Quick Visits & Muddy Boys

One of our stops on the way to Arizona was Santa Rosa.  We could have driven further that first day but meeting up with friends (especially on a best friends birthday) won over how many miles we could cover.  We decided to stay at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds RV Park.  It was a good pick for us; pull thru sites (which meant we didn't have to unhook), 1/2 off because of our Passport America membership and super close to the Campbell's house.

Between our two families we have  7 boys and 1 girl (soon to be 2).  The mamas & Jericho were chatting inside, Nick was at the store with Téadora and the 6 other boys were doing this....

 

 and this...

and this...

Want to know something crazy.  This sweet little thing will be out there with the boys in the mud next year.
Unbelievable, just unbelievable.  Can't he stay a baby forever?

Our children will be friends forever and I hope that I get to use these photos as blackmail someday :)  After we got our muddy boys cleaned up, we shared a wonderful meal.  It was getting late and the children were all TIRED, so we said our good byes.  I think we are getting better at good byes, we always try to say "see you soon".  This good bye wasn't easy for me, since we don't know when we are going to see the Campbell's again. 

We woke up the next morning, mentally preparing for a long driving day, but first a stop at Starbucks to see my Grandpa Dick.  The kids love Grandpa Dick.  We all had a wonderful time basking in the Santa Rosa sun, chatting, nose kissing and drinking coffee (or hot chocolate if you are under 20). 

Photos from Santa Rosa, CA - March 2010 here. 

Catching You Up!

We left from San Jose to Santa Rosa and spent a week being neighbors with our best friends the Campbells.  This has been a long long dream come true.  Kristy and I have planned and prayed for the day we could pull our RV onto her driveway.  Greg (Kristy's husband) is a plumber and hooked us up (literally)...we have full water/sewer/electric at RV Park ala Campbell :)  The weather was not on our side, but we had a great time sharing meals, movies, stories and old school Nintendo. 

After that we spent 2 weeks being neighbors with my sister and her husband (E and Sergio).   We were able to pull our RV in their backyard.  The kids had a blast playing with Franklin (E & Sergio's black lab), climbing their cherry blossom tree and riding bikes in their backyard.  I loved having my sister so close and being able to do laundry whenever I wanted. This is where the trailer renovations began.

Dillon turned 3 years old on Valentines Day.  We had a wonderful day with family.  Church, Applebee's for lunch, Bounce O Poluza, a trip to the Toy Barn for Dillon to pick out his birthday present from Grandma Sue & Papa and then Bon Boniere for ice cream.  Dillon is such a precious little man, articulate beyond his years and able to keep up with big brothers physically, he's a handful and we love him.

During those two weeks E, Jericho & I went on a quick road trip to Portland, OR.  Our primary purpose was for me to visit Stephanie, The Dread Goddess, to have some tightening and maintenance done to my dreads.  A few highlights: I got an AWESOME deal on a hotel on Priceline, we get there and it is so so so NICE and I walk in with my clothes in a resuable bag from Costco, LOL!  We stayed our second night in a yurt.  We loved McMinville, OR, cute, quaint, warm and super friendly.

Our time was up in E & Sergio's backyard and parked our trailer at the Redwood Acres RV Park.  It was not the greatest RV park, more like a parking lot with hookups,  but for the price and being close to family and friends it was good enough.  There were a few sunny days and we took full advantage of them.  Time was spent at the walking & riding the Headwaters Trail, hiking through Sequoia Park and hitting the skate park. 

We Took a day trip to Crescent City, Smith River & Brookings, OR to visit friends that we miss so much.  The main reason for going on that particular Saturday was a birthday party for Lauren Pieper, she is exactly 2 weeks younger than Dillon, I still can't believe they are 3 years old.  We were able to see many friends even if it was only for a short time.

One beautiful Sunday we drove to Westhaven to spend the day with one of the most beautiful families we know.  The Ennis Family has a special place in our hearts.  Their 7 children play with our 5 so well.  From the moment we got there we hardly heard from any of them.  We spent the day cooking, playing with baby goats and chicks, talking about baby #8, listening to Nick & Robert play music and sharing a meal together.  It was a blessed day.

The next Thursday Nick was able to play with Robert's band, Robe N' The Blue Nights.  Nick and Robert have been an awesome two man garage band for years, so it was so wonderful to see them play for an audience together. 

Spending time in Eureka left us with mixed emotions.  Visiting friends, family and our home Church was wonderful, the weather, not so much.  It was great to have some down time, so we could renovate the trailer.  I personally had great times with my mama friends; MOPs, cooking, walking, talking and much much laughing.

We ended our stay in Eureka with an Open "Trailer"/Good Bye Party.  Our trailer renovations were finally finished.  We had many people who wondered what on Earth we could do to a trailer...so we opened our doors so all could see.  After Church on Sunday, March 14, we brought our trailer to the Church parking lot.  It was a wonderful afternoon, children rode bikes and played in the parking lot, while our friends and family toured our renovated trailer.  Then we spent the evening loving on family just a little more before we left the next morning; destination Phoenix, AZ.


(I know all of you blog readers are itching to see also...don't fret I am working on the post right now.)

Photos from our week in Santa Rosa, Dillon's Birthday & Part 1 of Eureka here.
Photos from Portland, OR here.
Photos from Part 2 of Eureka here.

The Road to Being on the Road

Six months ago Nick was working in Washington then Alaska, I was in Eureka with five children (one of which was a 3 week old preemie). We knew that God did not want our family to live separate lives. So what did we do, we gave notice on our rental home, sold a ton of stuff, gave away even more, put a little in storage and packed a cargo van with our belongings. We spent the next 4 ½ months in Santa Paula, CA in a furnished apartment. The apartment was good to us, but it wasn’t ours, it didn’t feel like home. It seems like we had been forever dreaming of traveling the country as a family, but the dream became somewhat tangible about a year and a half ago when we met our wonderful friends, The Janssen’s, an awesome inspiring full-time traveling family. They lit a fire in us, however we didn’t have a job that would allow for us to travel and we weren’t independently wealthy, so honestly we never thought our dream would become a reality. And truly, could we actually do it, could we travel the country in an RV with 5 children 7 and under? But now we had the job, we just needed the RV.

We left Southern California to spend a few weeks with family over Christmas. When we arrived we were in a difficult place, one that I do ever want to be in again, that place where everything is uncontrollable that you just freeze, there are so many huge decisions to make that you can’t even decide what to eat for dinner. We had no idea if we were going back to furnished apartments, if we were going to rent a house in Eureka and Nick would travel without us or if by some miracle we could find an RV that would work for us and we could travel as a family. We didn’t want to do the apartment thing, it is a stressful task to arrive somewhere and find a furnished apartment that will allow 5 children and not be thousands of dollars a month. We didn’t want to live apart, I mean we just changed our entire life 4 ½ months earlier because we wanted to be together. We spent hours upon hours trying to find the right home on wheels. We are a family of 7 and don’t have unlimited funds, so our options were slim. But as God would plan it, just when we thought we would never be able to find the right RV, He put one right in front of us.

Photos of our time in Santa Rosa, CA  here.
Photos of our time in Humboldt, December 2009 here.