DPP 2012 // 12.6.12 // Grandma Visits

Grandma Visits

Grandma Diane flew into Houston from Northern California for a week long visit.  We are ALL enjoying her being here and she is loving spending this wonderful time with us.  Today we went to our favorite restaurant in the Houston area, El Tiempo and then we ventured on to reveal the big surprise to the children and Grandma, we had tickets to The Story Tour.

Three States, Three Days

Thursday, June 3, 2010 - 187 miles
We left Phoenix heading towards Dallas, TX.  We were going to make a few stops along the way.  Nick was going to work for a few weeks in Dallas, TX before we headed to Southeastern Texas for an 8 week job.  The first night our destination was Winslow, AZ.  I couldn't help but sing over and over and over again that song by the Eagles.  I didn't know all the words and Aidan was getting tired of hearing the same line again and again, so I pulled it up on YouTube and we listened to the whole song over and over and over.  I fell asleep that night in between a school bus and a horse trailer at the Flying J Truck Stop.  (side note: Flying J's are super RVer friendly, they allow free overnight parking and a lot even have dump stations.)

Friday, June 4, 2010 - 268 miles
The next day we drove to Albuquerque, NM.  We were having some power tongue jack  issues and so we stopped at Camping World to pick up a new part.  We headed next door to the Enchanted Trails RV Park, long pull-thru sites, full hookups, swimming pool and ONLY $14 (with our Passport America membership), I was a happy camper.  Plus the fact that they had the cutest retro trailers all restored and decorated.  (Stupid me didn't take any photos.)  We piled back in the car and headed to Old Town Albuquerque to see what a village founded in 1706 looks like and get some dinner.

This is how you pay for parking in Old Town Albuquerque, literally stuff the cash into the slot.

We walked around, stopped in a few shops and then made our way to Church Street Cafe.  We found Church Street Cafe on Yelp (oh how we love Yelp, HUGE asset to travelers).  We wanted authentic New Mexican food, which is a mix of Indian and Spanish cuisine and that is exactly what we got.  I think my favorite was the sopaipilla - a puffed friend bread that you bite off the corner and pour in warm honey, yummy.  

On our way back from dinner Nick got a call, asking if there was anyway he could change his route and go to Colorado Springs, CO for a few days to do a service call and then continue on to Dallas, TX.  Good thing we had only traveled to Albuquerque that day or we would have had to back track.  So back to the RV park we went, to revamp our travel plans.  Have I told you that our plans change frequently and drastically --- well if I haven't now I have :)

But first Nick needed to remove our old power tongue jack that wasn't working and replace it.  This was most likely going to be a few hour job, not to mention the few hundred dollars it set us back.  I usually don't get involved in repairs, but I happened to be out there talking to him when he was getting set up.  I looked over and saw some wires (that I hadn't remembered seeing before) and asked it what they were.  Nick is always very gracious and explains things to me, even if it is common knowledge to him.  He walked over to where the wires were and started explaining, then running his hand down the wire said, "thats an inline fuse".  We were told the power tongue jack didn't have an inline fuse, but low and behold it did.  He removed the fuse, it was bad.  He hopped in the car, drove next door to Camping World, running in just as they were closing the doors, picked up the pack of fuses and was back to the RV park minutes later.  He switched out the fuse and presto, the power tongue jack was working.  Few hundred dollar part to be returned the next morning, hooray.  We celebrated by taking quick dip in the pool and then headed to bed.

Saturday, June 5, 2010 - 378 miles
Nick wasn't due in Colorado Springs until Monday, so we could have taken two days to get there.  Then we looked at the route and didn't see much we wanted to stop for, so we went ahead and drove from Albuquerque, NM to Colorado Springs, CO in one day.  I fell in love with Northern New Mexico; rolling hills, pure white clouds on bright blue sky, little farms here and there, once in awhile a little town would pop up, absolute beauty.

We stopped about 1/2 way for a lunch break.  The kids and I arrived about 15 minutes before Nick, so we played tag on the grass and relaxed on a blanket under a tree.  When Nick arrived we all piled into the trailer and I made lunch.  I love about bringing our house with us as we travel.  A day of traveling isn't filled with fast food and eewie public bathrooms, I cook in my own kitchen and we all use our bathroom.  The next leg of the drive had some pretty steep inclines.  I am always ahead of Nick and so when we come to steep hills or mountain areas, the children I pray that he makes it up.  Thankfully each time he has and this time was no exception.  He does drop down to 20 MPH sometimes, but he usually follows behind a big rig that is going about the same speed.  He feels like he could walk up the hill faster, I am sure it feels like he could.  We arrived in Colorado Springs around 4pm and checked into the Colorado Springs KOA.

Photos from Phoenix, AZ to Albuquerque, NM to Colorado Springs, CO here.  

Happy Birthday Jericho Toren Amadeus!

May 27, 2010
Jericho,
Your birth was crazy and scary.  The first two weeks of your life were hard.  I knew that a year later you wouldn't look like a preemie anymore.  But, what I didn't know is how amazing you would be.  Your smile brightens my day, seriously, it does.  You are one and you could care less about food --- all you care about is your mama milk.  You crawl, stand up, walk along things, say "mama", "dadda", "aidee" and a few other "words".  You are a delight.  Aidan would keep you all to himself if he could, Coda would play with you for hours, Téadora would become your mommy and Dillon would wrestle you forever.  You are super duper loved little boy. 
Love,
Mama

The week before Jericho's birthday, I looked at Nick and said, "what do you do for a one year olds birthday?".  Usually we are around lots of family, so we have the traditional one year old birthday party, which isn't really for the baby, but for the the family and the photo opportunities.  Being on the road our birthdays have looked a little different, because its just US.  We ended up going out to Sweet Tomatoes, a salad/bread/soup/pasta all you can eat buffet.  We had been wanting to try it out, so we thought it was the perfect opportunity.  

ONE!

Birthday Blueberry Muffin

Opening Presents

Photos from Phoenix, AZ here.

Photos of Jericho here. 

Best Birthday Ever

 Fantastic Lunch at Loving Hut - for real it was some of the best food ever!

And AMAZING DRINKS!

Then onto Urban Cookies for cookies & cupcakes.

I have a tad bit of an obsession with Urban Cookies, good thing they ship nationwide :)

Last up was a walk at South Mountain, overlooking the Phoenix Valley.

Twenty Eight.

There's no doubt about it, I can round up to thirty.

And there is no doubt this was the best birthday ever, spent with my FAVORITE people.

Photos from Phoenix, AZ here.  

Papa Bud & Grandma Betty Lou

About six months ago I met my Dad for the FIRST.TIME.EVER.  A few weeks later I met my 10 year old sister, Alana.  And two weeks ago I was able to meet my Grandparents.  They live in Texas and drove all the way to Phoenix to meet us.  Grandma Betty Lou and I had emailed many, many, many times, so I felt as though we already knew them.  But nothing could prepare us all for the beautiful people we are blessed to call Grandma and Papa. 

Grandma Betty Lou is an amazing quilter and seamstress.  She is the one who made the children quilts and valances for their bunks.  Grandma sprained her ankle while they were traveling here, but she said nothing was going to stop here from coming to meet us.  How sweet is that.  I told her I must get my stubbornness from her :)  Papa Bud was in the Air Force.  He is pretty much the opposite of what I envisioned him to be.  I was expecting a harsh, military-ish man and instead I found a compassionate, loving and caring Papa.

We spent a lot of time hanging outside under the awning, watching the children play and getting to know each other.  We also went to lunch at Paradise Bakery & Cafe and cooked out (is that how you say it Grandma?) for dinner.  The next day we all went to the pool and the children enjoyed showing off their swimming skills to their new fans. 

Grandma and Jericho bonded as soon as they laid eyes on each other.  I am usually THE.ONLY.ONE. that gets to hold Jer all day long, so it was wonderful to have a break.  When Grandma wasn't holding Jericho, Téadora was sitting on her lap getting her back scratched.  If Grandma stopped for even a second, Téadora would grab her hand and place it on her back again.  Grandma, Papa and my Dad lived in Hawaii for quite some time when my Dad was young, we were all talking about Hawaii.  A few moments later Aidan emerged from behind the trailer and was all decked out, he was ready for Hawaii :)  He even put on a little show of a "Hawaiian" dance for us. 

They left and headed onto California to see my Dad, Sister and other family and friends.  On their way back to Texas they stopped and spent a little more time with us.  We had such a wonderful time with them and we cannot wait to see them again, hopefully next time in Texas.  

Photos from Phoenix, AZ here. 

Lovin' On Arizona

Or is Arizona lovin' on us?  Either way we are loving every minute.  Having just come from cold, foggy, rainy Northern California, the sun and warmth has be a delight.  We are absolutely loving the Deserts Edge RV Park in Phoenix.  The park has a playground, basketball court, pool, hot tub, hot showers, laundry, citrus trees and lots of room to run, bike and play.  Nick is back to work and we are all getting back into the rhythm of daily life.  We spend most mornings playing outside, learning about our surroundings and going on numerous walks and bike rides.  The children like to walk to the mailbox at least three times a day to see if anything has come.  Then in the afternoon we either swim or go out and explore.

In the short time we have been here we have already gotten to explore quite a bit in the Phoenix Metro area.
We spent an afternoon walking and riding a speedy wild trolley around Downtown Scottsdale.

One afternoon we were able to go to a Oakland A's Spring Training game.  We got lawn seats, which are equivalent to where bleacher seats are, except Spring Training stadiums aren't as big.  The lawn was a perfect spot for us.  We were able to being a huge blanket and spread out.  The lawn was sloped, but not a lot, so Jericho was still able to crawl around and play with his toys.  The kids could get up, run around, go down to the fence, it was awesome.  Coda ran around all day and we barely caught one picture of him.  We got there early and watched the batting practice, the boys had their mitts and were trying to catch the home run balls, Aidan almost caught a few, but missed, so a nice man gave him one that he had caught, it was the highlight of the day.  I thought we might make 1/2 way through the game, but we made it all the way until the end.  Too bad it was the last week of Spring Training or we would have definitely gone back.

We also ventured into downtown Phoenix and ate dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe.  Nick loves music; listening to it, playing it, pretty much anything to do with it and he loves going to Hard Rock Cafe.  We enjoyed some good food (a little pricey) and a wonderful (loud) family outing.  After dinner we walked around a bit and saw Chase Field where the Arizona Diamondbacks play.  The children are always enthralled with mass transit, they wanted to ride the metro, we didn't have time that night, so I am sure we will be riding the metro at some point. 

 Photos from Phoenix, AZ here.

Ended up perfect.

We got up bright and early, said goodbye to the truck stop and headed onto Monterey, CA.  When people think Monterey they think aquarium.  However, as wonderful as the Monterey Bay Aquarium is, we had gone to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, CA a couple of months ago, so we made the decision not to go to the aquarium in Monterey.  We did plan on going to the Dennis the Mennace Park and go tidepooling in Pacific Grove.  Well we went to the park and it was closed, guess it is closed to the public each Tuesday so that the City Schools of Monterey can go play.  We were bummed, but pressed on.  We decided to walk Cannery Row and find somewhere to eat lunch.  We found a great restaurant Louie Linguini's, that looked out over the Monterey Bay and has wonderful pizza and seafood.

We then headed out to Pacific Grove to go tide pooling.  When we arrived the tide should have been out, but there was a storm coming in, so the tide was high and the ocean looked angry, beautiful but angry.  Second thing in one day that wasn't working out as planned.  We continued driving and found Point Pinos.  We spent the next two hours loving on God's creations.  Birds, angry waves, thousands and thousands of shells and hermit crabs.  We scoured the beach for shells, digging deeper and deeper to find beautiful remnants of once whole shells, in beautiful greens and purples and oranges.  Aidan and Coda were interested in why the ocean was so wild that day and where all the tide pools were.  We were all in our own element, coming together to show our treasures.  There is something so peaceful about the sound of waves crashing and the feeling of sand running through your fingers and in between your toes.  I truly love the ocean, love love love the ocean.  Its amazing to me that the day I had "planned" did not work out at all, and yet, our day in Monterey and Pacific Grove was so magical and memorable.  Its a learning process, to be less affected when plans don't go my way, I am working on it, daily.

After leaving Pacific Grove we headed to San Jose where we planned to stay the night.  The next morning we had an appointment at Family RV where we bought our trailer from.  We were needing a little adjusting on our hitch and since we bought our trailer there we can dump sewer/grey water and fill up fresh water for FREE!  We ended up staying in a commuter train station parking lot that allows parking for up to 72 hours, I love free overnight parking.  My bestest friend from highschool Grace, lives in San Jose and came to the train station parking lot to visit us.  It was great to reconnect.  Another reason why I love traveling, meeting up with people that might not otherwise see.

Photos from Monterey, Pacific Grove & San Jose here.

Santa Monica & Malibu

After four months in Santa Paula, two separate times, three months in an apartment at the wonderful Glen Tavern Inn and one month in our trailer, it was hard to say goodbye.  We had made friends with fellow homeschoolers, knew what beaches were our favorite, the quickest route to Trader Joes and had explored Ventura County quite thoroughly.  We were heading to Santa Monica and then onto Malibu, so leaving wasn't THAT hard.

We left Santa Paula and headed south west, making a pit stop in the middle of LA to look at a car for Nick's uncle.  The pit stop caused a bit more stress then we had anticipated, LA rush hour traffic with a van and a 30 foot travel trailer, WOW!  The Santa Monica Pier was so nice to see once we arrived.  We parked, made lunch and headed out along the beach walk to the pier.  The day was a little foggy, but still beautiful.  We made it to the pier and climbed the stairs.  Aidan and Coda were enthralled with the men fishing for crabs and looking for dolphins.  The Pier has a huge Ferris Wheels, so it was only natural that we eventually made our way over to it.  This mama is a tad afraid of heights, so I wasn't too sure about it...secretly I was hoping it would be too expensive for all 7 of us to ride, but no such luck, they charged us only $14 for all of us to ride.  I was so glad that we all went, it was beautiful, so far above the ocean, above the pier, you could see for miles in each direction.

After exploring the Pier we walked a mile or so to Euphoria Loves Rawolution.  ELR is a raw resturant that I have been dreaming of visiting for about 3 years.  We made our way inside, Nick and the children sat down on a beautiful daybed, turned couch, I headed to the counter to order.  ELR was magical place, the food was far better then I could have imagined.  Nick and I shared a Taco Salad and Pesto Tomato Sliders, the children shared Nut Butter & Strawberries and a Strawberry Smoothie.

Once we got back to the trailer we loaded up and headed north on Highway 1 towards Malibu.  We had been told by our fellow full-time traveling friends Matt & Sara, that if we went to Malibu we had to splurge and stay at the Malibu Beach RV Park.  So we did.  Our spot was dreamy.  The trailer backed up over a cliff that was above Highway 1, however you were so high up, that all you could see was ocean.  We joked about how cheap the park actually was, since we had a MULTI-MILLION dollar few for three days.  We will definitely go back.

When we were in Malibu we spent the good portion of one of the days on the beach.  Jericho was newly sitting up and loved to sit up in the sand.  He is such a cutie and that was just one of the many days that I couldn't get enough of him.  We watched surfers and even sighted a celebrity, Scott Caan, one of the racing brothers from Oceans 11.  We walked along the beach, buried each other in the sand and soaked up the sun.  What a wonderful family day.

The next day we had to say goodbye to Malibu and we headed north.  Next stops; Santa Barbara, Solvang and San Luis Obispo. 


Photos from Santa Monica and Malibu here.