Get out and go...

Start a series. 

I wrote this post a couple years ago during one of my attempts at starting this blog. I have known since I had the idea of starting a blog I would share my travels. I have been going through the handfuls of posts that are still drafts and found this. The story on how we decided to see as many of our national parks as we can and when I came up the Get Out and Go idea for my blog. This was written in early 2012.

This past October (2011), we had some friends getting married in Las Vegas. Eric was all set to go and I was planning on staying home because we had a three month old baby. As we got closer to October, I was really comfortable with the idea of tagging along with the baby and hanging out while he went to the wedding. The only things I asked to do was to go to the Hoover Dam, the Grand Canyon and the Welcome to Las Vegas sign. I knew that those places were easy trips to make so, I was not asking for too much.

Eric agreed to those things and started looking into it how to get there, where to get a car, and where we should stay. As he was figuring out those details he started looking at other parks near by and what else we could see and if adding more days before the wedding or after the wedding would be better.  That's when he came up with the idea to fly out early rent a car and go to Zion, Bryce and Grand Canyon National Parks. I was like awesome, lets do this but we will only do little hikes because we have a three month old and I will have to feed him and that might be hard to do and no camping.

We flew to Vegas, got in a car and drove for what seemed like forever to get to Zion and when we got there we were blown away. We found an easy hike up a side of a mountain and set out on our first family hike.

After we hiked the short hike and shuttled to a few points of interest we went to the lodge area to hang out on the lawn, have some lunch, and feed the baby.  During that time, we talked about going to more parks because we bought a park pass and I said why not go see more before the pass expires.  That, ladies and gentlemen, is how it all started.  We bought a park pass that was good for a year and I wanted to get our moneys worth. I might have been a little drunk on the view and the moment when I suggested that.

The great lawn.

So, I think Zion National Park, a park I did not know existed until a few weeks before our trip, was the catalyst for wanting to go to as many national parks as we can. Look at that view, that prefect blue sky, the red rocks of those mountains and if you could feel the warmth of the sun and the smell of fall in the air, you would totally get it.

Here is a little back ground, so you can see that this idea wasn't completely off of our radar. When I met Eric, he was preparing to go on a camping trip to Glacier, Tetons and Yellowstone National Parks with some college friends. I had been to the Smokey Mountains, Blue Ridge Trail and Rock Mountain National Parks. So, going to the parks is something that both of us had done without the other. I grew up camping and hiking. He is a boy and like most boys, loves doing outdoor things like that.

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That was where I had ended the story, before.

We went on to see several other places, then to Arizona and a short stay in Flagstaff before heading back to see the Hoover Dam, the Las Vegas sign and our friends get married.

That was when our family trips started. This story was the reason why I wanted to write my Get Out and Go series. We love traveling together, since we started dating we have covered many miles and over half of the states. With each trip, I journaled and photographed everything. I wanted to share our travels beyond those journals to encourage others to get out and go and see these places that our great country has to offer. Like Zion, a place I didn't know until shortly before the trip. As well as, showing that these trips can be done with kids of any age.

My goal with writing this series is to share our stories from our smallest of journeys to the biggest. Exploring our own backyard is just as important as traveling far, so I will share our favorite walking paths and parks to playing in our very own back yard with our boys. Getting out of our house and being active is what get out and go is all about.