Finally, we got to sleep in! The perfect start to a rest day. Coffee on the porch, a good book, and no expectations for the day! Perfection! I spent the morning painting. I had never used oil paints before and had no idea what I was doing. It was fun to experiment and I’m pretty […]

Read More Rest Day

Yesterday I crawled through an arch and through a window. Today I crawled up and down a mountain. It was another early morning, but the promise of adventure (and hot coffee) was enough to get me out of bed without too much complaining. (Ellie takes after me.) We were on the road by 7 and […]

Read More Centennial Peak

What a day!! I’ll start by saying it’s the first time in my life I’ve crawled through a window to enter a house. I also crawled through arches. It was a wild one! We woke up early and made the 2+ hour drive to Arches. A few months ago we snagged 9-10 am entry tickets […]

Read More Arches NP: Fiery Furnace

Kudos to Ellie for keeping this project afloat! She’s definitely the one who complians the most when we make her write, but the only one that did it when it was optional. It’s been a whirlwind of a couple of weeks. we had a wonderful time with the Stewarts, had a crazy trip back home, […]

Read More Boggy Draw

As I sit down to recap the day, I don’t know where this post will lead. This is supposed to be a journal of our traveling and adventurings, both of which we did a lot of today. But today has been so much more than a hike and a long drive. We started out early. […]

Read More Day 11: Observation Point in Zion to Mancos

We all slowly awoke this morning in a good amount of pain. We all had sore arms, from using using the chains like our life depended on it. (They did.) Our legs were sore from the 4000 feet of gain of the past two days. Today was our rest day and we did just that. […]

Read More Day 10: Rest Day at Zion

If you Google the most dangerous hikes, you’ll find Angel’s Landing on Zion at the top of all the lists. We’ve intentionally avoided this hike for years. We watched the videos, we read the testimonials. We knew it wasn’t for us. Then the park service created a permit system, drastically reducing the hikers allowed on […]

Read More Day 9: Angel’s Landing

As we wrapped up today’s hike, I told Ellie she slayed it.  She was mortified, as the crowd what somewhat dense at the trailhead. She whisper-yelled at me, “Mom!! That’s a very Gen Z word and you’re very millennial!” I thought we had slayed the day, but apparently there is a better, more hip word […]

Read More Day 8: Bryce Canyon NP: Navajo Loop, Peekaboo Loop, Bryce Point Lookout

Today felt like a vintage Knott family road trip day. We woke up early and hit the road for a 6 hour drive. The first stop was the Four Corners Monument, the intersection of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona. For all the time we’ve spent in those four states, we’ve always intentionally skipped this. […]

Read More Day 7: Mancos to Bryce NP

I sure lucked out. I have the best, most patient, hardest working dad ever. AND I have the most hilarious, compassionate partner in parenting. I recognize how fortunate the girls and I are to have these two great men in our lives. Zak and I had planned on going for an early morning bike ride, […]

Read More Day 6: Father’s Day