Here comes the bride....

In August we went to Ohio to go to the wedding reception of The Hubby's cousin. We stopped in KY first to the in-laws house and stayed there for a bit then we all went over to Ohio. Leah and Michael had gotten married on the beach earlier in the year, so this was just a party to celebrate.

It was outside at a local venue right next to the train tracks which Cat Boy and Monkey LOVED. Cat Boy counted all the cars in each train that passed and then would run over to me to tell me how many cars that train had. He couldn't believe that many of them were over 100 cars.

They had a live band that played and Princess was very happy about that. She loves music and loves dancing. When she wasn't dancing she was busy decorating the sidewalk with rocks. She would grab a handful, drop it on the cement, get another handful, drop it next to the last pile and so on and so on. I have no clue what she was doing but if a section got kicked back onto the ground she would go put the rocks back.

The boys spent their time playing in the field with by a big pile of dirt. When Princess was to tired to keep rocking we all went back to the hotel and The Hubby and the in-laws took the boys swimming while I put Princess to bed.

Leah looked beautiful in her dress and we were glad we were able to go. I wish I had taken a picture of what they had everyone sign, it was a piece of tree stump in the shape of a heart. It was super cute.

Princess rocking out

Dancing with daddy

All the little cousins

Redecorating with rocks

Cat Boy counting the train cars

Princess running a muck

Cute wedding favors

Princess dancing with the bride

On the way home from Ohio we stopped at New River Gorge in West Virginia. It was so beautiful! It was a quick 2 min walk from where we parked to the overlook and there was also a playground and bathrooms there. It was a great little stop for us to stretch our legs and get some wiggles out before we continued our drive home.

4 little ducks all in a row

Cat Boy

Princess had to look too

The Boy, Princess mad she is not running, me, and Monkey

Random fun

So a friend of mine recomended we try Chuey's for dinner. So we decided to check it out. It is a cute little mexican chain where they make the tortilla's where you can watch and all the kids meals come with a push pop for dessert. The first time we went there The Hubby ordered the "Bigger then your face"" burrito. Cat Boy found this hilarious and it was not long before he asked to go back so he could order it. So we went and he ordered it. When it came he of course had to measure his face to the burrito to see if it was true, he was so excited it was indeed as big as his face!                                                                                         

Look mom it IS as big as my face!

 The Hubby went to the store one day to get stuff to wash the cars and the RV since are parked under a bunch of pine trees and it is really dusty that the RV park. All the kids wanted to help out but The Boy and Cat Boy were just interested in using the hose. Monkey however wanted to help with the actual work.So him and The Hubby worked hard scrubbing away. The other two boys did eventually help some but Monkey was defiantly the big helper of the day.

Monkey scrubbing the dirt off the boarders. 

We invited everyone over one night for some S'mores and fun. We were finishing up a round of Bingo at the RV park (we won 4 games woohoo) so everyone met us up at the front. We played some ping pong for a bit before heading back to the RV. The Hubby had gone back with Cat Boy to get the fire started so it was ready by the time we got there. We all sat around enjoying the fire and stuffing ourselves with S'mores and roasted marshmallows.

The Boy got a microscope for science. He was so excited to use it as soon as Princess went down for a nap we got it out. He spent her whole nap looking at stuff. We did the stuff for a science lesson (some onion skin and celery) and then he spent the rest of the time looking at whatever he could think of. We did hair, spit, a popsicle stick, cotton ball, and I don't even remember what else. He was bummed when Princess woke up so I told him he could play again when she went to bed. I had barely gotten out of the kids room after putting her to bed when he asked if he could use it again. LOL So we took it out and he played for another 2ish hours. He told me the other day he wants to be a scientist when he grows up and invent stuff. He really does love science.

My niece works at Cicic's so we went to visit her one day. Of course I had to take her picture and embarrass her. :) The kids loved it there and my step-mom seemed to enjoy her self as well. I remembered the brownies being much better the last time we went though that had to have been 5+ years ago. The Hubby and I didn't feel so good later that night so I am pretty sure we will not be going back.

Birthdays

So we had a few birthday's since my last post. First, we had my Uncle Rob's birthday. The family got together and we did dinner and games at Dave and Busters. Despite the HORRID waiter we had we all had a great time. We played a 4 way game of air hockey which was a ton of fun. Uncle Rob lost to Monkey in a racing game, and snuck in a last second win against The Boy.

 My sister brought cupcakes and shared some with Princess, oh the mess. I am pretty sure that dress is still yellow in spots from the frosting but man did she like it.

Princess and the cupcake

 The next birthday that we celebrated was that of our dear friend Maddux. We drove back to MD for this one as we would not have missed it for anything. The kids had an absolute blast playing at the jump house and seeing all their friends again. We have THE best group of home school friends anyone could ask for and we all miss them bunches. After the jumping we went to the birthday boy's house for some pizza, cake, and fun. We ended up staying WAY later then I thought but I still had to drag the kids to the van, the would have stayed for days. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MADDUX! 

Last but not least was my birthday. The Hubby had arranged a dinner out with all my family at P.F. Changs. It was a great idea but we both agreed after we should of done something else. The food was amazing as always and it was great to have everyone there but Princess was in a horrid mood and for 95% of the dinner one of us had her outside running up and down the sidewalk. We have now learned she HATES high chairs and insists on sitting in a chair or at the booth like a big girl, she will not even use a booster. I think a big reason is because in the RV we do not have space for a highchair so she either sits at the table or eats on the go. Oh well, live and learn. Anyway, the restaurant was at an outdoor mall so after dinner we walked around a bit to walk off some dinner and let the kids get out some energy. While walking we came across a fountain that is flat with the ground for playing in! Of course the kids wanted to play so we let them. It took a while till they got wet as they were trying to avoid the water coming up from the holes. Cat Boy was the first one to get hit. Soon, him and Monkey were SOAKED! The Boy was holding back but finally gave in. I think that was my favorite part of my birthday, just watching them play and laugh and have fun. This is why we did this, to be able to see new things even if it is just a fountain in the dark at the mall. My phone was dead so I didn't get any pictures except for on Cat Boy's DS but there they stay. 

MMMMMM Doughnuts

So a couple weeks ago Krispy Kreme was having a 77th Anniversary sale. Buy one dozen, get the second for 77 cents. We decided we would go up there and see them being made and get some.....until we saw the line.....the HUGE line. So we drove to another one.....the line was worse. So we left and I promised the kids we would go back another day. So 2 days later we found ourselves in the parking lot of Krispy Kreme. We watched them come out and into the fryer, watched the machine flip them over to the other side, and then watched them go under the frosting waterfall. Monkey asked what it was and when I told him it was a wall of frosting yumminess (yeah I made up a word. Though in my defense it should totally be a word). He said in a longing and jealous voice, "Man, I wish I was a doughnut!", yeah, me too little man, me too. Princess was loving watching the doughnuts and kept saying mmmmmmm and kissing the glass. We went ahead and bought one dozen glazed and the kiddos insisted on one dozen of assorted. We tried to change their minds but they were not having it.....until we got to the car and they tried a nice hot glazed doughnut. Yeah, we should of just gotten the 2 dozen glazed. They were sooooo delish!

Princess practically drooling
watching the doughnuts

The waterfall of frosting yumminess

Drunk of the yummy smell. 

Not much going on

I know I have not blogged in a while. We haven't really been doing much. We are still playing the waiting game as we wait for our house to rent. As soon as that baby is rented out we will hit the road. We have pretty much been hanging around the rv, going to King's Dominion when it isn't busy, exploring the area, and just enjoying being together. For the 4th of July the campground we are staying at had a big event on the 5th. There was magic, balloon stuff, FREE food including cotton candy and snow cones (pretty sure my kids each had like 4 snow cones), games to play, a bounce house, and karaoke. My dad, step-mom, and Uncle Rob came over for the fun too. We had a great time. Then that night we went to downtown Richmond to watch the fireworks. They were set to music and there were even ones that said USA. COOLEST EVER!

Cat Boy's prizes

Monkey got his face painted. He is a tiger. BEST Face painter EVER. 

Princess realized she likes bounce houses

Monkey in the magic show

A monkey and a Lego

That is what kept me up till 3:30 this morning. So yesterday I went out with The Boy to King's Dominion to ridge some rides. We then went to the store and to Sonic before getting home just after 11. I got home, got everyone ready for bed and then got myself ready. I was sitting up in bed when Monkey comes in with a tear running down the right side of his face saying something is stuck in his nose and it is really big. I of course ask him if he put something up there. No, he tells me. There is just something up there. So we have him lay down and I start the fun of shining a light up his nose. Yeah that is the fun you get to have when you have kids. I see nothing, The Hubby sees nothing. We ask him again if he put something in there, tell him we will not be mad we just need to know. He admits, it is a lego, a small tiny, round lego. We have him blow his nose, over, and over, and over. We look again, nothing. He says he feels it down inside. Great, it is in his sinus cavity, super swell.

So I have him get dressed and I get dressed and off to the ER we go. We get there and I notice he is wearing a Lego shirt....REALLY KID?!?!? He looks at me with his Monkey grin and says....well at least these lego's can not fir up my nose......FACEPALM!!!!!!!!!! We get called back and the nurse looks, nothing. The PA looks, nothing. The Doctor looks, nothing. They get a nasal spray to open up the passengers and have him blow, and blow, and blow. They look again and finally can see something. the PA gets the tool and digs it out. She asks if we want to keep it. Money of course say ummmmm duh it's a Lego. I need it to build things......FACEPALM again! Then he tried to tell me we we didn't need to wash it. UMMMMM IT WAS UP YOUR NOSE! We are washing it!

Waiting for the nose spray

I asked him about 10 times WHY he did it. He doesn't know. He says his didn't know that his nose had a hole in the top that it would go into. Ok, I get that. But he is SIX. I figured by 6 he would know not to shove things in holes. I thought we were in the clean. I was wrong. Oh so very, very, wrong. Here is him and the nose lego.

Monkey and the nose lego

RV warming party

The Hubby's parents wanted to come visit and check out the RV. Since right now we are staying about 20 mins from my dad, step-mom, Step-sister, and uncle we decided to have an RV warming party. My dad and step-mom were not able to make it but everyone else had a BLAST. We cooked up some sausages and burgers and I made some roasted corn salad which was gobbled up. We sat around talking, playing corn hole (The Hubby and my BIL sooooo cheated!), and of course at night made S'mores.

The Hubby's parents and the Princess

My Step-sister and Princess playing with the dogs

Everyone outside. I took this from a bunk window.
Not sure how I got up there

Time to eat!


. 

We were also able to watch my niece play softball one night. She is the one in the green. We hope to go to a few more games before we leave.

Settling in

We have been busy settling in. We are living in the RV 99% of the time only going back to the house to work on it. We are still waiting for it to be rented out. We are hopeful that it will rent soon now that mostly everything is out. We still have a little work to do but then we will be done.

We have been here a little over a month now. It is now our new normal. I think we have all settled in pretty nicely. We have mostly figured out how things will work best for us, but are easily changing things around as we go to see how to best do everything. Especially where organizing is concerned. I am pretty sure this will be a never ending project. Now that we have everything here but some tools I can finally get down to the nitty gritty of finding a home for everything. For some things this is easy, for others I feel like I need a can of Crisco and a big strong person to just shove it all in there. For instance my closet is fine, lots of room left, the kids' closet is pretty full but still ok, The Hubby's closet on the other hand.....I have clothes handing on his door handle. LOL He bought some space saver bags today so I will be putting some cold weather clothes of his in a bag and squishing the daylights out of them. Under the RV is another tricky spot. I was so organized with totes for this and that....until I went to put them int he storage bay. THEY DIDN'T FIT! The bins were just inches to tall to fit in the door. Hence the trip for space saver bags. We got 2 bins of coats into less space then 1 bin would of taken up. I am pretty sure they are my new best friends. Space Bag BRS-86112-6, 2 Piece Cube Combo Vac Bags (1 Large and 1 Extra Large) Clear, 6- Foot by 2- Inch by 13- Inch (Yes, that is an affiliate link) We got the ones that you can roll out the air since we don't have a vacuum with a hose. I was a little worried they would not work very well but they worked AMAZINGLY well. I want to get some more big ones and see if I can put the sleeping bags in there so they take up less room too. That would help a TON.  So the under storage bin is looking good....now for the inside.

Dishes are another fun item. We obviously do not have a dish washer. So that is not me. Originally I had the dishes trying on a drying mat because that was smaller when not in use. We quickly learned that this just not work as well. There is just not enough air circulation to dry the dishes so we recently bought a dish drying rack. We just got a small one from Target with a tray on the bottom since I have to leave it on the counter but I want this one from Amazon. Progressive International Collapsible Dish Rack (yes, another affiliate link, I have to pay for it some way. LOL) That way it will take up less room when storing it. Did I mentioned to storage needs in an RV? Yeah, there is no space. LOL

We have been keeping busy with lots of visits to Kings Dominion. We got season passes so we could go for a few hours here and there. When it gets crowded that is about all everyone can handle. Cat Boy has been doing super well there. We get him the special access pass each time we go that we can go through the exit since he does not do well with waiting in line or people he does not know touching him. I don't think we could manage the park without it when it is even a bit busy. The staff at guest services is great, I just go up tot he window and ask for the pass for him because he has Autism. They fill it out and hand it over. No fuss, no muss. We do not let him use it if the lines are short because we do want to build up his ability to be able to wait in lines. We have not yet been if it is super busy but the pass says when the lines are really long they will give us a return time. So far that has not happened but we try not to visit during peak times. The pass has also been great for his anxiety. He started off not wanting to do any roller coasters because he could not see the whole ride. We watched a few you tube videos after the first trip and that helped. We have now moved up from him on riding the coaster in Snoopy Land. all the way to all the coasters that do not go upside down. He wants to get on them though but has told me he is not to that level yet. The next level his mind will let him get to includes Anaconda. So we are working on that. It has been amazing to see his growth. Monkey goes on anything and everything that he can but is still to short for some things and The Boy has rode every roller coaster. That was his goal and he did it. He LOVES them. I think tonight we are going to take a date to there and just ride coasters together. We met one of Cat Boy's old ABA therapists and her girls there the other day. We had a blast even if she did pick the HOTTEST day to go. The Boy loved riding the coasters with her and has a picture of them on the Intimdator 305 hanging by his bed so he can see it every morning as soon as he gets up.

Cat Boy on his first Roller Coaster with The Boy

Monkey and The Boy on the Drop Zone

Princess in the water park

  

Princess on a ride. You can see Monkey and Cat Boy behind us
. Selfies are not good. 

We hope to be hitting the road soon but are waiting for our house to be rented. So hopefully soon. Not sure where we will be going yet but I can't wait to get started.

Deciding on a new home

When we took the kids to look at RV's for the first time we thought we wanted a 5th wheel or a class C. We knew the class A's were nice, but there are WAY more then we wanted to spend.

We looked at a few 5th wheels first. Those are the ones you attach to the truck bed. They were really nice and some even came with washer and dryers. They had a bunch of space and great floorplans that would work for our large family. However after looking at them, even some used ones we quickly realized that they were out of our budget as well because we would also need to buy a truck that was powerful enough to tow the 5th wheel AND could fit 6 people. The cost of the 5th wheel and the truck was more then we wanted to spend to get started, esp since we wanted to pay cash for as much as we could

Next, we looked at a Class C. Those are the ones with the little van cab and then it juts out into the RV. As soon as we walked into the first one we knew it would not work for us. First, they are expensive since they are a car and an rv. Second, it is just one open space and we wanted bedrooms. Since we will be living in these full time we wanted it to feel as much like a house as we could. What might work for weekend trips and a few vacations here and there would NOT be ok for every day living. Plus we could tow a small car behind it but we don't fit in a small car. So we would still need to drive 2 vehicles everywhere which is fine but kinda defeated the purpose of getting one that can be driven.

We went home after the first day of looking and did more research. We though we knew what we wanted but we were wrong. We now knew we wanted a U shaped dining table, a BED for each of the the boys (some have couches you can fold into beds ect but we wanted them to have a 24/7 bed), a bedroom for the boys with at least 1 bumpout but ideally 2, a bumpout in the living room, an outdoor kitchen would be nice but not a need, and as many cabinets as we could get. So we took the knowledge we gathered that day and hit the internet. We decided that a travel trailer was our best bet. A few days later we had a list of models we wanted to look at and we went looking again. We hit 3 dealerships in VA that day. 2 of them the salesperson was NOT helpful at all. They just kinda took us to the ones we asked to see and that was it. The 3rd was great, He was new at very excitable. You could tell he was still enjoying this unlike the other 2 who were just showing us units because they had to. He showed us a rig we LOVED. Everyone talked about it all the time. Since we wanted to pay cash we needed to wait till we sold off some stuff before we got it. Oh course you see what is coming, just DAYS before we were going to buy it, (I am NOT kidding it was like 2 days before), I went on-line to check for the unit like I did EVERY day, and it was GONE. I knew they had 2 so I quickly called to put a deposit down on it, The guy on the other end said he had JUST got an e-mail from their other location that they had someone to buy it. In less then 24hrs the 2 rigs had sold that had been sitting there for over a month. We were CRUSHED.

I searched and searched the internet for that same unit. Of course I found a couple but they were all for $4,000 or MORE then the one we were looking at. No go! We were considering another model site unseen and having it delivered. I just wanted something before there was nothing. Yes, I was flipping out a bit. We had sold almost everything, The hubby had started his new job about 1 1/2 hrs away, and we had no RV. Logically I knew it would be fine but logic goes out the window when you are in the process f flipping your life upside down. The Hubby took to the internet again and came upstairs saying get everyone ready we are heading to Richmond. So we did, I had no clue what he had found and I am not sure he was 100% sure either. We returned to a dealer we had been t before and got a MUCH better salesman. He showed us the unit we wanted to look at, went inside with us and pointed stuff out, answered questions, and was very helpful. We LOVED the unit. Even more then the one that we lost out on. The kids were bouncing off the walls saying BUY IT, BUY IT NOW BEFORE SOMEONE ELSE DOES!!!, So, we did!

The rig. Keystone Cougar X-Lite

 We went inside to do paperwork. The Hubby and I were excited and wanted to be sick all at the same time. The kids were just plain excited! The Boy must of made me assure him at least 20 times that it was our rig now. The whole way home I would just randomly yell out, "Oh My God we bought an RV!!!!!". We ended up with an Keystone Cougar X-Lite.

 

 
 



The kid's room.

My kitchen



Princess running up and down the hallway. She is in the kid's room.

The boys sitting at the table.

Our new adventure

So we are starting an new adventure. Selling everything, renting out our house, and moving into a RV to travel the country. We are super excited to get this show on the road. The most common question we have gotten since we started telling people is, why. Thought most everyone thinks it is cool and wishes they could do it, they want to know why we decided to do this and why now.

As far as the why, that is easy. We have always talked about doing this. Even before we had kids we thought it would be fun to be able to travel the county and see everything. Of course we figured that this would be something we would do when we retired, So the idea has always been out there. The Hubby also seems to think that we should do the same thing on a sail boat but I am just not digging that idea, especially with 4 kids.

 So as far as the why now, well timing just worked out. Back in Sept 2013 The Hubby left his job of almost 12 years and started his own company, Erilis Technology Solutions. (Shameless plug for his company , check it out for all your IT needs.) His continued to work for his old company for a while but under his new company, He had some time off at the end of March and we went out to KY for his brother's wedding . While I was driving home I turned to him and said, "Let's do it.". He of course asked what I was talking about and I said travel, let's sell off everything, get an RV and travel. You are looking for another contract anyway, let's look for something that will let us travel and see the county.He of course said ok right away as I knew he would. So a couple days after we got home he came into the living room and said if we are seriously going to do this I need to know so I can tailor my job search to it, and we need to start getting rid of stuff. I said yep let's do it will talk to the kids tonight at dinner. So we did. They were varying degrees of excited. The Boy was hesitant, he wasn't sure about leaving his friends, Pokémon Leagues, and just the logistics of living in an RV. Monkey was following suit with The Boy. He was excited at first but when seeing The Boy's hesitation he followed suit. Cat Boy was all over it like white on rice. He wanted to go NOW. He asked if he could bring a few things and once we assured him he could bring them, and of course his cat, he was all in. We decided we would go the next day to see some RV's so that the kids would get a better picture of what we were talking about and see it was just a TINY house on wheels. Once we walked into the first RV they were ALL SOLD. 1000% all in. They wanted to leave yesterday. This is how this adventure was born. There was still a TON to figure out, and a TON to do but we were on our way to the next adventure in our lives.