A Different Road

Disney

2010-10-31T17:14:00.000-07:00

We got to spend a few weeks back at Disney before doing our big move to Virginia. In many ways, it was a perfect last destination for us. The weather was gorgeous, we were back at our favorite RV park, and of course the kids had a ball at Disney. But they had just as much fun playing in the sand at the RV park and visiting with some friends. It was really a wonderful few weeks. Here are some highlights:

It was really amazing to see how much the kids had grown just in the 5 months since we were last at Disney. In May, Rinnah went on these Dumbo-style rides but was nervous. This time she LOVED them. Just couldn't get enough of it and was even doing the up/down controller on her own.

From Disney-October

Characters are still a favorite!

From Disney-October

Ian completely skipped over the water last time-but this time he actually asked to play at the splash pad and had a great time!

From Disney-October

Waiting to get splashed

From Disney-October

Look at those cool dudes

From Disney-October

Attempting to get some 4 year pictures

From Disney-October

Picking flowers

From Disney-October

Back on the carpet ride-this turned out to be Rinnah's absolute favorite. She rode at least 10 times.

From Disney-October

Ian was tall enough (just barely!) to ride Big Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, and Soarin' this time. He did great! He looks a little nervous in the picture, but honestly, he was begging to go again and again. He rode 6 times and would have happily ridden more if we'd have been willing to keep waiting in line!

From Disney-October

Getting splashed by the camel outside the carpet ride

From Disney-October

Love that static hair!

From Disney-October

Anytime Ian rode his bike to the playground, he insisted on wearing his helmet the whole time he was playing.

From Disney-October

Playing with friends who came to visit

From Disney-October

Rinnah using the dump truck to fill up the huge bucket, LOL

From Disney-October

Rinnah and her baby (that day she had lovingly colored her with marker, fed her applesauce, and poured dirt on top of her)

From Disney-October

More friends came over to visit

From Disney-October

Engrossed in watching a caterpillar

From Disney-October

Back to the splash pad

From Disney-October

A very frequent routine:

From Disney-October

"Mommy, I got REALLY wet!!!" she'd say. Then run back for more!

From Disney-October

"Cheese!"

From Disney-October

Before we left, we stopped for a day at the Orlando Science Center. Of course the water exhibits were a favorite.

From Disney-October

Storytime

From Disney-October

Petting a baby alligator

From Disney-October

Ian loved this car exhibit. You could change the tires, change the air filter, refill the fluids, change the oil....all sorts of car maintenance things. I think Ian changed the tires about 15 times.

From Disney-October

Catching up-Lynchburg, VA and visiting with Aunt Katy

2010-10-21T10:17:00.001-07:00

After our visit with my mom in New York and Pennsylvania, we headed back to Lynchburg, Virginia. While we were here earlier in the summer, we fell in love with the church that my college roommate Debbie and her family attend. We were there for about 5 weeks and already started getting plugged in. Honestly, this was the first place that we were sad to leave. Sure there are plenty of places we'd love to revisit, but this was the first that the excitement of a new place didn't outweigh the sadness of leaving. So we decided to move there this fall and rent a regular house again. We went back after Pennsylvania to look at rental houses.

While we were there, we also had another birthday party for Ian, when our friends came over for a cookout and s'mores. These punch balloons Debbie brought were a huge hit!

From Lynchburg-September

After our short trip to Lynchburg, we headed down to Florida. We already had reservations at our favorite park in Orlando, and we wanted to take the kids back to Disney again before we settle down. We had just over a month until the house we picked would be ready to move in. On the way down, we stopped in Jacksonville to visit with Aunt Katy. We got to spend a whole day with her at the park-the kids had a ball!

From Aunt Katy-September

Catching up-New York and Pennsylvania

2010-10-02T16:35:00.000-07:00

While we were in New York, we met up with a friend of mine and her family at the museum. Here's her little boy on the carousel-isn't he a charmer?

From Visit with Laurie-New York

The museum had the most amazing grocery store setup we've seen. Everything was tagged with barcodes that really scanned at the checkout and printed a receipt with what you 'bought'! It was very well done and the kids loved it.

From Visit with Laurie-New York

Power shopping in the meat department

From Visit with Laurie-New York

Ian walked around and pointed at something and said, "We can't buy that because it's not on sale." After another lap around the store, he said, "Oh, it's on sale now! Now we can buy it!" My little savvy shopper already. :)

From Visit with Laurie-New York

The kids adored Laurie and insisted that she be the cashier for them

From Visit with Laurie-New York

Beaming with pride at his block creation

From Visit with Laurie-New York

Ian and Hunter at the exhibit where it looks like you're on Sesame Street-this was very cute

From Visit with Laurie-New York

Rinnah joining in

From Visit with Laurie-New York

Laurie's little princess

From Visit with Laurie-New York

Ian 'worked' at this hot dog stand for at least 20 minutes, serving up pretend hot dogs, burgers, tacos, and ice cream to anyone who would play along.

From Visit with Laurie-New York

Rinnah is explaining to me how to play her game

From Visit with Laurie-New York

Making music

From Visit with Laurie-New York

Riding the train

From Visit with Laurie-New York

The whole gang (minus Laurie's hubby who was taking the photo)

From Visit with Laurie-New York

After New York, we went to Pennsylvania. A big part of that was so we could see a huge RV show. That was fun, just walking around and looking at all the different types of RVs, from the tiny little teardrop trailers to huge luxury motorhomes and everything in between. That's also where we were for Ian's birthday.

Rinnah having fun with stickers

From Hershey PA

Ian playing with the dump truck he got for his birthday

From Hershey PA

Playing with the trains, including a few new pieces he got for his birthday

From Hershey PA

I attempted to take Ian out for birthday pictures. That didn't work so well, but they did have fun playing in the leaves.

From Hershey PA

We also made a brief visit to Chocolate World before we left. The kids adored the chocolate tour ride, especially the singing cows. We rode at least 3 times and we weren't there very long!

From Hershey PA

Catching up-New York

2010-10-01T17:38:00.000-07:00

After Ohio we went to a campground near Rochester, New York. While we were there my mom came up for a visit.

Field trip to Niagara Falls:

From New York

The kids' first trip to Canada! We walked over the bridge. Ian was very impressed-this was him until we got back to the US.

From New York

It rained that day and Rinnah was far more impressed with the giant puddles on the sidewalk than the waterfall.

From New York

We also enjoyed our time at the campground. There was a sandbox there which our kids adored. We have about a million sand toys, so after the first day our kids were very popular at the RV park. They made a lot of new friends by sharing all their toys.

From New York

Golfing at the campground-Ian even wore his golfer shorts:

From New York

Rinnah found it easier to just drop the ball in the hole

From New York

Catching up part 1-Ohio

2010-10-01T05:58:00.000-07:00

This blog has been so sadly neglected. It's just been a crazy past month or so. But here goes my attempt at catching up.

We were in Ohio in late August. We found a great park nearby in Columbus where we played most evenings. Ian even took the training wheels off his bike (he'd been begging for weeks) and started practicing riding.

From Cleveland

Building a fort at COSI

From Cleveland

The fort's demise a few minutes later

From Cleveland

In Cleveland, we got to tour the student union building that Jeremy helped work on. He designed the software to display on this tv screen.

From Cleveland

Rinnah loves to draw

From Cleveland

Ian's birthday!

2010-09-15T16:58:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Ian's birthday!

We're still not done with the celebrations, but here's what we got to yesterday. First, Grandma Fox, who has been with us for a little over two weeks now, got a flat tire on her trailer. Ian was very excited to get to watch the tow truck come and the guy jack up the trailer so he could put the spare tire on.

From Harrisburg PA

Playing while waiting for the tow truck

Then we found a new park to go to that had a ton of really huge slides. Ian had so much fun there, he asked to come back at dinnertime and have supper at the picnic tables.

From Harrisburg PA

Lately Rinnah loves swinging like a monkey any chance she gets!

From Harrisburg PA

Jumping down the stairs

From Harrisburg PA

Back at the park for birthday dinner-KFC with homemade potato salad, cantaloupe, pasta salad, black olives, and potato chips.

From Harrisburg PA

Playing with Grandma's giant frisbee after dinner

From Harrisburg PA

It was getting late by the time we made it home, but we still opened presents.

From Harrisburg PA

It was so much fun. Ian was thrilled with every one of his gifts, and genuinely grateful and delighting in his special day. Rinnah was just as excited as he was to see what was in the packages.

From Harrisburg PA

There are four candles on his cupcake, although it's hard to tell at this angle!

From Harrisburg PA

Goofing off

From Harrisburg PA

More gifts

From Harrisburg PA

Trying out his new fire truck

From Harrisburg PA

So we still need to play minigolf, take his 4 year pictures, and do a campfire and s'mores. Too much excitement to pack into one day! Maybe tomorrow we'll have birthday round two and finish things up.

New York

2010-09-02T17:53:00.001-07:00

Last Saturday, before we left Cleveland, we were able to have Doug and Nikki over for dinner. That was really nice. They've been family friends for years and the kids were so excited. Ian started cleaning the windows on Wednesday in preparation for their visit. :) We had dinner outside, enjoying the gorgeous weather, and made s'mores over the campfire for dessert. What a great evening!

From Cleveland

After that, we headed up to New York. We're in Le Roy, NY this week-between Batavia and Rochester, just over an hour from Niagara Falls. My mom drove up to meet us. The kids of course are thrilled to see Grandma Fox and have loved spending time with her this week. We are parked right next to the playground, literally about 50 feet away, which the kids love. And next week it's supposed to be cooler so we'll probably take advantage of that even more. They even have a real sandbox here which the kids have already spent hours in, digging and building.

Cleveland

2010-08-24T13:01:00.000-07:00

We made it to Cleveland on Sunday. This week we're staying at a KOA, which is a really nice treat. We haven't stayed at a park with so many amenities for awhile. There's a playground for the kids, a lake to swim in complete with water slide and inflatable climbing pillow, an old fire truck for the kids to ride, a beach with lots of sand for digging in, and a large site with grassy areas to play, a firepit, and a picnic table. Two minutes down the road is a city park with an enormous playground, and just beyond that is a shopping center with Target, the grocery store, banks, gas stations, and pretty much anything else we could need. It's a nice setup this week.

The only thing we're not close to is museums, but since we went three times last week I think it will be okay to take a few days off. There are some in Cleveland, but it's a bit of a drive so we'll probably wait until Saturday to go out there.

The weather has been beautiful, low 70s with just a sprinkle of rain, so it's been great for playing outside. We've already spent hours at the playground and the park.

The kids are really excited about next week-we'll be meeting up with Grandma Fox in New York. They've been talking about it for weeks and weeks!

Ohio

2010-08-19T22:38:00.000-07:00

It has been a good week so far in Ohio.

We've been to the museum twice, and the kids really enjoyed that. It's one of the biggest museums we've seen the whole time we've been traveling. In fact, the kids' room is bigger than some entire children's museums we've visited! They loved everything, from the water spray room and the submarine to riding the glass elevator and watching the overhead unicycle.

We also found some good thrift stores and grocery sales here, which has been helpful. And there was a garage sale a few houses down from where we're staying (it's an old farmhouse that turned their yard into an rv park) where we found a bulldozer from the same set as Ian's front loader that he plays with ALL the time. It was only $1, so we got that for him and a $2 bubble machine for Rinnah-they were pretty happy campers. :)

Yesterday we went out to Ohio State and Jeremy showed us the big student union building that his company did the A/V programming for. That was pretty neat! I haven't ever gotten to see his work in person, just the mockups on Jeremy's computer, so it was fun to see his designs up on the big screens. Afterwards we went out for pizza at a delicious pizza restaurant, a very nice treat.

Today we're laying low here at home, because Ian got new pajamas that he refuses to take off, and Rinnah wants to wear the same shirt she's been wearing day and night for 5 days now and she won't put any pants on. Since that doesn't really fit public dress codes, we're going to try staying at home and playing with wooden trains for awhile.

Off to Ohio

2010-08-16T11:23:00.000-07:00

We had a really great time in Virginia. For some reason, I found it really difficult to make time for blogging, but I'm hoping to turn over a new leaf here and get back to regular posting.

One of the highlights of our time in Virginia was a train trip to Charlottesville. We took the Amtrak for a short ride, just over an hour, into Charlottesville. We got there around 11:15, and then walked to a park to have lunch. The park turned out to have a huge playground that was fun for the grownups and the kids both. We played there for quite awhile, enjoying the beautiful weather that day. Then we had a picnic lunch next to the playground.

From Lynchburg, VA

(she was jumping!)

PJ and Caedmon

From Lynchburg, VA

I love Caedmon's blue eyes!

From Lynchburg, VA

After lunch, we walked to the Discovery Museum. It turned out to be a really nice walk through the downtown mall in Charlottesville-all sorts of street vendors and interesting shops to look at along the way. The museum was a big hit with the kids.

Dress up

From Lynchburg, VA

Ian and Abby in the rocking boat

From Lynchburg, VA

This part of the museum was really nice-a big open room with lots to play with, and we could just sit down in the middle and keep an eye on the kids. It was a good break for the adults who'd been pushing the strollers all over!

From Lynchburg, VA

Just outside the museum was this carousel-the kids really enjoyed this. Ian even put his teddy bear on one of the horses.

From Lynchburg, VA

After the museum we had a nice dinner outside, by a fountain in the downtown mall area, and then headed back to the train. It was such a great day! We'd had some concerns, since none of us are especially punctual people (it's hard with little kids), and we clearly needed to be on time for the Amtrak. But it worked out beautifully! We had just the right amount of time everywhere, never feeling rushed but never having to wait more than a few minutes either. The weather was perfect too. And the kids held up amazingly well for a day with no real naptime. It was such a fabulous day with great friends!

That was about a week ago. This past weekend, we said goodbye to Virginia and headed to Columbus, Ohio. We arrived on Sunday with enough time to do a short visit at the COSI science museum, and that was great. We only saw a small part of the museum but enough to see that it's a really fabulous place! We'll definitely be going back there a few more times this week before we head to Cleveland on Sunday.

August

2010-08-05T17:41:00.000-07:00

This blog has been sadly neglected these last few weeks!

We've just been laying low here in Virginia. We've really enjoyed our time here. Debbie & PJ's church is really wonderful, definitely something we have loved while we've been here. Ian and Rinnah just adore Abby. They can't get enough of her. Every day they're asking me if we'll see Abby today, and Ian is drawing pictures for her, or painting pictures for her, or coming up with things he wants to show her, or toys he wants to share with her-it's very sweet. They like Caedmon too, but since he doesn't talk yet they don't quite get to interact in the same way. And I have loved having Debbie nearby-it's so wonderful to have an old friend (we were roommates in college) who knows me well, but who also understands the challenges of being a mom to two young kids.

Next week we'll be moving to a different campground to try out, because we might be coming back for awhile next spring. We'd love the chance to get plugged in, even for just a few months, at this church and financially this is a really inexpensive area to hang out for awhile and save up some money, so it's an option we're seriously considering.

Not a whole lot else happening. Our big adventure for the day was going out to Dairy Queen to buy blizzards for the Miracle Treat Day. While we were out we also ended up needing to replace the car battery. Oh well, we were thankful that we could just run right over to Advance Auto Parts and have them install it, and neither of us was out stuck somewhere, and we weren't in a hurry.

A little over a week left here and then we'll be off to Ohio.

Virginia

2010-07-21T17:37:00.000-07:00

We've had such a nice week and a half here in Virginia. We've spent a lot of time with Debbie and her kids. They had us over for a cookout one night, and we went to the children's museum another day, and we've spent a few days just hanging out at her house. It's so wonderful to have a good friend who knew me well before kids, who now has kids similar ages and totally gets my mommy struggles too. And it's been great when we've spent the day together because our kids play pretty well together so we're able to visit, plus when one of us needs to make a phone call or switch the laundry the kids still have supervision.

I've been practicing my photography on her kids a little and that has been fun. Both her kids are gorgeous, and her daughter especially has been cooperative for some pictures. (A little M&M bribery may have helped! I feel like things are finally starting to come together with photography. For the last year, I've just been learning enough to see everything wrong with the pictures I'm taking but not enough to get them right. I still have a lot to learn, but now I can see a lot of things I'm doing right now too. It's so encouraging that all this time I've spent reading, studying, and practicing is starting to pay off! I've got a long way to go but I think I'm finally turning the corner. Here are a few shots I've gotten of Debbie's kids while we've been here:

From Virginia Beach, VA

From Lynchburg, VA

Visiting with old friends

2010-07-12T16:36:00.000-07:00

We're now in Appomattox, Virginia-an itty-bitty town in the middle of Virginia. We're visiting my college roommate Debbie and her family. She and her husband have a little girl who's just a few months younger than Ian, and a little boy who just turned one. It has been so wonderful to visit with them. We went to their church on Sunday, which was really nice. They had a great kids' program there. We went out to a Mexican restaurant for lunch, and wow, it was so nice to eat with someone else who is used to little kids! Jeremy commented about how they ate at the same pace as us-slow, with many interruptions to cater to kids. And we could have a conversation with kids climbing all over us and we all could tune out the kids and still listen to each other! I honestly think it's the first time we've gone out to eat with our kids AND other people and not felt rushed.

This morning Debbie brought the kids over to our house and everybody played with toys for awhile while Debbie and I just visited and chatted. So refreshing!! We have visited a lot of wonderful people, and I'm so thankful for their visits. But this was one of very few times when I didn't feel a pressure to have everything spotless, or feel embarrassed if the kids acted out a bit...there's just something really great about having an old friend who you trust who is also used to little kids and all the chaos that comes with them. Very freeing, and so wonderful to catch up with her. I'm glad we'll be around here for a few weeks.

Canoe ride

2010-07-09T06:11:00.000-07:00

Last night we finally did something I've been wanting to do for awhile-take the kids out on a boat. This was the perfect place for it, since they had canoes for rent (instead of pedal boats where we can't see the kids), and the river that we went out on is huge and calm, and less than 5 feet deep for a mile out from shore. We had such a nice little ride around. Ian loved it and wants to do it again for his birthday. Rinnah was nervous at first but quickly warmed up to the idea and nearly fell asleep during the ride. Unfortunately we don't have pictures because I didn't dare bring my camera out in a canoe with two kids who don't sit still.

After the canoe ride we went over to the playground and the kids played and dug in the sand for awhile. It was such a relaxing evening. We are really enjoying our time here in Virginia Beach.

Fun with friends

2010-07-07T19:05:00.000-07:00

We have had such a great time here in Virginia Beach!

On Monday we met up with two of my online buddies, Laura and April, and their kids. Connor and Luke are the same age as Ian and Grayson just turned one. We went to the Living Museum, which was part history museum with a dinosaur exhibit and part zoo, with tons of live animals to see. We had a wonderful time with everyone and the kids got along well.

Then tonight April and her boys, and Laura and Luke, all came over. The boys played with the train set for a long time while we visited, then we played outside for a bit and had a campfire cookout for dinner, complete with s'mores. After dinner we went out to the river beach here at the campground and the kids just had a blast playing in the water and the sand. We had so much fun together.

Alright, pics are up!

All of us at the museum: from left, Grayson, Connor, and April, then Luke and Laura, then Ian, Rinnah, and me

From Virginia Beach, VA

Ian, Rinnah, and Luke digging for dinosaur bones

From Virginia Beach, VA

Connor joining in

From Virginia Beach, VA

Ian as a turtle

From Virginia Beach, VA

Rinnah didn't want to climb in the shell but she thought it was great that she could be a turtle!

From Virginia Beach, VA

Ian and Connor controlling the robotic dinosaur

From Virginia Beach, VA

All the kids

From Virginia Beach, VA

Somebody said something funny

From Virginia Beach, VA

Luke, Rinnah, and Ian playing ring around the rosy

From Virginia Beach, VA

Luke, Connor, and Rinnah playing

From Virginia Beach, VA

Luke hugging a tree

From Virginia Beach, VA

The kids playing outside after our picnic lunch

From Virginia Beach, VA

And then from last night:

Grayson and Luke playing with trains

From Virginia Beach, VA

Connor and Grayson

From Virginia Beach, VA

Connor driving a train

From Virginia Beach, VA

All the boys playing

From Virginia Beach, VA

After playing with the trains, we had popsicles and went to the playground

From Virginia Beach, VA

Grayson

From Virginia Beach, VA

This is the highest and longest Ian has ever gone on the big swings-he was doing great!

From Virginia Beach, VA

Grayson wasn't sure what he thought of the sand

From Virginia Beach, VA

Luke and Connor on the slide

From Virginia Beach, VA

Then they spotted the camera

From Virginia Beach, VA

Our cookout dinner was delicious-hot dogs over the fire, burgers on the grill, baked beans, deviled eggs, fruit salad, chips, and jello

From Virginia Beach, VA

Then we made s'mores! Some of the kids hadn't had s'mores before and all the kids were so excited to roast marshmallows!

From Virginia Beach, VA

Digging in

From Virginia Beach, VA

Can you tell he enjoyed it?

From Virginia Beach, VA

Love that hair!

From Virginia Beach, VA

After s'mores we went down to the river beach area. Here's Luke swimming at sunset

From Virginia Beach, VA

Ian and Rinnah at sunset

From Virginia Beach, VA

Rinnah was so excited that we let her climb in, jeans and all!

From Virginia Beach, VA

Luke and Connor

From Virginia Beach, VA

Luke was such a little fish!

From Virginia Beach, VA

Even Grayson got his feet wet

From Virginia Beach, VA

We had such a fantastic time! When it was time for his friends to go, they hadn't even started their cars and Ian was already asking when they could come over again. The boys really did great together!

Rinnah's birthday

2010-07-02T19:27:00.000-07:00

Today Rinnah turned 2!

We had a fabulous day. We started off with donuts for breakfast. The kids loved adding their own sprinkles.

From Rinnah's birthday

After Ian helped me wrap Rinnah's presents, we headed out to a blueberry farm. Since that was one of her favorite things we've done, we wanted to take her again. She was very excited. Both kids really enjoyed picking (and eating!) the berries.

From Rinnah's birthday

We came home for lunch of grilled cheese sandwiches (Rinnah's request) and of course plenty of blueberries. After naps, we talked to Grandma Fox on Skype and then went to the putt-putt to play minigolf.

From Rinnah's birthday

Rinnah had more fun throwing her ball and jumping off the obstacles than actually golfing.

From Rinnah's birthday

After golfing we headed to this restaurant right next door

From Rinnah's birthday

where the kids had some tasty hot dogs topped with pickles and Jeremy and I had some burgers.

From Rinnah's birthday

After dinner we headed back home to make s'mores over a campfire. Rinnah had picked out strawberry marshmallows and they actually made really good s'mores with our dark chocolate! We also talked to Grandmother & Granddaddy Weatherford over Skype.

From Rinnah's birthday

We really had a fantastic day, and we haven't even gotten to the cake or presents yet! We'll have to finish the celebrations tomorrow!

Rinnah's pre-birthday

2010-07-01T18:57:00.000-07:00

Today was Rinnah's last day to be 1.

She is so much fun. She talks ALL the time, and she's so cheerful. Strangers are always asking me, "Is she always this happy?" The answer is, she's pretty much happy or tired. There's not a lot of in between.

Most mornings, she wakes up before Ian and comes happily into our room, climbs in our bed, and then starts singing to us and playing some sort of game. She loves to be tickled, play peek-a-boo, sing songs with us, sing rock-a-bye baby to her Donald, and of course jump on the bed.

She loves to dance. Anytime she hears music, whether it's at the grocery store, from a toy, or on a movie she gets up and does a little dance. Sometimes she dances even when no one else hears any music. It's adorable.

She's also very smart. She can *usually* count to 10 and get most of the numbers up to 20. She knows her abc's, although her favorite part of the song is "next time won't you sing with me" so sometimes she skips everything after P. She remembers all sorts of details and can figure out how to do new things every day that impress us.

She comes up with the most creative ways to entertain herself, and we just get the privilege of watching. She'll be happily playing ring-around-the-rosy with her Donald, or making up songs and dances, or trying on everybody's shoes. She's thrilled to let us into her little world but all of her play is just for her-it's not to impress us.

She brings so much joy into our lives and we are so blessed to have her!

Winging it

2010-06-29T09:44:00.000-07:00

This has turned out to be an interesting week.

We didn't stay at the campground in Myrtle Beach because it was pretty expensive. We just didn't count on it being so difficult to find somewhere else to stay. We called so many campgrounds but places were either full, crazy expensive, or didn't answer the phone. We wound up landing here in Wilson, NC. Pretty small town but we're staying at a park that's almost like someone's rural yard. They've got horses and donkeys here. Sadly, the pool is closed. But the town has everything we really need, even if not much for entertainment.

We had to take the trailer over yesterday because somewhere along the way we ran over a nail and one of the tires had to be replaced. So I took the kids to Walmart because it's way too hot here to just wait outside for a few hours.

We've been trying to find somewhere to go near Virginia Beach next week. But since this weekend is the 4th of July, we're once again running into the choices of expensive or way out of the way. And many places are full. I think we have found someplace for next week though, and the week after that we'll be heading to Virginia to visit a good friend of mine from college which I am really looking forward to.

For now we're just laying low, getting little things done like clean out the car and trying to get the endless mountain of laundry put away. Not too exciting this week! But next week we'll be back to doing museums & beaches so that will be fun. And of course we have Rinnah's birthday on Friday, and Jeremy just found out he has Monday off too so we have a 4 day weekend! Yay!

South Carolina

2010-06-25T17:22:00.001-07:00

Well, our plans have changed yet again.

We were planning on spending this coming week in Myrtle Beach with Jeremy's parents. We had big plans for celebrating Rinnah's birthday with them there and staying at a fabulous campground. But last night they let us know they won't be coming. Poor Ian just kept asking why-it's hard when he understands that we were going to see them but can't really understand why they changed their plans. Rinnah asked if we could go see Mickey instead. LOL

So since we didn't really have a good reason to stay at that campground, other than all our packages that were being delivered there, we're switching things up. We're at a Walmart in Walterboro, South Carolina tonight. Then tomorrow we'll head to the campground in Myrtle Beach to pick up our packages and stay for a night. Then after that-it's up in the air. We'll be looking at our museum lists tonight and tomorrow to try to find somewhere to go. Also thinking about what all we want to do for Rinnah's birthday since Jeremy's taking that day off work and we want to make it special for her. She gets so much more excited about things this year than last year of course, and it will be a lot of fun to make a big deal of it for her.

One year on the road

2010-06-21T11:40:00.001-07:00

We have now been on the road for one full year. What a year it's been! We have so many wonderful memories from this year and we've learned so much.

We have logged around 10,000 miles on the trailer and far more on the truck. We've visited 23 states. I haven't counted the exact number, but I'm pretty sure we've been to around 75 different museums and zoos. Our best guess is around 150-200 different parks and playgrounds. We've seen the Pacific and we'll see the Atlantic on Wednesday. We've visited a whole list of friends and family. Jeremy has worked in 4 different time zones.

More importantly, we have so many memories with our kids. We've proven to ourselves that we don't need as much space, as many toys, or as many clothes as we thought. We've created a life where adventure is the norm, and change is expected. The kids don't know very many current tv characters but they can describe museum exhibits they saw months ago. They love playing outside and exploring new places. We spend a lot less time (maybe too little!) keeping up the house and far more playing with our kids. There are so many things about this lifestyle that we love.

There have certainly been challenges along the way. We've run short on bandwidth for Jeremy's work. We've had to do repairs on our house, which leaves us homeless in the meantime. We've had some long hours of driving and some near misses with floods and tornados. We knew that we'd be missing out on community and that has been harder than we anticipated. It's not always easy to have the kids sleeping a few feet apart.

We've also gotten to take our kids to some pretty amazing places-they've splashed in the Pacific, ridden to the top of Pike's Peak, walked along the rim of the Grand Canyon, and played in the desert sand. They've cooked s'mores over campfires. They've picked blueberries and oranges fresh off the tree. They've hiked over waterfalls and seen national parks. We've ridden trolleys, boats, zip lines, and trains of all sizes.And we have spent more days than I can count going for walks, playing in the sand, and exploring playgrounds.

Here are some favorite photos of the last year:

From Kansas City

From Sioux Falls

Rinnah's first birthday

From Rinnah's Birthday

From Rapid City, SD

Mount Rushmore

From Rapid City, SD

Watching bear cubs play in South Dakota

From Rapid City, SD

From Fort Collins

From Loveland CO

Building a campfire

From Loveland CO

From Colorado Springs

From Loveland CO 2nd visit

Rinnah's first steps

From Loveland CO 2nd visit

From Denver

From Wyoming

Mouse that stowed away under the hood of our truck

From Wyoming

From Salt Lake City

zip line in Park City, UT

From Salt Lake City

From Ian's Birthday

Ian's birthday-riding the commuter train

From Ian's Birthday

From Pullman, WA

From Seattle

From Meetup with Cindy

From Portland

Decorating Christmas cookies

From Christmas

Riding the train with Grandmother & Granddaddy

From Christmas

From Sunnnyvale CA

From Bakersfield, CA

From Phoenix, AZ

Grand Canyon

From Phoenix, AZ

From Jacksonville, IL

From Jon's wedding weekend

Uncle Mike

From Jon's wedding weekend

Uncle Jon's wedding

From Jon's wedding weekend

From Family photos-Jacksonville, IL

From Nashville flood

From Orlando, Florida

From Disney

From Jacksonville FL

It's been a great year!

Father's Day

2010-06-20T18:35:00.000-07:00

Happy Father's Day to Jeremy!

We spent the weekend with Katy. Yesterday we went out to the science museum, had a picnic by the river, and saw a boat museum. That wore the kids out enough for them to both nap so Jeremy, Katy, and I could play a few games together before dinner. We even got to go for a short swim in the evening.

Today we took the kids to the movie theater for the first time. We went to see Toy Story 3. Ian did great. Rinnah did pretty good until the last 30-40 minutes, but I think part of that was she was hungry and we ran out of snacks. The movie was very cute. Before the show Katy took us to a park near her place that was really nice, and the kids really enjoyed it. After the movie we went back there to have a picnic lunch.

Pictures are coming....running out of hard drive space and the new hard drive kept the computer from booting, so we have a few bugs to work out.

Slower week

2010-06-18T08:21:00.000-07:00

We're taking a little slower week here in Jacksonville.

I think in some ways we're still recuperating from all the excitement of Disney. The kids have been going to bed earlier and Ian's even been taking naps this week, so hopefully we'll be all rested up for visiting with Grandmother & Granddaddy Weatherford the week after next.

We've been able to visit with Katy a few days this week which has been very nice. I wish we lived closer to her all the time. We've also been swimming several times and spent quite awhile playing in the sand-one of the kids' favorite pasttimes lately. When it's hot we've been playing inside, building train tracks and playing games. It's been a nice week.

We're starting to see more families again in the RV parks now that summer is here. For months we were the only non-retired people most of the time. Not a bad thing, but it's nice to see other kids running around again.

Visiting with Aunt Katy

2010-06-16T18:52:00.000-07:00

Today was a great day. Katy didn't have to work so she spent the day with us. We went to a nearby park first thing, then Jeremy took a few hours off so we could all go swimming together. It is just amazing to watch Ian's confidence grow. A few weeks ago, he was just like last summer-he would cling to us for dear life while in the water and we'd end up with marks on our arms where he had gripped us so tightly. We just got the kids the swimming vests and between that and the waterside at the hotel, he is growing by leaps and bounds. Now he'll all-out jump into the pool, and he was even dog-paddling across the pool without us helping him today! It's so exciting to watch him take risks and realize he really can accomplish these things, and then see his pride when he succeeds.

After lunch & naps we played inside to stay out of the heat and then thunderstorms. We built train tracks, played hi-ho-cherryo, played memory, and visited. After dinner we went for a walk around the lake and took some pictures.

From Jacksonville FL

Aunt Katy

2010-06-15T18:33:00.001-07:00

We got to visit with Aunt Katy last night!

We're in Jacksonville, FL now staying at a very nice RV park. We're right across from the playground and the pool (we can see it from the window when we eat) and we've already used both. The kids were so happy to swim. We've been in Florida for over a month and aside from the Disney hotel pools, this was the first time we'd found a pool open. We tried several other places and the Florida natives kept looking at us like we were crazy and reminding us that it wasn't summer yet. Call it what you like, when it's 95 degrees outside I'd love to play in the pool! So they were very excited to swim here. We got the kids some vests that are supposed to help with learning to swim. I'm not sure they're quite ready for learning strokes, but it certainly helped Ian feel a lot more confident in the water and it makes it easier to hold them up around the pool.

Katy came over last night for dinner. It was so great to see her again! We hadn't seen her since last November in California and both kids have grown so much since then, especially Rinnah. She was barely talking last fall and now she talks up a storm. The kids were SO excited for her to come. They drew pictures and hung them up all over the RV, and must have asked me a hundred times that day when Aunt Katy was coming. After lunch Ian wanted to sit outside and watch for her-he was sure disappointed when I tried to explain he had about 6 hours to go. They keep asking when she's coming back-I think she'll be by again tomorrow so we're all looking forward to that.

Boy, is it hot here! Maybe it's just my imagination, but it sure feels hotter than Orlando. We were wanting to pick somewhere with no snow to settle, but this 95+humidity has us thinking that maybe a little snow wouldn't be the end of the world!

Relaxing

2010-06-10T19:29:00.000-07:00

The last few days we've been taking things slower here at Turkey Lake Park. We did some grocery shopping, made some progress at unpacking everything from the hotel, and spent awhile playing outside. It's been nice. Here are a few shots of the kids playing outside here.

From Orlando, Florida

Disney World

2010-06-09T04:22:00.001-07:00

Whew! We had two long but wonderful weeks at Disney World. The kids had a blast. For the first time ever, Jeremy took en entire week off work so we could all go to the parks together. It was so wonderful to have him with us all day instead of just in the evenings.

From Disney

The kids loved the rides. At first some of the quick movements made Rinnah nervous, but she overcame that fear. And Ian gradually got more and more adventurous as the trip went on. They both loved the Fantasyland rides-It's a Small World, Winnie-the-Pooh, and the carousel. Ian loved Dumbo; Rinnah didn't like the choppy movements but by the end of the trip was asking to ride similar rides at other parks. Rinnah's favorite was the "Donald boat ride" as she called it; there's a boat ride in Mexico in Epcot where Donald's pals are looking for him all over Mexico to play in the band that night. All through the rides the kids loved "finding" Donald in the various video clips. The Speedway (where they can drive the race cars) was also a favorite with both kids.

From Disney

Ian's favorite was the Magic Carpets of Aladdin. Similar to Dumbo, but the carpets can tilt forward or back and there's a camel that occasionally "spits" on you as you go around.

From Disney

They both loved the teacups too. Ian figured out how to make them spin and Rinnah couldn't stop giggling as we went around.

From Disney

On the new Toy Story ride

From Disney

There were also a lot of interactive exhibits and play areas that they really enjoyed. The Turtle Talk with Crush show, where Crush the turtle from Nemo comes and interacts with the humans, was a huge hit. They also liked watching all the fish in the huge aquarium right outside there.

almost a picture with Nemo

From Disney

Ian pushing a garbage truck in an exhibit about recycling

From Disney

Playing with controls on a fire truck

From Disney

"Driving" a car in the showroom at Test Track

From Disney

In the play area by Finding Nemo

From Disney

Rinnah LOVED the splash pad by Donald's boat

From Disney

Peering out the back of the Riverboat ride

From Disney

One day we had lunch at the restaurant in Germany with my mom and brothers. A band started playing some traditional German music. The kids went down to dance and had a ball! We've got video from this too that I'm trying to get uploaded.

From Disney

jumping (look carefully, his feet are off the ground!)

From Disney

Playing in a splash area

From Disney

Ian singing "Deep and Wide" as he came down the slide

From Disney

And then there were the characters. We didn't make many plans around the characters since we weren't sure how they would react. Turns out, they LOVED them. We stopped at many, many character spots for pictures, especially with Rinnah. She wasn't afraid at all-when it was her turn she'd usually run right at them and give them a huge hug.

At Minnie's house

From Disney

And then there was Donald. Rinnah, for some inexplicable reason, picked Donald as her clear favorite. She was spotting tiny little photos of Donald in a group in the park map, his face on the back of the Fastpass-she could spot Donald from a mile away. She was always asking to see Donald. And we did, quite a few times.

We saw Donald

From Disney

Donald and Daisy

From Disney

Frontier Donald

From Disney

Donald again

From Disney

And again

From Disney

Safari Donald

From Disney

And another visit to Frontier Donald

From Disney

She could have spent all day following Donald around and been perfectly happy. So as an early birthday present, Grandma Fox got her her very own Donald. She loves it and brings him everywhere.

From Disney

Of course, we didn't spend all our time at the parks. We went swimming several times which the kids loved. Here they are playing on the beach.

From Disney

He'd been waiting for months to find sand again for his front loader

From Disney

Different beach another day

From Disney

Looking at our hotel across the lake

From Disney

We swam in the regular pool too

From Disney

....with the ducks

From Disney

In the last few days of the trip Ian really found his confidence and started being more daring. This is a pretty good-sized waterslide, probably about 30 feet at the top. It winds its way down so it's not too fast, but it was still a big slide for Ian. He was so proud of himself when he finally tried it alone, and from that point on we couldn't keep him off the slide. He must have gone down it at least 40 times that morning while Jeremy and I took turns catching him at the bottom.

From Disney

He also rode the small roller coaster in Mickey's Toontown. Sadly I didn't get a picture of that but he had a blast.

Rinnah was too short to go on the roller coaster, so she had to make her own. She is always yelling "Go fast!" in the stroller. Here Jeremy's pushing them pretty fast, running down a hill. Could she be any happier? Looks like a ride photo to me!

From Disney

One of their favorite things was the huge tub in the hotel. It opened up to the bedroom (Jeremy & I loved not having to sit in the bathroom while they were in the tub) and even had jets.

From Disney

They loved spending time with their Uncle Mike. He came with us to the parks a few times and came swimming with us. The kids adore him.

From Disney

And of course Grandma-the kids love her.

From Disney

The uncles

From Disney

Some other favorite pics:

spinning on the teacups

From Disney

Riding his new Thomas bike

From Disney

Rainbow just outside Magic Kingdom

From Disney

On the monorail

From Disney

The whole gang

From Disney

And my favorite shot at DIsney

From Disney

We really had a fantastic time. It was a whole new experience for us to take an actual "vacation"-usually we just work family visits and fun places into our regular lives with traveling. This was kind of nice, although it did wear us out. The kids had a wonderful, wonderful time and it was so much fun to see them enjoy all the magic Disney has to offer. This turned out to be a really fun age to take them, because they were interested in absolutely everything and took such delight in the smaller things, like the monorail rides, the characters, and the hidden little gems through the parks like the splash areas.

Now we are back at Turkey Lake park. The RV is fixed and we're just enjoying a more relaxing week this week. Then next week we'll be visiting Aunt Katy. The kids are looking forward to that.

Balloon ride

2010-05-25T19:07:00.000-07:00

Orlando has been great! The kids are having an absolute ball at the parks, especially meeting the characters. More stories and pics from that will follow in the next few days.

Today Jeremy and I got to go on a hot air balloon ride. This has been long awaited, since we originally bought it to celebrate our 4th anniversary. The ride ended up being a belated celebration of the 2nd anniversary of our 4th anniversary. But it was well worth the wait! We got to go up between 3,000 and 4,000 feet. The weather was perfect, the view was breathtaking, and the pilot made the whole experience a lot of fun.

Jeremy helping inflate the balloon

From Orlando, Florida

Getting ready to board

From Orlando, Florida

Off we go!

From Orlando, Florida

Our reflection in a lake

From Orlando, Florida

Looking at another balloon flying this morning

From Orlando, Florida

Morning sunbeams

From Orlando, Florida

Approaching the landing area

From Orlando, Florida

It was one of the most amazing things we have ever done. We could have stayed there all morning-it was such a cool feeling to be drifting along, and the views were incredible all around. We'll definitely do that again sometime.

Disney

2010-05-14T18:45:00.000-07:00

We got our sneak preview tonight!

We were planning on spending the day tomorrow (our anniversary) at the parks, and since the kids are so excited (and we figured the ticket lines would be shorter), we went this evening to buy our passes and make our first visit. So glad we did! First, because google routed us in the cast member entrance and it turns out there is no way to get to the main parking lot that way. A kind employee let us park in the hotel lot for tonight but now we know we're better off taking the tollway in the morning when we're more eager to get to the park.

We got in the gates and the kids were a little bit in shock. We'd told them there would be a surprise today if they were good listeners and cleaned up their messes. They did that, but didn't take their naps, so they fell asleep the whole way to the park. So they were still a little groggy anyway and then all the sensory overload of the Magic Kingdom entrance hit them. Once they realized what was going on, they were pretty excited.

No sooner had we arrived at Main Street but we got invited to be part of a test thing for a future attraction. We signed papers saying we wouldn't reveal any details so I can't talk about it, but it was a really fun experience for the kids and a nice (air-conditioned) start to our visit.

After that we walked down Main Street and caught a dance show with Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and some of the princesses at the castle. The kids' eyes just lit up and they were so excited to see Mickey in the flesh! That was pretty cool and I'm glad they got to see that. Hopefully tomorrow we'll get to meet Mickey and take a photo.

Next we did the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. The ride was okay, but their favorite part was the moving ramps. Or maybe seeing Buzz Lightyear.

Then we took a short break to eat the dinner we brought with us, and walked over to see Buzz Lightyear a little closer up. By this point Ian had gotten excited about driving the car at Tomorrowland Speedway. I was pretty happy to see that because when we watched Youtube videos, he was scared of just about everything. But in the park he was eager to ride. Rinnah just missed the height requirement (I think if we can teach her not to slouch, she'd be okay) so we did the child swap. Poor Rinnah just didn't understand-when we switched off she kept saying, "My turn!" :( I thought she was tall enough (the dr said she was 33" and 32" is the cutoff) so we may try again later. At any rate, Ian loved steering and especially loved that he got to ride twice.

We followed that up with riding the train all the way around the park and then a monorail ride back to our car. I think we got in quite a bit for just a couple hours in the evening. The kids had a ball. Now we just have to decide where to go tomorrow!

Relaxing

2010-05-12T18:04:00.000-07:00

We've really been enjoying the last few days here at the park. Just walking on the trails, playing in the sand, taking some pictures, and slowing down a little. It's nice to have some slower time before we start all the theme park excitement.

Yesterday I took Rinnah out for some pictures. She wasn't as cooperative as I was hoping (hence many pics of her looking away) but I still like the way these turned out.

From Orlando, Florida

She was jumping in this one

From Orlando, Florida

Trying a different style with this one-what do you think?

From Orlando, Florida

Yesterday evening we took the kids over to the sand to play. Ian has been begging for weeks now to go to a sand park to play with his front loader, so he was thrilled. It turned out to be a fantastic way to spend the evening-it was cooling down outside, there was a nice breeze, and playing in the sand was a calming yet fun thing for the kids to do. And Jeremy and I actually had a chance to chat before we were completely exhausted.

From Orlando, Florida

Sunny Florida

2010-05-10T17:50:00.000-07:00

It's so nice to be here.

Today I took the kids to Walgreens and we spent my walgreens money on some disney souvenirs. Ian got a hat, Rinnah got some sunglasses, and we got a ball to play with outside. I also picked up some $2.99 ponchos for Jeremy and I for those sudden afternoon showers at the park, and some sunscreen. Not overly exciting but a good way to cash out of walgreens so I can take a few weeks off of coupon shopping while we're here.

This afternoon we were able to play outside for awhile. I took Rinnah for some pictures (she looked adorable with her little pigtails, but wasn't super cooperative) and Jeremy took Ian for a bike ride. It's so nice to have all these trails and playgrounds right here where we don't have to drive or worry about stoplights or crossing streets.

We worked on making some appointments to get the trailer serviced while we're staying in the hotel in a few weeks. I'm glad it will work out that we can have someplace to stay while that's getting fixed.

Our second home

2010-05-09T18:17:00.000-07:00

I think we found our new second home!

We're at this amazing park in Orlando. It's in the middle of a 300 acre city park. The park is gorgeous-very wooded, nice and shady, along a lake. There is a huge playground, lots of paved trails, plenty of outdoor pavilions with grills, and even a children's farm. The campsite is shady and generously sized. It's about 25 minutes from Disney. And it's one of the cheapest parks we've stayed at! We really, really like it here and could absolutely see ourselves spending a month or two here during the winter.

We got in at about 4:00 today so we had time to go for a walk over to the playground and the lake. There is so much to see here and it's so pretty. Then we came back so we could call both of our moms and wish them a happy mother's day.

I hope we can get it arranged to stay here for the next two weeks, until we go over to the Disney hotel. It's really nice here and it would be wonderful to have a weekend where we weren't prepping for a garage sale or moving the trailer. We're looking forward to relaxing here and enjoying this wonderful park.

On our way

2010-05-08T17:55:00.000-07:00

We have made quite a lot of progress.

Thursday morning we visited with my mom. That evening we went over to Jeremy's Uncle Gary's house and met up with quite a few people on his side of the family. We got a little lost getting there (it involved a highway that wasn't built yet when our GPS maps came out, which was the first problem) but once we found it, we had a great time. Our cousin has a little boy, Landon, who is right in between Ian and Rinnah's age. The three of them had a ball together and big brother Will was great playing with the little ones. We had a cookout and even had ice cream cones outside with fresh strawberries amongst good conversation-what better way could there be to spend a warm summer evening?

Friday we finally made our way out of Nashville. Once Jeremy finished work, we drove down to a Walmart outside of Chattanooga. Wow, is it gorgeous down that way. We drove over this amazing lake nestled between the mountains-I would love to come back to that part of the country with a boat someday.

Today we had a big driving day, making it all the way to Tifton, Georgia. We stopped for a few hours this afternoon to visit a children's museum in Macon, and still made it to a campground by 6. It was one of our best driving days so far I think, in the kids cooperating.

Tomorrow we should make it to Florida, which will make 6 states we've camped in over 11 days (4 states in 4 days last weekend, and 2 more this weekend).

Our latest challenge is being overweight with the trailer. When we think about what we've added, it's only been 15 pounds here and 20 pounds there. The kids' bed and mattresses is probably the single heaviest addition. And we can justify every addition. It's still a struggle to figure out what we can get rid of without needing to do laundry or visit the grocery store constantly. We did send some things back with my mom, but we may still need to do another big purge. We'll have to see how things go the next few weeks.

Nashville

2010-05-05T19:50:00.000-07:00

Things are starting to feel a bit more normal here in Nashville, at least as much as can be expected.

The waters crested very high. It was high enough for us to be concerned and we moved our trailer to a different spot in the campground. Water was coming in down our row of spots, and on the other side of the fence (out our kitchen window) we could see a truck in water up to its bumper. Things were slowing down so we were confident our house wouldn't be submerged, but we did want a little higher spot in the campground. We moved and we've been fine on this side.

We went out when the waters were high and saw all sorts of amazing sights. The water had risen like crazy at the KOA, and we saw several rigs and automobiles completely submerged. A few floated off to different spots. I feel terrible for the people whose trailers are sitting underwater right now. We went down the street to the corner by the Opryland Hotel, and watched the boats shuttling people who were trapped in hotels down the flooded streets. We saw the Coast Guard arrive. The street was completely filled with water and boats were going up and down. It was a fascinating and terrible sight.

All the pictures are in our album here or are currently playing in our slideshow on the right.

Today we met up with an online friend of mine and her girls. Each girl is a few months older than one of our kids, so the age spread is almost exactly the same and the kids are pretty close in age. We had a fantastic time at the park. Our original place was flooded out, but we wound up at a park with a great playground and plenty of shade. We even got to have a picnic lunch and I really enjoyed chatting with her.

Tonight my mom came into town. She was on her way back from Texas and decided to stop by. We went out to dinner tonight and hopefully we'll get to visit some tomorrow.

Two Rivers flooding

2010-05-04T07:39:00.000-07:00

Since there has been some interest in the comments, I thought I would show you what the current flooded areas are near Two Rivers Campground. On the map below, our campground is marked with an "A" and the text "TRC". It's surrounded by the Cumberland River, but it's fine, with just a small amount of water across one roadway.

The KOA in the upper left is completely covered with as much as 10 feet of water in places. Opryland is in the lower left, completely underwater as well. You can still get from the frontage road onto Briley Parkway/155 North, but south is closed due to flooding.

Soggy in Nashville

2010-05-02T18:41:00.000-07:00

We have certainly had an interesting few days.

Saturday the weather cleared up beautifully and we were able to spend the morning at the zoo with two of my September mom friends and their boys, Gavin and Miles, who are the same age as Ian, Miles' little sister Sophie, and their moms. We had a really nice time. Then we hit the road to go to Nashville, happy that the worst of the storms were behind us.

A few hours into the trip the campground called to see if we were still coming. Several of the interstates around Nashville were closed due to flooding. They advised us not to come. We checked with Jeremy's uncle Gary who lives nearby, and he said Nashville had had 12" of rain and 102mph winds. We decided we were close enough to Nashville for our liking and spent the night at a Walmart in Paducah, Kentucky. Plenty of storms but we figured the Walmart would be good shelter if we needed it. Thankfully we didn't (although lightning did strike close enough to knock out power to all the lights in the parking lot).

This morning we checked the weather lots of times. The best information we could find said that the storms would get to Paducah around 10a, and the worst in Nashville should be over by 10am. The campground said things were much better and we should be fine coming from the north. So we headed out. We stopped at the Tennessee welcome center and they assured us that the roads we needed to do would be fine. Since we had the little car, Jeremy stopped at a truck stop shortly before the exit. I went on ahead to scout since it's much easier to make a u-turn in the car. Everything was fine except for one spot on the frontage road, and that was a short-term thing that cleared up within 15 minutes. We got to the campground safely.

While checking in, they had the news on. They showed a shopping center that now had water 6' deep and they were rescuing shoppers and employees with boats. The children's hospital was flooded. That was our first indication that things were more than just rainy.

After our late lunch, we decided to take the kids out for a bit. We knew not to go far since by downtown things were flooded, so we tried to go to Opry Mills mall only a mile from the campground. But the road was closed and when we asked, the guy laughed and said Opry Mills was closed. When we turned around to go out we saw why. This is part of the parking lot area.

From Nashville flood

(that's the very top of a cargo trailer)

From Nashville flood

By this time the kids had fallen asleep in the car and we were intrigued. Obviously we weren't going to drive into any standing water but we wanted to see what was happening. So we drove up the hill and saw this down in the valley. It's a bit hard to make out, but those are full-size barns nearly submerged.

From Nashville flood

We also stumbled across this road to a golf course. (Yes, we turned around.)

From Nashville flood

Clearly this was worse than we had thought.

We decided to head back to the trailer and have dinner. Since the kids were still asleep, Jeremy dropped me off to fix dinner while he let the kids sleep a few more minutes. He drove a few blocks down the street to the KOA campground and discovered it quite underwater. After dinner we went out to take some pictures.

From Nashville flood

While we were gawking at the floods and feeling terrible for the people whose RV's were still there, we looked back at the fifth wheel we'd first seen.

From Nashville flood

We noticed that you could no longer see the headlights. And the road was getting deeper. Everyone else was noticing too. We figured the water had risen at least 6 inches in the 15-20 minutes we'd been there.

From Nashville flood

We decided to go back home and look at some elevation maps. Turns out our site, maybe 1/4 mile down the road, is only 3 feet higher in elevation than the flooded road. Literally all that separated our campsite from the floodwaters was a Camping World store. And it wasn't a big one. At this point, we decided we didn't really want to stay there for another 8 hours.

So Jeremy took the car and scouted out the road to a Walmart we'd heard was nearby, up on a hill, while I packed up the trailer. Small snafu-the bedroom slide wouldn't go in. We'd never had that happen and now, when we're trying to evacuate, we do. Thankfully, when Jeremy got back and looked at it it turned out to be an easy fix with a twist-tie and we got it in, praise the Lord. As we left we noticed the parking lot for the store on the other side of the campground was now flooded too, which means our campground was in the middle of the floodwaters. It's on a frontage road, and one direction was blocked at the KOA and the other end was blocked at Opry Mills. The only way out was highway 155, which was closed going one direction. The Walmart was the other way, which was thankfully still open but there were some low spots that looked like they could easily flood over. We're pretty happy we decided to leave because it would be easy to get stuck there.

So we're spending the night at Walmart again, up on a hill, nice and high. We feel a lot better up here. And we're glad we had the car to do scouting with today. We've had our fill of adventure for the day and hopefully tomorrow the waters will go down and we'll be able to go back to the campground.

Storms

2010-04-30T19:48:00.001-07:00

We made it to St. Louis today. It was still pretty windy this afternoon when we left-not quite as bad as yesterday, but still pretty windy. Still, we decided to give it a try figuring that if the wind was too bad we'd just turn around and go back to Chatham. As it turns out, I think I had more trouble with the wind blowing around our ultralight car than Jeremy had with the trailer. We made it to St. Louis well ahead of the rain thankfully.

After Jeremy finished work we had dinner and then, since the rain had still held off, decided to make a quick trip out to Union Station. It's only a few blocks away and the campground owner gave us a coupon for a free hour of parking there, so we gave it a shot. Ian had a great time. We looked at some of the old train memorabilia, and spent awhile outside where they have a really nice setup of a little artificial lake in the old train yard, complete with fish, a bridge, and a seafood restaurant. I took some pictures of the kids on the old train tracks and I think they turned out pretty well.

Unfortunately, before I could get the pictures off the camera, the tornado sirens went off. Poor Rinnah had been asleep and looked completely baffled as to why we'd wake her up only to take her outside in the pouring rain. I had just been reassuring Ian that the constant lighting and loud thunderclaps was almost over and nothing to worry about when the sirens went off. So we packed up the kids, draped their blankets over their heads, and trekked across the lot to the showerhouse. It's not too far and it's a brick building with no windows, so it's a good spot. We actually scouted it out when we arrived since we knew big storms were expected. There was even another couple over there with their dog, which provided a little entertainment for Ian. After about a half hour they canceled the warning and we took the kids back to bed. Of course it's taking some time to get resettled.

Hopefully the worst is over and we won't have to repeat that in the middle of the night. We're looking forward to getting together with friends tomorrow.

Another Wind-nesday

2010-04-29T17:45:00.000-07:00

Ian is learning the days of the week, and the first time he asked me what day it was we were walking outside on a windy day and it happened to be Wednesday. So now every time it's windy he says, "It's another Windnesday today!"

Today we were planning on heading down to St. Louis. It's only an hour and a half from where we are now, so it should be an easy drive. But all day today it's been about 35mph sustained winds with gusts around 45-50mph. Not the best weather for driving an almost 14' tall vehicle. So here we stay.

I packed up the kids this morning to head to the zoo. Six minutes down the road, at 9:45am, they were both asleep. I guess hopping out of bed at 6:20 took its toll. It was a bit windy for walking around the zoo anyhow, so we went back to the campground and I sat in the car with them for another half hour watching my photography tutorials. That was a nice relaxing morning.

Neither kid wanted to go outside when it was so windy out (I can't blame them really, I wasn't too excited about it myself) so we stayed home today. The kids were actually surprisingly cooperative. I cleaned out a cabinet, matched a whole basket of socks, put away the last of the laundry, and reorganized some closet things while they played with the trains, read books, and half-watched Toy Story. Of course there was plenty of time for me to play with them too (and do some refereeing) but they actually did really well. We had supper and a nice relaxing bedtime, so hopefully they'll both be out early tonight.

Rinnah is so clever. We have a paper chain countdown to Disney. Today she ripped several of the rings, including the last one, and then happily exclaimed, "See Mickey today!" Poor girl, I felt so bad explaining that it was just for counting and wouldn't magically transport us to Disney World when the ring was broken. They are going to be so excited when we finally get there.

Our other plans are shaping up nicely too. We'll be meeting up with some friends on Saturday in St. Louis, then we've got an uncle and a friend to see in Nashville next week. Plus we found a great place to meet up with Jeremy's parents at the end of June/early July and they'll even be able to be there for Rinnah's birthday. So much to look forward to!

More normal day

2010-04-28T19:22:00.001-07:00

Today felt like a much more normal day for us.

First thing this morning Ian asked to open the train tracks. I'd collected some wooden train things on clearance but saved them since I knew Grandma Fox had a huge wooden train collection. So he knew that once we were not at Grandma's house, we could open the trains. I had to persuade him to get dressed first but he was so excited he didn't even want breakfast. We played with the trains for a few hours before we finally left the house.

I'd been planning on taking the kids to the zoo, but they didn't seem too excited about it so we got some errands done instead. Meanwhile, the service guys came out with good news & bad news. The good news is that it looks like the leak is fixed & they didn't charge us any extra since we had paid for them to fix it last month and it wasn't really fixed then. The bad news is that they didn't have the right tools to fix the slideout or the pocket door. Those things are more nuisances than real concerns though, so we'll get them fixed somewhere else.

Tonight we were playing at the playground and a nice couple came over to introduce their dogs to us. Ian thought they were fun, but Rinnah was just elated to see them and play with them. I think Ian was mostly grumpy because he got his first skinned knee today when he tripped running across the gravel.

From Springfield, IL

On the road!

2010-04-27T18:36:00.000-07:00

At long last, we managed to get back on the road!

Jeremy was working kind of on and off all day today, which will work out okay because he needs to do some work late at night this week anyhow. We had an early lunch in Jacksonville and then made it up to Springfield. We took the truck over and found out some bad news about our brakes-not only were the rear brakes bad, but the front brakes that we had just repaired a few months ago also needed to be replaced. New rotors and pads on both the front and back-ouch, that one hurt. At least it will be ready for the road tomorrow.

We also had the rv repair guys over at the campground, so *hopefully* the water leak in our storage compartment is finally fixed. I want to look at it closer tomorrow since they told us it was fixed when we brought it in in March, but I hope it's really done this time. There are a few minor things we're hoping they can fix tomorrow too and then maybe by Thursday we'll be ready to head down to St. Louis.

I think the kids and I are going to the zoo tomorrow. That will be a nice way to be entertained.

It's amazing the difference in Ian's temperament since we left Jacksonville. He's like a whole new kid. He's been more polite than we've heard him ever. He picked up his toys with no complaints and helped vacuum. He's funny, talkative, and creative. He's so happy today! I really think that a big part is being happy to be back on the road. I know he was getting bored in Jacksonville. It was fun to visit with Grandma, but she left on Saturday so the last few days he was really itching to get out of there. I hope this bodes well for improved behavior in the long-term.

Not quite ready yet

2010-04-26T19:14:00.000-07:00

Today was supposed to be the day we got to Springfield. We've been working really hard. I spent all day today running errands, packing, sorting, doing laundry, etc. But 7pm rolled around and we had to admit defeat. Our service appointments are for tomorrow so hopefully we can get that sorted out and still get things fixed. I think Jeremy's going to take a break in the morning so we can drive up around noon.

Ian's last day of preschool was today. He got to bring cupcakes to school (he was SO excited when we went to the grocery store to pick what kind he wanted, and then came back to find they had made them just the way he asked-with blue and green frosting and Thomas the Train rings stuck in the frosting). We chatted with his teachers for a bit, which was nice. They were really encouraged that he loves school so much and talked about it so much at home, and I was really encouraged that they said he actually listens really well and is very sharp at school.

On Saturday we had a brief break from all the packing and took a trip back to the children's museum. It was the day our membership expired so we renewed that and made one last stop at the calzone restaurant. The kids had a blast, especially since there were some new exhibits on the 3rd floor they hadn't seen. Their favorite was a glass wall that they could paint on. I got some neat pictures-hopefully I can get those uploaded soon.

Maybe tomorrow we'll make it out of here. We are really looking forward to making it to St. Louis and going to the zoo on Saturday with some friends.

Getting ready to go

2010-04-21T17:42:00.000-07:00

We had our garage sale for a second time last weekend, and it went pretty well. Not as well as the first weekend of course, but that was to be expected. Overall it was a huge success-we earned enough money to pay for the Disney tickets and an early camera upgrade, plus (even better!) we got rid of boxes and boxes of things that we'll no longer have to move when we're ready to settle down. We sold several larger items, like furniture, so that will especially help.

Since then we've been plugging away at our list of things that we wanted to finish before we left. We had our car serviced. We cleaned out both vehicles. I've washed the covers for 2 of the 4 car seats. I painted the kids' bunk beds. We boxed up the unsold garage sale items and put them in a separate spot. We packed up a few boxes of toys, dishes, and other items that we no longer want in the RV. And we are plugging away at selecting what we want to bring with us and what to leave behind, as well as rounding up all of the things that the kids have left all over my mom's house. I even managed to make room to squeeze in my food processor-oh how I've missed it!

At this point our plan is to leave whenever we have everything together, probably early next week. We'll take a break on Saturday to make one last visit to the children's museum in Bloomington, about an hour and a half from here. That serves a few purposes-first, we can have these delicious calzones from the restaurant down the street one more time, second, the kids get a museum visit after a long few weeks without one, and third, we can renew our membership since Saturday happens to be the day our membership expires.

When we leave we'll spend a few days in Springfield, getting a few bugs worked out of the RV and getting the brakes on the truck serviced. Then we're off to St. Louis to see the science museum and zoo. It's been wonderful to visit with my mom, but we're looking forward to getting back on the road again!

Garage sale success!

2010-04-12T18:02:00.000-07:00

After much preparation, Saturday was our long-awaited garage sale. The weather was absolutely gorgeous-I couldn't have ordered it any better. Beautiful, sunny, about 70 degrees, just a slight breeze-it was ideal. And the sale was a huge success. We sold most of our big items, and a ton of baby clothes. It went so well that we have plenty for our Disney tickets plus we were able to order a new camera. We wanted to have a camera that can do video before our Disney trip, but my photography budget wasn't going to have enough until July. This way we had enough to make up the shortfall and we'll be able to take good videos at the park-I'm very excited about that!

From Family photos-Jacksonville, IL

Sunday the gorgeous weather continued so we took the opportunity to make washing the RV a family affair. David was nice enough to snap a few pictures for us while we scrubbed away, and the kids had a ball playing in the water and spraying the house. In fact, when we came home later Ian said the house was dirty and we should wash it again. :)

From Family photos-Jacksonville, IL

We also had plenty of chances to get out to the parks over the weekend, which was great for the kids. Between lousy weather and garage sale preparations, they've been inside more the last few weeks than they had since we moved into the RV and it was getting to them. Everybody's mood improved after we spent some time outside playing.

From Family photos-Jacksonville, IL

Ian ready to catch Rinnah

From Family photos-Jacksonville, IL

Family photos

2010-04-03T20:12:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was absolutely gorgeous. I took the kids out to the park and we took a few pictures while we were there.

From Family photos-Jacksonville, IL

After naptime, we all went back out there with some nicer clothes for more pictures.

From Family photos-Jacksonville, IL

And my favorite of the day. Ian and Rinnah decided to dance together all the way across the park. It was the most adorable thing ever and they were so sweet! (click for a larger version)

From Family photos-Jacksonville, IL

Wedding!

2010-04-02T19:28:00.000-07:00

Hooray, I finally can sit down and write an update!

Last weekend we went up to Chicago for my brother Jon's wedding. On Friday, my brother Michael rode with me and the kids up to the hotel since Jeremy was still in Ohio. On the way there we stopped at the children's museum in Bloomington. I was excited to take Ian back there since almost every time we tell him we're going to a new museum, he asks if it's "the one with the green balls". That's referring to a farm exhibit they have in Bloomington where green balls go through tubes all over the room to illustrate the distribution of goods to/from farms. He was happy to see that exhibit again. :)

Rinnah was so excited to discover these small wooden dolls and dollhouse

From Jon's wedding weekend

Meanwhile, Ian and Uncle Mike played with the trucks

From Jon's wedding weekend

Then it was off to play at the water exhibit

From Jon's wedding weekend

Rinnah and Uncle Mike driving a pizza delivery truck

From Jon's wedding weekend

Playing with the infamous green ball exhibit

From Jon's wedding weekend

Taking a break to do some drawing

From Jon's wedding weekend

Ian driving the tractor

From Jon's wedding weekend

After the museum, we headed up to Glen Ellyn IL where Jon and Katie would be getting married. During the rehearsal, the kids pushed their little strollers around the hotel, Ian with his bear and Rinnah with her doll.

From Jon's wedding weekend

We had a nice dinner at Portillo's after the rehearsal.

From Jon's wedding weekend

Then Saturday was the big day! In the morning, I got to meet up with a high school friend I hadn't seen for years, while Jeremy took the kids to a children's museum across the street. Then in the afternoon Laura, a good friend from college, came along for a whirlwind trip to get Ian a haircut an hour before the wedding. Then we got the kids all dressed up-they were SO excited to get to wear the clothes that they've known for weeks were special for the wedding.

Rinnah with Grandma Fox

From Jon's wedding weekend

Rinnah with her Uncle Jon (the groom)

From Jon's wedding weekend

Rinnah and Jeremy

From Jon's wedding weekend

Ian insisted on bringing his teddy bear everywhere that day-including the formal pictures

From Jon's wedding weekend

Katie walking down the aisle with her dad

From Jon's wedding weekend

Pouring their unity sand

From Jon's wedding weekend

The newlyweds arriving at the reception

From Jon's wedding weekend

Coming to cut the cake

From Jon's wedding weekend

Rinnah getting her groove on

From Jon's wedding weekend

Jeremy and his boss Doug

From Jon's wedding weekend

Ian, Rinnah, and Ryann (the flower girl) playing ring around the rosy

From Jon's wedding weekend

All fall down

From Jon's wedding weekend

Ian leading Rinnah somewhere by the hand

From Jon's wedding weekend

Jon and Katie dancing

From Jon's wedding weekend

Katie dancing with her dad

From Jon's wedding weekend

Jon dancing with mom

From Jon's wedding weekend

Jon, Katie, and friends having a blast on the dance floor

From Jon's wedding weekend

Overall, a very nice weekend. And the kids are excited to have a new aunt!

Now we're back in Jacksonville, working hard to get things ready for a yard sale next week. I think it will go well!

More prep

2010-03-23T18:50:00.000-07:00

Jeremy is in Ohio for work again this week, so I've got the kids and we're still plugging away at yard sale prep work. We have SO many baby clothes to sell. It's fun looking through the clothes and remembering the kids wearing them! It's been a long time since either of them were so tiny.

My college roommate Cindy stopped by today on her way back to Kansas City. It's so good to see her again! We don't get together often enough and when we do, it's always way too short. My mom watched the kids so Cindy and I could go to dinner together-that was really nice.

There was a little writeup about us in the paper here in Jacksonville this week. That was fun! Definitely something unique about being back in a small town.

The weather warmed up today, so we got to take the kids to the park. They're finally getting over their cold/flu thing that has lasted almost two weeks. It was great to see them running and playing outside again.

Jacksonville

2010-03-18T06:46:00.000-07:00

We're still in Jacksonville.

We had the trailer in the shop (well, 2 shops) for almost a week. There were a few important things, like a broken equalizer on the axle that made the trailer sit a little tilted, and a few less urgent things. We wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to stay somewhere other than a hotel. This would be one major disadvantage of the RV lifestyle-when something breaks, you have to take your whole house to the shop. At any rate, the things are *mostly* fixed, so we're happy with it for now. We'll most likely take a trip back to the RV place after Jon's wedding and spend a night at their campground so we don't have to completely unload. That will also be an excellent time to get the brakes on the truck looked at. Coming down a mountain somewhere out west (Arizon? New Mexico? I don't remember.) we had a LOT of smoke coming out from under our hood when the brakes were smoking, so we think it probably would be good to have that checked out.

Jeremy got back just in time for Ian to fall out of bed in the middle of the night and split his head open. Thankfully, we know where the ER is and my mom could stay with Rinnah so we didn't have to bring her along, so that was better than it could have been. Still, it was a little awkward since we weren't sure exactly what he did (we just heard a thud and a cry), he also had a recovering black eye we couldn't explain (he said his pillow did it), and the answer to "Where do you live?" is a bit complicated. Three staples later Ian was good as new, and those have since been taken out so we're declaring him healed.

I've been plugging away at the garage sale. Our main thing will be my Walgreens freebies (toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo, body wash, etc) and baby clothes. It's been bittersweet going through the baby clothes and pricing them. It's hard to believe the kids were so tiny once! But we also don't miss that newborn phase much. It's so much fun to have kids who walk and talk and express their own interests and habits. Rinnah is 20 months now and can do so much. I'm not sure if we'll have any more kids or not (I do miss those newborn cuddles!) but it's been pretty easy to find deals on kids' clothes so I'm sure it will be fine. It will be nice to have the cash for our trip to Disney in May, and it will be about ten boxes less that we eventually have to move to another city.

Speaking of Disney, we are getting really excited! Before we came to Grandma's house, the kids didn't know who Mickey was. Now they do and they're getting excited about going to see Mickey. We went online and had Disney send us the free customized maps and free vacation planning DVD so I'm really looking forward to those arriving. The kids are at such a fun age for a trip like this.

Yesterday the kids actually asked to have their picture taken (woohoo!) so here are some cute shots of them together.

From Jacksonville, IL

Keeping busy

2010-03-03T20:17:00.000-08:00

We certainly haven't had time to be bored yet in Jacksonville.

Jeremy is working in Ohio. We sure miss him, but this is an important project and I think he's enjoying getting to know some of the installers a little better.

Ian started preschool this week. It's just a temporary thing for a month or two while we're in town, and he normally wouldn't be allowed to attend until next year but they made an exception for the short term. He LOVES it. He's only gone twice (it's MWF mornings) but he is so proud to be going to school and seems to be having a great time, even if he did tell me the first day that he didn't learn anything new.

Rinnah is a little sad that she doesn't get to go to school. Both Monday morning and today she got to play with the toys for a few minutes while we dropped Ian off. Today when I brought her back home and unbuckled her car seat, she screamed "No! Buckle!" I put the buckle back on and asked what was wrong. "School! No Grandma. School!" Poor thing. This is the first time that Ian's gotten to do something that she hasn't, and I think she just genuinely doesn't understand why she can't stay at school and play too. I'm trying to do some special things when it's just her with me, like today we made brownies together. Overall she seems fairly unimpressed and I think she'd rather be in school.

I've made some progress toward our garage sale. Not as much as I would like, but more than I honestly expected when I'm trying to do so many things at once. I really wish we could have found a part-time daycare, but the one we had found closed, and the others would only do full-time care.

I'm looking forward to Jeremy coming back on Saturday!

Jacksonville

2010-02-27T18:39:00.000-08:00

We made it to Jacksonville tonight.

It was really a nice week and we're not nearly as exhausted as we were expecting by now. We were able to visit with Holly in Wichita, and then we got to see Cindy and Dave in Kansas City. Cindy made us authentic Italian lasagna completely from scratch (including the noodles!) and it was delicious. It was so good to see them again. Cindy came by this morning and we were able to visit some while we packed the house, then we got sandwiches from the same deli as last summer-those were delicious. Then off we went.

Once we got to my mom's, it took awhile to get parked and power hooked up because there just isn't enough room here to maneuver and we needed a few different outlets on different breakers. We seem to be okay here at the moment and between the furnace and two space heaters, it's not too cold in the house. We'll need to do some tweaking tomorrow when it's light out but we'll be fine for the night.

It's strange to be back here. But the kids are excited to see Grandma and I know we need to take care of things, so I think it will be a good few weeks.

Kansas

2010-02-23T18:36:00.000-08:00

It has been sort of a whirlwind the last few days, but we've been making great progress on our driving. By Sunday night we made it to Oklahoma City, so we rested yesterday. The campground was only about a mile from the science museum, which turned out to be one of the best museums we have visited yet. It was really fantastic and interesting for the kids and for us, and not very crowded. Jeremy and I even got to ride a segway. We're already thinking about how we can work Oklahoma City back into our travels.

Today we drove up to Wichita and we'll be meeting up with our friend Holly tomorrow. She was out in Thailand at the same time as we were and Holly and I would go out for pizza together while we caught up on our grading. We're looking forward to seeing her tomorrow.

On a completely unrelated note, here are some recent conversations we've had with Ian. He's so funny lately, and I know there are lots more that our fleeting memories just forget, but these are a few we wrote down.

Me: “What’s your bear’s name? Does he have a name?”
Ian: “I think he’s Number One.”
Me: “That’s his name? Hi, Number One! Did he answer me?”
Ian: “No. He doesn’t talk.”

(at the playground)
Ian: “I’m putting rocks in my helmet!”
a few seconds later
Ian: (whining) “Ow! I have a rock in my helmet!”

(in the car)
Ian: whining
Me: “What’s wrong?”
Ian: “I want my eyes to stay open!”
A few seconds later, he falls asleep

And now a note from Ian:

HOLLYSCIENCEMUSEUMSINKBOXPRESENT

Back on the road

2010-02-20T20:31:00.001-08:00

We are back on the road today.

Last week was a crazy week. I did two dentist appointments in Juarez, Mexico to get everything finished. It was a long two days, especially the first one with the root canal, but I much preferred getting it done over two appointments in one week than the 5 appointments over 8 weeks that the US dentists told me. Plus, it cost less than 25% of what I was quoted here. So, that's all done now and we will be starting faithful biyearly dentist visits for our whole family.

We did get to do a few fun things in Las Cruces. Freida, who was the nurse out at the school in Thailand while we were there, and her husband live in Las Cruces and we were able to meet up with them for dinner one night. Freida also got the kids in at the pediatrician clinic where she works, so they got well-child checks and a few vaccinations. That was nice because the clinic is on our insurance so we didn't have to worry about exceptions and such like we would in Jacksonville, and we were able to get the shots in the office which are covered by the insurance instead of paying out of pocket for them in Jacksonville.

We also got to see a small railroad museum that's in an old train station. They had a train table there, and a huge freight train whizzed by right outside while we were there. The campground also had a playground, which we used every day we were there. And while I was at the dentist, Jeremy took the kids to a tiny little science museum and Chuck E Cheese.

Now we're on the road again. Tonight we made it to Plainview, Texas. Tomorrow we'll pick up the bunkbeds we've been trying to get for the kids for months now, and then hopefully we'll be able to make it to Oklahoma City. The goal is to be back in Jacksonville IL by Sunday, so we'll be driving several weekdays this week.

Grand Canyon!

2010-02-14T20:13:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we did our train trip to the Grand Canyon! It was a tight squeeze with everything going on, but I am so glad we did it. The kids really enjoyed the train ride, and the views were breathtaking. I think it was the perfect way for us to see it with the kids right now-they loved the train and the 3 hours at the rim was just right for us. I can't wait until the kids are old enough to hike down to the bottom and do a longer trip.

From Phoenix, AZ

Ian was so excited about the snow! It's been quite awhile since we've seen any.

From Phoenix, AZ

While we were on the train, we had a nearby repair place put our spare tire on. They only charged us $15 and it was ready to go when we got back. That was really great and we had much smoother driving from then on. The kids did very well today and we made it to Las Cruces.

One wrinkle in our plans is that we were informed today that tomorrow is a holiday for some people. Not for us, but for the people who need to help get our passports to us. So I'm not sure yet when we'll be able to leave or how that will work with getting to Illinois, but we'll make it happen.

Anyone know a good mechanic?

2010-02-12T20:08:00.001-08:00

Today has been one of those adventures we’d rather do without.

We wanted to reschedule our Grand Canyon train ride for tomorrow since that would be our only chance. But when we called, the hotel was already full, so we agreed to do the RV park instead. Kind of inconvenient to take the RV up there and back, but it was better than not getting to go at all.

Yesterday we worked to get most of the RV packed and ready to go. This afternoon I took the kids to the zoo (had a great time!) while Jeremy finished work and got the last few things together. We figured we only had a little over two hours to Williams, so shortly after 3 I left the zoo for the (supposedly) 20 minute drive home and we’d be up to our campground by dinnertime. Right?

First, there was a ton of traffic so I didn’t get back to the RV park until 4. It only took us about 10 minutes to get the truck hitched and the last few things tossed in the back of the truck since Jeremy had everything ready. We were trying out our fancy new tire pressure monitoring system, since that should help us prevent blowouts by letting us know if the pressure or temperature starts to change.

Shortly down the road, we saw somebody else’s tire blow out right in front of us. We had just been talking about our new gizmo and were hopeful it would help us avoid the same fate.

A few minutes further down the road, our new system started to beep. We pulled off and checked, and sure enough, the pressure was low. We thought it a bit coincidental that this happened the day we got the monitor, so we put the spare monitor on and hoped it was a fluke.

Not too much farther into the trip, the alarm went off again. This time we had double reasons to stop since as we got off the highway, we noticed a strong burning smell and smoke coming from the wheels. We pulled into a truck stop and checked under the hood. All the fluids seemed to be fine, so we were hopeful that the brakes were just a little overheated from coming down the mountain. We filled up the tire again as best we could (it was for cars, so couldn’t get the pressure up high enough) and went on our way again.

We stopped several more times to fill up the tire, each time in progressively colder weather as we went further north and higher in elevation. Ian was amazed that he got into the truck wearing a t-shirt in 75 degree weather and when we stopped, there was snow on the ground. Eventually we took off the tire monitor and that seemed to alleviate the problem, so apparently there’s something awry with the valve stem. We’re hoping to get that looked at tomorrow while we ride the train.

It’s 9:05 and we should be pulling in to the RV park in just a few minutes. I hope we’ve worked the bugs out now and the rest of our travel goes more smoothly to Illinois.

How quickly things change

2010-02-11T20:04:00.000-08:00

So it's great that Jeremy is here, especially since our travel schedule is changing so much. Since they want Jeremy in Columbus in a few weeks, and I'm trying to get to the dentist, and there aren't that many places I'd want to be alone with the kids....there are a lot of variables but it sounds like the best option for us is to do a major driving rush and try to get to Jacksonville within two weeks. A lot of things need to go right between now and then for it to work, but we're going to give it a whirl.

Tomorrow we'll head up to Williams so we can do our Grand Canyon train ride on Saturday. Then on Sunday we're off to Las Cruces, New Mexico. It's going to be a long two weeks, but it will be an adventure.

At the park

2010-02-09T21:06:00.000-08:00

Today was kind of wild.

The original plan was to take Jeremy to the airport so he could fly to New Jersey for a training class. On the way, we stopped by Denny's to get rain checks for the free grand slam breakfast, and we were waiting in line while he got the phone call. Thank goodness for that snowstorm! We were so thrilled he didn't have to leave today, and that he found out before he got on the plane.

Of course, to counter that great news we found out that a) the class is rescheduled for the time we're supposed to be in Chicago for Jon's wedding and b) he needs to go to Columbus for two weeks in the near future. Makes things a bit more challenging for getting back to Illinois, but we'll work it out.

When Jeremy was done with work today we went out to the park. The kids got to feed the ducks and then they played in the sand for awhile. It was really nice, especially since all this time I thought I would be on my own with the kids this week.

From Phoenix, AZ