Ramblings by Jes, Part 4 - Dave

At home, I definitely run most aspects of our household. I am the planner and organizer, but that has a lot to do with my personality. Dave likes to leave things up in the air more than me and just see what happens. He also tends to procrastinate things a little. As a result, I’ve usually taken care of things way before he’s even thought about it. Planning this trip is definitely an example. I had mapped out a preliminary plan, including ideas of things to do in all the cities along the way – through Las Vegas. I got burned out and didn’t bother past that too much. That caught up with us a little, as we ended up in places without good plans of what we were going to do. We managed to find things to see and do, but I think we could have enjoyed ourselves a little more with some better planning. But, oh well.


The interesting part for me has been watching Dave. There is so much information about the national parks, and I tend to read about the main attractions and plan to do those. Dave is always looking for the really cool hikes or sights off the beaten path a little. He really got into planning all our hikes. He would actually spend some time researching the best hikes to do and send us on them. Sometimes I thought he was being a little too ambitious, but I think he is a better judge of our children’s endurance than I am. It was nice having him take over the activity planning for some of the days. He also tended to get up earlier than the rest of us when he was excited about these plans. Dave and I are definitely not rise early people, and this trip has adjusted our schedule to sleep in late (so late, in fact, we usually have to set alarms to make it to the hotel breakfasts that end at 9:30). But, Dave would be up opening the window curtains way before any of the rest of us were ready to get us started on the day. He was like a kid at Christmas sometimes.

The other surprise for me about Dave has been his lack of structured working out. For me, this trip has been full of workouts. When we’re not in the car (which, granted, is a lot of the time), we are hiking up steep canyons, climbing over rocks, racing to watch a geyser, or just trekking it through a city, usually at a pretty good clip. I’ve had plenty of days where my legs and butt were sore. But, I think Dave has only gotten in 4-5 runs this whole trip. A lot of it has to do with the fact that we don’t have time for him to run, but I also think he doesn’t need it the same way he does at home. I always say that Dave is just one of those people that needs to run. I can tell when he isn’t running because he is grumpier. I know that running helps relieve him of stresses. I think he’s just been stress-free most of this trip, if you don’t count the snowstorm in Colorado and the traffic in Chicago.

Some people ask me how I can stand having my husband work at home and some probably wonder how our family can spend 24 hours a day for 6 weeks together. But, we are loving it. Dave and I are so compatible. We balance each other well and like to do most of the same things. There has not been a moment when we’ve gotten on each other’s nerves. He pushes us to do everything we can at a park while I’m trying to keep some semblance of a normal eating and sleeping schedule, but we easily reach a compromise. It’s been so easy to be with him day after day. It has been an absolutely wonderful experience for all of us. I so look forward to Dave’s retirement when we get to spend every day together!