Benefits of Full Time Travel - great education

There are many benefits to the full-timing lifestyle and a great education is at the top.

Instead of just reading about the Civil War, Revolutionary War, Indian settlements, volcanoes, mountains, habitat, and animals - we go to them, experience those locations and subjects - we live them.

While in the east we studied manatees and then went kayaking with them and played with them on the shore of an inlet.

We studied alligators then held one and later that day we took an air boat ride through the Everglades.

We didn't just draw the Appalachian Mountains on a map - we drove through them and hiked them.

Mt. St. Helens was visited and studied.

Bears were seen, a little too close, and photographed in Colorado and Montana.

We went to the PBR and another day sat on a bull and some even rode a bull at a
PBR world champion bull riders home!

We kayak the rivers, lakes, and oceans.

We hike the trails weaving through the many National Parks and National Forests.

We go to Pando, the world largest known organism.

We camp near every race, gender, and type of person in the United States.

We meet people from all walks of life from all over the world.

Education is not just learned from a book but we actually see, smell, touch, taste, or feel  what we learn.

My husband confirmed that, yes, the salt in Death Valley National Park actually
tastes like salt.

My son found out that sand at the bottom the ocean is hard when you hit it with your knee after flipping over in your kayak.

My daughter found out that the view from Angel's Landing in Zion National Park is as stunning as she had heard.

My three old learned that trees and mountains are meant to climb and that they belong to him.

Instead of just reading about places and events, we study them and then experience them in as many ways and using all of our senses.

I can't imagine a better education for my children, from birth to 20 years old, all of my children are better off from this trip. Their education is unbelievable - I cannot even put a price tag on it. http://thelemonadedigest.com/issue/the-lemonade-digest/section/home-school-road-school

Hiking, Exploring, and Hot Tubs - a day on the road

Today was one of those days that remind me why we are on this trip.

It began with an average morning and chores.  Whether in a house or camper - there is plenty to do.

We worked on school subjects until my husband could take his lunch break.  He and I jumped in our Kawasaki Mule and road up to the Red Bull Mountain Bike Track in Virgin, Utah.  We like to hike for our daily exercise and this place had some really steep hills to help me with my backside.

He and I spent an hour climbing up and down the red, crumbly cliffs and slopes weaving through the mesas and buttes west of Zion National Park.  With the gorgeous formations in the background and no one around, it was wonderful.

We had to head on home so he could get back to work.  We pealed out in our Mule at its top speed of 23 mph.  

Later in the day, I told the kids we were going to take a ride up the mountain to Kolob Reservoir.  The kids are all almost done with a bad cold and I figured a ride in the van would be fine.  We just wouldn't let them get out and run too much.  Shae was able to go with us, thank goodness.  The road covered in  snow at the top, which he insisted on driving in the deeper parts.

I told him, "Honey!  We don't have 4 wheel drive!"

He replied, "That's what tow haul is!"  

We always joke that our 15 passenger van has turbo, can go in 4 x 4, and do just about anything my husband wants - all he has to do is push that tow haul button!

We got quite a ways up the road when we came to the road closed sign.  The park doesn't plow the snow and it was too deep past that point.  Oh well, we don't cry of the little things, so we just turned it around, attempting to avoid the deep, thick mud in the ditch behind us, and headed back down the mountain.

Shae decided to continue our adventure by going to Grafton, Utah - a ghost town nearby.  I will write more on that later, but let me tell you, it was a very interesting place to stop.

Since I had made a big breakfast and lunch, I decided to have Hanna make sandwiches for dinner.  Before that, her and I took a dip in the hot tub and then I went to a wine tasting party at the Lodge.  

Quite a day!

The View From My Front Door

Life on the road is just that - Life on the Road.  

Many aspects of life do not change because we are traveling.  There are meals to be cooked, dishes to be done, vacuuming the small floor space daily, laundry, schooling, baths, clipping toe nails, playing, paying bills, catching up on paperwork.

Our views always change yet other views stay the same.

The big difference is when I walk out my front door I may see this:

Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri
Year one - us kayaking

 Or this:

Sometimes it is the view while staying at a relatives home.

Some of the campgrounds have animals for all to enjoy.
Mansfield, Missouri

The mist on Nolin Lake, Kentucky

 Sometimes this:

Fall colors in Honea Path, South Carolina

Enjoying the birds in central Alabama

Alligator filled campgrounds in central Florida.
Withlocochee State Forest

 Other times this:

Some views of the dumpsters and water waste treatment plant make us laugh and
get in a hurry to move to the next campground.

The Spanish Moss hanging in clumps on the trees around a lake in Montgomery, Alabama.

Sometimes all we can see is the next camper over.

Other times we are right next to the beach and enjoying our kayaks.
Key Largo, Florida

The deserts of the southwest are beautiful and vast.
Hawthorne, Nevada

Sometimes we stay at extremely nice campgrounds that even
provide gazebos and three pools!
Nevada Treasures RV Park in Pahrump, NV

Of course, my daughters enjoy being near water, like here
in San Angelo, Texas.

It was hard to chose pictures for this post.  There are so many beautiful places we have been since heading out on the road.  

Our home may be small 

but our back yard is the entire country!

Benefits of Full Time Travel - more time with kids

Ever since the internet got big, I have been receiving heart warming forwards that either make me want to cry, puke, or laugh.  There is always the forward that talks about the person dying in the hospital and wishing they had more time with family.

I am thankful I won't have that problem.  Each day I get to spend hours with my husband and children.  Full time travel has taken our life and magnified it.  We enjoy each other every day.

We don't wait for the one week vacation every year.  There is adventure and excitement around every corner and at every new place we go.

Yet, I feel that everyone can have this life even if not on the road.  Daily we can chose to spend time together and appreciate every day that God has given us.  

I remember my goal being five minutes of undivided attention for each child every day.  It was a moment with them alone to totally focus on them and their needs.  I was with them all day, homeschooling, loving, caring for and doing activities.  Yet, there was something more that I wanted.  I wanted to look in their eyes and show them that I am theirs and care what they have to say.

Now that we don't have as many possessions and activities to do at a house, we have more time to spend together.  Instead of vacuuming for two hours I can vacuum for 15 minutes and spend 1 hr and 45 minutes playing outside with my family.

Instead of mopping the kitchen floor numerous times a week, I can get on the my hands and knees and clean the camper kitchen floor in two minutes.

I have so much more time for my children.  This is time that is more than caring for their needs and teaching them.  I have time to look in their eyes and love them.  I can hold them for half an hour and not feel like it was a huge sacrifice of my time.  They can put on a play or tell me some crazy story and I have no where else I would rather be or need to be.

With so much less "stuff" to tend to, I have so much more to do with my family.

Spending time with the kids is so important to us.
Here we are sledding in the Tusher Mts. of Utah

I am so thankful.

Benefits of Full Time Travel - more time with hubby

Without as many things to tend to, clean, maintain, and sort - my husband and I get to spend more time together than ever before.

Everyday we try to spend time together exercising whether it be a video, hiking, biking, or swimming.

I love to take off with Shae and explore the mountains, deserts, beaches, and forests around us.  We love to be together and explore God's awesome creation.

This is one of the best parts of full time travel

more time with hubby.