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

Spontaneous Whirlwind So Cal Trip June 1-6 2009

We started our summer off with a fun spontaneous trip to Southern California. We bought a new mini van the last week in May and it was just begging for a road trip! We took along Stephanie and Trinity as well, since they hadn't been and we had two extra seats.We left on a Sunday after church, where the speaker spoke of simplifying and not going on Disneyland trips, or something like that. Bah humbug!

We drove to Las Vegas the first day, and got there at night.

We spent the next day in Vegas playing in the pool and walking around some of the sights on the strip. On Tuesday, Stephanie and the kids and I got up early and drove to Legoland to be there in time for opening. David flew to Northern Cal from here. We spent a fun day in Legoland. We were just here last August before our Mexican Expedition, but there weren't any lines here today and we got through quite quickly. We were even able to spend some time at their new aquarium that we hadn't been to before. We spent this

night at the Oceanside Worldmark Condo. Stephanie and I were able to go out for a grown up dinner on the beach and we picked up pizza and a movie for the kids. Everyone was happy.

The next day we got to the San Diego Zoo when it opened and spent a few hours their including the bus tour and the tram ride. Then we booked it to Sea World where we spent the

afternoon. We managed to see all the shows and exhibits at Sea World before it closed that day! Woo Hoo! We drove to Anaheim that night to another Worldmark Condo.

The next day we spent at Disneyland. We have decided that the last week of school is a great time to go to So. Cal. No lines! We practically walked on to everything! We cruised through the park and had a great time!

David flew back in town this night. He had been in New York in the meantime, as well. We spent Friday at Disneyland and California adventure as well. We hooked up with Jon & Erin and girls and had a princess lunch at Ariel's grotto. Today was more crowded than

the day before, but it was still a lot of fun.

Saturday was Nathan's 13th Birthday! We spent the day at Universal Studios. Dora the Explorer wished Nathan a Happy Birthday! This park was quite disappointing compared to Islands of Adventure in Orlando. We went on most of the rides / exhibits and then were on the road for home at 3:00pm. We made it back all the way and got home around 3:00 am! What a week!

Mother / Daughter San Antonio Trip June 13-17

Raven and I had to fun opportunity to go on a Mother / Daughter trip in June. We decided to go to San Antonio Texas. We used our free tickets on Southwest to get there and our Marriott points to stay there, so that was nice. We had an interesting experience at the hotel. After our first night there, we got a call saying that a 'VIP' was coming in and that we were in her favorite room, and would we please move. We did, but I was a little hacked off about it. We did eventually get 10,000 Marriott points for the inconvenience, so I guess they ended up paying us to stay there.

The first day Raven and I explored the Alamo and the Riverwalk area. The Alamo was interesting. The men who defended that with their lives for something they believed in so strongly was inspiring. I wonder if it would be as famous if it had had a happier ending? The Riverwalk area was beautiful, and we enjoyed the boat ride, walking around the shops and dinner there.

We spent the next day at Six Flags Fiesta Texas. This place was not crowed at all. There were no lines for anything! It was fun! They have a lot of roller coasters, and Raven was having a ball. I was starting to get a head ache by the end of the day. They also have a water park there where we had a lot of fun on the slides, in the wave pool and the lazy river. I didn't get the sunscreen on very well and got a nice burn.

Tuesday we spent the day at Sea World. This was our favorite. They have water park and quite a few roller coasters at this park. A lot more than San Diego. We did spend some time in the water park, but we never made it on a roller coaster, because we were having too much fun at the animal shows. We saw two different

Sea Lion shows and two different

Shamu shows, as well as the dolphin show and some others. We also had lunch with Shamu, behind the Shamu stadium and got to see the whales up close. Our highlight of the day was our Beluga Whale interaction program we did. We got geared up in wet suits and received instruction and then we were able to get in the pools with the Beluga whales. We were able to do signals with them, so they would sing, or jump, splash etc... We even got to 'dance' with them, where we held on to their fins and they spun us around in circles! It was amazing! That was the job I wanted most growing up, but I'm happy being a mom in Utah instead.

The last day of our trip we had to check out of our hotel, but our flight wasn't until later, so we went to lunch, shopping for books, (we had both finished the books we brought and needed new ones for the flight) and we went to see 'Up'. Very cute. Definitely don't wait to have your adventures! Carpe Diem!

Shakespeare Festival July 22-26

I will briefly mention that our family went down to the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City over the 24th of July weekend. My mom picked Nathan and I up in Orem at our Hebrew class we were taking at the time and we drove into Cedar City on Wednesday night. I had signed up to take Elementary Theatre Methods from SUU for 3 days, and it started early on the 23rd. While I was in class all day, my mom had the kids. I think they played in the pool and I know they went to see the matinee of 'The Secret Garden' . Raven auditioned for the role of Mary and she even got a call back, but she didn't get the part. It was kind of sad. We would have definitely had a different summer if she had. Nathan was sweet. After the play he said 'Raven would have done it better.' That night we all saw 'The Comedy of Errors'. That was hilarious!

After the play, I went to pick David up at the Cedar City airport. He flew in to join us from somewhere. It was nice of him to show up. I think they spent Friday at a parade and at Cedar Breaks National Park while I was in class again. My class was interesting. I learned a lot of good things, including the fact that I am still glad I homeschool. That night we say 'As You Like It'. The kids are really good at following Shakespeare and understanding what is happening in the plays.

Saturday I was back in class again. David's parents came down and brought Tyler, Megan, Michael and Cameron with them. They all spent the day at Zions National Park. It was a bit of an ordeal getting everyone back in time to go see 'Henry V'. They were dirty, but we managed to get showers and changed and get to the play on time. Most of us anyway. David dad wasn't going to come at the last minute with the cousins, but did show up sometime before intermission. We had a late dinner with them after the show. The next day we drove home and they drove on to Arizona.

S.E. Utah and Colorado - July 12-17 2009

Okay, Our next most recent field trip was to South East Utah and Southern Colorado. The people on this trip included, my self, my mom and my kids. David was somewhere in Asia at the time. I can't remember if it was Japan or Korea now.

The reason we took this trip was so that Nathan

could attend YFA (Youth For America) youth conference, which was held in Monticello Utah.

We left on Sunday, because his conference started at 8am on Monday. He was at the conference all day Monday and Tuesday, but slept with us at the hotel at night. The first day he was at the conference we went to Arches National Park. We did the driving loop, but didn't do too much hiking, as London had recently sliced his thumb and had a big bandage and we didn't want to risk any falls. Plus, it was just too hot! After touring the park, we did some shopping and had dinner on Main street in Moab. We found this fun book store where we spent an hour browsing and avoiding the hissing cat. I found an interesting book call Third Wish by Robert Fulghum that I have since been enjoying.

Tuesday we spent the day at one section of Canyonlands National Park. We did some more hiking here. There were some really fun trails that had amazing views that were

not too long. I have never been to this park before, and I really enjoyed it. London and Raven did the Junior Ranger at all of the parks we went to on this trip. After exploring the park we had dinner in Monticello and spent time at the library there putting together a puzzle, while we waited for Nathan to finish. When he was done, we drove to Cortez Colorado, where we spent the night. Raven and I had fun racing in the pool. London couldn't get in because of his hand, and Nathan and my Mom didn't want to.

Wednesday we spent the day at Mesa Verde National Park. I have wanted to go here for years, and this was our first time here as well. Now I know that you need to have at least two days for this park. That's okay, I want to go back and bring David with us next time. We did the two guided hikes that I wanted to see most, Cliff Palace and Balcony House. I didn't realize that

we would be able to actually go in these ruins. I thought that it was something we could only view from a distance, so that was a happy surprise. Nathan was with us by now, and we were feeling the change in dynamics. This meant that we got to hear a lot of complaining. He especially did not want to go on the Balcony House tour because it involved crawling through a small tunnel, and he did not want to get dirty. We had great tour guides for these tours.

They were both given by women who had

to be over sixty, but could climb like mountain goats. The woman giving the Balcony House tour was inspired. She recruited Nathan to be the leader for our group. He had to lead us to certain places and then not let anyone pass until she caught up, etc.. He led us valiantly and we never heard another word of complaint from him.

After a fun, full day here, we drove to Durango Colorado for our next adventure!

Thursday was probably our funnest day of all! (Is that a word? I don't know, but I like it better than 'most fun' that sounds too stuffy.) This morning we woke up early to catch the famous Durango

- Silverton narrow gauge rail road. We didn't take the train all the way to Silverton however. We got off about an hour and a half into the ride for our Soaring Tree Top Adventure. Here we were geared up with zipline gear and given instructions and then we went on our soaring (zip line) adventure. There were 22 zip lines we did. The longest one was the l

ast, at a 1/4 mile long. You can get going pretty fast when you are zipping that far! We also got hoisted up on some helicopter hoists, and lowered down as we just stepped off a very high platform! They staff there were incredible. They had people that did all the work, they hooked us up and sent us off and caught us at the other end. We were always attached to the tree, so it was very safe. The most amazing part to me, is that every single staff member learned every single guests name and called us by name. There were about 60 guests that day! We also got yummy snacks and a delicious gourmet lunch! I very highly recommend this adventure! It is great for almost all ages! Check out their website at www.soaringcolorado.com. The train picked us up on its way back down to Durango. When we got back we went to the Bar D Wranglers Chuckwagon dinner and show that evening. It was a very full fun day!

Friday we got up very early and drove all the way back home, so that Nathan could meet his scout troop at 1:00 to go on a scout camp! Whew!