Lesson #18 ~ We Have Incredible Friends Around The Country

“I can’t see the gas station.  Which way do I turn?” said Travis as we exited in Omaha, Nebraska.  The fog was thick!!!  We couldn’t see more than 20 yards in front of us.  We’d rather have fog than freezing rain, though.  We stayed in Lincoln, Nebraska, for an extra night due to Des Moines’ icy forecast.  Better safe than sorry.  

Our extra night in Nebraska was well worth the stay.  In fact, our entire weekend was fabulous!  We arrived Friday within 3 minutes of Amy, Elijah, and Aleni Rogers pulling into their driveway after school.  Let the fun begin!!!  Nine-year-old Aleni is a popular girl to our family.  "I get to sit by Aleni!" all three of our youngest children called in unison in hopes of sitting on the recliner with her.  Elijah and Taite took the couch while we all drove the Flyer to the YMCA to meet “The Other Wilson’s.”  The Other Wilson’s are one of our favorite families.  Like Travis, Brian is a Family Heritage director.  He and his wife Amanda have been our friends for more than a decade.  Their family has grown from no kids or dogs to six girls and two dogs in less than 6 years.  (Wish I had a pic of them to add.  Beautiful family.)

The kids swam and played at the Y.  Some of the big kids, including Brian, played a pseudo-volleybal game working to keep the ball out of the water while counting the hits/bumps.  Taite was fired up to be part of the record-holding team at 30 hits.  

We all parted ways to have dinner then the Other Wilson’s re-joined us at the Rogers’ home.  The kids ran and played while the adults laughed and talked.  Elijah, the Rogers’ 7-year-old son, recently brought home some math worksheets from school.  He was excited to have the kids over to play 'school.'  Of course our kids, who have now done school on a Saturday, raised an eyebrow at the thought of Friday night school.  Usually Calla plays the teacher, but that night 10-year-old Hailey Wilson announced herself as the teacher, grabbed her whip, and told everyone to put their heads down on their desks.  Thankfully nobody got hurt and all the kids had a grand old time playing together.  Everyone crashed at bedtime, exhausted and full from eating the delicious meal Amy had prepared.  

The Rogers are another of our favorite families.  Curtis, too, is a director in the insurance business.  (There are only 35 directors for Family Heritage in the United States.  Kind of fun to have three of them in the same room.)  They enjoy sharing ideas and Curtis is a great Christian mentor.  Amy has become a dear friend of mine.  She has a strong listening ear and is great at sharing ideas.  We spent time with their family while we were in Tucson, Arizona, just a few weeks ago, then again in Vegas.  We got to see them this weekend, and they hosted their business group’s new year party so we spent time with a few of our other Nebraska and western Iowa friends as well.  (Again, wishing I had done a better job of taking pictures this time. ;-))

“The word is ‘cute,’” said Lena Beelek as she dropped her green Disney Apples to Apples card in the middle of the living room floor.  Eleven of us checked the red cards in our hand in hopes of laying the perfect card for our judge.  

“Oh!  Oh!  Who has the card that says ‘Hailey Wilson’???!!!  That will be the winner!!!” exclaims Hailey.

“The word is ‘exciting,’” said Lincoln.  I knew which one would be the winner.  There were  a lot of great choices - Brian Wilson put down Lightning McQueen.  Usually you can’t go wrong with any Cars character...unless ‘Underwear’ is one of the choices.  Sometimes Lincoln just walks around saying ‘underwear.' He might yell it out in the middle of a conversation.  You just never know about him.  Lincoln chose my 'Underwear' card as the winner and the game continued.

Besides being fun and funny, another great thing about the Rogers and the Wilson’s is they are families walking toward Christ.  We’ve been able to spend time with so many people who encourage and lead our family in a faith journey.  These two families are no exception.  We joined the Rogers’ for their church service and class Sunday morning.  It was like God was holding me by the shoulders, shaking me and saying “Wake up!!!  I’m trying to tell you something!!”  Ephesians 3:20 was the sermon topic for us two weeks in a row now - and the previous week we were in Reno, Nevada!  

Ephesians 3:20 says, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.”  Boy have we experienced that on this trip!  How funny to think that what I wanted for our jobs, school, lives - which sounded so good when I was drumming it up on my own - pales in comparison to how He’s blessed us.  And all we had to do was say yes and be obedient.  If Ephesians 3:20 is His message to us, I can’t even imagine what He might have in store for us these next 11 months!  January has been pretty spectacular!

The Sunday school class focused on God’s money loaned to us.  It was just as impactful as the service.  What was impactful for the kids was all the falls they took on the ice later in the day as we once again went ice skating - this time at the Ice Box in Lincoln, Nebraska.  Taite counted himself falling only 6 times.  He’s getting better!  Lincoln was really good on skates (for a four-year-old who’s never been on them).  Once open skating was over we all stepped off the rink to watch the zamboni resurface the ice.  Lincoln was mesmerized.  I’ve tried to avoid hockey as a sport for my children.  The Ice Box experience did not help.

One thing Lincoln doesn’t avoid is food.  The boy can eat!  Due to poor weather conditions in both Lincoln and Des Moines we opted to accept the Rogers‘ invitation to stay another night. For dinner Travis made two ground almond and mozzerella crusted pizzas.  (We’ve really gotten into this no-wheat thing.)  Amy made fondue - a first experience for our kids.  We all loved it - even the kids enjoyed the pizza.  The cheese fondue was super fun.  Watching the kids eat the chocolate fondue was like watching ants gather on a slice of watermelon.  Lincoln announced he was not going to let there be left overs.  “I’m never gonna be full.  I’m gonna eat all the strawberries and bananas and cuties and chocolate.”  True to his word he finished every last drop that the other nine of us couldn’t even think about since we were so full. 

Dinner, dishes, baths, stories, and bedtime.  Early to bed Sunday night for everyone.  Monday morning came fast.  It was tough to roll everyone out of bed - Parker and Calla slept until we woke them at 9:15!  We drove the seven hours home in thick fog - at times only seeing 50 yards in front of us.  But we made it!  Ferrari-driver Travis had no problems.

One of the things we have incorporated for our family’s health is seeing our incredible chiropractor, Dr. Kuntz.  We go to him for most things health-related.  We have missed him dearly.  We can’t just go to any chiropractor because very few of them can do what he does.  After driving 5,850 miles around the country we were all in desperate need of an adjustment.  We didn’t even drive home.  We went to see Dr. Kuntz first.  We took up two spaces in the parking lot and walked in disheveled - Lincoln in two mismatched right-footed shoes, Parker in pajamas and no shoes, and Calla in pajamas.  We just happened to run into my sister there, Auntie Mimi.  The kids were fired up!!!  

Mindy (aka Auntie Mimi) went to her house to change and load KC into her car after leaving the chiropractor.  Little did she know that she would wind up helping us unload the RV when she got to our house to drop off KC.  But thanks to her and my two best helpers, Calla and Taite, Travis and I unloaded the RV in less than an hour.  My kitchen, dining room, and pretty much every other room in the house are disasters, but the RV is unloaded and ready to go to Brambilla’s RV sales and service for an oil change and other maintenance work.

“Taite!  Where are you?  I need your help,” I hollered up the stairs.  

“I’m exploring,” responded Taite.  After being gone for six weeks you’d probably have to explore to grasp your surroundings.  KC spent 20 minutes sniffing the yard to be reminded of where he was.  Parker started crying in the middle of the night.  I awoke to her cries, but it took me a minute to get out of bed.  I had no idea where I was, or how to get to Parker.  I guess I should have done a little more exploring before bedtime as well.  

Our family has talked a bit about the things we learned on this RV trip.  We’ll take the weekend to lament over them.  The kids will be with Grammy (my mom).  Both parties are mutually excited for the weekend.  Travis and I head to Orlando.  He’s joining me for a MonaVie event.  Sunday we return.  We’ll take a deep breath and plan to enjoy our time in Minnesota for the coming months.

    

P.S. The professional pictures of my kids are taken by someone Linda hired in Grove, Oklahoma.  Ummm...I'm a little biased, but aren't our children so stinkin' cute!?!?

Lesson #17 ~ Super Heros Are Super Cute

Lesson #17 ~ Super Heros are Super Cute!

“A-wimoweh.  A-wimoweh...”  We sang our way through the Sierra Nevadas toward Lake Tahoe.  (Swiss Family Robinson, right?!)  Thanks to the San Diego Zoo’s Little Critters show and a cute hippo and dog video on YouTube, we have been singing ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’ for a week.  It entertained us for quite some time along the drive Saturday.  I promise our rendition will never go public.  

Our resident Wikipedia (Travis) interrupted our songs a few times to introduce us to the sandstone and granite surrounding us along the drive.  He pointed out the various pine trees and shared with us his experience with sugar pine cones.  We learned about the tree line - the noticeable difference where you’ll find an abundance of trees compared to where the lack of water or the elements stunt the growth of the vegetation.  We drove through a few passes.  Yuba Pass’ 2009 fire was started by a hawk hitting a power line.  Still today we could see the black bark, fallen trees, and pine trees with a bare bottom half showing us the remnant of the forest fire.  Snow tubing was a popular sport up high in the mountains.  We reached a peak elevation of 7,252 feet.  Our ears were popping!  

Tahoe is a place to which I’ve never been, but have desired to go.  I can see why Mark Twain says it’s the second best lake in the world next to Lake Como in Italy.  Lake Tahoe was clear blue.  Beautiful pine trees surrounded the area.  Quaint towns were scattered around the lake.  The clear water reminded me of being at Rum Point in the Cayman Islands.  You could see through the blue water down to the sand on the very bottom.  Lake Tahoe was much clearer than our own Prior Lake.  Taite wanted to touch the water.  

We found a roadside stop and pulled over to get a closer look.  Snowy, icy, slippery.  The walkway to the water had me nervous.  It was 40+ degrees out - so our Minnesota kids went without hats and mittens, Calla even went without a jacket!  Everyone landed on their bottoms at least once.  We got as far as I was willing to let the kids go, then Taite wanted to go farther.  Ten more feet brought you to the water, but you had to maneuver snowy, slippery rocks to get there.  I told Taite he could proceed, warning him that I would be staying with the other kids.  Visions of a freezing, soaked Taite danced in my head.  He carefully balanced his way, reached down to feel the water and see it close-up, and took a moment to enjoy it.  Thankfully he returned to us dry.  We walked back to Travis and the Flyer (where Travis stayed to protect the rig as we were not parked in an official parking spot).  Our friend Sarah Fierro encouraged us to look for pogonip in the mountains, we think we found some at Lake Tahoe.

Lake Tahoe rests on the border of California and Nevada.  There was no question where the Nevada border was!  There was a giant lighted sign flashing “Casino” right at the border - it seemed to be in place of a “Welcome to Nevada” sign. ;-)  The commerce might have changed, but the beauty of the area didn’t.  I was so glad we took the time to drive around the northern half of the lake.  Beauty etched into my memory.

My memories of Cash Fierro are of his passion for super heros.  “Do you want to be Spiderman?” was one of the first things we heard when we arrived in Reno.  We’ve known the Fierro’s for over a decade, Travis works with John, Sarah has become a great friend of mine, and our kids get along very well.  Saturday they welcomed us with open arms, warm hearts, and a delicious meal.  Pasole soup and chicken enchiladas - YUM!  I had never even heard of pasole soup.  It just became a new favorite.  We all attended their church service Saturday night.  It was nice to change things up from the Nautica Flyer Community Church to Hope Community Church.  We were grateful to share that with them.  Sunday was a Spiderman birthday party at the Discovery Museum, football, haircuts (Sarah is a trained stylist), the Lorax, games, and lots of chatting.  

We hadn't yet had our fill of fun and learning so we stayed in Reno for more.  Nevada currently mines 79% of all the gold in the United States, which is why I wanted to visit a gold mine while we were there.  I found one (just one) that was open this time of year and available for tours.  While John went to work Monday, Sarah and the boys joined our family in the Flyer.  We drove to Virginia City to relish in the remains of the Comstock Lode.  The Ponderosa Saloon and Mine gave us that glimpse.  (Yes, we’ve now brought our children to a winery in Los Gatos, bar in Vegas, and Saloon in Virginia City - yikes!).  Today the Ponderosa is a saloon, but it started as the Bank of California before anyone attempted to mine for gold.  The tour was fun.  Our toothless tour guide was very informative.  It was great to see how it all worked.  The Gold Rush is one of our upcoming school units.  How fabulous to have real-life visuals for it.

“Look at those snow popsicles!” Lincoln says as we are walking down the street of Virginia City.  The snow was melting in the mountains.  Lots of icicles had formed - to the point of having to post signs to beware of icicles!   Lincoln is a very observant child.  He is also very vocal - about everything.

“Cash!  Look at that puddle!  Step in it!” says Lincoln.  Normally he would say such a thing to Parker, but she happened to be riding in a backpack and unavailable to participate in his schemes.  I can’t decide if he purposely tries to get other kids in trouble or not.  Thankfully I had Travis to help me keep Lincoln in line.  After a couple of hours in Virginia City the parents had had enough.  Time to head home.

It was perfect timing for us to leave so Cash could get to his karate class on time.  Once Cash returned from karate we ate another scrumptious dinner - lasagna.  The kids ate and ate and talked and ate.  “Whose favorite number is 1,012?” yells Lincoln out of nowhere.    Five people raised their hands!?!  

“Cash, what would happen if there was syrup on this yazasta (lasagna)?” asks Lincoln.  The rest of us gave Lincoln that look of “What?!?”  But not Cash.

“No!  What if there was bugs in it?!” was Cash’s immediate response.  Lincoln and Cash get along very well.  They seem to often think alike.  This conversation went on.

Tuesday morning came quickly.  Cash and the kids were sad to part.  We said our goodbye’s and started traveling east once again.  We stopped in Winnemucca to have lunch with John at Chihuahua's.  John is a ‘foodie,’ so we were not at all surprised that our lunch was incredible even though Winnemucca is a rinky-dink town off Interstate 80.  He'd recommend the chicken soup if ever going through.  Exceptional!

Just east of Winnemucca we finally spotted some wild horses.  Sarah has mentioned her experiences with wild horses.  I was determined to spot a mustang since we were in one of only four states where you could encounter them.  There are over 30,000 mustangs living in the mountain plains of Nevada (more than all the wild horses in the other U.S. states combined).  It was fun to see them in the wild.  We also saw more pogonip - when stopped at a gas station we saw the ice crystals gleaming in the sun.

We drove and drove and drove Tuesday - eight hours entirely through mountains.  We saw only mountains and snow.  Even though we saw the same terrain for eight hours somehow it’s more interesting than the cornfields we typically see.   We stopped in Utah for the night.  It’s cold...like Minnesota cold.  Single digits.  "It's so cold my ears are going to pop off!" said Lincoln.  I think he's confusing the cold with the pressure of driving through the mountains, but cold just the same.  We must use our generator to keep our furnace running all day or our water will freeze and we won’t be able to use the bathroom.  We learned the cold weather in northern Utah is due to a phenomenon called inversion.  Cold temperatures, snow, and the encircling mountains cause the areas warmer air to move to higher elevations.  The result is a great haze or fog hanging in the valley trapping pollutants.  It made it hard to see and not pretty.  Normal for SLC in January.

The border was very distinct between Nevada and Utah.  Not just because of the casinos on the Nevada side.  The moment we crossed over the Utah border we saw the salt flats.  Another wonder of nature.  And again, so different.  

We chose to have something different for dinner...Rudy’s Roundup BBQ.  Another winner from urbanspoon.com.  Taite enjoyed an entire 1/3 pound burger called the Button Buster.  True to it’s name, Taite about busted his pants at the end of our meal.  Our eight-year-old eats more than an adult.  Our monthly food bill is already a mortgage payment!  After dinner we plopped ourselves just west of Salt Lake City in order to see the Great Salt Lake before moving on to Wyoming.  

Travis and I have been to Salt Lake City and Park City before.  Both incredibly beautiful.  We were disappointed we couldn’t share that with the kids.  It was just too foggy.  We could barely see the car in front of us.  The Great Salt Lake was calling our names, though.  The Salt Lake Marina was nearby so we parked and got out of the RV in this 16 degree weather.  Calla got out without zipping her jacket.  

"Calla.  Please zip your jacket.  It's only 16 degrees out here," I said.   

"Sixteen degrees!  It feels like...20!" reasoned Calla.  Maybe the fog clouds our senses too.

Despite the cold, we put our hand in the water.  Chili, but warmer than Lake Tahoe according to Taite.  Travis said it was really soft water.  His hand felt soft and looked white once the water dried on it.  As we all went down to touch the water, Travis said, “Don’t taste it.”  Immediately we heard spitting noises from Lincoln. ;-)  Of course he had put his hand in his mouth right away.  He didn’t like the salty taste.

We had time for one more SLC activity - either the Mormon temple (which you can’t go in unless you are Mormon) or the MonaVie corporate headquarters.  MonaVie won and Christina, the front desk receptionist, led us on a tour.  It was fun to see where everything happens.  At the end of our tour, an incredibly kind executive support representative named Tim offered to buy lunch for us.  While we didn’t need lunch, we chose to share a hot chocolate with him and got to pick his brain about the inner workings of MonaVie.  He brought out Lindsey, our dedicated executive support representative, so we could meet her and he brought out the View - the antioxidant tester.

In early September and again in October I scanned yellow - putting me at average health.  Not what I had hoped for, but I’ve learned “That which is measured can be improved.”  I increased my MonaVie dosage, removed wheat from my diet, decreased the amount of sugar I ate, increased my intake of sunshine, and added more sleep each night.  This time I scanned blue - having moved up two colors on the health scale and very close to optimal health!  Yea!  I’m headed in the right direction.  Travis and Lincoln scanned green, Calla scanned blue, and Taite was purple.  Parker was afraid of the pencil-sharpener-looking machine and chose not to get scanned but claims that she is purple because that’s her favorite color, “well, pink and purple.”  

We brought our green, blue, and purpleness back to the RV so we could return to Interstate 80.  We cracked open the school books.  Every once in awhile we stopped to enjoy the view, but Wyoming didn’t have much of a variety for us.  The things we have liked about Wyoming so far are the temperatures - above 32 so our water lines are useful - and gas prices.  In California we paid just over $4.00 per gallon.  Here (only one week later) we are paying $2.89.  When you are buying 50 to 100 gallons of gas in a day that adds up.

Tonight we are enjoying our Flying J ‘boondocking’ experience (as Travis calls it).  We took a spot in the RV section of the parking lot hoping all of our batteries work tomorrow.  Hoping for sweet dreams, too.

Lesson #16 ~ Whales Out-Perform the Bellagio

Lesson #16 ~ Whales out-perform the Bellagio

It’s time to start mosey-ing our way home.  Thursday we traveled from San Luis Obispo to Los Gatos, California (just south of San Jose).  It’s about a three hour RV drive.  We took a detour.  In September while Travis and I were on our 10-year anniversary trip we had stopped at a National Park called Point Lobos.  It was extremely memorable for us.  This time it was off the beaten path but we decided to add the extra hour of driving to share this place with our kids.  

Point Lobos National Park is a treasure - with huge redwood and cypress trees.  We hiked our way out to Sea Lion Point.  It was like being at Seaworld!  We hadn’t even made our way to the path before both Travis and Taite spotted whales!  The park volunteer at the trailhead encouraged us to keep watch because this was the time of year gray whales migrate from Alaska to Baja California, Mexico.  We didn’t just see one.  We didn’t just see one pod.  We saw multiple pods of whales!  We saw tails, backs, and sprays.  We would see one pod moving south, then within 5 or 10 minutes see another pod.  There must have been about 10 whales in one of the pods.  We saw spray after spray after spray!  Travis said it looked like the water show at the Bellagio.  “The Bellagio has nothing on these whales!” Travis said.  We learned that gray whales will come up for air, usually spray three times, then go under for three to six minutes.  They’ll travel 10,000 to 12,000 miles round trip each year.  Similar to us in the RV. ;-)

We grabbed a pair of binoculars and saw about 100 sea lions out on a rock formation approximately 150 yards from us (the whales were farther out than the sea lions).  We could see them without binoculars, but with the binoculars we could see which ones were making the barking noises.  We could also see the egrets and herons sharing the rocks.

When we looked into the ocean we found the sea otters playing, floating on their backs, and performing flips in the water like my children do in Prior Lake (but the otters were a little more graceful).  Then we looked on some other rock formations located a little closer to us and saw eight harbor seals.  “This trip just keeps getting better!!” Taite and Calla both said.  Ocean mammals are not something we see in Minnesota. ;-)  These experiences sure make us think harder about what God has for us at home, though.  We’ll probably wait until spring, but we are inspired to head to northern Minnesota and see what we can see. ;-)

Just like in Minnesota, we saw a few roadside stands with fresh produce.  They advertise their pricing on avacados and brussel sprouts to catch your attention.  In Minnesota I’ve purchased avacados for as much as $1.99 each.  (Gulp!)  Here, where they grow them and sell them at the farm, they cost me 50 cents each!  For as much guacamole and sliced avacado as our family eats, I made Travis brake for it and loaded up.  

We arrived in Los Gatos around 4:30pm to a very warm welcome from the Howard family.  They could have the nickname “The Positive Family” because they are rarely without smiles.  It was wonderful to see and spend time with Andy, Georgia, Evie, Olive, and baby Grant.

Friday morning was spent doing school while Georgia attended MOPS and Andy logged in a half day of work.  What California experience would be complete without wine?  So after lunch, once Andy and Georgia were home and naps had been taken, we prepared the RV, piled in, and drove to the coolest winery Los Gatos has to offer.  TestaRossa is a new winery in the place of a really old winery.  A Jesuit Seminary opened a winery in the late 1800’s and did not have to close during the prohibition era like all other alcohol-producing businesses - making it the longest consistently run winery in the U.S.  The Catholics here were able to continue producing wine for the rest of the diocese nationwide.  The facility is unlike any of the other wineries we visited on our last trip to wine country.  Inside there are examples of giant oak barrels used in the fermentation process.  Outside there are cork oak trees grown for their bark - used in the bottling process - and a large old fashion winepress - a great visual for our Bible studies.  Nobody drank any wine, but it was a fun place to visit.  

After the winery we went for a short hike then a drive.  Travis carefully maneuvered this monster through the windy single-lane mountain roads.  I started sweating and almost had a heart-attack looking at the terrain out the windshield.  Once again, I’m thoroughly impressed with Travis’ RV driving skills.  He handled the Flyer like he was driving a Ferrari.  

Once we returned to the Howard homestead we re-parked then walked up the hill to Nanno’s, the pizzeria of the Redwood Estates.  We shared some pizzas and played bocce ball.  

Saturday morning we all had breakfast together.  Calla got some baby Grant time (she LOVES babies!!).  

Then we started driving east.  Our next stop is Reno, Nevada.