Two years ago, just before we came to California, the kids had a Christmas concert, we had several family events, a ward Christmas party, added to the chaos of preparing to move.  What a crazy experience!  One year ago we had our first Christmas in an RV and we went to Legoland with our soon-to-expire membership.

Yesterday?  Not much at all.  It was kind of nice.  We celebrate St. Nicholas day on December 6th, which is when Santa fills our stockings.  This year we were at Michael’s parents on the holiday and they were very generous with our children giving them lego sets and a few other toys.  We are still looking forward to Three Kings day when the wise men bring the children toys from Mom and Dad.  I suppose I’ll do some shopping for that event sooner than later, but I haven’t worried about it yet.  We celebrate Christmas by eating delicious food and honoring the Savior as well as learning a bit about the winter solstice and the history behind winter celebrations.

This year we didn’t go to any church or company parties.  No extended family Christmas events because we are far away.  Not even any last-minute Christmas shopping.  We just drank our egg nog and hung out at the campground.  There were several Christmas events we could have gone into town for but we didn’t.  There were pot-lucks and Christmas movies here at the campground that we didn’t go to.  We went and saw Santa at the youth lodge a few days ago and we went there again yesterday for a craft.

Also exciting for the big event- I did laundry.  Problem is, the card reader wasn’t working for whatever reason so I couldn’t refill the card to dry our clothes.  Luckily I had enough on the card to do one load, so I stuffed two large loads into the dryer and did what I could.  When I brought the clothes home we found that some of them were dry, but the rest spurred an earlier-than-expected debut of our new drying rack that we got for $15 at IKEA.  I was so excited when I saw that it fit between our bed and the closet in the back room, so we were able to hang all of our wet clothes up.  They were mostly dry anyway and being over our back heater vent helped them dry quickly.  When we were done, the rack folds up and fits nicely in our bathtub.  Also pictured in the bathtub is our dirty cloths hamper akin to this one.  Laundry is expensive and we are going to start supplementing the workload with the drying rack and handwashing.  Sometimes we’ll hand wash and dry at the campground laundry.  Sometimes we’ll wash at the facilities and dry at home, especially when it’s sunny.  Sometimes we’ll do it all at the facilities or do it all at home.  We have options.  And now I know I have the option to dry things inside and that’s a great feeling.

Anyway, Christmas yesterday was very nice.  Michael finished up the day reading the last chapter of Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone to the kids and I.  What a fun story!  I never got around to reading it earlier so it has been fun for Michael to share it with all of us.

The holidays aren’t over, and I hope they are great for you as you prepare for the new year.

So... we had planned to move back to UT and sell the motor home. However, what we plan doesn't always happen.

The RV didn't sell...​

Back in September I took the bus back to CA to sell the RV. My car was waiting for me. I did a really good deep clean on the RV and fixed a few things in preparation. Well short story – I found a buyer at an incredibly low price, they gave me $500 down as a deposit and then I needed to get it to pass smog, which took me a few days to get that to happen. Once I had the smog certification in hand, I called them up and set up an appointment for the following day to have them come pick it up and finalize the sale. That was the last time I heard from them. I called and texted a lot and got no response, I waited as long as I could before the campground kicked me out, and even slept in my car two nights just to give them some extra time to contact me. So Mary… if you read this, I’d love to find out what really happened. It feels weird to have had them just disappear, but what can I do?

Goodbye Little Honda

I put the RV into storage and went to UT for a few months – and then it was time to move back in. Having two cars with the RV was nuts – we had to go back and forth to get the other vehicle every move which didn't make sense for a family on the road.  So we sold my Honda Civic car and have the family van.

Getting back to California...​

We were left with a dilemma – everything we had except a few small dishes I used as a bachelor pad in the RV while I was "selling" it had been packed into a moving truck and hauled off to UT. We needed to get at least our bedding and some essentials back to CA to live in the RV. We had several options to do so:

• Rent a moving truck again: $600+ (rental, gas, etc) and drive down two vehicles.
• Get a trailer hitch for the minivan and pull a small trailer. Tamsyn's dad said he had a trailer hitch that would fit a Dodge van and we thought this would be a good option.
• Pack very lightly and just buy everything we need again

Or... there was one other option...

We are pretty tight on money right now, so we ended up just going hill-billy style and tied stuff on the roof. We borrowed a roof storage box for the roof from Tamsyn's parents, and a canvass carry bag from Michael's parents. Plus we tied two plastic totes on the roof. It looked quite crazy and was just missing the rocking chair on top.  We were quite a sight!

Thousand Trails Cabin​

We get a free cabin week each year with Thousand Trails, so we used that while we moved into the RV (plus it would expire)

Anyway, check out the quick video showing the roof rig. And a quick tour of the cabin. (It was filmed at night when we arrived so it's dark, it doesn't really do it justice.)

I had this wonderful idea of doing 100 blog posts.  I did fairly well.  It was hard to do daily posts, but I did it!  But then, I did something very typical of me, and I misplaced my camera.  Yeah, you get blurry phone pictures for this post.  At the same time, other events came into play and our family has decided to sell our RV, move to Utah for a few family events, and then purchase a different RV that will better meet our needs.  So much for 100 days of camping!  I was going to go back and edit all of those posts, but I'll leave them up as a reminder of a good idea.  And to remember how awesome Thousand Trails' promotion is this summer.  Look up the hashtag #100daysofcamping on facebook and you'll find a lot of awesome pictures submitted by other TT members.

So here's our update.  In the picture above (I'll share again below so you can see the whole thing), you will see the old fashioned RV similar to what some of Michael's ancestors used to travel to Utah.  The painting was created for a Pioneer Day celebration at our stake center.

You may also notice that some of us are kinda, well, bald.  That's because we shaved our heads.

We discovered that we had an infestation of lice.  This has absolutely nothing to do with living in an RV, our hygiene routine, or anything of that nature.  Lice don't care if you're rich or poor, bond or free, male or female.  They just care if you have hair and a warm head.  Shaving was rather melodramatic, yet it was completely effective, and with everything going in our life right now, I really didn't want to spend a lot of time, well, nit-picking.  (You know where that term comes from, right?).  Plus, I read this post a couple of years ago, and I somehow got it in my head that shaving was a smart solution.  At least for the boys.

After spending some 15 minutes picking eggs off Peter's head, he was happy to have his head shaved and have it done with.  Patrick didn't want to shave at first, but after we discussed with him the reasoning, he agreed.  After watching her brothers, Helen was in tears when we told her that we didn't think having a girl shave her head was the same as a boy and that we could treat the lice with a hair straightener, a lice comb, and some chemical treatments.  She was very upset.  And since she did have lice after all, why not?  And after Michael tried to find lice on my head and completely failed to find anything, with all due respect to my husbands other amazing skills, I lacked faith in his ability to properly pick them out.  Plus, he doesn't have time.  I don't have time.  And I don't spend that much time in public anyway, and that's what hats are for.  So with my daughter having a bald head as well a my sons, I shaved my head too.

I'm not really sorry either.  I hated my hair.  Well, I thought I hated my hair, I really hated the lice.  But even now that I've realized the difference, it doesn't change how I feel about my head.  Those pesky pests are gone now, and I'm happier with my head.  Plus it's so hot right now, it feels rather nice.  That, and we're about ready to move in with my in-laws for a spell, and I didn't want them to have to worry about their heads.

So yeah, there's our update.  We're moving to Utah and we shaved our heads.  Nothing much.

Our son Peter celebrated his 8th birthday this week, and he put a lot of thought into what he wanted to do to celebrate. Luckily for us, he was very realistic about what we can afford and was conscious about that as he planned what our family would do. He planned every meal of the day, and asked that we go swimming.

Wilderness Lakes has two pools, one for adults only, and one for families.  In the winter, they close the adult pool and have adult-only hours in the family pool, but no matter.  This is obviously the one we use most.  There are two jacuzzi, one quite hot, and one pleasantly warm and better for little kids.  There is a wading pool, and a swimming pool that is 5 feet deep in the middle.  We usually go swimming every Saturday night so that afterwards when we shower, the kids are nice and clean for Sunday.  The outdoor shower is nice for getting this job done quickly and efficiently between Michael and I and all the kiddos.  It's convenient for rinsing before we get in the pool too.

Peter wanted granola for breakfast, fruit cocktail and carrot sticks for lunch, personal pizzas on hamburger buns with pasta sauce, and smores for dessert.  And ice cream.  We'll make a cake sometime in the near future, we haven't gotten around to it yet.

Anyway, he had a great birthday.  Simple and fun.  Happy Birthday, Peter!

Bird watching is very easy to do at Wilderness Lakes in Menifee.  Surrounded by desert, the grassy shores of the canals in this resort is a welcome oasis that attract many different birds.  Earlier this spring there were several nests, followed of course by babies and more babies.  I never knew what devoted parents geese are.  Both mother and father fiercely protect their little ones, yet are still friendly enough to eat out of the hands of anyone patient enough to spend time with them.  We aren't that patient, but we can still draw a crowd when we give the kids a bag of bird feed, 50 cents at the on-sight store.

But tonight we were not seeking a crowd, only going for an evening stroll with the informal destination of visiting a friend we have seen off and on since early spring.  We really love him and the kids were excited to see his little dog Ted too.  And of course Ted remembered the children and couldn't wait to get out of the door as we approached.

There are of course things about living in an old RV that are less than glamorous.  And like many families, financial strain has been a struggle this year.  We all have our own trials we are working with.  But living in a campground has been an oasis of peace for me as well.  I realize that I get to know some our neighbors of a 1-2 week period better than many Americans know their next-door neighbors of a decade or more.  Sure, there are feuds and fights that happen here too, but the overall culture of RV parks is different.  People sit outside under their awnings, and if you walk by, it would be strange and rather rude to not wave and say "Hi".  And one would not be imposing to comment on the weather, or compliment them on their camp set-up, their cute pet, or their beautiful children.  (I love hearing that!).  And it would not be unusual stay and visit for 1/2 an hour or more.  Every time I take the children for an evening stroll, I find refreshment and I can emotionally recenter myself.  I feel motivated to be a better person.  I am reminded that there are a lot of good people in the world. Rich or poor, comfortably retired or struggling to make ends meet, the beauty of nature smiles on all.

Whenever I hear the song of a bird, or look at the blue, blue sky,
Whenever I feel the rain on my face, or the wind as it rushes by,
Whenever I touch a velvet rose, or walk by a lilac tree,
I'm glad that I live in this beautiful world Heavenly Father created for me.