i heart NY

When I was young, I was a road tripping queen. I loved nothing more than hopping in my car with my paper road map (remember those things?) and just seeing how far I could get in 10 hours. Well the days of going non-stop and jumping in the car last minute are way behind me now. And even though it took two days of packing and a huge leap of faith that my car-hating toddler would not come unglued, we made a simple 5 hour trek to New York state to see some dear old friends recently. And it was such a treat in so many ways.

Naia ended up doing fine on the road thanks to (1) a CD of favorite songs made just for that trip that both kids listened to happily 7 times in a row, (2) loads of snacks, (3) a cheapo hand fan from the Dollar store covered in golden thread and sparkly beads. Whatever works, right?

Our friends are in New Paltz which is a gorgeous slice of the world covered in organic farms and mountains and funky shops and old barns. Their house is in the woods and has a waterfall in the backyard (which both of my kids can not stop talking about!) We had such a lovely time playing and apple picking and canning and knitting and exploring.

A highlight was learning to how to make dyes from local plants from a lovely lady in our friend's homeschool group.

Here's our finished clothing dyed with black walnuts, onion skins, and golden rod flowers (which also makes a delicious tea).  (For anyone interested, we used the book Wild Color as a reference)

I don't think we're ready for a cross country trip just yet in our wee Honda Civic, but I loved hitting the road with my kiddos. I hope Naia becomes as good a traveler as Zach so we can road trip some more in the future.