked 40.1 miles in February! (Pictures in order for the month.)

This brings my total for the year to 75 miles! If you remember, I set a goal in January to walk 365 miles in 2015 (#walk365). There are 59 days in January and February, so I'm 16 miles ahead!

I know this year will bring some challenges. We're looking at moving again in early summer (don't know where yet), there will be sick days and busy days and who knows what else! To not let myself off the hook and start falling behind in my mileage, I challenged myself back in January to be a streaker.

Ha! Not like that! It just means I plan to walk every day in an intentional way. I don't own a Fitbit or similar device but I do use Runkeeper on my iPhone. To count as a walk, I have to be intentional and actually turn on my app, not just count accumulated steps during the day, though if that's what you're doing, you're totally awesome!

So far I've gone for a walk each day for 7 weeks! 49 days in a row. Go me!

February in Lincoln, Nebraska, has been COLD. I've mastered the art of layering and try to walk in the afternoon when the weather is the least cold. Not warm, just less cold. Walking in the afternoon is only possible when my husband (a student) is home with the boys, and there have been many nights that I don't get my walk until after the boys are in bed.

I've walked in single-digit temps, with windchill in the negatives, in the sun, under the moon, by the light of the streetlamps, in the snow, over ice, with my kids, with a friend, at the mall, past my church, around a lake, extra laps while shopping, always with a good book on Audibles!

Yesterday's walk was something I'm especially proud of. I have a little more time on Saturday afternoons when Gary is home, so yesterday I decided to walk around a small lake we live by. It's almost a 4-mile loop from our house and while I've always been capable of walking that far, I would be very tired and my back would hurt. Not yesterday! What's more, it was 25* with snow flurries, and a 10-mph wind that made it feel like 12*. But I got to see ice fishermen as the lake was almost totally frozen over, I saw geese flying sort of south, and ducks swimming in an open spot in the ice.

I got back to the house and checked my mileage and saw my total for the month was 39.6 miles. No! I quickly put my coat and shoes back on and went around the block. Ha!

If you would like to join me in my #walk365 project, use that hashtag or follow me on Instagram. I'm GibsonGirl726.