Continue reading »]]>      You’ve got to find a way to have fun in the winter and we found out a town an hour north of us was having their annual winter festival! We aren’t big winter fans, (I know, it’s ironic since we live in Minnesota) but there aren’t many places where you can see beautiful snow sculptures! I had a chance to see them last year but it had gotten warm and they were all half melted.

      You can’t see it real well but this first pic is a giant pair of hands! The kids thought it would be cool to walk through them! Zailey isn’t quite sure about walking in the snow yet.

     Beth found her favorite sculture right away! An awesome turtle! A rare pic I was able to get of her. Ain’t she beautiful! This was about as close as Zaden comes to a camera! That’s him walking away in his hood.

The boys found the old woman in the shoe. We warned them about not touching anything and they took it VERY seriously. This is as close as they would get! Good boys. lol

I convinced Zack to try to get in the home without touching it. He was VERY cautious. He told us he was too big so we moved on.

Zander found this sculture. I didn’t get a chance to see what it was all about but it was very cool looking. Lots of detail and the head on top was awesome! This is Zander smiling. hahaha

There were all kinds of different sculptures. This was one of my favorites, a silly croc with his tongue hanging out.

Some were just plain cool! A couple of racers up on an embankment!

A kayaker riding a wave! So cool!

Zailey was quite uneasy about walking in the snow. She was very unsure of it… or was it the dragon behind her? I’m not sure.

But by the end, she was happy go lucky and thought this was kinda cool! It helps having such an awesome big brother that adores his sister!

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If you’ve followed this blog at all in the past, I’m sure you’ve noticed it’s been dormant for about 6 months. You’ve probably thought that it was abandoned and for the most part, you would be right. Our family was all ready to go full timing in our RV, but after doing it last summer, we realized our timing wasn’t right.

Sure we wanted to. Go back to living the daily, boring grind? No way! But when you have kids, you can’t be selfish. A little detour, by the name of Zaden, just wasn’t ready to experience any adventures yet. Zaden has autism and it had gotten a lot deeper throughout the summer. I’d say his whole life is an adventure, but that adventure is all in his head and we have little to no idea of what’s going on in there. To us, he has gotten more destructive and traveling would have been very hard on him. It’s tough when your 3 and a half year old is still non-verbal. So we made the hard decision to stay at our home base and get him more therapy through the school district.

Staying home hasn’t been all bad. Zaden has made a lot of progress. We also realized how much we love having a home base and when we’re able to travel, we still want to have it and be here at least part time in the summer. We’ve been renovating and fixing up the place so it will be a better place to be during our time here.

Of course summer has gone and as great as it is here in the good months, the winter is down right depressing. We aren’t the type to enjoy winter activities and our kids can’t stand the cold. All they want to do is play video games and as of recent, have become obsessed with them. Life has sped up again and what I wouldn’t give for it to slow down again like it did when we were camping.

So the plan is still to travel and experience the country in person; to provide a childhood for our kids they will never forget, but we won’t be doing it full time. We hope we can escape the cold Minnesota winters starting next winter if things work out! I’m optimistic! It’s so cold here! No, you aren’t seeing that image wrong. It was THAT cold here a few mornings. I miss my RV.

Continue reading »]]> I’m joining up with one of my favorite blogs again. She’s being kind and told me that even though I’m late, she’ll add me in!

This month, we are discussing RV must haves. I have so many of them. I can’t post them all but here’s a little peek into how we run things around here

Silverware Sorter
Like most ultra light travel trailers, we are drawerless. Really, no built in drawers. It’s irritating when you’re trying to organize your kitchen. But, we discovered this at Target for $10 last month and it does the job!

Travel Highchair
If you have kids, you need one of these. There isn’t enough room for a big high chair and this does the trick! Plus, it’s easy to bring outside for picnic table meals.

Baby Girl
Because she’s just plain cute.

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So naturally, I got nosy and started Googling the stickers I saw on passing trucks. It looks like we found ourselves in the midst of this year’s Crawl4Cure… a charity event that raises money for MS. I think it’s pretty neat. You should go check it out and if any of you are mudders, it looks like a fun group to be a part of!

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Sure, we’re bored staying put in Minnesota right now… but we’re sure doing our best to find ways to stay busy!

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Things her brothers never did.

I’m still so amazed that after 3 children, I can still have an entirely different experience with my 4th. Children are amazing.

Continue reading »]]> Even though I’ve lived in Minnesota for over 2/3 of my life, I am not Minnesota’s biggest fan. I hate winter, hate mosquitoes, I don’t like how far I have to drive to get somewhere, and my jealousy over my national friends’ sunny temperatures runs deep.

But even with my frustrations over my home state, I have to admit that it’s really quite beautiful!

I grew up on the Iron Range (shown in red on the map). It’s also known as the Arrowhead Region of Minnesota. Or the northlands… Locally called “da nort.”

But Wiki doesn’t tell you how beautiful the Iron Range is and what we have to offer. We live surrounded by swamps and lakes. We eat Walleye in the summer and creamy chicken wild rice soup in the winter. We are a polite kind of people that will wave you ahead of us on the road, open doors for you to enter, and say hi to random people at the grocery store. Can’t find something you’re looking for at Target? Ask anyone whether they work there or not and you will definitely be helped.

Our walking trails are always full of people. Our off road vehicle parks, state parks full of waterfalls and walking trails, and campgrounds are rarely empty. Almost everyone has a hobby here whether it be hiking, geocaching, fourwheeling, fishing, or hunting. My family is all about the hiking and geocaching!

While I don’t particularly LOVE living up here, it’s a beautiful place to visit. And, it’s extremely safe for your children. Imagine a world where kids are still free to bike ride without fear of strangers. Where you don’t find a bunch of kids hanging out on the street corner because they’re at the beach. A place where I’ve discovered that it’s not only acceptable to homeschool but encouraged by many.

And a place where yeah, we don’t have the major theme parks and water slides everyone around the country seems to head to. Instead, we have an endless supply of waterfalls and caves to explore. We have rafting, fishing, and kayaking. We have underground mines to visit, museums of famous people from our area (ever hear of Bob Dylan or Judy Garland?), and we’re rather close to the hustle and bustle of Minneapolis and the Mall of America if we ever need some “city life.”

I frequent a lot of traveling blogs and I have to say I’m a little sad when I discover Minnesota is the only state not checked off on their map! Get your butts up here

 

Continue reading »]]> When you’re a traveling family, you don’t always have room for an endless amount of books… or access to a public library. If you’re like me, you have switched to the Kindle! Here are some current freebies for children!! Grab them while you can! I have no idea how long they’ll stay free.

My Monster Burrufu

Seven-year-old Olivia has just moved to a new house—the same house where a lonely monster named Burrufu lives hidden in a secret attic. One night, unable to resist the smell of delicious cookies, Burrufu sneaks out and is discovered by Olivia. The two soon learn that you can find friendship in the most unexpected places.

I’ll Follow the Moon

Turtles are on the endangered species list, but together we can take them off!

Kendra Kandlestar and the Door to Unger

LOST IN A MAZE OF MONSTERS . . . Everyone knows that the creatures of the outside world are forbidden by magic to enter the land of Een. That’s why Kendra Kandlestar is so surprised when a giant Unger arrives in the middle of the night to deliver a cryptic message: If she can find the Door to Unger, she will be able to unlock the truth about her long-lost family. But when Kendra finds herself trekking through the wilderness with a magic-peddling faun and a rebellious Unger, she begins to wonder if it’s all just a clever trap to lead her into the heart of danger. Whom can Kendra trust? There’s only one way to find out: peek through the Door to Unger and enter a world of magic, monsters, and mystery!

Continue reading »]]> Okay, so not quite the storm of the century but definitely the craziest one we’ve been through in our RV.

The sky was light and calm with clouds rolling in…

And in a matter of seconds… DARKNESS.

We watched through the windows in total fascination and talked about whether or not our RV insurance would cover damaged solar panels.

That’s when we noticed my pretty flowers laying on their side rolling across the picnic table. My husband told me to just leave them until the storm let up but you just don’t come between a mama and her… flowers. So, I bolted outside, grabbed them, and bolted back.

They’re too pretty to die!!

As soon as the hail let up a little, my husband bolted outside, climbed on top of the roof, and checked out our panels… which were completely fine! Phew! Dodged a bullet there.

This storm was scary. We were told to watch for tornadoes because cyclone-like clouds had been spotted. Our pickup has a few nicks in the hood from all of that hail now. The storm was so close, the thunder growled for several minutes straight without any silence. The sky looked like a strobe light.

We usually love storms but I’ll admit it. This one was freaky.

Thankfully, our kids are never phased by them!

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Our first stop was at the marina in Grand Marais to throw rocks in the water.

Grand Marais is a beautiful “coastal” town. I almost felt like we were back in California as we cruised through a little gift shop.

Then, we headed to Cascade Falls and took the trail up to our first waterfall of the day.

The boys ran ahead of us to see what the noise was about.

Zack told me his usual… “THIS is my best day EVER!”

I agree… it was a pretty darn good day.

Then, we headed to Temperance River State Park where I just wasn’t able to capture the waterfall deep in the rocks.

After that, we stopped at the waterfall rushing right by the highway.

Our boys got a lot closer to it than I would!

After that, we headed to Gooseberry Falls. We haven’t been here since our 5yo turned 1! I was in instant awe of its beauty once again.

The boys posed for Daddy here… but I stole a shot too!

Daddy and the boys went to play in the lagoon while I stayed on the trail with the babies. Zaden snuggled my skirt like a security blanket… something new he’s been doing

Daddy caught this shot of Zack playing in the lagoon.

My 3 big guys!

It was Daddy’s turn to stay back with the babies when we hit the lower lagoon. I took the boys up to the last tier of the waterfall.

It was amazing being SO close!

And someone was kind enough to take a family shot for us… Which, by this point… our kids were tired of the camera. And my husband jumped in the shot last minute. Can you tell?