This is a kids dream!

This is a dream childhood! I love watching the boys learn and grow in this environment each day. It’s so cool! We have been doing great with our studies, and they are really flexible about it all. Today Jacob did his triple digit by triple digit multiplication on our bedroom mirror! He loved it! We keep all of our Charlotte’s Web learning on the back of our glass bedroom door. 

They are really into doing school work at home in all the different forms. After a few hours of “school” they are set loose on their bikes and they take the campground by storm! Usually we go swimming and then once I have to go into work at the campground office, they tear around on their bikes catching salamanders and frogs and fishing at the pond on site. They take a break to ride around on the fire truck or the tractor for the hay-less hayride. Jacob has started working with Alan doing some maintenance things and getting paid in camp-store credits for his efforts. So far he is now the proud owner of a cap gun and a full 18 inches of pucker powder (don’t ask) for his efforts. Wondering if Aiden will soon see the merits of working for what he gets, hmmmmm…

This is the view from our bedroom window!~

    They are both collecting cans and bottles to redeem for “fair” money. The “Big E” is coming in a couple weeks. It’s a fair that incorporates five of the states in this area and it sounds like a pretty big deal! We are getting tons of hours at the campground as Labor Day weekend is coming. I meet the coolest people coming through the office, most of them are very kind and lots end up talking with me about this trip we are on. We hear over and over what a great experience this is for kids and what a life changing experience this will be. It’s a really supportive place to be right now.

I am learning more and more about the systems here everyday. I have even had my first nasty lady! We couldn’t let her onto the grounds with a pit-bull, and she had some choice words for me! It’s quite a bit different to be yelled at in this position as opposed to when I am in the classroom. There is a whole lot less at stake and it’s a lot easier to shrug it off, pretty nice! Living on an $8/hr paycheck, that’s a different story! We see lots of people here trying to raise a family on minimum wage and it’s a humbling reminder of how hard people work to make it every day. It isn’t Castle Rock, that’s for sure! We have started to say to the kids, “if we buy that, it’s worth ____ hours of time that Mommy/Daddy have to work.” It’s been good for them to see it and make the connection.

We took the kids to Rhode Island and Connecticut on our days off this week. 

As you can see by the movie, they make their own fun, even if it is stinky fun! My favorite part was the "pssst, smell my breathe", joke with the sock puppets. Awesome!

It was fun to see Mystic Pizza as it was a big hit in the 80's and I must have seen it 50 times. Trying to find it on netflix now! (I know, it looks like I am flipping you off but really I am just pointing up!!!)

     

  We thought Rhode Island was lovely, luckily our dear friends, Lisa and Paul prepped us to get clam chowder and the clam cakes!  Newport was really fun!

     Today we are off to read some books at the Forbes library in Northampton, built in 1839! It's a big weekend here at the campground with Labor day Weekend! Lots of work to be done and then we can go back out and explore! Can't wait for Boston and NYC in the next few weeks! Stay tuned!

KOA Fun

     Well friends, its been a almost two weeks since we have been here at the KOA in West-Hampton MA and I have been doing the simple jobs around the campground like garbage's, fire pit cleaning, escorting campers to their sites and just being outside. Laura is mad cause I get to zoom around on my cart and she is stuck in the office. I told her if she wasn't gimpy I would switch places with her but she would definitely have another ACL replacement.

     Our first outing was to the Springfield Armory National Historical Site in Springfield MA. There is a ton of history in that building where the Springfield 1903 was designed along with many other weapons since the end of revolutionary war. The boys have earned another Junior Ranger Badge and are four badges away from that Junior Ranger vest.

Jacob the Ranger

Aiden the toothless ranger!

Getting the Badge and an additional patch!

     I am working on getting a tech contract in Orlando or Tampa for the winter so we don,t have to worry about things. I am having such a great time with my family and hope they are enjoying this journey as well. We have met so many great people in our first three months on the road that I cant wait to see what comes over the next nine months. We are going to head to Rhode Island and Connecticut on Tuesday to do some looking around.

Uncle Jon's House

We have been sooooo busy!

We had a fantastic visit with my brother and his family in New York. We stayed about a week. We got to go camping and hang with the girls, and I got to spend some great time with one of my favorite women in the world, my sister-in-law Heather! We went camping and the kids built a great fairy house.

 They are fantastic people, with great friends and we had a great time. The boys were TOTALLY spoiled by their Aunt and Uncle and had fantastic times with their cousins. It was so great! We are feeling very fortunate to have the time and space in our lives right now to hang with them.

After New York we moved onto Massachusetts, near Northampton. We are work-kamping at a KOA here for awhile. We really like the owners and are excited to get the new experience. The family that owns the place has 6 kids and are well accustomed to chaos, and as such are really easy going. It’s a great place to work, they are all very friendly and patient with my learning a new system. It’s been a really interesting time for me learning a new skill. I have been doing the same thing, roughly, for the last 13 years so learning a complicated new computer system is frustrating and really pushing the boundaries of my comfort zone. I love technology but this is a DOS system and hideously outdated, sooooo frustrating. (Which may account for the maniacal look on our faces as we speed down the hill in our cart!!)

It’s fun to watch Alan zoom by on his cart every so often though! He is happy as a clam, working outside with a great crew of guys and learning new things all the time.

As an added bonus, another one of my all-time favorite women, Alyson Kinsey, lives here in Northampton with my two cousins, (her daughters) and I can’t wait to spend some time with them. She is a fantastic Mom and good friend, I love spending time with all three of them.
This is a great place to set up a headquarters of sort too. We can go out on great day or two day trips from here. We are already looking forward to Salem, Boston, and seeing “Auntie Julie” and her family in NYC!

It’s a great place to be a kid! Tonight we went to the ice cream social, took a long walk, came back to sit by the campfire and lo and behold, the antique fire truck showed up for rides around the campground! They did a few rounds in that and came back to settle in. So fun! Pool, bouncy house, game room and tons of room to ride bikes. We also have a big pancake breakfast on weekends and the biggest news….. THEY PAY FOR OUR LAUNDRY! Quite a big deal with these boys!

I have to say, I love tooling around at night in that little cart, full moon out, frogs singing to each other. I love the quiet park during the week, and the full park on the weekends. I love saying hello to all the campers and being a big smiley cheeseball! I just love the whole dang thing! We are feeling really blessed to have found such a great place!

P.S. after my first week here, I have been offered ANOTHER job at a KOA in Florida during the winter doing something I REALLY love! Activity coordinator! WAHOO! We'll see if we do it, we have a couple things to look into but it would be so fun!

Jacob's turn to Blog!!

Hi this is Jacob

It was hard to getting in to the suit I slipped, got stuck, and it was rough.

It got hot quick I was going to take a swig of water from the canteen when I realized there was no water.

I was fully dressed except the gun was missing then the park ranger said that the soldiers cared 50 pounds! I thought I would get the gun and drop it. But then she told me they lighted it up. In my head I was cheering I won’t drop! I won’t drop!

You are too close we will scare you with our bayonets ( a bayonet is a type of sword you put on top of a gun when out of ammunition or when the enemy is too close) The solders did not like to use the bayonet because they had to watch the person die.

In this picture I have been away for 2 and a half years at war.

Please ignore the girl next to me she had an itch on her tongue. Now she knows don’t use your rifle to itch anything.

This is the ranger that gave my badge. It is quite different. This time it is a patch. Not any patch the 150 Anniversary!

Finally I know how to work one of these things!  The U.S. Army should watch their backs. The cannons are old but they still work.

Family Fun

     After Gettysburg we headed to Philadelphia to see independence hall and have the kids go through the ranger program. We took a great free walking tour through downtown and got some great information about the founding fathers and our history, plus we got to see a rocky statue!

Independence Hall.

The Liberty Bell.

Rocky Baby!

Getting the badges, three more and they get a vest.

     After we were done in Pennsylvania we moved on to New York to visit Jon, Heather and our nieces, Allison and Julia. We then proceeded to tear up Jon and Heathers lawn while pulling our giant 5th wheel into their driveway! We all went to Delta lake to do a night of camping with the Hay's, The Hamilton's were almost turned away. It appears that the North East has issues with rabies since they wanted a copy of our dogs records, which of course we don't have and her tag came off somewhere in Wisconsin. I think I intimidated the kid behind the counter enough since he just let it go after I asked if he wanted the birth certificates for my children. 

The cousins at the Erie Canal Museum

Camping with the Cousins

Eating dinner in the truck.

    Today we headed to Westhampton Massachusetts and left the kids with Jon and Heather until Saturday. We have checked into the KOA and will be starting our training in a couple days. Laura is getting the curriculum for the boys ready and I have put together all the National Parks that tie into their school work. We will be here until mid October so we will post when we make day trips out and of course when I run the honey wagon here at the KOA. 

Seasonals

One of the things I have been really surprised by, is the amount of “seasonals” we have run into in the RV parks further East. I had never even thought of this idea but really, it’s a great way to have a little cabin in the woods that is pretty darn affordable and requires no upkeep! Here are some photos of a couple “seasonal’s” we’ve run across. I wish I would have taken some of the elaborate camps we saw in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. But here are a couple. 

As you can see, this isn't traditional weekend camping!!! It's relatively cheap, usually 2000 a season and they build elaborate landscaping and decking onto park models or just regular campers. It's very social as well, we've seen pig roasts, birthday party and fourth of July celebrations and the whole park comes out, many in their customized golf carts! It's a whole new world!