Back Home Again In Indiana...

We have only been gone six weeks as of yet, but circumstances have brought us back through our hometown again.  I must say, I didn't miss it as much until we were here again.  Bittersweet.  Of course I missed everyone, but knowing, or not knowing, how long it will be until we are reunited again makes me appreciate it all so much more.  Even after a small separation, it has made me realize how homesick I will be in the upcoming months.  I look forward to our travels, but I wish those we love could bring the joy and love they give us along for the ride.

We are parked in my parents driveway.  Our nicest campsite so far!!!

Also, I must say, they have the best food we've encountered.  I suspect they are trying to bribe us with their good cooking so that we won't stray far from home.  I'm tempted to pull another camper behind us to join our mini caravan so that they may join us and we can have built in chefs (and wonderful company) along on our travels.  If only they would go for it...

We stopped by our home which we have rented out to a lovely family, and they blessed us with strawberries freshly picked from our (their) garden.  They are doing a much better job caring for the garden then we ever did.  We always had big hopes, but come July they all kind of fizzled. I'm sure they will do the garden the justice it deserves.  They seem very happy in our home, and I'm glad for it.  I really don't miss it.  Well, I do miss the kitchen.  I sincerely and desperately LOVE my kitchen.  I love it even more because WE did it.  My husband put his blood, sweat, and even a few tears into it.  He made it what it is.  I just slapped a little paint on, but it's a wonderful and beautiful thing.

I do miss it.  But not the cleaning.  Or the upkeep.  Or the yardwork. Or even the garden.  Just the kitchen.  It really was the heart of our home.  We'll be back someday, but not yet.  For now we have many picnic tables in our future (the ants will be happy and fat when we leave).

Ok, so I do kind of miss a bathroom big enough to turn around in, and a bathtub for the kiddos.  They loved showers until they didn't have a choice...

But that's it.  I miss no more.  

Actually, when we were visiting our home I enjoyed looking at the beautiful (if not entirely finished yet) landscaping, but was ever so thankful we weren't the ones having to maintain it.  We're just too busy for that. 

Several people have said that they couldn't or wouldn't want to do what we are doing with small children.  It certainly has a few challenges, but honestly, we're not doing anything that we wouldn't have to do already.  We have three very small and very dependent children.  That's our life whether we're living in our motorhome or our 'sticks and bricks' home.  It's going to be a lot of work either way.  The really big plus for us is that we get to actually do things with our kids rather then talk about them.  

Our 4 year old knows more geography then many 10 year olds.

Our 2 year old doesn't care what we do as long as we're outside.  

She's happy hiking in a backpack or running through a field picking flowers.

We feel blessed, truly BLESSED, to be able to show our kids what 'wide open spaces' really means.  Yes, we 'live' in a small space but the whole WORLD is our 'home'.  We can have a beachfront home, a mountain home, a city home, a home in the country, the desert...and we intend to do all of that.

We never move without praying. 

We know that we are the undeserving benefactors of a mighty God, and we are thankful for all we have been blessed with.

Getting back to Indiana...

We attended my nephew and his beautiful bride's wedding.  It was HOT, but a lovely ceremony, with wonderful and AUTHENTIC Mexican food (my favorite!).  We wish them nothing but the best for their future and pray that they have many, many happy years of wedded bliss!

Christian and Ashanti

5-20-12

Helen, my niece, adding her part to the wedding!

My brother, Tommy, and nephew Garrett, father and brother of the groom.

A lil' nose-picking-mid-ceremony never hurt anyone!

Uncle David and Emmy

Maggie dancing it up!

My mom, Annie, & I.

Viktoria lovin' on Mags.

My dad and brothers all looking very handsome!

Uncle DR and Aunt Toni.  

Keeping cool and lookin' cool!

My hubby and I NOT taking a picture of ourselves for once! 

Emmy, no doubt, will be 'playing bride' for weeks to come.  Ever since we mentioned the name "Ashanti" (the bride) to her it has become her favorite pretend name to be, so now that she has actually been to 'Ashanti's' wedding, she will be 'the bride' now for a long, long time (while I am stuck being the groom, the clergy, the choir, the flower girl and the attendees), but...all in the name of LOVE. :)  Again, our prayers and best wishes for the bride and groom, their family, and their future!

More to come on Indiana, but for now, yes, there IS more then corn here.  There is family, sunshine, running through sprinklers, afternoon happy hour, garage saling, wonderful meals, games, silliness, smiles...lots of smiles, grandparents, our Big Red Van, and love.  Lots of love.  We will miss Indiana and all that it holds for us.  Our family is special.  And imperfectly perfect.  I am blessed and thankful to be a part of it.

Niagara Falls!!!! (and Le Roy, NY...)

So, here we are in Le Roy, NY...I've been giving them the benefit of the doubt and pronouncing the town with a French accent (laaaay roooooy), and not Leroy, as in Bubba's BFF at the local tavern.  However, when we've pronounced it the French way (exotic, no?), we've gotten laughs from the locals...so, Leroy it is.  And his buddy Bubba.

So, the place itself ok, but the excitement of the week for me has been Emmy's new friend, Sara.  Since she has been a big girl, she's never really had any friends other then her sisters, so it's a pretty big deal for her.  For me to.  I kept trying to snap some photos, because it's the cutest thing, but most of them are just the two of them walking away from me.  I've been replaced.  Sigh.  

They made MUD PIES!!!  How cool is that?  I didn't even mind the laundry I had to wash by hand afterwards in my wonderwash, which works great, but is still a lot of work.  I really need to have a whole post about my wonderwash.  I have a love, hate, love relationship with it.  

Maggie  and Emmy are coming in every night exceptionally dirty.  Like, 'they have to be carried straight to the shower so they won't touch anything' dirty. 

I'm ok with that.

That means they are having TONS of fun and being kids. 

Without electronics.  I love it!  

Yep.  Those are worms.  Squirmy, wormy ones.  They found a LOT of worms.  They collected them in a bug catcher...they added dirt, and grass and it was a lot of fun...and then Chad said that they should add some water to the dirt so they don't get dried out.  Which is a GREAT idea, right?  It was a HOT day, and we didn't want them to get dried out and die before we return them to the earth.

So, being the responsible mother and caretaker that I am, added a little of  Chad's water from his cup.

Except that I later discovered that it wasn't his cup.  

It was mine.

And, more importantly, it wasn't water.  

It was wine.

So, we just ended up with a bunch of dead, drunk worms.

Whoops.  

My bad.

There were a few survivors though.  

The girls didn't release the living back into the wild, and they were forgotten until the next day.  Emmy found 3 still squirming and treasured them until she put them on top of our metal cooler in the 80 degree sun.  Do you know what happens to worms NOT in dirt on top of a hot, metal cooler?

They die.  

I walked by an hour or so later and they were shriveled up and dead. 

Those worms never stood a chance.

 Maggie loves her hats.  She also loves Annie's hats, so the bad news is that she's stretching all of Annie's hats out.  The good news is that Annie will be able to wear them again in 2 years.

I'll be the first to say that Canada got the good end of the deal when they got their half of Niagara Falls.  We went to the falls a couple of years ago without a passport for Maggie (and it was freezing cold in November) so we had to see the Falls from the American side, which was quite UNDER-whelming. 

So much so that we didn't really even want to go back, because it wasn't really 'that' big of a deal. But it IS one of the 'Wonders of the World'...at least I THINK it is, so, back we went to the CANADIAN side, and boy am I glad we did!

Holy cow that's a lot of water.  

Seriously.

An INSANE amount of water.  

We had some amazingly breathtaking views of the falls, and walked through the completely touristy street (which I kind of like on occasion) and rode the Maid of the Mist boat which is absolutely incredible.  The sheer amount of water that surrounds you on the boat from all sides is astounding.  

It cannot be described and must be experienced.

We had a boat-full with us, and while in the midst of the falls I didn't hear much talking...it hushed a crowd, and is purely an 'AWE'some experience.  

Something I did not realize is that there are two separate Falls that are part of Niagara Falls, but the Maid, does take you to both.  

It simply must be done. 

We had a debate with Emmy on if this street performer was a 'real person' or a 'robot'.

She insisted he was a robot.  

This was a real guy.  

At least one of them was.

On the ride home, all tuckered out.

See you down the road!