Our RV Life

We made it! We are back in Washington, waiting for the house to close, enjoying a moment of peace before the crazy storm of moving everything back into a new home. I’m excited, but I think it’s hard for everyone else to be, seeing as they’ve never been inside the house. But I’m confident it will be much appreciated, simply because it’s a home, and it’s not mobile.

In the meantime, we are hanging out at an RV park in town, and getting to know the locals.

Here are a few pictures of various places I forgot to add to my previous post. This sporting goods store was insane. I’ve never seen anything like it before.

We sure have seen so many interesting sites!

Half a year has passed since James made his entrance into our lives, and he has been such a joy to all of us! His smile, his laugh, his playfulness, it’s contagious and wonderful.

We started this adventure half his life ago, and we’re thankful to be able to give him a new home to crawl around and grow in!

If you can’t tell by the caption, it’s a big deal that he fell back to sleep on his own like this. NONE of my other babies would have done this.

So, in the last six days we’ve stopped at five different RV parks, been through eastern Kansas, Colorado, and up into Wyoming, and I don’t know why, but Wyoming has my heart.

This ain’t my first rodeo (see how I slipped that in). 😉 We visited Wyoming on our move out to Washington almost six years ago. It was such a wonderfully memorable experience, among the many we had. We stayed in a small cabin in the Grand Tetons, something I highly recommend doing if you can. And after touring parts of Yellowstone, we went glamping in a canvas tent in west Yellowstone. I loved it, the kids loved it, we all loved it!

Then, in 2020 we had an amazing vacation with Matthew’s parents, where we stayed in Montana and Wyoming, and it involved all kinds of fun adventures! Cody has a rodeo every night. All. Summer. Long. It is pretty amazing.

Yep, this third trip solidified it. I have a place. It’s in Wyoming. I could visit many more times and never get tired of it. I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s the fresh air, or the slower pace life takes out here. Maybe it’s the elevation effecting my judgment. I don’t know. But I hope to discover more if it!

Well, after a month long visit to Wichita, KS we’re finally heading west to our new home! We are trying the take-as-few-stops-as-possible route for the 1,600 mile trek, so we’ll see how that goes. 🤣

But let’s just talk about Wichita for a second.

We had an amazing month, spent with Matthew’s wonderful parents, various family members, and friends. We already miss you all! There was so much going on, I can’t believe we were there for a whole month!

Here are some highlights of the various activities…

And last but not least, we wouldn’t be here without this beautiful couple! They were gracious enough to let us stay with our whole gaggle for over a month without losing their minds. 😆 We miss you so!

Well, it’s official, we’ve put an offer on a house and it was accepted!

It’s been a long journey to this point and we’ve come to place where we feel like we really needed to make a decision. It’s been really tough, and so many factors have come into play, and there are so many people we would love to live closer to.

So, our compromise was to get a house that has enough space to welcome our family and friends to stay and visit! The house has 1000 sq ft. more than our last one, so there’s plenty of room to grow. It also sits on a third of an acre, so the kids have plenty of space to play!

Stay tuned! I’m currently on my way to be there for the inspection. Can’t wait to share photos!

Well, we’re still in Wichita, hanging out with wonderful friends, and having tons of incredible Sittee and Giddee time!

The past two weeks have gone by so fast it’s hard to keep track of everything we’ve done, but one thing is for sure, James has decided to make leaps and bounds in growth and development!

When we first arrived he was just starting to roll over in one direction from his back to his belly. Now he’s rolling all over the place to get to people and toys, sitting up for prolonged periods of time on his own, grabbing all the things and putting them in his mouth, and even getting up on his hands and knees regularly! 😳 He’s still a really easy going baby, and a delightful little guy with a precious smile and an adorable laugh. We’re kinda in love with him.

With all the traveling and staying in RV parks Wichita is a welcome oasis from the non-stop going, going, going for the past month and a half. Hopefully, we can take a moment to collect ourselves and come to a decision about where we will land.

The kids haven’t wasted any time getting into the pool. They’ve been waiting all summer for it! 😂

And Micah turned 4!

I must say, I did not have too many thoughts or opinions about Kentucky before we visited. I sure have a lot now! What a state! It has beautiful rolling green hills, filled with acres and acres of pasture, horses everywhere, and amazing rock formations with trees growing through and around them. It’s truly a sight to see.

We were able to visit a couple sets of friends this time. It was so fun to catch up and spend time with wonderful people, who made it so easy to relax and feel at home (something I covet these days).

We went up into, Lexington at one point to check out the city. It was pretty neat how they updated various pockets of the city and made them look really nice. It amazes me what a cost of paint can do.

One thing that I really love about the south is the pace of everything. It’s a bit slower. You can take time to rest, and in some cases you have to. The concept of sitting on a porch during the hot summer days, drinking something cold, and passing the time with good company is so appealing to me. If you’ve never been, you should. It might just rub off on you like it has on me. And while, sadly, I didn’t have time to pick up the accent, it’s still in my heart.

I wish this post was about a couple of really lovely older ladies that I met, but no.

Our Park in lower, east, or lesser Virginia, as I’m going to call it (because it doesn’t get a descriptive adjective for reasons unknown to me) was quite a breath of fresh air… literally. It felt quite a bit cooler than North Carolina, and the breeze made it possible to step outside and enjoy the summer evening.

It also brought about multiple “hurrahs” when I announced we had sewer hookups again. Oh, the simple things, like having a bathroom sink that drains again!

Oh, before I forget, on our way out of NC we stopped at an authentic NC BBQ spot. It was pretty good. It was very different than the BBQ I’m used to. I still like my Kansas City BBQ best. 😁

Because we were visiting a somewhat off-the-beaten-path BBQ restaurant, we had to park at an unusual place, which happened to be at a bit of an incline. Marina had the wonderful job of removing the chocks before we set off again.

She found it somewhat gross… so, of course, I offered to let her help with dumping the tanks next time. 😉

Upon arrival in lower Virginia we discovered that something really, really not so great happened along the way.

Yup, that’s a hole in our RV. It’s from a bike handle. Time for a margarita.

While getting said margarita, I happened upon a thing of nightmares.

Or course, it was a single bathroom and the main door locked, but why the wall? I really did have recurring nightmares about doorless bathroom stalls as a child. It might have been the lasting effect of visiting rest stops in the 80s.

Later that evening, I was trying to get some things accomplished around the trailer, and I managed to step incorrectly onto a slope close to the bottom step of the RV, twisting my ankle and leg underneath me (not because of the margarita, just clumsiness). I landed on my behind, fell back, and just laid there on the grass for a minute, thinking about whether I wanted to call for help or not. Sure enough, I did need it, but after a little while I was fine, and I could still walk on it. I’m not totally convinced it’s not fractured or something, but it’ll have to wait until Kentucky. That’s my drivin’ leg!

On our way through much of West Virginia we saw gorgeous forests of trees, some really long and amazing tunnels, and $35 worth of tolls. Bring cash to WV, people, cash.

When we arrived at our park I was dragging, so I decided to seek out some coffee. The coffee shop that peaked my interest was actually located in a shopping mall. While we were there, we saw this magnificent work of art on display. I’ve always been a fan of amazing sand art.

So that’s that. Next, we’re on our way to Kentucky!

Okay, so I’m going to be real with you. Believe it or not, it’s not all fun times and great memories happening out here. Yes, we do have some great adventures and get to see some pretty amazing sites, but we have had our fair share of mishaps, messes, and melees. Thank God we love each other and can forgive… there’s a lot of forgiveness going on in this 260 sq. ft. space.

I don’t know if you know this, but I used to be a pretty strong individual. I was able to handle a lot of difficult situations without buckling under pressure. Uncertainty was just a part of whatever life threw at me, and I rolled with it. It wasn’t uncommon for me to even seek the unknown and potentially uncomfortable. I enjoyed learning that way.

Not so much anymore.

Having a family changes a lot of that. Having an infant changes it even more. Honestly, most of the time I just want to rock James to sleep in our bedroom and be able to cook in a normal kitchen. I want to be able to give the kids space to play and explore. And all of that is just not possible right now. God willing I will have that again. In the meantime, I’m trying to hold it together and see the positive in all of this. It’s really hard to do, and I want to give up sometimes and move into a hotel. But in the end, I know I will grow from the whole experience. We all will. Wherever we end up, we will be so grateful to be there.