I'M BACK!!! After taking more than 2 weeks away from my business and going off grid for a 15 day road trip with my family, I'm officially back! I'm so excited to share our adventures with you and get back to serving all my wonderful clients!
Believe it or not, my husband and I actually survived 15 days on the road to South Dakota and back with our three small children ages 8, 5, and 3! We saw so many amazing things, made so many awesome memories, and learned so much about history and nature on this crazy adventure. And we had fun! (most of the time 🤪)
In our family, my husband is the travel planner and he's AWESOME! He plans everything: stops, tours, tickets, times, travel, budget...everything! It's so helpful to go on a trip with him knowing exactly where we are headed, how much it's going to cost, backup plans for when things don't work out, all tickets and tours booked ahead so we don't wait in line or miss out when we are there....so much planning and work ahead of time on his part makes for such a much smoother trip! Especially when you have three kiddos in tow! I pack the clothes, prep the food and manage the kids stuff, but when it comes to the plans, I'm just along for the ride! 😂 Thank goodness for Jacob!
Family Road Trip 2022
from Nashville, Tennessee to Black Hills, South Dakota
Here's an overview of our itinerary:
Starting from home in Nashville, Tennessee > One night in a hotel in St. Louis, Missouri > One night in a hotel in Kansas City, Missouri > One night in a hotel in Omaha, Nebraska > One night in a cabin at Palisades State Park in South Dakota > 3 nights in a tent in Badlands National Park, South Dakota > 4 nights in a tent in Custer State Park > [now heading back home] > One night in a cabin at Palisades State Park in South Dakota > One night in a hotel in Minneapolis, Minnesota > One night in a hotel in Des Moines, Iowa > One night in a hotel in St. Louis, Missouri > HOME!
As I started pulling images from my phone and my camera, even narrowed down to my favorites for a post, I realized there is just too much to share in one blog post. So I'm going to split this trip into two parts!
This first post will cover our travel out to the Badlands (my personal favorite stop of our whole trip) and the second post (whenever I can finish editing all our images 🤪) will cover the second have of our trip from Custer State Park back home.
Keep scrolling to see highlights from each of our stops along the way for the first half of our trip!
St. Louis, Missouri
We packed up with stuff strapped to the top and back of our car and completely stuffed to the ceiling on the inside and left Nashville late to stay in a hotel in St. Louis 5 hours away. We already spent our spring break in St. Louis hitting all the highlights like the City Museum, Zoo, Forest Park, and the kid friendly museums, so for this stop we made time for Grant's Farm since we didn't have a chance to fit it in on our spring break trip. The kids loved all the animals, especially feeding the parakeets, baby goats, and alpacas. They loved when the birds landed on their hands and perched on their heads. One baby goat definitely bit off a chunk of Eden's hair...not ripped it out of her head, but just straight up cut a chunk of hair in half with his mouth like a hair cut we didn't sign up for 😳 Me, not being a farm girl, had no idea they could do that...mom win 🤪 Thankfully she could have cared less and we continued having a great visit. The kids also loved riding the carousel. Props to daddy for riding it with them because there's no way I could spin around like that and not have vertigo the rest of the day!
Kansas City, Missouri
Next up, Kansas City. We visited both the Kansas side and the Missouri side to sample BBQ at Joe's and Arthur Bryant's. Both delicious but Joe's won our family over. We also took the kids to LEGOland and they loved it! I wasn't super impressed because it felt like you were in a warehouse the whole time, but the boys loved all the hands-on exhibits and little rides. After LEGOland, we explored Union Station and the Art Museum before hitting the road again.
Omaha, Nebraska
In Omaha, we stopped by Hollywood Candy for vintage pinball games and a rows and rows of candy to choose from. Sugared up we headed to the Omaha Zoo and Aquarium. This zoo was huge! We could have spent a week just at zoo!
Palisades State Park, South Dakota
We made it to South Dakota! This was just a quick pit stop in a cabin on our way to the Black Hills on the other side of South Dakota. The kids loved the little cabin in the woods, especially the bunk beds. We went for a beautiful hike to the King and Queen rock formations and admired God's creation. This park was really quiet so it felt like we had the whole place to ourselves. Our kids love any chance to climb on rocks so they liked this hike. Being in nature had me break out my big camera.
We made a stop at Sioux Falls on our way to the Badlands.
Badlands National Park, South Dakota
And for my personal favorite stop of the whole trip...the Badlands! The rock formations, weather, hiking, and views were just awesome. The kids never wanted to stop climbing. And being my favorite spot of the trip, I had my big camera out all the time...so this is the longest photo collage of this post 😅 There was just so much to see and so much I wanted to remember, I couldn't help myself! This was the first leg of the tent camping portion of our trip. We spend 4 days and 3 nights and a campsite with epic views of the mountains. Judah (our 8yo) started collecting his string of Junior Ranger badges here. During this visit, we ventured out to the famous Wall Drug for free ice water, donuts, and 5 cent coffee, visited Prairie Dog Town, and saw our first bison.
Some phone favorites from the Badlands:
That's all for now! 😅 More editing and sharing to come! The last half of our trip included Custer State Park, the Wildlife Loop, Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, Mall of America, Minniehaha Falls, Pipstone National Memorial, and more! Hopefully I'll have time to finish putting together the last half of this awesome trip soon!
Hope everyone is enjoying their summer and making memories with their families. Life is short. Go do the thing. Take a chance. Make memories together. Have fun!
I'm so excited to be back serving my clients again! First up this weekend is a special wedding!! Stay tuned!
I'M JANET!
Photographer
I'm a wife, mama, former preschool teacher, and family & newborn photographer based out of Nashville, Tennessee. I have a passion for serving mamas and helping them capture beautiful snapshots of life with their littles to treasure for a lifetime.
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