Pictures

 We celebrated Kanon's birthday a couple days early, since we would be gone to pick up the trailer on his actual birthday. He wanted Fun-da-middles cupcakes, but Aunt Tricia didn't have a cupcake pan. So we made it into a cake. It was pretty good still.

We left Corpus Christi at 6am 11/25/11, heading out on our trip to VA. We were greeted by a great sunrise a few hours later.

 Big bridge over the lake.

 "Way down yonder on the Chattahoochie"

Made it back to Texas 11/29/11, with trailer in tow.

 3200 miles, drove through 13 states in 5 days. It was a crazy trip, but so worth it!

Inside the new home

 

I am finally figuring out how to upload pictures to the blog, since I take most of my pictures on my phone. It's a definite learning process with the blog. But here is a few pictures of our new home. This is our awesome dinette that we all can actually fit at. Dad sits on a little stool at the table. Its nice to be able to eat dinner together.

 From the back of the trailer to the front.

 Our kitchen area. We have bought a wooden stove cover, that I can also put over the left side of the sink when I'm cooking to create more counter space. It actually works out really well.

 We've got two sets of bunks, so all the kids have their own bed. The girls picked out new comforter sets to go on their new beds. The boys really like the comforters they already have, so they decided not to get new ones. Eventually we'll make little curtains for each bunk, so they can close it off when they want some privacy.

 Lynne snapped this the day we bought our trailer, just before we pulled out of the Hollomans street. We are so blessed to have met them and have the opportunity to buy our new home.

Down the road a couple hours, we camped for our first night at Yogi Bears's Jellystone Park in Emporia, VA. It was almost dark when we pulled in and dark when we pulled out in the morning, but it was a nice pull through spot. We got a free glow in the dark key chain from here. I love that we'll always be able to remember where we stayed our first night.

 

Until later,

Jenn

Lots of updates

Wow, so much to update! Hmm where to start. Well we finally got our truck and trailer! We bought our truck a couple months ago. It's a Ford F250 extended cab. It's not a 4 door per say, but it does have back doors that open up. We all fit in it great and we love driving it.

As for our new home, that has been quite the dream. When we started talking about going on the road fulltime, we had always talked about buying something older. That was where our budget was. It had to have 4 bunks, a super slide and a master bedroom. We had looked at quite a few trailers. Not many really totally fit our needs or were too old. Then about 7 weeks ago someone posted on the Families on the Road Facebook page, offering to rent or sell their travel trailer. I took a look at the pictures, just to check them out. I was amazed to find out that it was exactly what we were looking for. They wanted a low down payment and really low monthly payments. We debated back and forth for about a week. Do we wait and just pay cash on something older or do we jump in and try to get this trailer, that is a 2011? Well we went for it and got it! We just got back from our whirlwind trip to VA to pick it up. 3200 miles in 5 days! It was a crazy quick trip. We left the younger three kids with my brother and sister-in-law down in Corpus Christi. We had to buy a new tire and tie rod end on the way up there, when I was forced off the road and slid across a grassy median. But other then that our trip was pretty smooth. 

We are happy to be back and moving into our new home. We will park it in the country for a couple of months, while Jim works and we save up some money. Then hopefully head down the road about the end of Jan.

Til later,
Jenn 

Truck, Sports and Taxes

The truck search is now under way. If all goes right, we should be able to buy our truck in about 2 weeks. We have one picked out that we'd really like. Hopefully its still available when we are ready to buy. We would really like to buy a Dodge 2500 diesel quad cab long bed. That is the truck that we know the most about and really trust. It's been known to go over 500,000 miles, if taken care of. Luckily we live in a huge city right now, with trucks everywhere for sale. I'm confident we'll find the truck we need and want! :)

So our lease is up at the end of Oct. We don't want to renew it, since we want to get outa here as quick as possible. We had first been told that we would be able to file our taxes in Aug. after meeting the requirements of the rehab program with my student loan. Then I found out that it was going to take a little longer, but I should be able to file Sept. Now the US Dept of Education has decided that they want to do an overhaul of their systems, and it started on the day that they were supposed to take back my loan. Of Course! >:/ So now I may have to wait until the beginning of Oct. to file Taxes. Its just cutting it so close to the end of our lease! We know that this is all supposed to happen in His time, not ours. Its just very hard, after waiting almost 2 years to get this started, to be told that we have to wait even longer. Ugh. This wait will give us time to focus on buying our truck though, and be able to pull our trailer home on our own. That is really a plus!

We've already been lookng into jobs for next summer. Looks like some places are already starting the hiring. We'd like to work at Yellowstone, but also just saw a job in South Dakota, at an RV resort that looks pretty awesome! Looks like we may need to speed up our job search, before they're all taken for next summer.

The boys start sports next week. Kanon is playing flag football and Zakk is doing baseball. They are really excited! We are looking forward to watching them play. Should be alot of fun!

Until next time,
Jenn

Here we go

Over a year ago we decided that we wanted to sell everything, buy a travel trailer and travel this beautiful country with our kids. It's a crazy idea, we know. Most people won't understand it, but we're gonna go for it anyway. We're gonna be a Fulltiming Family (FtF), a Family on the Road (FOTR). Its been a long year and a half of dreaming, learning, touring (travel trailers), but mostly praying! We feel this is our path. Our kids are growing up so fast. We figured why wait to go RVing, when we can go now and take our kids with us, to enjoy this wonderful country and see all its magnificant sites.

It's getting closer everyday. We will be able to file our taxes soon, then buy our trailer. That is our first step. We'd love to buy a 5th wheel, but not sure thats in the cards yet. There are a couple pull behinds that would really work for our family. Each kid will have their own bed, so we need a quad bunk. Plus a slide out (or two) are a requirement. Lots of storage will be needed too, with 6 people living in it.

We're really getting excited to start this adventure. Our direction and travel plans will be "set in Jell-O" as we like saying. We'll Workamp and volunteer across the country, hopefully working at Yellowstone next summer and maybe Amazon next winter, with lots of traveling adventure in between. We would like to volunteer in different towns as we travel, where ever we are needed.

We are going into our 7th year of homeschooling, which will just turn into roadschooling. How else can you get a better education, then to go to the actual battle sites, national parks and national monuments across the country, that you're already reading about for school.

This won't just be an adventure for our family, this will be our life. There are many other families out there doing this exact same thing. We aren't the only crazy ones! We're excited to join and meet them!