Plans change and things happen quick. 

One thing that we have learned and try to remember as we come up with a plan, is that there are so many things that can change. All plans are held loosely. We have to be okay with doing something different or not doing something at all. While most of the times we can see the change of plans coming sometimes we can’t and have to make changes quickly. Thankfully, we are flexible and love spontaneous adventures.

We are going to Spokane for a few weeks then probably the WA coast then down to OR. After that our long term plan is across the south for winter and fall and the east coast for fall/spring and summer. 🙂

Things that are hard. 

So we have been settled in our friends driveway for about 2 months and have noticed a few things that are normal life situations, but, that are hard when living in a 5th wheel. One is laundry. We don’t have a way to do it in here or where we are staying, so we fill out basket then go to Scott’s parents and spend a few hours washing it all, throw it into the basket again and get home with wrinkled clothes. That’s not all; when all our laundry is clean we don’t have enough drawer space or hangers for it all to be put away.

Sickness. 2 of the boys were sick and spent over 5 days in bed on what we had as the sick-bed. It took up most of the living room, Aveyah would not stay off it. The puke bowl was next to it but in front of the back door. I only have one set of sheets for that bed.  We couldn’t go anywhere because we didn’t want us to speed the germs so we all spent a lot of time confined in the trailer and we all wanted out. It did t help that it was memorial day weekend, a long weekend we should have camped or somewhere cool.

 

How fast our gray water tank fills up.  When the dish water doesn’t drain down the sink, it’s time to put on the gloves and haul the blue tank out for at least 4 runs of dumping the water. Oh joy. Never at convenient times and I have to use my precious time while Aveyah is napping to empty it.  To give us a little longer between fill ups we decided to use paper plates which creates another hard issue-trash.  We are using our friends trash and if their roadside bin is full we have to store it and haul it to Scott’s parents house.

 

Crawling =falling out the door twice, getting to everything and putting it in her mouth, cleaning up all food that falls on the ground, climbing the stairs and falling down. Getting into the bath room and shredding toilet paper or playing in the toilet, following me everywhere.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not enough room to shop at Costco.we have to store some extra food items on the floor which is double hard with the previous mention of crawling and eating everything.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And just like in any house mice are no fun but for some reason they disgust me more knowing they are in our trailer and we catch them nightly and clean up poop trails constantly. I guess that’s what we get for living on a ranch. Can’t beat the view we have every day though.

Oh Missoula How We Have Missed You

We got to Missoula Tuesday the 24th. It was a great trip getting here. We left phoenix on the 21st and since that is my birthday I wanted  to see if I could get free coffees along the way. I forgot that we can’t just go anywhere and park to get coffee. I did get one free one and only had to block part of a parking lot. We went to Lone Rock at Lake Powell what a beautiful  place.  We stayed right on the shore. Our neighbor was an awesome lady that let us have a bonfire with her and even made metal hangers into marshmallow sticks for the boys. She took some photos that actually had all 6 of us in them but sadly she never sent them to me.  Makes me wonder if I gave her the wrong number.

We camped at Walmart next to a swampy “pond” and Brayton found a lot of worms.

Next we made it to Fairmont Hot Springs and spent the evening swimming and going down the water slide.

Since being in Missoula we have moved 3 times and now enjoy a great view parked at our friends ranch.

The weekend of Mothers Days and that week we will be in Spokane,WA.

Now to add some pictures…

 

Plans

Here is a quick update of what our up coming plans and adventures are…BUT FIRST a few pictures to show what we have been doing lately.

Aveyah’s First Easter and our Church’s ( North Valley) first service on the Property. This was super exciting for us because our family moved to Phoenix in 2010 to help start this church along with 12 other folks. We ( the Church) started out in an apartment then a house, then we rented a small church, then moved to a high school, then a movie theater and now at its own property.

The other day we left in the morning to go hiking ( oh yeah i need to get that  picture off Scott’s phone to post here) and didn’t turn on the AC or anything and when we got home it was so hot in side that the butter was melted and had ran down the counter and made a puddle on the floor (carpet) thankfully it was in the wrapper still so I could quickly move it into a bowl. #itsgettinghotinhere

Blake has been riding his dirt bike a lot. He enjoyed the mud puddle that was left after the boys all played with the hose and the trampoline.

We went for a quick hike just to get out and about. This was a fun tree for the boys to play on.

OKAY now for a future adventures…ADVENTURE NORTH!!

We are going to Canada this summer. We don’t really have a route planned yet but we want to go to north to Banff, and the over to Vancover and stop at other places along the way. Recommendations???

We are Leaving Phoenix in a few days, Friday the 21st. We will be going to Missoula, MT for Scott’s cousins wedding. It will be so great to see family and friends we have not seen in many years. Its also getting hot in Phoenix and I don’t think our home can handle temps when it gets to 100+ outside. We will probably stay in Missoula and Spokane area for a month or so and then when it gets warmer, and Aveyah gets her passport we will head north. After Canada we will head south to Oregon (Portland, Redmond and Ashland). Roughly from there we want to go to Phoenix in Oct. After that our list includes Austin Texas, Florida and the East Coast.

Our first Escapade

We went to Tuscon Arizona for our first Escapees Escapade. The 57th Escapade 2017. There we became Escapees, Xscapers and Fulltime Families Members. It was a great experience  Here are some pictures and short memories to go with them.

During Boot Camp we were the only family. We had a few glares and a lot of encouragement but we were always noisy and going in and out. Aveyah was happy and got held by many strangers. She did a great job napping in our arms.

This is the grass area where all the kids congregated and played for hours making up all sorts of games and fun.

My kids ended each day a little tanner, with a lot more dirt and sweat on them. Oh boy did they all sleep good every night.

Mornings were spent with the patio down and the cool morning air filling our house and refreshing us for the day ahead.

She loves the cool shade and the grass, even though it was not soft grass. At one point she had 3 girls from the site over playing with her. She loved all the attention she received.

We did a home school Field trip. This is the group that went to the Pima Air Museum.

Home school field trip to the Pima Air Museum. This cockpit is a toy for kids to play and push buttons.My boys were sad when they had to get out and share it with all the other eager kids.

We meet so many other families. Many had bikes and wanted to go for a ride.We did a Mountain bike ride and parent/ kid swap. The guys rode first while mommas watched kiddos then the moms went for a ride while the dads packed up the camp and watched the kids.

This is our biking set up in the parking lot. Shade, toys and stuff to make a barricade from the road so kiddos would stay safe. The Little man V would rather be out in the parking lot keeping his mom chasing after him as he watched (preferably more closely) the cars driving by.

 

More of our biking set up. It worked great until the wind picked up. We chased that blue sun shade a few times. The red one was like a parachute.

Tuscon sunsets are beautiful. Always pinks and purples mixed in. Beauty even in the Walmart parking lot.

We ran out of water the last night we were there so the dished didn’t get done. Smelly yes but we just covered the sink and pretended they weren’t there.

And I didn’t do Laundry either…Actually I did do it once at our friends house after 4 days, This is last last 6 days worth.

Over all it was a great experience. Not relaxing, but very encouraging to learn from other families that are just as crazy adventurous as we are. I now want to redo the inside of our home to be more functional and home-ish. It is possible, I saw many good ideas. We stopped at IKEA on our way home a did a quick browse through and measurements/planning.

The biggest bummer- Internet accessibility for Scott to work.

Other pluses. There was a dressage and a jumping horse show both of the weekends we were there which just happened to be right next to us.So I spent the morning watching the horse shows from our patio.

What…Its March already?!?!

Wow I am not sure what has happened but some how its March already. I don’t even know what to jot down because its been a while but every day seems to just blur together in the normal mundane everydayness that even in a trailer wears ya down. We have been enjoying our time in Phoenix. The boys are so tan as they have been spending most of the days outside jumping on the trampoline, riding bikes, building forts or just turning sticks into guns and downed trees into jets. Aveayh has changed alot. she has 2 bottom teeth that have just poked through, she is 7 months old now and despite my attempt to keep her in unmobile she is sitting up, rolling, scooting backwards and pushing up to hands and knees. Once is she crawling everything on the floor in our home will be a danger…small legos, dropped food, dog food, rocks. How do you baby proof a tiny home with 6 people in it?

We are preparing for a trip to Tuscon on the 15th for an RV Escapees Boot Camp where we hope to get back in to the feel of traveling with our home, learn more about trailer and traveling saftey and gain advice from other folks we meet doing the same thing. We really hope that we get to chat with other folks and families.

We have still been dealing with trailer issues. currently we have a sewer smell that we cant figure out where or what its from. Its not in the bathrooms but coming up from underneath in the living room and kitchen area. Maybe the new sewer line we dug is not right or air is coming up through the tank, or maybe it overflowed or something.

Her first 2 teeth.

We have a lot of flies in our house. I would give the boys a nickel for everyone they kill but since they can’t remember to shut the door I am going to charge a quarter everytime I find the doors open. They are letting the flies in faster then they are killing them.


she is up on hands and knees…oh no little one not yet!

real life= full sink after one meal and a cute girl who likes water, and also needs a bath.

Destination Phoenix AZ

We packed up all the stuff we needed from my mom’s house into 2 carry on bags and one checked bag plus each boys personal bag, and headed to Missoula. While in Missoula we got to see so many friends and family before we headed south. It was busy but great. Shane and Brayton also has their Birthdays.

Sunday morning we headed for the airport. Here is a picture to try to capture what it looked like for us to move to Phoenix in via airplane. 2 adults, 4 kids, 1 suitcase, 2 large backpacks, 4 little back packs, one heavy laptop bag, 2 small DVD bags, 1 stroller,1 baby carrier,2 booster seats, 1 car seat and 1 infant car seat with base. 

( Bad picture, Blake is trying to make a shocked face at all our stuff, Shane and I are looking at a different camera)

Thankfully we made it through everything without losing anything or any one this time.

We have been in Phoenix a few days and have had some fun times. Play date at the park. Kids jumping  on the trampoline and riding bikes all day. Birthday dinner celebration with friends. Good coffee from Elevate. We are also  experiencing  some not so good things. First our truck batteries were dead(2 big batteries). We had to replace those immediate because Scott was to work in the office the next day. The master bedroom closet slide out is broken so we can’t get to, or in pack our clothes,  so they stay in a suitcase on the floor. The dirt bikes leaked oil in the back room and the oil is so sticky I can’t even clean it up. I have tried lemon oil, baking soda and scrubbing. That’s a bummer because the boys can’t play back there. 

Then last night we had to evacuate our trailer in the middle of the night due to a toxic smell Scott and I had smelt all night. After  investigating where the sulfur smell was coming from Scott checked the outside of the trailer and found the batteries were not working right and the sulfur gas was being off gassed which just happens to be under the master bedroom. I guess it’s highly flammable and super poisonous if touched. It’s bad to breath to and since we are confined into such a small space we knew we couldn’t stay in there so we packed everyone out and into our friends house at 3:45am. We need to pray over our home. Sitting for 4 months has been hard in it.

Some things we are looking forwards to is getting to have our dog Diesel back. Blake’s birthday on Thursday. A party on Saturday and getting to go to Church Sunday.

The Adventure continues.

Here are some pics.  Aww maybe not…Still learning how to make them under 2MB.