places we've been - prickett family adventures

prickett family adventures

places we've been

A collection of 739 posts

field trips

If we weren't traveling full time our girls would be in school, but since they're not we're taking advantage of visiting all the busy places during the week. It's one of the perks of homeschooling. This week we did two field trips. Thursday we went apple picking (one of my

throwback thursday (september 14, 2022)

throwback thursday (september 14, 2022)

photo map update

photo map update

Our map got an update today. Some states were filled in. Some states got updated pictures. Oh... New Mexico. You are going to drive me crazy.

recap

Our summer roadtrip took us through 13 states: South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska and Iowa. Whew! Emma and Olivia visited 7 states for the first time: Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah. Braden and I visited 4 states for the

canyonlands

This is probably our last (and 15th) National Park/Monument/Recreation Area on our summer roadtrip. We are all pretty exhausted at this point, so our visit was a short hike, a couple overlooks, Junior Ranger badges and we called it done. Afterward we had lunch at a diner with

sand flats

There are two things I am not a super fan of (1) jet skis (2) UTVs. UTVing through the Sand Flats in Moab was something Braden really wanted to do on this trip. Three of the four of us loved it. I gladly took on the role of photographer/videographer

arches

We almost skipped Arches National Park. I figured once you've seen one arch you've seen them all. It seemed pretty boring. We're staying in Moab for a couple days because Emma and I want to go to Canyonlands National Park and Braden and Olivia want to go UTVing. Since we're

slot canyon

Tomorrow we leave Southern Utah, but before we go we took an ATV tour to a slot canyon. They are as cool in person as they look in photos. Fun fact for Austin - the height of a slot canyon is at least 10 times more than the width. Because

zion - day 2

Most of the parks have different ways they try to minimize crowds and traffic, except Yellowstone. Yellowstone was just a free for all. Glacier required reservations to enter the park that you had to purchase two days in advance. Zion only lets you drive on one road in the park.

zion

Our drive into Zion was not looking promising this morning despite the weather forecast saying low to no chance of rain today. We didn't get to do much before the rain started coming down. One of the hikes we wanted to do was partially closed because potential flash flooding (plus

grand canyon

Today we made it to the Grand Canyon. I was actually ok skipping this National Park, but I'm glad we didn't. There is a reason it is one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. Our next adventure of the day (and it was quite the adventure) were the

farewell las vegas

farewell las vegas

Our last day in Vegas was filled with laundry, pool, dinner and a show. We ate dinner at a Japanese steakhouse in the Bellagio. The girls were excited to get dressed up. They were also excited about the sushi, steak and soup. After dinner we took the girls to their

throwback thursday (august 31, 2022)

throwback thursday (august 31, 2022)

las vegas

We had a bit of a dilemma this week. Do we stay in California and spend a day in Los Angeles, or do we start heading towards Minnesota? After discussing it in length we decided to skip Los Angeles and head to Las Vegas. For the first time in over

yosemite

We're squeezing in as many National Parks as we can before Emma's 4th grade pass expires. This one was on Braden's list to visit this summer. We took our craziest hike yet to get to the base of El Capitan. On the way back we stumbled upon a group of

redwoods

Redwoods were on our list of things to see before we leave California. Unfortunately our route from Oregon to California wasn't anywhere near Redwood National Park. Fortunately there are a couple places in California where you can see the redwoods and this one was just over an hour from San

san francisco

Our legs are tired after a full day of sightseeing in San Francisco. We did it all - Golden Gate Bridge, sea lions, Pier 39, Fisherman's Wharf, a cable car ride and hot fudge sundaes at Ghiradelli. I think the highlight for both girls was getting to ride on the

throwback thursday (august 24 2022)

throwback thursday (august 24 2022)

california

Our first night in California was an interesting one. At 9:00 PM I got a call from the campground to let us know that we were under a mudslide evacuation warning. Um... what? Luckily we were only staying there for one night on our way down to San Francisco

oregon

After traveling 2,225 miles over the last month, we finally made it to Oregon! Our first day in Oregon ended with Olivia losing a tooth. Our second day in Oregon ended with Olivia losing another tooth. The girls were super excited about getting to Oregon to see their cousins.

throwback thursday (august 10, 2022)

throwback thursday (august 10, 2022)

washington

Another day. Another new state. We had only planned a quick stop in Washington during our drive from Idaho to Oregon to visit the Riverfront Park in Spokane. Since we ended up spending a couple extra days in Idaho we decided to take a day trip to Spokane (only a

idaho

A new state for all four of us - Idaho! Our last monarch butterfly emerged two days ago. Fun fact for Austin - the official state insect of Idaho is the monarch butterfly. So it made sense to release our last butterfly here. When we left Montana the fires were

something old, something new

something old, something new

Our second trip to Glacier we did some things that we did back in 2018, sprinkled in with some new things. Plus we saw a bunch of cool animals... On our way back to the bus last night we asked the girls which they liked better - Glacier or Yellowstone.

glacier

Glacier National Park was not one of our stops when we were planning our roadtrip this summer. We visited in 2018, but during our trip the west part of the park was closed because 11,000+ acres were on fire. Last week our plans changed a little bit and we