Mice, Eeek!

I'll post more later, but I just wanted to share that last night, as Karry was unlocking our trailer and I was holding sleepy Ruby in the motorhome (and as all of the boys were asleep on the couch in the motorhome), I saw a little tiny mouse run across the floor and hide under some carpet right in front of the couch!!!

I hate mice. They're right up there with ants for me (and ants are a problem at this campground, though we've not seen them in our trailer yet). Mom and dad have had mice get into their motorhome before--they live in the woods, where they have signs of bears and other creatures--so there are likely mice living all around there. They had a mouse trap set up, and mom went back to check it and found a little dead mouse there. 2 mice...at the very least...

We have no signs of mice in our trailer. I would think that the tray of chocolate chip cookies (covered only by a paper towel) would have been attacked if there were mice. Still, I kept waking up wondering when they would come right in and invade our space. There is an AC vent above me and a heater vent right beside my bed--mice could fit through those vents...I wonder how mom slept. Oh, I feel sorry for them. Mouse clean up is NOT fun....

Days 6 & 7, April 23 & 24

This'll be a quick post & I don't have time for photos right this moment! We're heading out in a little while.

Day 6~~
We hung out in the trailer for a while, I blogged, we cleaned up a bit, the kids got to watch a dvd in Grandpa & Grandma's motorhome, and then we went to Disneyland just after lunch and stayed there until almost closing. We saw the big parade, which the kids loved. It gets chilly at nights, so Karry and my dad ran out to the motorhome to get sweatshirts. I put baby legs on Ruby's arms while they were getting sweatshirts (and a blanket on her lap). She was so cute, as usual. :)

since the days are blending together, I'll type Disneyland highlights after Day 7. :)

Day 7~~
We woke up very early and went to the Disneyland Grand Hotel for a Character Breakfast with Chip & Dale and friends at 7:30. The food was yummy. We got free vallet parking for up to 5 hours, so we walked to Disneyland from there. We had to be back to the car by 12:15 (we got there at 7:15), so we headed back to the campground for lunch. I cooked up beef stroganoff that I had pre-made & frozen at home, and we had it over rice and with some salad. We had all of the kids lay down for nap, I made some chocolate chip cookies, and then we took a nap too. It's hard to make cookies in a little propane oven. The bottoms were burning and the tops were still raw. I ended up flipping them over half-way thorugh, which worked quite nicely!! When we were napping, my parents went out to get their propane tank filled up, and they picked up more milk for us. Around 3 we headed back and went to California Adventure to catch the Pixar Play Parade, which was very fun and the boys liked it A LOT! Ruby has learned the parade wave and now waves at every character!! We went back to Disneyland that night, since C. Adventure closes at 8 pm and D-land closes at 10. Karry and I got to ride Space Mountain once before the park closed. We had gone on the Buzz Lightyear ride (again) and afterwards, Grandpa bought the boys Buzz Lightyear guns. They were perfectly content shooting at things the whole time we went on Space Mountain. :)

Highlights:

Ruby is warming up to Grandpa and Grandma, she doesn't cry around them anymore unless they try to hold her when she's really tired. :)

The kids love meeting the characters, ESPECIALLY Isaac. We had a fun encounter with Mary Poppins, and Isaac held his little autograph book up to her (which I got at the Disney discount store!!) and asked her "can you write my name?" and she said "well, I need to know how to spell your name," and he told her. Then we told him, "no, you're supposed to ask her to write HER name," and then he went back up to her (and there wasn't a line for her, thankfully!) and had her write her name. She signed all of the boys' books and had some discussion about if Polly, her umbrella/friend could talk (to which she replied "why of course!"). Kaleb told her he thought Donald Duck was on vacation because he wasn't at his house, and she told him that where she is from, it's called a "Holiday." Later that day, she was in the parade and she looked right at Isaac and waved at him. THAT was fun!!

The boys' favorite two rides are Buzz Lightyear and Monsters Inc. They're not crazy about 3D shows, even funny ones like the Muppets are a little too much for them.

Karry and I have learned to share meals at the park, or to order kids' meals which have plenty of food! I wasn't crazy about the idea of spending $5.99 for a Uncrustables pbj, little carrots, grapes, and a juice box. Instead, I brought Uncrustables with us, and juice boxes, and raisins and chips. The boys had that for dinner last night.

Our bike trailer doubles as a double jogging stroller, and we brought that to the park yesterday. It's too wide to fit through the main front gates, so they have to let us in a special gate which can be annoying. The bonus is the amount of storage in it! We can shove all of our sweatshirts in it (8!), plus food for the kids, and nobody can even see that there's a storage compartment there--so they don't know we're packing food in. :) Tricky! Plus, when the kids get tired of walking, we can switch off and have one boy ride with Ruby--which she really likes, too!

My parents drive their motorhome to the park. It costs a few $$ extra to park it, compared to a car, but we get up front parking, right by the tram. That's sooo worth it. Plus, if we need to, we can go back to the motorhome to rest, take contacts off, or whatever!

We are heading off to Disneyland again today. Actually, first we're going to C. Adventure to see Playhouse Disney, which the kids are going to love! It's going to be 80 degrees today, I think it's a great day to introduce the boys to SPLASH MOUNTAIN!

I haven't had time to e-mail people back lately, I am sorry. Our days have been pretty full and we're getting back to the trailer late and crashing. Yesterday's lunch dishes are still in the sink and the trailer's looking messy. Tomorrow is going to be a laundry/clean up day since we're avoiding all parks on the weekend!!

Off we go!

Our Trailer

We thought you might all like to see our "vacation home" aka our trailer! :)

When you walk in the front door of our trailer, there is a couch in front of you and a door on the right. The door goes to our bedroom, and here it is. :) This is the blanket my sister made me when we were still living at home with my parents. It's falling apart now, but it's a perfect camping blanket! We have cupboards above our bed, where I'm keeping towels, diapers, swimming things and games.

This is our little closet to hang our clothes up. At the end of our bed, I keep a laundry basket with our folded clothes piled up inside. I got some long narrow plastic tubs to stick things inside the bottom of the closet, too.

This is my little nightstand beside the bed, with all of my books. We keep a sleeping bag in front of it to stop the drawers from sliding open while we drive. I keep the kids' homeschooling stuff, coloring stuff, our first aid stuff, paper, pens, etc. in this nightstand. I think I brought 6 books for reading on this trip. Karry says that's why the trailer weighs so much!

This is a view of the trailer from the bathroom. The couch is folded out into a bed. The door at the end is to our bedroom. The door on teh right goes outside.

This is another view of the trailer, from our room. There's a curtain to close off the back section and make it darker, which is nice when the kids go to bed.

This is the door, and Ruby's highchair, and our bucket of shoes. This is changed a bit now. I am using this tub as our laundry basket for dirty clothes, and I got 2 smaller tubs to separate kids' shoes from our shoes (which also makes it so easier to find the shoes we need!). I never realized our shoes would take up so much space! Each kid has good tennis shoes, play shoes, flip flops, and sandals. Now we've got room for the generator to go right next to the tubs of shoes, also--which is good--it's heavy, and the weight should stay close to the front.

This is the couch, made into a bed. The first night, we just left it folded out and drove with it like this. We usually fold it back up into a couch every day and throw the kids' blankets on our bed. Isaac and Kaleb sleep here together.

This is the photo collage I made before we left. It's of us camping!

This is Isaac & Kaleb's bed again, with our amazing stereo system above it. :) It actually does have a jack that the ipod can plug into, and there are speakers in the ceiling. It's like surround sound. :) As I type we are listening to Veggie Tales music. :) I keep all of our snack foods in those cupboards. I bought a month worth of packaged snacks like fruit leather, and chips, etc.

This is our kitchen! I'm glad for the cover that folds over the stove top, it makes a counter space when I'm not using the stove. When I stand at the stove, the table is right behind me and perfect for more work area. We've got pots, pans, plates, and all of our cooking utensils, towels, bibs, etc., down below, and basic cooking ingredients (flour, spices, syrup, etc.) up above.

This is our table! Under one side (left) we've got Karry's stuff--you know, trailer essentials like the level and whatever else he uses. :) Under the right side we've got the griddle, the big skillet, the toaster, and things like that. Up above, we've got Ruby's food right above the window in that little area with the railing, and more food and snacks for her on the left. On the right we have cups, mugs, hot chocolate and tea.

There's a cupboard on the left of the table, and a shelf. We keep the garbage & recycling by that shelf (a big temptation for Ruby, unfortunately!!). That cupboard is perfect for random things we need to put away when we come in, and it also houses some extra juice boxes.

On the right you see the fridge. On the left you see Ruby's "crib"--it's a bunk area with a baby gate across it. Also, there's Noah's bunk above.

This closet is right across from the bunks. I got these drawer units to use as dressers, and it's workign nicely. This cupboard is packed!!! Each kid has a drawer of clothes. On the top right we have cleaning supplies & extra paper towels. On the left, we have outside toys like the baseball bat, etc. Our ziploc bags are in here, and all of the kids coats and sweatshirts are hanging up.

This is our bathroom. Small but it has everything necessary!

This is our bathtub, aka storage space when we're not showering. We moved the bike trailer to the back of the suburban instead, and the generator is up front now. We just have our laundry basket with dirty clothes in the bathtub now.

This is where we're living! Hope you enjoyed it!

Pictures from Days 1-5

This is our trailer & suburban, after our first night in the Roseburg WalMart parking lot.
The boys:

Ruby:

Karry

Me, with WalMart in the background :)

The boys running at a rest stop

Isaac with a stick collection :)

The boys coloring in the trailer

Me cooking dinner. I bought some boxes of Hamburger & Chicken Helper to make simple meals on this trip. We don't normally eat like that. We had Chicken Helper and it was so darn salty. Do people really eat that much salt? We weren't crazy about it!

Our baby tiger in her cage :)

The bikes--they're getting pretty beat up on this trip, and I guess they were on the verge of falling off. Well, thankfully we picked most of them up for great prices at WalMart (like $35 for a kid's bike, and like $60 for mine)...Still, we don't want them ruined!!

Our trailer & my parents' motorhome at the Bakersfield WalMart. There were big power lines on the left side of us...That was kind of creepy to me, I'm paranoid about things like that. ;)

My mom with the boys, eating oranges

Noah and an orange tree:

That's all folks!!

Day 5, April 22

This was our first day at Disneyland!! We didn’t tell the kids where we were going, just that we were going to do something special. We all loaded up in Mom & Dad’s motor home, because motor homes can park way up close to the tram, by the busses. We teased the kids that we were just going to drive around in the motor home all day—and wouldn’t that be fun? :)

When we were on the tram, Kaleb heard the announcer guy say “welcome to Disneyland Park.” Kaleb kept emphasizing the word “PARK” and thought we were at a Disney PARK and was super excited about that. :) He didn’t know we were at DISNEYLAND! I think they were a little shocked but super excited when they all found out!

I spiked up the boys’ hair this morning—mostly so that Noah would be tall enough to make it on the rides. It worked for the first one—Thunder Mountain Railroad! So maybe we’re mean parents, but we figured that the boys (especially Isaac) would THINK they were scared of the big rides, but if they actually tried them, they would love them….So before showing them too much of the park, we were determined to bring them on a fast ride, to show them how fun they were. Kaleb liked it….Isaac and Noah did not.

They all sort of liked Pirates of the Caribbean, but it was a little scary for them (it’s a pretty creepy ride, if you think about it! We’ve got sensitive lads, you know!). :) Ruby did not like Pirates, she gripped on to Karry so tight and kept trying to crawl up him to get away!

The boys liked Star Tours—all but Isaac, that is. I lost my Oaklies on that ride, but went back and the cast members used a flashlight and found them right under my seat. I was so glad!!

The boys watched a Jedi Training show, and kids could raise their hands if they wanted to participate and learn how to use a light saber. Our boys enjoyed watching, but they were scared to go on the stage. When Darth Vader came out, Kaleb was totally freaked out, and I had to take him away from the stage. All of the kids who were on the stage got to fight Darth Vader with a light saber—pretty cool! I think Karry wished he was a little shorter so he could’ve been up there too. ;)

We ate lunch in the motor home—it took us about 20 minutes to get there, from the Pirates ride, which isn’t bad! We had sandwich stuff & pasta salad there.

The boys (and Karry) loved the Buzz Lightyear ride!! We got to shoot Zorg, which was pretty fun. Everyone was a fan of Autopia, we’ll be riding that one again, for sure!

We didn’t see any characters up close, but Kaleb saw Goofy from the top of the double decker bus.

Isaac was too scared to go on Space Mountain, so he hung out with Grandpa and Ruby. Karry, Kaleb, Noah, my mom and I all stood in line. When we got up to the ride, the man working there wanted to check Noah’s height. He wasn’t fooled by the spiked hair—he stuck his finger through it and said “nope, he’s not tall enough.” Bummmmmer….He gave us a pass so that the adult with him could come back on quickly. My mom stood out with Noah while I rode with Kaleb, and Karry rode alone. I think Noah was actually relieved, he was a bit scared of the ride but didn’t want to admit it. Later, he was saying “I wasn’t scared, I was just too little.” :) Kaleb loved the ride! It was darker and faster than I remembered it. When the ride was over, I went back on with my mom, and we sat in the very front row. That was creepy, and even faster! My contacts felt like they were going to fly out of my eyes!

The lines haven’t been too long—usually about 15 minutes (Nemo was 45 minutes though, we didn't attempt that one yet).

We saw Honey I Shrunk the Audience, which got a bit intense. Mom and dad sat out with Ruby as she napped in the carseat. Noah and Kaleb both cried when the cat turned into a lion and appeared to come out into the audience (3D) and we covered their eyes when the python came towards everyone.

The kids all worked to earn money the week before we left (my motivation to get them to be my worker bees, beyond their normal chores). Their money is burning holes in their pockets (though they didn’t bring it with them Day 1 at Disney). They’re looking at everything they can see (whenever a ride exit goes through a store) and saying “oh, maybe I’ll buy THAT!” I think the most any kid has is $7, and that’s Isaac, and that includes his $1 from the Tooth Fairy. They’re going to find out soon that toys at Disneyland are expensive!! They don’t know that I’m planning to do some Christmas shopping here, later. They have a lot of fun costume things—pirate eye patches and swords, etc. I saw them last time I was here and wished I had more packing room & could grab some things for Christmas (I did get 3 stocking stuffer items last time). This time we have storage under our bed in the trailer. Ha! They’ll never know!

I am so glad I picked up some things at the Disney Store back home. I got some light up spinny things for $2.99, $3.99 and $4.99, and the same sorts of things are $15 here! I am going to hide them in the backpack and pull them out during the evening parade when all of the other kids have them. Tricky momma! :)


This is Noah's spiked hair: Here we are on the tram:

And here's Karry with Ruby:

Isaac was being Grandma's boy all day, clinging to her constantly. A couple of times, my parents did a bait & switch, and this was one of them. :) Grandma was holding on to Isaac, and they very cleverly switched Grandpa into her place. We shot a photo and showed Isaac. We asked "who's holding you?" and he said "Grandma." He looked at the picture and said "Grandpa???" and turned around and started laughing! It was quite funny!

Ruby was starting to warm up to Grandma, and even smiled at Grandpa once and didn't cry around him at all. She cried over a woman talking to her in the restroom when I was changing her. She's not really crazy about strangers, but Grandma & Grandpa are not as strange to her anymore. :)

Here we are at the front of the park. This was at the beginning, and it was hard to get the kids to look forward for a picture, they were so interested in looking around and seeing everything!

The boys were exhausted by the end of the day!! This is them in the motorhome on the way back. No carseats, yes--I guess we don't technically have to in a motorhome (like a bus), but they do have seatbelts. It's a very short drive to the park, and we don't pick up much speed, so it was ok...Sleeeppy boys.... :)

We thought they might sleep in on Day 6, after that long day. It is now the morning of Day 6, as I write, and we'd hoped to make it a lazy morning (& sleep in) and we're going to the park after lunch today. 7:30 is about as late as they'll sleep in, I guess!!! Ruby was standing at her baby gate and babbling, and the boys were all awake, saying things like "I have to go potty" and "I'm hungry mommy!" Time to start another crazy day! :)

Day 4, April 21

We started at the Bakersfield WalMart and had to do a tiny bit of shopping. I was looking for diaper doublers for Ruby because even an hour & a half in the car makes her wet through her clothes...They didn't have any...I bought a bigger size diaper to put over her existing diaper, and that worked fine.

We had under 3 hours to drive today, which was NICE! We stopped to fuel up, and to eat some lunch at a Jack in the Box.

We drove through what looked like mountain on each side of us. They were green, and grassy, and beautiful. My mom called them the "grapevine," which I hadn't heard of. We passed so many semi-trucks, which makes us a little nervous as our vehicle set up is already so wide--there is no margin for error with a huge truck next to us!!

Our silly GPS brought us off on another highway that turned into 101, and then back onto I-5, for some strange reason. We drove through downtown Hollywood and faced crazy California traffic, lovely. Karry's hands hurt from gripping on that wheel so tightly!

The kids were great. I picked up little magnetic toys at WalMart, and didn't realize that every single magnetic piece would need to be punched out (which, of course, was hard for the kids). I think I spent an hour of the day doing that (exaggeration!!). Ruby's new diaper solution worked great.

Our ending destination? We were going to be here tomorrow night, but now we're at Orangeland, a campground 5 min from Disneyland with orange trees in every site. The kids LOVE the oranges!!!

Grandma (my mom) messed up yesterday and told a friend on the phone "we're going to Disneyland with Karry, Brenda and the kids" and the kids were like "wow, we're going to DISNEYLAND????" and Grandma told a little fib, "well, I was just teasing our friend because he really likes Disneyland..." I think they bought it, amazingly!!!

I can't tell you how excited we are to bring the kids there!!! They are going to LOOOOVVVVEEE it!! They saw Magic Mountain roller coasters off the freeway today and wanted to go ride those roller coasters. They were bummed when we said they were for big kids.

Ruby screams about Grandpa looking at her or Grandma holding her. Yikes! Hopefully she gets used to them soon!

Tonight we're grocery shopping, cleaning out the car (it needs it!) and getting ready for tomorrow's big day! Wooooo hoooo!!

I'll post a bunch of photos later!!

Days 3, April 20 (was going to be Day 1!)

Day 3~~
We started at Sacramento KOA and stayed there until about 30 minutes AFTER check out time (oops!). We had to do laundry, because Noah had peed his pants and Ruby had wet through her clothes a couple of times on the trip. Ruby was just about ready for a nap when we were going to do laundry. Karry decided to take the boys up to the playground (right next to the laundry room) and let htem play, and he'd do laundry. I hung out at the trailer while Ruby slept. I got to read more of my book and take a little nap myself. I was so appreciative of that break, after being in confined spaces with my loud, crazy boys for so many hours!! I was a little bummed that I couldn't get the supposed wireless internet to work ;), but being "forced" to read a book was ok too. :) It made me realize how quick I am to grab my laptop when I get a break, and how much I love to read and don't often choose to do so.

The land is beautiful. There is so much agriculture, it is AMAZING to look at it all!!!

We met up with my parents in the afternoon--they left after us, but they drive faster than us. :) We stopped for ice cream at a Foster's Freeze which looked remarkably similar to a Dairy Queen.

We drove on and ended up sleeping in a WalMart parking lot in Bakersfield.

Day 2, April 19

Some highlights:

~Brenda had to stop in at the UPS store in Roseburg to drop off a package (which we would have had done back home, had we been there!). The man at the counter was delighted that we were taking a road trip, and even MORE delighted that we had adopted 2 out of 4 kids (and shared that he adopted 4 out of 7!!), and after the transaction was completed, he handed Brenda a $5 and said “this is a discount.” :) Wow! Nice!

~It’s neat to hear the boys say things like “I love this land!” and, just like my little brother used to say “I’d like to climb that hill!” :)

~We made it through the Siskiyou pass just FINE. It was snowing on us, lightly, but there wasn’t any on the road.

~We drove a long distance today—all the way to Sacramento. I think we were in the car for about 6 hours, total.

~We stopped twice and let the kids run around at rest-stops, got snacks, drinks, etc. out of the trailer.

~We got gas 3 times today (the most expensive place costing $4.05 per gallon!!!)

~I read the Bible out loud in the car this morning (the chapters designated in the book Karry’s using with his men’s group).

~Karry and I listened to an audio sermon we’d put on our ipod called Blessed are the Poor by . Keller (I looked at all of the sermons that people I knew were recommending on their blogs and we downloaded them for listening!). It was a great sermon, I recommend it, and it actually tied in super well with the Leviticus stuff we read this morning!

~We heard another Odyssey story, and the kids watched 101 Dalmatians and also the Wizard of Hass (Veggie Tales).

~This sitting down thing (for long periods of time) is not working for Ruby, she’s wet through her diaper twice now…Ugh…Diaper doublers? More stops?

~I made 4 bead necklaces today. :) What a fun hobby!

~Homeschooling works out ok on a road trip. :) I brought little spiral notebooks and colored pencils for each boy in the car. Isaac wrote the words “MEMO BOOK” on one of the pages (copying it from the cover), and then asked me how to write a few more words. When I was making dinner tonight, I had the boys do a few pages in some preschool and kindergarten workbooks I brought.

~Ruby went to sleep with no tears and no hesitation tonight.

Day 1

Hi Friends! We finally have internet access and can post what has been going on!!


DAY 1~~ (April 18)
We decided to leave early because of snow forecasts in the Siskiyou pass. Karry worked from home on Friday and Brenda finished up laundry, packing, putting things away in the trailer, and cleaning up the house a bit—whew! We were short changed on packing time because of Brenda being sick (better now, by the way, thank you for prayers!), and then leaving early made us have to rush, rush, rush! Our original thought was that we’d leave the house at 3 pm when Karry was off work…yeah right….Then we thought 4 pm….No…We were heading out of our neighborhood at 6:30.

First thoughts/moments:
It was very windy, and the trailer is heavy (esp. with 3 cases of bottled water, a generator, clothes for a family of 6, snacks for the next month, etc.), and it was “fish tailing.” That was pretty scary to us (esp. Brenda!). We got to about Salem when we realized that we left the oh-so-important manila envelope with all of our tickets (Disneyland, Sea World, Medieval Times, Go San Diego passes & Knotts Berry Farm) sitting in our den. Thank goodness my (Brenda’s) parents were in Clackamas and had a key to our home & were willing to drive out there to pick them up. They were already planning on joining us at Disneyland anyway, so this worked out.

Our original goal was to sleep in Grants Pass. Ruby got a little fussy, and we were getting tired, so we decided to pull off in Roseburg and sleep in a Wal-Mart parking lot.

The kids did great for that first trip—all of them. We listened to an Adventures in Odyssey story, and didn’t play any DVDs (yet!) They were just so excited about the trip!!

Ruby had a hard time falling asleep, but she was very tired. Karry installed a baby gate across the opening of the bottom bunk in our trailer, and that is Ruby’s “crib.” She wasn’t quite sure about it and the boys kept calling her a baby tiger in a cage. :) When she did fall asleep, she slept through the night!

I (Brenda) had a hard time falling asleep too, so I stayed up reading “The Birth Order Book” by Kevin Leman (thank you to David & Lora for the book!), and admired my first-born traits. :) (you know, I could be an astronaut, president or architect—most have been first born kids or only kids—Karry, the baby, could be a comedian :).

Kaleb fell off of his bed once (but doesn’t remember that!), and people drove through the 24-hour Wal-Mart parking lot pretty fast all night, but other than that we slept well!

Oops!

I made a mistake--if you subscribe to posts, it doesn't end up in your e-mail box. Tell me if you'd like posts to go directly to your e-mail and I'll be happy to set that up! Just e-mail me and let me know!

Getting ready to go!

We are getting ready to go on our road trip, as we leave THIS Sunday! I (Brenda) have the flu, which is slowing things down a bit. My biggest prayer is that Karry and the kids do not get sick. We need every spare moment and everybody to be healthy!!!