Kid Trips

A few years ago I started a tradition of taking one of my kids on a one-on-one trip each year.

This year it is London's turn,  and I just booked our trip today.  We're pretty excited about it,  but I don't know if I want to unveil it yet.

Here are some pictures of previous trips.

Two years ago Raven and I went to San Antonio Texas.  We remembered the Alamo, and looked for the basement.   There wasn't one.

We went to Six Flags theme park.

We went to Sea World, where we had lunch with Shamu and swam with Beluga Whales.

It was a great trip!

Last year Nathan and I went to Washington DC.  We got a tour of the White House and the Capitol.

 I got to stop at the Folger Shakespeare Library.

An the highlight was Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor Rally.   We got great seats thanks to Nathan asking some people who were camping out if we could sit by them.   It was an amazing experience to see so many people come together from all over to share and support these values.   It was a very peaceful and inspiring gathering of at least 500,000 people.  And when we left, the place was spotless.  Not trash anywhere.  It gave me hope for America. 

Before this I have taken each of the boys to Boston.  They were each only 8 at the time, so I think we all need to go there again.   I think I have stored those pictures somewhere else.

Look for pictures of this years exciting adventure coming in September!

Much Ado about Nothing

One of our big adventures this year wasn't really about traveling, though it did involve some.    I have been teaching a couple of Shakespeare classes for the past two years.   This year for my teen group we did a production of 'Much Ado about Nothing'.   It has been an amazing experience!   It is a year long class and we learn about Shakespeare the man,  Elizabethan and Jacobean England,  his works etc..   After actor's training we produce a play!   It is a lot of fun!   This project is an amazing amount of work, but it is a labour of love,  and I truly love every minute of it!

I made all of the costumes.  I started in September.  Here are the gentlemen's doublets and hats.

And the dresses for the lovely ladies.

Our advertising poster and shirts drawn by Jennica

I love working with this amazing group of youth!   They are truly inspiring.   Their performances were fantastic and their ability to memorize and bring the characters to life was fantastic!   We get to go to Shakespeare Camp next week,  so we are not quite done for the year.   I am looking forward to a small break,  but it will be small because I'm excited to start planning next year!

New Goals

This blog is for recording our journeys and adventures,  of which we have many,  but I am not very disciplined about blogging about them.   I will try to improve.  I have a friend who does a beautiful blog about their family adventures and has a great way of recording even the normal every day life and making it magical.   I love to read her blog and and I look for it everyday.  I am sad when she skips a day.   She is my inspiration and I am going to try to do better.   However,  don't look for this every day.  My goal is once a week.  If I decide I enjoy this as much as she does it may become more frequent,  but if you see how often I have blogged in the past you will appreciate that once a week is a vast improvement.

Here goes.

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!