Meet the Bairds

[Lisa Baird]

Welcome to the Baird Family! This coming July, my husband, Bill, and I will be married for 22 years. We have three children, two of them are on the Autism Spectrum. Our oldest child, Katie, is 19 years old and will be a sophomore at SUNY Geneseo college. She is a history, secondary education, and vocal performance major. Our middle child, Julia, is 17 years old and will be a senior and our youngest son, Andrew, is 14 years old and will be a freshman.

Both my husband and I are middle school teachers. I took about 12 years off to be a stay at home mom and then got rehired as a special education and literacy teacher. My husband teaches American history. We love to travel and have taken the kids cross country visiting over a dozen national parks. We live in Webster, NY so typically we camp at state parks in the Adirondack and 1000 Island regions.

We attend Holy Trinity Church, and have a wonderful pastor, Father Tim and retired priest, Father John. Raising two children with special needs, who are both very different has taught me a lot about surrender, humility, compassion, picking up my cross daily and laying down my life. Our home life has many unique challenges, but also many blessings. God has always put wonderful doctors and therapists who have walked beside us and guided us.

We look forward to meeting everyone, and together learning more about Christ and raising our children to love the Lord.

[Stephanie Carder]

Hello Lisa and the Bairds!

So nice to meet you! I’m glad there are many families that also like camping! 🙂

When my husband and I first married we made a goal to visit all the national parks. Not sure that is an entirely attainable goal for us (we’ve only hit 4 in 7 years), but it will be fun to try!

Which ones have you guys enjoyed so far?

[Stephanie Carder]

P.S. GO IRISH! 👍

[Lisa Baird]

Hi Stephanie. I married into a strong camping family, and now I would officially call myself a camper too. During our cross country trip our first stop was The University of Notre Dame. Go Irish! 💚 Then we went to the Bad Lands, Mount Rushmore, Bryce, Zion, Yellow Stone, Grand Canyon, Arches, Cannon Land, Mesa Verde, and the Arch in Saint Louis. We put 9,000 miles on our truck and God blessed us with no rain or car accidents.

Where has your family camped?

[Stephanie Carder]

Wow that sounds like a truly amazing trip!! I’m glad you guys got to see so much and that your family and truck made it through in one piece!! 🙂

Did you have a favorite spot?

We’ve camped mostly in the Midwest: the Manitou Islands in Michigan, Cuyahoga Valley and Hocking Hills in Ohio, the Indiana Dunes and the Porcupine Mountains in the Michigan U.P. (that one was my favorite)! I hope someday we can make it to the Adirondacks…they sound beautiful! Have you always lived in NY?

[Lisa Baird]

Wow- you have also camped in a lot of great places. We want to camp in Michigan someday. Thanks for the suggestions.

Yes- we have always lived in NY.

Looking forward to seeing everyone on Friday!

[Claire Zugec]

That’s so neat that you have explored so many National Parks! That’s a dream of mine for our family (our kids are all really little now, so haven’t figured out how to navigate bigger trips with them yet). My husband and I did a bit of a road trip honeymoon (in 2015) and visited Sedona, the Grand Canyon, and ended in Albuquerque for their hot air balloon festival. It was such a fun trip!! Any tips for traveling cross-country as a family?

[Anita Moffett]

We are fellow campers as well. We are on our third summer with our camper trailer and it is truly one of the best things we’ve purchased! We haven’t ventured very far from Ohio yet but do love camping in MI. National parks are on our list as the kids get older, and we try to keep up with my military brother in law and their family as they have been to over 20!

I too am a middle school teacher (only going into my second year) so I may have lots of questions as I tackle some new subject matter this year but I’m really loving the age, since my own children haven’t hit that mark yet!

[Lisa Baird]

We also stayed more local when our kids were younger but decided to go cross country when our youngest just finished 3rd grade. It seems you have a window of opportunity when they are old enough to remember a big trip but before other activities start to get in the way and it’s harder to be away for an entire month.

I’m going on my 3rd year as a middle school special education teacher in my current position. 1st here consultant 7th grade, then last year 8th grade and now back to 7th. I agree it is hard to learn the different curriculums. I agree it is a little easier since two of my own children have already gone through those grade levels. Our middle daughter is in a daily living curriculum because of her special needs.

[Lisa Baird]

Hi Claire- Your family has also traveled to some great places. We definitely stayed more local when our kids were younger and decided to take them cross country before they got to old and had sports/jobs to get in the way. The sights were breath taking, but it stressed my out as there are no guard rails and I was constantly afraid one of us would fall off of a cliff or run into a bear- LOL! Our family loves history so we wanted them to experience both nature and historical sites. On our one year anniversary, Bill and I drove cross country all of the way to California. We saw the Red Woods and regret that we never drove to Glacier National Park. If you are planning on staying at National Parks I think it helps to start making reservations about 5-6 months in advance as they fill up. We participated in as many park ranger programs as possible. I hope your family also will have the opportunity to camp and enjoy the beautiful parks…

[Claire Zugec]

Lisa, that’s a good point about wanting kids to remember a big trip like that, and not falling off the side of anything! I think as much as I’m looking forward to a lot of things for when our kids are older, God is often reminding me to be present to the ages and stages they are right now. They already have changed so much during their little lives, as have I in the process! Look forward to getting to know more about your family as we go along here! 😊

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