Merry Christmas!

We had a nice Christmas morning in our RV with our little tree. We didn't have a lot of presents, so opening them took less than 15 minutes. We then packed it up and headed to Univeral Islands of Adventure. We were here on Thursdaya and it was really crowded, slightly less so today. We had a feast in The Three Broomsticks for our Christmas dinner. It was yummy food, cool atmosphere and no work! The Butterbeer was good too. They did a neat job with the new Hogsmeade section of the park. I've taken pictures, but my laptop battery is completely dead and won't take a charge, so I can't post them yet. We are taking a dinner break in the RV and will head back into the park for a while. It was sunny and 72 here today, but is supposed to drop to 52 tomorrow.

RV we go!

We left on Sunday for our 2 week road trip to Florida. We did go to church that morning and then left soon after. We had some snow near Price, but we were out of it before I-70 and have had good weather since. We made it as far as Farmington, NM the first night. The next morning David got up at 5:30 and started driving. I took over around 11:30 when he got tired. We made it to Carlsbad Caverns five minutes before they let the last ones in for the day. I got to do the driving throught the constuction zones and up the winding trail to the park under a deadline. I'm quite proud of myelf. We were able to do the big room tour and were back on the road an hour later. We ended up stopping for the night at a rest area off of I-10 in Texas.

Today we got up and found a place to dump out tanks and refill the fresh water. After a nice shower we drove into San Antonio around 1:30. This was much better then the last time we drove into San Antonio in an RV. Last time we just drove past the Alamo because we couldn't find a place to park. This time I researched places to park an RV before we got there. We found the spot easily and it was a short walk to the Alamo. We toured the Alamo and then walked over to the Riverwalk. Our boat tour guide was an RM, and during the tour he mentioned that the last time the river flooded was July 2002. This was when we were there with the RV. We had storm follow us all around the country that summer and it followed us to San Antonio. We heard it was coming and decided to leave earlier then we had planned. Good thing too, because we left flooding in our wake.

I do have pictures of the cave, Alamo and Riverwalk, but I will have to post them later as I am typing this on my IPad.

So far this trip does not resemble the movie RV, unlike our first trip, and that is a good thing. Roads have been good, driving has been easy, gas has not been an issue, and we are still completely intact! We are heading out of Texas and will spend the night in Louisiana tonight.

And so it begins....

I knew when I started homeschooling that my goal and intention was to raise leaders who could change the world.   I just thought that it was still a few years down the road.   Well, we got a taste of more things that are sure to come this week.

My oldest son, Nathan has been spending Tuesdays at the Capitol  during the legislative session and learning a lot about how our state government is run.  And about making a difference.  And the media.

Nathan has a few innate characteristics that make him a natural leader.   He is logical,  he forms his own opinions, and he is not afraid to express them.  Well, this week, he was sitting in on a committee meeting discussing a bill about whether Utah should get rid of daylight savings time.   He was quite frustrated at some of the comments that were given, including one that we should do it because Arizona does.   He decided to stand up and state his opinion on the matter.

One point he made that has been slightly misrepresented was that Utah has a different relationship to the equator than Arizona, and so daylight savings time affects us more than it does them.   He also said that just because another state does or doesn't do something isn't a valid enough of a reason for Utah to do the same thing.   (This is a proud mother moment.  I know he's heard my lectures about not jumping off a cliff because somebody else does.  -  Okay,  it's not really me.  He has been logically arguing his points since he was old enough to talk.  The first one was when he was 17 months old and we had put him to bed, but his newborn brother was still downstairs with us.   He eloquently argued the injustice of the situation by saying 'Baby Downstairs'.   Needless to say, he got to come back down.

Anyway, That a 13 year old would stand up and articulate valid reasons for keeping Daylight Savings Time seemed to impress many people, including the committee members who voted down the bill, as well as a reporter from Channel 4 News who was there.   Nathan was interviewed by the reporter after the committee meeting.   This story made it on early in the 10 o'clock news with teasers about it being played during the earlier news broadcasts.  

Nathan also got an education in media today.   It was interesting to him to see what they showed and what was cut.   Besides the nightly news, Nathan's story made the newspaper and even some blogs.   Strangers have commented on both the news broadcast and the newspaper article.    Now is where I have to start getting used to seeing my children in the news.   And having other people comment on it.    I knew it was inevitable.  I just didn't think it would be so soon.

Here are a few relevant links:

The news story. Click on the video on the top right.
The Salt Lake Tribune Article
Some person's blog, who also happens to be named Nathan