Austin Visit - The Capitol Building

During our stay at Lockhardt State Park, we took one afternoon to tour the State Capitol Building in Austin.  Our tour guide was quite humorous as he explained all the parts of the Texas government as well as the history of the building itself.

Can you see us on the front steps?

We were outside looking at the building when we noticed Caleb on top of a small ledge, frozen in place just like this:

He explained that he was being a "statue"! I think this is the stillest I have ever seen Caleb be in his whole life! HA!

Later on, Nathanael joined the act with his own "statue" pose.

Inside the main floor, look up and you see this spectacular view of the dome ceiling.

cool silhouette!

The door hinges inside the Capitol were the original historic hinges from the 1800s.  Just like the Capitol building and everything in Texas...they were BIG!

We walked up to the fourth floor to get a closer view of the ceiling.  The star you see at the top is actually EIGHT feet across!

We thought it would be fun to get a picture from the fourth floor of Alan and the boys on the main floor.  I have to admit, the height was a little too much for me.  I couldn't stand leaning over the railing to get the picture, so I just stuck one arm out over the railing with my camera in hand as my head and the rest of my body were leaning away from the railing as far as I could.  I held my breath and took this picture without looking!

Can you see Alan and the four boys?

Our brother-in-law James was just elected last month to the Texas House of Representatives.  So-we just had to stop by and see where his office will be starting in January.  We were amazed to learn that there are actually 4 floors built underground adjacent to the Capitol building. (2 floors are office spaces and 2 floors are parking garages).  We took the elevator to the 2nd floor underground level.  James - this picture is for you! We look forward to coming back next year to visit when you are in office.  We are so proud of you!

Overall, this was a GREAT visit. We all learned more about the history and government of Texas.  Our tour guide made it fun and interesting as well.  Oh- and did I mention, it was free?!? With four boys in the family, we really LOVE free field trips!

Blessings to you and yours!

Jill and the boys:)

Our Newest Addition...

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we kept some Christmas inflatable yard decorations since they were some of the boys' favorites (and inflatables are easy to pack down).  A few years ago we started the tradition that the boys could pick out a new decoration every Christmas.

Our Nativity Inflatable

The boys helping Alan set up.  Can you see Micah being silly? :)

Well...a few weeks ago before we left St. Louis, my good friend, Katie, was watching the boys for me so I could pack.  She took them to Wal-mart (yes-all FOUR boys...she is a very sweet friend!)  She spotted an adorable Christmas RV inflatable.  It would be perfect for our RV!  However, we did not get around to buying one in St. Louis and then we tried looking here in Texas, but couldn't find any here.  Big Bummer! But...as we passed through San Marcos and stopped in at a Wal-mart...they had plenty in stock!!!!

Here is our new yard inflatable (next to Frosty) Notice the door is closed...

Ho! Ho! Ho! Santa opens the door!

It sure makes things bright in our little campsite!! :) 

Blessings to you and yours!

Jill and the boys:)

Six People Living In An RV?!?!? I Have a Question!!!!"

RV Q & A for all of you curious people! :)

We had a lot of questions ourselves before we moved from a “sticks and bricks” house into a home on wheels! We did a lot of research and talked with our friends (The Goldens) who have been a full-time RV family for almost 2 years now. We actually bought our RV  “The Admiral” from them.  They have been SO helpful with all of our questions!  Thanks Todd and Stephanie! Here is the link to their blog if you would like to see all of their RV adventures:  http://goldengangusa.blogspot.com/

So- every so often on the blog, we will pick one of the questions we have been asked (some more than once) to help people get an idea what the traveling lifestyle is like…for our family anyway.  Feel free to ask us a question as well! Just put it in the comment section of the blog and we will try to answer them if we can!

Where do you stay/camp your RV?

There are actually many full time RV families that live on the road and so there are a variety of ways to camp as well.  We could go for free and just camp (boon dock) out at Wal-Mart parking lots or rest areas.  But- obviously there are pros and cons with that option.  If we are not hooked up at an RV park campground site, we can just use our water tank for our water supply, but with 6 people, it is limited.  There are also 2 tanks for the dirty (grey) and sewer (black) water. Before we bought our RV this past spring, I had no idea what all of that meant! I know it probably sounds weird, maybe even yucky or gross (don’t picture the scene from the movie RV with Robin Williams!) Believe me - I made sure my husband knew how to dump the “grey” and “black” water as they call it (so as not to gross anyone out I guess).  I knew that if he had anything happen to him like in the RV movie…well…lets just say I would have to put ALAN on the sanitize cycle of the washing machine for a week!

So- for our family, we decided the best thing to do was to buy a campground membership with Thousand Trails.  You can purchase different packages to fit your needs and stay at their campgrounds throughout the U.S.  I really liked the fact that you get an idea of where you will be staying before you go. They have certain amenities, and it is comforting to know that it will be a clean, safe place to stay.  We have also stayed at a few state parks, which have been overall pretty good experiences for us except that generally the Internet and cell phone coverage isn’t that great.

After visiting our families in North Texas for Thanksgiving, we decided to head south to Austin.  We took our time traveling down and we stopped at a Thousand Trails RV Campground in Lake Whitney for 3 nights before with stayed at Lockhardt State Park in Austin.  Since we have a membership with Thousand Trails, our stay there for full RV hook ups (30 electric amps) was free!! 30 amps was good enough since it was cool and we did not have to run both air conditioners in the RV. Having water and sewer hook ups are always convenient so we don’t have to worry about using up our tank, and we don’t have to move the RV to a dump station to empty the tanks.  I know, I know… it sounds gross! Actually- the process is surprisingly not like what I thought.  It is simple…basically just put a hose into a hole in the ground (making sure the seal is tight of course).  You don’t see a thing! Whew! OK…that was probably TMI ;)

Well- that answers one question for now! Until next time....

Blessings to you and yours!

Jill and the boys:)

Adjustments, Back to School...Getting Into A New Routine...Sort Of!

Obviously moving from a “sticks and bricks” home into a RV is going to bring about a lot of adjustments!!!  We did go camping in our RV several times this summer, but living full time in an RV is another story!  So- we are still trying to figure this all out.  Our good friends who are living full time in their RV with 5 children once said, “When you are driving the RV, just don’t ever be in a hurry!”  These same friends said the RV is "an incubator for sanctification"!! Amen to that!  :)  It is neat what we are learning from God during our RV adventure so far. 

It seems like no matter how hard we try, we end up leaving each RV park later than planned.  (We are 0 - 3 for arriving at a new RV park before dark! Hopefully, we can learn how to get things packed up sooner, and figure out the best routes on our GPS...ha!)  As frustrating as running behind can be, we came across a horrible wreck on our trip to Texas and we really had to wonder what could have happened if we had left "on time".  Also- we are having some issues with towing our van: a funny burn smell from the engine after towing, around 4 or 5 broken/lost tail lights, and the straps occasionally loosen off the tires so it causes more stops to check things out.  I do appreciate that about Alan - He is definitely extra safe! Anyway- Alan did figure out the burn smell and it is an easy fix-whew!  We definitely are grateful for God's protection over us as we travel.  Thank you to all of our friends and family for your prayers as we travel! You are a blessing to us!

We have been homeschooling our boys since preschool, so at least this was not an area of huge adjustment.  Before we started our RV lifestyle, Alan was at work most of the day, so I did most of the homeschooling.  He would often help out with certain subjects, teaching piano, or grading work. Alan was very excited to be more of a part of the homeschooling.  I really appreciate that about him.  He is great with the boys, and he is very patient…often times more than I am!

Since the past month was so hectic with moving, selling/donating our things, getting in visits with St. Louis friends, and the Thanksgiving holiday, we had not done much school at all for about a month.  So- we decided to get back into school slowly.  We had one very light day of school and then really started full days last week. We are still trying to figure out our school routine and where all the books got packed...ha! 

Actually, our first day back into school did go pretty smoothly.  I have to say that it was SO nice to have Alan there to help…especially because it often used to be so overwhelming being pulled in 4 different directions. Now…we can divide and conquer! He teaches the older 2 boys while I work with the younger 2, and vice versa. Sometimes he will teach all of them so I can take care of other things, or sometimes I do.  Each day has looked a little different. Our goal is to finish school by lunchtime so we have time with the boys in the afternoon to ride bikes, hike, play, or go visit the area.

With our new ministry, Alan now has the flexibility to work at different times of the day during the week. He sometimes will work in the afternoons, sometimes at night.  Once he starts speaking at churches, his busy time will be on the weekends mostly so that we still have flexibility during the week.  We realize that some field trips may be in the morning, so we will just need to adjust the routine for the day.  That is the beauty of this lifestyle! We can make our schedule work around our needs.  It is not perfect, and we are definitely still adjusting to a lot of changes, but we are SO excited for this time together as a family!

Joshua enjoyed counting out M&Ms in his Math book.

He REALLY enjoyed EATING the M&MS though!

Thank you for your prayers, support and encouragement during our new adventure!

Blessings to you and yours!

Jill and the boys:)

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

State #1 - TEXAS!

I'm so sorry that we have not posted more often.  This past week we stayed at a state park and the cell phone and internet coverage was really bad (even with Alan's phone that has the hotspot).  We ended up having to run into town to the local McDonalds any time we needed to make calls, download emails, and get on the internet.  It was a little frustrating, but then again it can be nice to be "disconnected" for awhile and just relax :) So - the next few posts will be to catch up to this week!

STATE #1 – Texas!

You know you are in Texas when you see a sign like this:

"SLOW...ARMADILLO CROSSING"  Love it!

After visiting our family in North Texas, we headed south towards Austin.  We stopped at Lake Whitney for thee nights.  We had a great time, other than the bike adventure incident (see earlier post)! We spent time as a family just having fun, decorating for Christmas, starting back up a little bit of school, and we took a day trip to Waco.  One day the boys had a silly string fight.  Micah decided he would rather take pictures instead.  He did a good job! (See below)

Daddy was the target!

Funny thing...Joshua couldn't figure out how to spray the can so Alan had to help him!

That's a lot of silly string!

Good shot!

That's our Daddy! What a sport!

One of our first field trips was to the Dr. Pepper Museum during our day trip to Waco.  Alan and I have a weakness for Diet Dr. Pepper! We are trying to cut back on it and drink more water…but it is hard!  That Dr. Pepper is SO good!  

We learned that Dr. Pepper was invented by a man in Waco years ago, and the soda was actually originally called "Waco" before it was changed to Dr. Pepper.  People used to walk up to the counter and say "Give me a Waco!" 

This is a cool horse made from Dr. Pepper cans!

We ended the field trip with Dr. Pepper floats from the soda fountain...yummy!

I graduated from Baylor University (just a few years back...ha ha) so we thought it would be fun to show the boys around campus.  I had not been there in years – WOW! Things have changed! There were so many new buildings that I got turned around a lot!  It was fun to see the Baylor Bear mascots in their new remodeled habitat. We even got to catch a quick 5 minute visit with our nephew Jerod, who is a freshman at Baylor. Sic 'Em Bears!

Sic 'Em Bears!

That night we also had the chance to catch up with some of my old college roommates (Cindy and Andrea) and their families – so fun!  It had been many years since we had seen each other.  We had a great time :)

Cindy and her husband Steve had a pet bunny that was SO adorable! The boys loved feeding her!

Precious!

Blessings to you and yours!
Jill and the boys:)

It's Beginning To Look A lot Like Christmas!

Although our new house is on wheels (and we have A LOT less space), we can still decorate for Christmas! It is actually just a lot more simple. We kept the yard decorations because they can shrink down in size for storage and they are easy to put up and down outside at each park.  The boys were just excited to keep them too, of course!  We did also keep the boys little Charlie Brown Christmas tree since it is the perfect size for our new little home!

We have a tradition that we have a simple snack type dinner with almond bark popcorn for dessert as we gather around to decorate the tree together as a family.  Well, now that our tree is REALLY small, I think it took about 10 minutes to decorate :) Funny!

I have to say that I really do enjoy keeping things simple! It helps me to keep my focus on what really matters this season and every day...

We hope you are doing well and enjoying this season as we celebrate Christ's birth.  Merry Christmas!

Our traditional fun, easy dinner for the night we decorate the Christmas Tree

My silly boys!

Decorating our little tree...

The boys found the tub with the Christmas books:)

Adventures in Bike Riding

Greetings from Jill! (The Co-Pilot!) :)

We have had great visiting time with family the past week.  On Thursday, we feel like we had our official “lift off” and we headed down south for Lake Whitney from Wichita Falls with high hopes to make it there before dark.  Well…by the time we finished all of our rearranging in the RV (keep the Christmas stuff, put some things at Alan’s sister’s house, photo albums and keepsakes at his parents house, etc.) it was after 1:30 when we left Wichita Falls.  We also ended up taking a small quick detour to my Mom’s house to drop off a few things.  So- we finally arrived to the campground shortly before 8pm.  We knew it would be difficult to set up after dark, but this definitely confirmed for us that we REALLY need to arrive at each new RV park early in the afternoon, before dark, to set up everything and check out things at the park. 

On Friday we woke up and I took a nice walk around the campground.  There are a lot of RVs here, but it is not crowded at all.  After I got back, we decided to take the boys to the playground area.  After about 5 minutes of playing hide and go seek, Nathanael slid into a patch of stickers.  Poor kid! He was covered with at least 100 stickers on his hands, arms, legs and feet.  He was a tough guy and handled it really well as Alan picked them all off.

So- next we decided to all go on a bike ride.  Have you ever felt that getting ready to ride bikes with children is a lot like getting ready to go play outside in the snow during a Missouri winter?  It takes 30 minutes to get all of the gear on and ready, and then usually the boys are ready to come in after being outside for 5 to 10 minutes.  But- it is something we all must do as parents, right? It is just part of the joys of parenting, and one day we will all look back and have fond memories of these days.

So- this bike ride turned out to be quite the adventure.  We decided that I would take the two little boys around the campground at their pace, and Alan would take the older two boys to the basketball courts to play some ball for a while.  Now- I will be totally honest here…the selfish side of me really would love to just take off fast and enjoy riding down all the hills.  But- I know I need to take care of my precious boys, so I make sure to help Caleb and Joshua walk their bikes up and down “steep” hills over and over again throughout our bike ride. We arrived at what I would call I very small hill and I thought it was about time the boys tried to make it on their own riding their bikes down the hill. Well- I COMPLETELY underestimated how steep the hill was .  Caleb stops his bike before the hill and says, “I’m not going down that hill, Mom” while my sweet little 3 - year old Joshua takes off down the long hill. As his little bicycle with the training wheels takes off speed going faster and faster, I notice he is trying to get off the bike while it is moving. His little legs are almost both swung over to one side.  I quickly tell him to stay on and put on the brakes.  I figure out just a few seconds later that he is totally out of control and cannot stop the bike even after he sits back down the right way. His bike is going so fast I just know he is about to crash.  I quickly get off my bike and throw it to the ground and start sprinting toward him yelling, “Put on the brakes Joshua!” and “Oh dear Jesus, Oh dear Jesus, please protect him!!!!” Now- this was definitely NOT funny at the time…but now that I can tell you that he survived this without a scratch, this next part is just hilarious.  As I am frantically racing toward him trying to catch up as he is speeding down this long, steep hill, he is turning his head back toward me (Yes-he is looking back and not forward at all) and yelling over and over, “I DON”T WANT TO RIDE MY BIKE ANYMORE! I DON’T WANT TO RIDE MY BIKE ANYMORE!!!” I just keep yelling back, “Push back on the pedal brakes Joshua…look where you are going…I’m coming!!!” Somehow he keeps the bike steady down the hill, through the gravel spots, misses hitting a tree and camp site post, and arrives at a campsite through the trees as he comes to a stop…still on the bike…still upright….no falling….NOT A SCRATCH….but as I rush toward him and pull him into my arms thanking God that he is okay, Joshua very clearly says “I don’t want to ride my bike any more Mom.”

         

OHHHH….I felt SO bad for him, but I knew he needed to get right back on the bike and try again to regain his confidence.  So- I look at the path home…it looks fine.  Well- just one minute later, we both end up crashing into each other and landing hard on the pavement.  We sat there in the middle of the path for a little while…both of us with tears coming down our cheeks.  After that, I decided walking our bikes back was a good option after all! We will just try again tomorrow…not on the same path of course!  :)

Let me just say that our day ended a lot better than it started….but that is another blog post…