Derick And Jill Dillard Explain Family Trip To Colorado: Son Was Sick During Hour-Long Walk To Chick-Fil-A

Derick and Jill Dillard released information about their recent Colorado trip Saturday evening. Among other details, they discussed Jill and the kids being left in a hotel room while Derick joined his mission group, and their young sons being sick on the trip, which included, according to Jill, an hour-long walk for fast food.

Derick has been doing a lot of traveling with Cross Church’s C3 missionary school. Last month he joined a trip to Guadalajara, and this month, he traveled to Colorado with his whole family. According to his latest blog post, the whole Dillard family joined the C3 group on a caravan-style trip. Derick says he chose to take Jill and their sons, Israel, who turned 3 during the trip, and Sam, who will be 1 year old in July, because he didn’t want the family separated for Israel’s birthday.

Derick and Jill have both shared several photos of their trip on social media, but these centered more on the family trip aspects and less on Derick’s mission group and what they’ve been doing. In his blog post, they offered a few details, mentioning delivering food to homeless people, taking pizzas to police and military personnel, and Derick converting a man to Christianity.

One thing that the couple did elaborate on was the day that Jill and the two small boys took a long walk to Chick-Fil-A. On Instagram, Jill described the trip.

“You know you’re a mom when…you walk 1hr. 10 min with both boys to get to a @chickfila
We were enjoying some beautiful Colorado Springs weather while papa was busy with the rest of the team from church!”

Viewers chimed in to ask why they had to walk so far, and to suggest it was hard on Israel, who is seen in photos balancing on the footrest of baby Sam’s stroller. Some wondered why Jill hadn’t joined Derick in his church activities, and why she didn’t have access to a vehicle. The Dillard family’s new blog post addresses some of this.

“…with the little ones in tow, we wouldn’t get to participate all together in every outreach opportunity. Jill and the boys stayed at the hotel some…”

A second social media post during the Dillard family’s trip showed Derick joining Jill and their sons for another walk. Though they didn’t mention the length of this particular outing, it looks more scenic than the first one.

However, Jill and Derick raised new questions with the blog post.

“The boys ended up starting the trip out with coughs and colds, and by the end, our whole little family had it! Thankfully, everyone seems to be getting better now.”

So, while fans criticized Jill for making Israel walk such a distance, he was also sick for the long walk.

They also answered the oft-repeated question from viewers about whether they’re on missions or vacations by mentioning that they were able to take some family time out of the trip for visits to local attractions.

Jill and Derick Dillard and their parenting practices are a constant controversy, and viewers have chimed in many times before to weigh in on parenting choices from swaddling or blanket training to using other restraints to control their sons, to lugging the kids along on missionary trips that observers fear could endanger them. The Dillard family may have left Counting On, but they continue to make their lives very public through their social media and blog, and viewers are not hesitant to let Jill and Derick know how they feel about those choices!