Leaving Pine Island

     Well, turns out there is a part of being a nomad I am not so good at, it’s the leaving part! We’ve been here since November and it’s time to pack it up and move out! It’s also the night of my fortieth birthday and I am so filled with gratitude and excitement for the coming year! Living my dream at 40 begs the question, “What next?”

     We have had an amazing season here on Pine Island and learned so much! Again and again we saw how important it is to embrace the moment and really live fully with our children and in our marriage. We also now understand more than ever how important it is that we not give up on our weight loss goals and we continue to work toward our optimum health. If we plan to live as long as most of the people here we want to be able to enjoy those years fully, as many of the guests here do!

    We had a fantastic time exploring the area, getting to know the local library and their fantastic staff and especially the people here at the Pine Island resort. We both worked outside our comfort zones, learning new things, and working with people we would never have had a chance to meet otherwise. I felt like I really had to be flexible in my thoughts of “who I am” in order to be successful here. It was very liberating!  Gin and Rob Ost taught me lots about cooking AND new ways to look at life! Rob shared a story with me that I wish I had heard last year while thinking about taking a break from the classroom. He said take a bucket of water, swish your hand around in it, make waves.... then pull your hand out. The water is still in the bucket, the surface returns to normal, everything goes on. It's very reassuring to know that no one is irreplaceable, and life will go forward with or without us so we need to make decisions for us. 

     We met so many great people, saw so many different ways of living, it was an amazing experience. And, now, just as SUEPARKER predicted, we have friends who are going to be spreading out all over the country, and quite a few in Canada, who have invited us to come visit in the coming year.

     Watching Aiden broaden his social circle has been fun to watch. He has been offering for weeks now, to take Bridgeeta to the dog park by himself in the evenings. Since it is on property, not far from our space we let him. Last night we went with him to the dog park as it was near dusk. When we arrived we realized Aiden has created a whole network of older people that come each night and he plays with their dogs! They all know him, and he knows…their dogs! He knows each one’s name, personality, who gets along with who and so on! So great, and it has helped in the boys lucrative dog sitting business as well! I am so proud of them both, all season I have received countless compliments on their behavior and level of respect for people around the park. People truly seem to enjoy having them around and I am glad to see them developing the ability to make friends of all ages.

    We have been blessed to make lots of great friends here, My friend Dana made us some amazing curtains. I Love them, they make the camper feel very homey! 

Also, a picture of Aiden and Mr. Eric, whom he ADORES! This is last weekend, the four of us were out wading in low tide when a three to four foot hammerhead shark paid us a visit! YIKES!!!! We are so grateful for the support and friendship of the Lee's and can't wait to see them up in Michigan!

  We will miss Pine Island, and the people we met there! Can't wait to see them down the road.



   (Also, I want to give a big shout out to the Coyote that FINALLY killed the damn rooster that lives behind the park.  It CLEARLY had no idea what time sunrise is and felt entitled to crow 24/7. It’s a really nice parting gift and I didn’t mind the brutal murder one little bit. I’m sorry, I didn’t. I am 40 now, I can speak my mind.)

Tracking our states visited since June 2013

visited 29 states (58%)
This is our map for THIS TRIP but as a family we are up to 47 states!

Seeing Friends on the road!

One of the most wonderful things and difficult things about traveling full time is the interactions we get to have with friends, new and old. It's amazing to be in a new place and make new friends and also, very hard to leave them. When we left Massachusetts this summer, our new friend SUEPARKER (no, that's not a typo, it's all one word) took the boys aside. Knowing they were struggling with leaving their new friends she explained that the contacts we make stay with us and our friendships ripple out across the country and throughout our lives. SUEPARKER is right! We have been so blessed by our friendships, in so many areas of our lives but especially the last few months. While working in Mass we met and worked for a wonderful family. The Kelsey's have lots of wonderful children and one of them, Michael works in the hospitality industry. He was able to get us an amazing hookup at a hotel in Orlando and as an added treat, he had milk and cookies delivered to our fancy shmancy room! The boys and I went up to Orlando for a night and had a super special date! Here are picts of the pool and the fancy restaurant and of course, the super special surprise!
It made our special vacation even more special.

Jacob and the fancy bread basket

Super cool poolside fireplace

Jacob, Aiden and Livy at the Pool!

       We were in Orlando to meet up with Livy, Sammy and their Mom and Dad, Alyse and Phil. For those unfamiliar with these amazing people we should tell you Livy also goes by the name Wooby. Aiden laid eyes on her at the tender age of two and promptly said, "I'm gonna marry you!" and she is all for it! They have a very special connection that doesn't seem to dim with time and/or space. So when I told Aiden that Livy was in the state, he broke into tears of gratitude that we would get to see her. Jacob was also really excited to see Her older sister Sammy, all four of them have a great time together. We had a fantastic visit with them and were so very grateful they took time out of their vacation to see us. I wish we could have made the same trip up to Orlando the month before to see the Stockton crew and the Alejano-Steele crew as well! Seeing these friends from home really help us feel connected to our community.

   
Our friend Loya and her family came to visit us here at the park! Loya and I met at Philmont Scout Ranch 20 years ago this summer! She and her husband Andy were in our wedding and they have been traveling the lower 48 with their three gorgeous children. They are spending the winter touring in their van and a very cool tent that set up on top of their vehicle. It was AMAZING to catch up and felt as if no time had passed.

Fishing off the pier

Ms. Loya and Ms. Lilly!

 The boys loved getting to hang out with other kids and we all had a blast. They got us the highly coveted Florida snowshovel! It's used in shelling so we took it to Sanibel Beach a few days later. 



Of course getting to see family is amazing too! My brother Jon and his family were kind enough to fly in a day early to Orlando and spend it with us at Universal studios before they met with his in-laws for a few days. We LOVE seeing the girls, Alan gets his girl fix, we adore them. And, even though it was a quick visit it was great. We explored Universal studios and got to share the experience of Hogsmeade and Hogwarts together. Those of you who know me professionally no doubt no about my enjoyment (fine it's an obsession, whatever,) with Harry Potter. Anything that has led millions of kids to find their passion in reading has my vote! This was truly, magical. Harry Potter come to life. It was awe-inspiring. (yes, I did well up thank you very much!) I wish I had more pictures to show you, of course with a ride like that the camera had to be put away but it was wonderful! More Universal Studio rides to come!

   

Catching Up with January Activities

        In January we continued to work a bunch of hours at this KOA and didn't get a lot of opportunities to run around. Since the IBM job hadn't really started we decided to stick close to the RV park. Laura was able to take a field trip with the boys and another mom here in the RV park. They took all four kids to Manatee Park where they were able to watch the sea cows play around in a protected area.

      There are places in Florida where they let you snorkel with the Manatee which I think we are going to do when we are back here next winter. At the end of January we were able to get back up to Orlando and do a trip to Sea World and LegoLand as Xmas gifts from us to the boys this year. Laura has also started selling the Thirty One products as a side income and decided to use Aiden as a sales model. Buy her stuff and make us rich and we will throw in the kid!!!!!!
(I have to put in my two cents on this one because I love that kid but I LOOOOOVE that bag! You can unzip the middle to add three more inches of room and it can easily hold everything for an overnight stay for four. I LOVE IT!!!!)

      Now for those of you who have heard bad things about Sea World I know what your going to say but we have listened to both sides and so far have seen nothing in the way of video proof that they actually abuse the animals, plus we bought the tickets anyway and were not going to waste them. When we got there it was 40 degrees and raining so the crowds were non existent which was wonderful for us. No lines for any of the attractions and food. We were able to see all the shows and just didn't get to do a couple of rides due to the weather. Our package to Sea World got us a commemorative cup that we got to build together as a family.

      From the tower we got to see the whole park and saw the whales training in their pens. We were able to watch the baby dolphins in the maternity pen play around with their moms which was just adorable. (I was particularly impressed with the chance we had to have a close encounter with the dolphins. They would come to the edge of the pool and watch us, jump up and interact, it was really cool.)

      The second day of our Orlando trip was a Fulltime Families Rally at LEGOLAND which was awesome. There were all kinds of Lego scenes and statues made out of what, that's right, all Legos, who knew you could form a theme park around Legos. We were supposed to hang out with the other full time families but it was soooo wet that once they opened the gate we all really scattered. I bet some other families got to hang out but we were fine just bopping around. The boys had an awesome time riding around in a lego boat that at one point was turned around going UP the river against traffic, still had a great time!

The sign sums it up! We are having a great time, but eager to see our friends back at home too!

     

Catching Up with December Activities

      So everyone, its been a few weeks since we have posted anything, between the jobs and running around its been a little crazy but we are going to get better at keeping you informed as to whats going on here with the Hamilton's.

     Over the last six weeks or so, Laura has been hard at work in the kitchen and I have been working maintenance. The other job was on hold over the holidays and at one point Laura and I thought it was a scam until we both realized that a scam would not have me do pee test in a LabCorp facility. I received my work computers and started working three weeks ago so that has eliminated a lot of the stress I was feeling up until now. I really want to keep going on this adventure but without a job that I could do remotely that was going to be impossible. I am going to add a few posts after this one and kind of go back in time so you can see what we have done.

      On this post I would like to go back to just before Xmas when my dad and Cyndi were in Florida and took us to Disney World for a Christmas Parade. Now I was here at the ripe old age of 12 with my family back in the 80's so I thought things may have changed. Of course they haven't in 25 years with the exception of adding a few of the new Disney characters. When I was there as a kid I had never seen the Magic Kingdom at Xmas so it was quite a wondrous sight.
                                         

      I know lots of our friends have been to Disney World so I won't bore you all with everything we did but some of the rides scared the pee out of the kids since it was dark. We got wet on the log ride, checked out the Pirates of the Caribbean and Swiss Family Robinson house along with The Xmas parade that we got to see twice. Aiden has decided that pirates and robots do not mix and pirate robots have no place in this world. Hmmmm. Jacob had his first taste of thrill rides loved them, for the most part. 

Just arriving at the Magic Kingdom

Swiss Family Robinson Tree House

      

Disney Xmas Parade

I really want that hat

     So the last picture is the castle as we took the ferry back to the front entrance after watching the last parade. Dad and Cyndi were great to take us all on our first amusement park trip while in Florida, Thanks again guys! I believe we are going to hit the other Disney parks if we have time before we leave at the end of March.

WOW it changed colors right before our eyes

Stranded on Pine Island, Don't send help....

I have been trying to blog for WEEKS! The plain truth of it is, it seemed a bit insensitive to tell you all about the sunshine when it was in the negatives back at home! I'll just say, it's lovely here, almost all the time. I walk to work at 5:30 and it's warm, the stars are out and the palm trees sway along the way. After work we hang int he pool, and bald eagles and osprey fly overhead with talons filled with fish. Yep, pretty great.
      On occasion, it does get stormy here. Some rain, some wind and a little chill. And we have found something extraordinary. The best shells wash ashore the day after a storm. The ocean gets churning, the wind blows, it's chilly and nasty and then, VOILA! Something beautiful washes ashore. What a great lesson for our family, if you just hang in there, get through the storm, something new and beautiful will wash up. It's just a matter of watching carefully for it.

Jacob watching a dolphin feet from shore, that's the dorsal fin!

The warm weather isn't the only reason I haven't posted. This last couple months has been a period of intense personal growth for me. We anticipated learning more about our kids, about our family and our marriage through this trip, but I didn't realize how much I would learn about myself. And more importantly what kind of changes I would see and make in myself. It's an interesting time of being continually placed in situations outside my comfort zone, learning new things, testing my limits. There is a lot to process but I am certain that this time on the road has happened in a very specific way, for very specific reasons and could not have happened any other way, at any other time. Having spent so much time with people from other generations, (Alright, OLD people) has been really eye opening for all of us and has really made us appreciate the timing of all this. That we did it NOW and not in 20 years was the right choice for our family and it's great to meet so many supportive, involved people on this journey. I was talking with Ann today, (her youngest child is 4 years older than myself). She, like so many others here, commended our choices and said the same thing we hear over and over, "I wish my kids could have experienced something like this." But then she said, "From what I have gathered in this life, the most important thing you can do is have a dream, and work toward it." I said to her, "But Ann, what happens now?? I reached my dream!" She said, "Keep living it!"  Well said Ann!
And, in case you are more the glass half empty kinda person...  Our friend Kelly passed away Christmas Morning at just 58.  He and his amazing wife Sue are cattle ranchers in S.D. and have been coming down here for the last 6 years. The morning Sue left to take his body home she stopped by to say goodbye to the boys, (they are buds!). She said to Alan and I, "You enjoy this time together, and think of me and Kelly, I am a cautionary tale. You never know how much time you have ahead of you." There is nothing to make you appreciate the moment you are living quite like spending it with people who are...you know, running out of those moments. But that's the point isn't it? We don't know how many of those moments are ahead of us. So, what's your dream?

Happy Holidays

Holidays are loaded.

Everyone dreams of the Norman Rockwell Christmas, and maybe those are out there, but I think they must be the exception more than the rule. More often than not they are a little less Rockwell and a little more Griswald. Everyone has such high expectations, and the money, effort and preparations that go into each piece… It’s bound to go horribly wrong at some point. When I look back at holidays as a child, the best were those blissful childhood years when you didn’t know that everyone else was busting their butt trying to make it magical! As soon as we become old enough to become aware of the politics, the drama and the cost of holidays, the sheen wears off.

     This year, I approached the holidays with a mixture of joy and dread. So many concerns come with full timing with kids! Will it be festive enough? Is a tree essential? Where will I put the gifts? Can we buy gifts? Is there room for MORE crap? And then, when December arrived, I realized, we were in Florida, at the beach! Our entire collective Christmas memory includes snowmen, sledding, and cherished décor that is now in storage!

     Just as my panic reached the height of it’s fevered pitch, a package arrived. Mini Christmas trees, reindeer and garlands, Rudolph noses and stockings…. Christmas in a box!  Our friend Beth from Colorado was so worried about our lack of Christmas Spirit, she and her family put together a care package! Soon lights began to adorn the carts that drove past. Campers began to light up, sculptures of flamingos pulling sleighs made an appearance. A huge Christmas tree lit up the Clubhouse. Neighbors invited us to see the boats all lit up, a Christmas Boat parade in the fishing village of Matlachay. The boys were invited to make the centerpieces for Christmas Dinner at the park. Neighbors came by on their carts singing Christmas carols, a new kind of caroling! And suddenly, Christmas was here, in its true form, with friendship and community. And we took a second look at the holiday. We watched four different versions of “A Christmas Carol” and looked for the overriding meaning. The boys got it, more so than any other year.

   It wasn’t just the box, or the tree or the carols it was the realization that a loving community surrounds us, both here and around the country. That, even though we say it every year, the true celebration of this season is love. We are so grateful to be surrounded by that love, to have the chance to be together as a family. We have been able to spend more time with family than we have in decades, and Pappa and Gramcyn are coming to have Christmas with us. 

Isn’t that really the appeal of the Griswald family as well? That even though the tree is infested with squirrels, it goes up in flames and the cat is incinerated, the love of family ultimately reigns supreme over the indignities of daily life. 

According to Dr. Seuss…

“It came without ribbons!... it came without tags!... it came without packages, boxes, or bags!”

In our case, it came without snowmen, sledding or cocoa, but it has come all the same.

Happy Holidays to all, we wish you a holiday filled with the love you deserve, now and always.