State Fair

"Our State Fair. Is the best State Fair."  - State Fair Musicial. 

The State Fair, Hamburgers/Hot dogs, Cotton Candy and Rides.  It's FALL here in the desert! We made it through the summer y'all. It is the low 90s/High 80s!

A Day Away from Living in the Desert.

 "The Greatest gift you can give someone is time."  - Unknown

The Ocean, Sea World California and Seafood at a Crab Shack!

Bayou Camping

"If the fish don't bite, the mosquito will." - bayou quote

Beloved stopped along the bayou in the Mississippi and Louisiana area for a few nights while we travel across I-10.  Some aspects of the bayou are pretty but we spent the entire time getting extremely wet.   

Snap Shots of Disney at Christmas

"The wonderful things are the things we remember for the rest of our lives." - Making Memory Quotes

This year, the Christmas Trip that we give the kiddos was to Disney at Fort Wilderness.  We spent two weeks at Fort Wilderness.  These are some snap Shots other than hanging out at the camper around the Christmas Tree.

Boat Rides.

Monorail Rides as we went hotel hopping.

Bus Rides around the campground.

Dinner Shows
Beloved's  favorite the Hoopty Do Review.
The Little Man has been picked twice now to go up on stage.

(insert pictures from phone)


Dinner at the Floridian, 1900 character night.
Characters from movies come and sign their autographs and take pictures with you if you want them too. 

Breakfast at Chef Mickeys

We did two parks while we were there.

We did Animal Kingdom where all the animals are being taken care of at Disney.  The wet ride was my favorite.

We did Sea World.
At Sea World, our Family was sitting at the right place at the right time for Sea Worlds 50th year surprise.  Each Child received a refillable drink for the entire day.
(Insert picture from phone)


I do believe the question most wanted to know is how many time did I get told I look like ''Brave!"  (As many don't actually know the princess' name!)  At Disney? Many times a day!!!  But, around town no matter where I am (  away from the magical land of fairy tales ) only about twice a week!  Seriously!  My Family thinks that I should just stay away from Shire Horses as it gives the tourist more to talk about!


We had a fabulous time. And, I have some pretty awesome pictures of the shows, family food shots, silliness at the campground, and many more character pictures! To bad this is all I have time to upload.

Fort Wilderness decorated at Christmas

"It's the most wonderful time of the year...." - Christmas Quote

Fort Wilderness Campground has 400 cabins and over 800 camping sites. It is a large camping resort. So, you would think it would be easy to get a spot since it is so centrally located however it is the most popular camping site in Florida and it is always busy! Busy and Booked up at Christmas! Super hard to get a camping site unless you book months and months in advanced.

We booked our trip to the area an entire year ahead! For our stay in Dec 2012 we booked in March of 2012.  For our stay in Dec 2014, we booked a camp site in January of 2014.  Then, I spent every few months calling to make diner reservations, golf cart reservations, etc., through the year. 

One of the the special things about the Wilderness campground during Christmas is 100s and 100s of camping sites are decorated!  (It is safe to say almost half in some shape of form of decor.)  There is no way to capture the uniqueness of this camp ground in just a few shots.

                                                       Over in the Pop-Up Camper area

Motor Homes.....

                                                                 Tent section

Golf Cart Parade at Disney

Disney's Campground called Fort Wilderness has a golf cart parade on Christmas Eve.  They also have a Camp site decorating contest.   This year, we decorated our golf cart and joined in the fun.

Our golf cart along with many others were simply decorated. We played Christmas Music out of it. And, we gave out candy to those on the side line.   But those who stay at the Park for Christmas every year and those who are members of Fort Friends get serious and go over the top in all the fun!

There were 20 or so golf carts. 

The Castle won first place this year.  It lights up all in blue as it was the frozen light castle.

                                                      Chip and Dale came in second.

                                                    
                                                               The train came in third.

 

Olaf  - Frozen came in forth

Rapunzel came in for the best Disney Theme.

Testing out the camper Labor Day Style

"There is no app for this!" - Pin Nature Quote

We are gearing up for a busy fall. Beloved is going to be learning a new plane. We will be road schooling for awhile and moving at the beginning of the year, more than likely.

This weekend, we took some time seeing if our local campground that we stayed at 2 1/2 years ago was just as fun as we remembered it when we lived in it for 5 months.  Testing it out so to speak! That way we would have some idea if we wanted to hang out at it for a few months just during our moving transition. I think there is no doubt that we enjoyed ourselves a lot!  

The RV park put in a new play ground -- fully equipped with bouncy houses and new swing sets!

A lovely hiking trail.
Several years ago, I had a miserable third trimester while being pregnant with the Little Gal. I was in so much pain from having shingles and being pre-eclampic that I never did walk the trail. So, I missed seeing the Momma bear with her cubs.  The only thing that was on the trail to greet me and make me feel special for missing out so long ago was the mosquitoes.

The RV park had a free Labor Day Dinner for all the RVers.  It was a delicious catered buffet! This entire place was packed with RVers and they did several shifts of food lines.  I was not able to get a picture of it in its full beautiful glory with candles, flowers and food.  I was helping kiddos through the line. But,  I tried to go back only to get a picture but  they had already taken everything away except for the table cloths!

Super funny! All the workers that were there when we lived at the RV Park for 5 months remembered us very well.  And, the managers and workers went around and told everyone that the Little Gal was born at the RV park.  When they were not saying that they were saying to people, "They came to stay one day but stayed 5 months."  (We were looking for a house to either rent or waiting for a house on the military instillation.)  They were very proud of having us visit with them this weekend. 

 We spent the mornings and evenings at the pool.

 We had it all to ourselves most of the time!

 Beloved was able to get a little studying done. He also took business phone calls and emails. They know where to find him. I have a feeling our life is going to be super crazy for the next few years while he is going to be the detach commander at our new place.  I guess I will have to get use to it again. We have had a fairly quiet 2 1/2 years.

We had fun! I would call it relaxing even.  Well, as relaxing as it gets with a family our size!

A Regrouping Day

Rest. Renew. Refill. - Life Quotes on Rest

We have been on the road for 6 days. So, we decided we needed a little "regrouping" day, as we are going to be in this are for 2 weeks. All the little legs needed some time to just play and Beloved wanted a day off as well. So, we did a "regrouping" day!

Regrouping day consist of  (1) Sleeping in a little.  Well, as much as you can with 5 kiddos in a camper  (2) Lego Playing. That big green container comes everywhere! (3) 3 loads of laundry to be cleaned  (4) Grocery shopping.  More Water! Items for meals.  I was doing fine on dinner items but since we pack our lunches/snacks into places, we were running low on several items such as bread. Basic camping supplies that needed to be restocked too, etc.  (5) A walk around the park to discover the gopher holes because the gophers are everywhere! Plus, to say "Hello" to the other campers  (6) And, also a little run to the book store as I needed something to read.

Back in the Camper

"But, Yogi, the Ranger isn't going to like it" - Boo Boo from Jelly Stone

All 5 kiddos and 3 cats are all loaded up in the camper again for an adventure.  We are on the road for a little business and a little hands on road schooling fun. 

But, first,  a little stop along on the way to our destination.

We are hanging out at a Jellystone camping ground. This one is family owned,  which means the kiddos go from one activity to the other on the weekends.

There has been swimming.
A little jumping bean jumping.

Lunch.   A Drive.  Naps.

Then, Candy Bar Bingo.....

Paper Rocket Launching. A tractor ride.

Lastly, a hug from Yogi bear.

And, once again, we are meeting lots of fun camping families!

JAARS day trip

Bible translation is about giving people the best resource for knowing God—in a language that speaks to their minds and hearts. - JAARS

 

Home from  JAARS (Jungle Aviation And Radio Services).

 

 

We spent the weekend with Missionary Aviators and the volunteers at JAARS who help with Bible translations all over the World. It was their Missionary Family Fun Day.

 

The JAARS volunteers were so fabulous! They showed us so much of what Missionary Families do in the Jungle.

 

 We also learned a lot about several tribes.  They had a table full of Missionary  instruments that many Jungle tribes use to make music. I was amazed that the Ladies let the Children play every single one of them!

 

 It was especially interesting to see how JAARS records voices with background music for Bible translating in other languages to go out into the jungle valleys.  

 

 

They had several demonstrations to show Children how they teach the missionary children languages at language school. 

 

And, we were able to try on lots of tribal clothes too.  

 

The Children learned about the Missionary Safety bags that the preachers take with them on the boats to transport goods to Missionary Families and Tribes.  This Lady is showing the children the shark bag. This bag helps keep you warm but also helps to keep you safe from sharks so they don't smell you! Apparently, sharks are attracted to yellow! Don't wear it in the water! ;)

 

And, the JAARS teams go out into Africa and teach the tribes how to swim. Apparently, they are not taught how to swim just told to stay away from the water.

 

 

This is a little model of a Jungle Missionary home.

You can't see it but the shower room has a little tiny bucket hung from a string that tips when you pull the rope. My kiddos got a kick out of that! I am assuming it will only be fun for a day or so!

 

Then, the Missionary Jungle Pilots took us up for rides and gave demonstrations on how they use the Tail Dragger plane for short take offs and landings. 

 

 

And, of course, we also got to ride in the helicopters.

If you look closely you might see that the little Lady is in the right seat of the helicopter with a head set on!

 

 

We also went on a boat ride to find out how Missionaries use Boats in the Jungle.

And, they gave 4 wheel mud rides and motorcycle rides to show how they use those as well.

 

We will be setting up a private tour some time in the future to learn more! We always keep this in the back of our mind for a retirement option.