Living and Learning on the Move

Various Kissimmee, FL Tourist Views

1/08/2013 10:00:00 PM by LivingAndLearningOnTheMove

Just a few different sites every tourist sees in the Kissimmee, Florida area! There are tons and tons of shops set up just selling various souvenirs from t-shirts, to key chains, to everything in between!

Awesome Orange Stand

Some buildings had the coolest shapes and sizes including
the wizard on the front of this gift shop!

This is one that I loved the drawings throughout the exterior!
There were several that had amazing drawings, this is just
one of the few I was actually able to photograph while
stopped at a stoplight! I kept saying I'd walk the strip and
take pics, I just didn't want to get caught up in all the
tourist-y stores! :)

Various pics of our animals! :)

1/07/2013 07:30:00 PM by LivingAndLearningOnTheMove

Just a few various pictures of some of the animals lounging around the RV! :)

It looks like snow, it feels like snow...

1/03/2013 06:30:00 PM by LivingAndLearningOnTheMove

I posted this on Facebook and just had to post it in the blog! We are obviously from a cold weather state and are used to seeing lots of snow. Due to our traveling, especially due to my back pain issues and our need to passionately homeschool hands-on across the United States, we have not actually lived in cold weather for about three winters.

Kristi happened to open the freezer and saw this snow-like mixture throughout it. She scooped it up in a cup and said, "It looks like snow, it feels like snow; but, it sure doesn't taste like snow!"

LOL! It still makes me laugh! :)

We already make a difference!

7/05/2012 03:10:00 AM by LivingAndLearningOnTheMove

     I have the most awesome kids! I was looking at something and I said something to the effect of, "I just want my children to be happy, successful (in whatever way they want to be), and make a difference in the world." Brad overheard me and said, "Mom, we already make a difference, we feed the poor!"

     It's funny because throughout their childhood we have always picked up different types of activities to "give back" to the community or help others. Once, we helped with Operation Christmas Shoebox; another time, we helped with Meals from the Heartland. We've had so many opportunities to serve and each time, they have become some of my children's most treasured moments! They remember how they made sure that the shoebox had hygiene items (so they can stay clean), along with school supplies, knowing if the child didn't have school supplies he or she wasn't able to go to school. They remember!!! They remember and want to do more of those things. I also found that giving is the most rewarding thing we have ever done.

     So again, it's funny that I just wanted them to make a difference in life and they overheard and said that they have already! How awesome! Their most recent adventure of helping is by going on this website called www.freerice.com. What they do is work on subjects like: math, grammar, etc. and for each answer they get right, they feed the hungry 10 grains of rice. (By the way, I LOVE that they are learning while they are giving.) I think Kristi is at 10,000 or more already! LOL! For the last 5 DAYS STRAIGHT, that is their first thought and last thought of the day! "Mom, I have to go on free rice and feed the hungry." LOL! They are too funny and so sweet trying to do all they can. We will have to find further opportunities for them as we travel across the United States living and learning and now helping others too!

Father's Day

6/17/2012 11:30:00 PM by LivingAndLearningOnTheMove

     We started out the day having some of our favorite foods at an all you can eat restaurant! Oh no! Not so great for our diet; but, we had fun and watched it at least a little bit! The kids loved that they had all of their breakfast favorites all in one breakfast meal!

     It is so hot here in the south (currently Texas), that we often times try to limit our exposure in the sun during the peak daytime hours. So, we went back home to the RV and had a sort of family movie time and watched a few movies. The kids loved watching Cinnamon the Dog, Journey 2, and even John Carter! The kids don’t seem to mind the heat as much as we do so they did go out and had fun with their friends for a little while.

     Much later in the day we spent quite a bit of time in the pool. There were quite a few kids in the pool including many of the Brad and Kristi’s friends so Frank and I actually had a little time to ourselves too! During the time that we spent in the pool we kind of played around with our underwater camera! It was a lot of fun; however, I can see we have some work to do on it! :-) Some of the pictures of me were not so good; but, the kids looked great (especially one of the boys under water). Overall, I think Frank had a happy Father’s Day! I know we had a great amount of quality family fun! Hope you enjoy the pictures!!!

Me just getting to the pool!

Kristi and I trying to get a good underwater picture! Didn't help that the water was
very cloudy and painful to the eyes (or that we kept trying to drown each other - a little inside joke.. LOL)!

Kristi giving me a kiss!

Brad and I also trying to do an underwater picture! Not so pretty! LOL!
(I guess at least we weren't trying to drown each other!)

Brad and I swimming together.

Brad doing a somersault!

Corbin doing a somersault!

Brad playing/swimming with an almost, somewhat real smile?!!! :-)

Kristi with one of her girlfriends!

Brad goofing! :)

Brad and the boys.

Brad and Corbin underwater! Isn't this a pretty good one?

Kristi and Corbin - playing some sort of jail game. Once they catch each
other they are supposed to go to jail at the stairs of the pool. Daddy thought
they were a little ~too~ close! Too funny, huh?! :-)

My Young Entrepreneurs’

5/14/2012 08:30:00 PM by LivingAndLearningOnTheMove

Our children are the most social little creatures that there are out there! It’s always funny when our kids meet other kids at the playground and we end up finding out it is another full-time family that we “know” from online! We end up meeting the parents later and it is just hilarious! It seems like everyone at the RV parks we stay at know our children!

Brad and Kristi also know most of the animals (particularly dogs) that stay at the parks! The reason this is, is because everyone walks their dogs and they end up meeting them. They have come a long way since we first went full time. When we first started, they would just assume since the dogs are being walked and there are so many people here that the dogs are friendly; however, they have learned that simply isn’t the case. So, they are always great about asking, “May I pet your dog?”

Sanabella!

A very adorable, very energetic puppy!

Needless to say, they have had quite a few dog walking and dog boarding type jobs at the various parks! This last little puppy, they watched somewhat frequently, and we all became a little attached! This little furball was a big fluff ball! The most adorable little thing. She has a very unique name though; I believe it is Sanabella (I think)! It sounds very cute when you say it anyway! :-) Unfortunately, that little furball has gone on her merry way to North Carolina and us onto Texas.

A small nap after running the puppy all throughout the RV park!

Just woke up - moving a little slow for herself (our speed)!!!

Throughout this experience, my children have become quite the little entrepreneurs! The two things they do the best are taking care of/loving animals and making jewelry (out of real beading and crocheting)! So, they have already made business cards to hang up for the dog walking/caring service. As far as the jewelry business, they’ve made business cards and in their spare time they are making a lot of items in bulk so they can sell at the vendor tables at the different RV parks/resorts where we stay. I wish we had our camera when we were at the motor vehicle office a few weeks ago! They were crocheting a bracelet for most everyone waiting (which was quite a lot considering there were probably over 100 people waiting)! Then, they started making earrings too. They were making quite a bundle! One of their first customers was holding up a pair of their earrings saying, “Earrings for sale, earrings for sale!” :-) I told her I need to hire her as their marketing manager! LOL! I almost thought we might get in trouble like we “set out” to do business inside the motor vehicle business office! LOL! They had only brought their items to stay busy while waiting for us to be done. Had we not had to wait around for 4 hrs before even being seen, they probably wouldn’t have made it quite so far in their business there! Who am I kidding?! They did come up with it pretty fast! :-) Hope you enjoy the pictures of the little fluff ball! I’ll have more pics of their new business skills as they proceed with their businesses!

Our Ice Cream Party - Thanks Micah & Auntie Stephanie!

5/10/2012 01:10:00 AM by LivingAndLearningOnTheMove

We had to plan this party quite quickly! As you know, in this lifestyle one never knows how long their neighbors will be around before they get the “itch” move on! :-) Just kidding! Yes, that's true; but, in this case one of the families that participated were scheduled to leave in two short days! Now, THIS blog post is going to be fun! As you all know, the kids are benefiting with an ice cream party thanks to a lot of wonderful people out there! Here are the pictures of the party as I promised, Auntie Stephanie!

To begin with, I had all of these wonderful ideas of having a huge party - you know, the bigger, the better! I was going to buy streamers, screamers, party hats, and all of the wonderful things that make up a party. However, when I started thinking about the practicability of such things in our environment, it wasn’t such a realistic thought! You see, if we had the party here at Thousand Trails, I can see us putting up streamers and all just to “get in trouble” and have to take them down. Not to mention feeling like a bit of a nuisance to the elderly in this community. *giggle* We thought about and decided it would be a lot more fun to make the mess elsewhere so others can clean it up! Just kidding… (us ladies ended up cleaning up the mess none-the-less!) After running some figures of what was do-able with that many people, we decided to have our party at CiCi’s Pizza! Remember altogether, we had a total of 23 people! We were able to have all we can eat and the managers were even letting us bring in ice cream along with all our goodies for sundaes! We decided against the screamers that you can blow (might get us in a bit of trouble with CiCi’s), figured streamers and other ideas were out, so we focused on what we all LOVE the most – food and good people to socialize and share it with! Needless to say, you can tell by all of these wonderful smiles that EVERYONE had a wonderful time! A great time was had by all! (Beware, lots of pictures for Auntie Stephanie and everyone else to follow!) All in all, it was an AMAZING time! Thank you to all that made this happen in so many ways! You know who you are!