Hi, Reader!

This week I hung up family photos from Utah in our big, blank stairwell and couldn't help but think back to our trip. The longest trip we've ever done by far. And it ended up being our favorite road trip so far!

We've had a week in Utah with Kyle's family on our calendar for over a year, but as the summer got closer I looked into adding more time to the trip so that we could explore the West and break up what would otherwise be a 23 hour drive.

Kyle's job offers so much flexibility - I knew he would be able to work the first week of our trip and only take off one week of work for the time we're with extended family. We ultimately decided to break the trip up by seeing family, spending some time in the cool mountains just the 6 of us, then making a pit stop in Utah before arriving at our final destination of Southern Utah.

Prep + Packing

Normally I'm a last minute packer, but knowing we would be on the road for 16+ days did put a little bit more of a pep in my step to get organized. I made sure the house and van were completely clean, made a checklist of things to close down in the house like turning the water heater to vacation mode (did you know this was a thing?!), stopping the mail, etc.

I took my plants to a friend's house for her daughter to get paid to water them regularly while we were gone as well.

We borrowed a cargo carrier to go on top of our van from another friend. We have a soft top carrier but Kyle wanted one that locks so that we could leave things in it overnight without being worried about it being taken. We loaded the trunk with all our favorite luggage set, a few plastic bins for stuff we wanted access to during the drive, and the oversized moving bags that hold so much, have comfortable handles for carrying, and can fit into tight places.

Days 1 - 3: Northern Colorado

We left home around 3:30am on Saturday, July 11th to make it to Northern Colorado where 2 of Kyle's siblings live. His sister was having a house warming party and we wanted to get there before it ended even though we had a 13.5 hour drive that day. Ruby got carsick within a few hours of starting our trip and we made a pitstop at Target for children's Dramamine. This worked perfectly for her and she didn't get sick the rest of the day and also took a nap. Shoutout to my all-time favorite puke bags for keeping the car clean and without smell even though she got sick.

We stopped in Omaha, Nebraska for lunch. This was our first road trip bringing our big Coleman cooler instead of a small beverage cooler and it was a game changer! I had everything we needed for lunch: sandwich options, fruit, chips, and drinks and we didn't need to get lunch out. We played at Discovery Playground and had lunch there. They had great, clean bathrooms, shaded benches, and a few water features in the playground.

We made great time, had perfect weather, and arrived around 7pm MST - about 15 hours after we had left home.

We spent all of Sunday and Monday in Northern Colorado hanging out with family and Kyle worked Monday before we left in the evening to check in at our condo in Keystone, Colorado.

Days 4 - 6: Colorado Rockies Ski Town

Kyle has skied at Loveland Ski Area before, but I had never been into the Colorado Rockies like Keystone or Breckenridge before and it is stunning and cool temperatures: my ideal summer retreat. We stayed in a 2 bedroom/2 bathroom condo with access to an outdoor pool and hot tub as well as walking distance to a creek the kids could play in and several restaurants and shops! Kyle worked this whole week so the kids and I found activities during the day and he joined in the evening.

Tuesday, July 14th was my birthday! Kyle ended work a little early and we drove over to Breckenridge together to get dinner, explore, and see more of the mountains. We had delicious empanadas from a place in Frisco called Lazo. Downtown Breckenridge also has a creek with rocks that kids can play in.

We decided to extend our stay here because we loved it so much. We ditched our plan to leave Thursday, drive up to Salt Lake City, spend one full day there before meeting up with extended family. We stayed an extra night in Keystone then left on Friday and drove a more direct route towards our ultimate destination by stopping for a night in Moab, Utah.

It took some finagling and I did lose out on some points I had spent on a hotel in SLC but it still ultimately ended up being cheaper because of the amount of driving and location hopping we avoided.

Day 7: Moab, Utah

Friday, July 17 we left Keystone in the morning. Kyle worked in the car while I drove. We stopped in Grand Junction, Colorado before entering Utah and witnessing the most stunning drive I've ever done. I cannot believe I hadn't been told prior to this trip that everyone must experience driving I-70 between Colorado and Utah at least once. We sounded like broken records but we couldn't stop oohing and aahing and saying "I can't believe what I'm looking at as we drove!

We made a pit stop at Arches National Park on our way to our hotel in Moab, UT. It was extremely hot and we didn't have time nor desire to do hiking that day. Thankfully someone had told us that the Double Arches were extremely easy to get to from the car! So we paid the National Park entrance fee, drove through the park, and stopped right in front of the double arches. There was a porta-potty style bathroom facility, water bottle refill station, and a small 5 minute walk up into the Double Arches.

From there, we made our way to the Holiday Inn Express - Moab where they had a bunk bed room with queen size bunks on top and bottom! I found this room through the Capital One portal because I was using points to book and as a big family, this was a huge win! There was a single queen bed, bunk bed that had a queen bed on top and bottom, and a pullout couch that could sleep 2. This one hotel room could fit 8 people!

We got a great night's sleep after being in the car and outside in the heat all day and were all so excited to meet up with our extended family for the week the following day. Kyle also wrapped up all work Friday evening and signed off for the week. 🙌🏼

Days 8 - 15: Southern Utah

Saturday, July 18th we left our hotel in Moab around 9am and had a 5 hour drive to our AirBnB in southern Utah plus a stop at Walmart for groceries as we made our way there.

Kyle's 2 siblings drove from Colorado and his brother and parents flew into Las Vegas airport and made their way to the Airbnb from the opposite direction. We couldn't check in until 4pm so even though this was a travel day, it wasn't an early morning or a long drive and the excitement made the day go smoothly!

Right at 4pm we checked into the coolest Airbnb for large groups we've ever stayed in! 7 bedrooms including 4 bedrooms with their own attached bathroom. Stunning views of the red rocks. A pool with a slide and it's own exterior bathroom that was clean. Huge yard with swings, treehouse, and multiple fire pits. It was so great.

It was also in the middle of nowhere. It was about an hour's drive to Zion National Park, 6 minutes from an expensive grocery store, or 35 minutes to Walmart.

But our main goal for the week was to spend time together with a little bit of hiking so this Airbnb was the PERFECT place. We arrived on Saturday and I think it was at least Tuesday until the kids even left the airbnb.

A group of guys in the family did the Angel's Landing hike one day, we did a group hike of the Narrows in Zion National Park, and another group did a small hike close to our Airbnb. The Narrows was beautiful, but in late July it was HOT and muddy. The water looked like chocolate milk. We really want to go back in the spring in a few years when the kids have the stamina to do more of the hike.

Kyle's parents kept the grandkids at the Airbnb for a day of "Mimi and Papa Camp" and the adult kids plus spouses plus one baby went out for a day. We rented kayaks and paddle boards at Quail Creek State Park and I loved doing this. The water was clean, clear, and cool and the mountain views (again) were beautiful.

We didn't eat out at all this week other than ordering pizza one time and getting apps and drinks on our way home from paddleboarding. Everybody got their own breakfast and lunch stuff (that we all freely shared, no one cared) and then each family unit took on one dinner for the whole group).

Days 16 - 17: Colorado Rockies Ski Town

Saturday, July 25th we left early in the morning to start making our way home. Hildale, Utah is a 23 hour drive from our house so we knew we needed to break it up! We drove back to Keystone, Colorado which was about a 9 hour drive. We made it there around dinner time and checked into a condo very similar to the one we stayed in at the beginning of the trip.

And our friends were there! We found this out just about a month before our trip that some of our best friends who we vacationed with over Christmas break were going to be in Keystone on their own trip while we were making our way home! So we decided to stay 2 nights there to give the kids a full day to play and not be in the car before our last, long travel day. We swam at the condo, watched a movie together, got caught in a rain storm, and had dinner and ice cream in Breckenridge!

Monday, July 27th we left Keystone to make our way home. This was a work day for Kyle. He has a client in the Denver area so he grabbed coffee and pastries and stopped into their office to say hello. Then we settled in for the long haul. He worked in the car and I drove until 5pm when he was done and we traded.

We made great time. The kids were really so good. All those years of taking road trips where someone was screaming at some point most of the time really did pay off - traveling in the car is a skill that kids can acquire with practice. If short road trips go poorly, it doesn't mean you shouldn't travel by car. It means you should do it more frequently! Remember the car is moving towards your destination no matter what is happening inside. 🙃

We alternate screen and no screen activities. We will watch a full movie then turn the tv off and have them read or color or talk or sleep. Then we'll give them an hour or two of video game time. Then we'll turn everything off again. They are 5, 7, 9, and 11 and we really were so proud of them for going with the flow in all the car time.

5/5 ⭐️ Would do again in a heartbeat!

It wasn't always easy or fun (Kyle carried so many heavy things up so many flights of stairs and I drove so many hours to make the work schedule possible).

But as we got ready for back to school and met new teachers, had doctor's appointments, etc. and they were asked about their summer all 4 kids described this road trip as the thing they did this summer.

As a note, I chose not to make the budget side a huge part of this newsletter since it was already so long. The TL;DR is that I budgeted $2,500 and ended up spending around $3,100 (not including most lodging but including the extra night in Colorado that I paid for during the trip). This works out to $182 per day and that includes all food, activities, parking (we had to pay for oversized parking a few times because of the cargo carrier), and gas (we drove a total of 3,500 miles on this trip!). Really not bad even though the total sounds huge.

I had never done a trip this long and didn't know what to expect on costs. Colorado ski area is very cheap to stay in the summer, but very expensive on food and that threw me off a bit. We also didn't expect the boots and socks rental to be over $200 for our family but c'est la vie! I adjusted our budget in the pay period after this to spend less in a few categories and then I also took money budgeted for future trips and used that to pay for this as well. The trip straddled 2 pay periods and that helped a lot.

Thanks for following along!

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