Living and Learning on the Move: brad

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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!

A family in Vegas with Kids

11/09/2011 08:48:00 PM by LivingAndLearningOnTheMove

We knew Las Vegas was known for gambling, drinking, and other unspeakable sins; none-the-less, we were determined to find some good – some family fun! So, our friends had just been there and we had never been, so we asked them what they did when they were there. They said that you just go and walk around and that there was a lot to find and do for free. For those that don’t know the hotels are connected and you walk through them and see the different sites to see. Each hotel has its own theme and many have something to see or do for free (thanks Erin!). I thought it was a bit weird that you walk through hotels that you are not checked in at, do not plan to check in at, nor even play in the casinos! Once we arrived in Vegas, parked in the parking garage, I completely understood! The adventure was on!

Kids in front of Nevada sign!

Frank and kids in front of Planet Hollywood

We decided the first day that we went into town that we would just check the place out and go from there. Wow! We only brought our camera phone with us as we didn’t want to be the only crazy tourists flashing our camera everywhere… little did we know EVERYONE carried their cameras and acted the crazy tourists that we were! There were so many side shows ~ meaning people do almost anything for money/tips while you are walking around! The kids enjoyed the below gentleman so we had their pic taken with him! We walked and we walked, and we walked! If you decide to take the bus, it drives around the “Las Vegas Strip” and it costs $5 for two hours or $7 for 24 hours. That’s not a bad price at all; but, me being cheap and figuring the exercise could only help us all, I thought no, we’ll pass on the $28. It was fun walking around and exploring; but, wow, we only walked around (including sitting and breaks in between) for about four hours and I was limping by that time!

Through doing research of our destination, I found a website that offered quite a few attractions, museums, and other things to do for a relatively reasonable price. I found a similar site when I was in Houston called the City Pass (www.citypass.com). The one for Las Vegas is called the Las Vegas Power Pass (www.visiticket.com/LasVegas). If you’d like to get it for just one day, you can see as many places as you can or would like to for $80 for an adult or $50 for a child. The more days you add on, the cheaper it is considered per day. For an example, we did it for two days so it was $99 for adults and $66 for kids. So, if you do it for one day for an adult it averages $80 or 2 days for an average of $49 a day. If you do it for 5 days, it runs $35 a day. Before getting it, we decided what we’d like to see in Vegas and how much it would cost us if we didn’t get the pass. Just to see the Beatles concert ($50), Siegfried and Roy’s Dolphin Habitat ($20) and Madame Tussauds Wax Museum ($20), it would have been $90! On top of those destinations, we also had at least another 25+ things to see and do for “free” with the pass. Wow, did we find a lot of educational, yet fun things to do in “Sin City.” Not only did we find educational things but we also found other areas of interest like arcades! I’m not a big video game player or enthusiast by any means; however, with the pass we each were able to play for up to 4 hours in the arcade for FREE (a value of about $30 each). We even had pizza, soda, and some ride coupons!

Kristi volunteered to go on stage to help the magician! Boy were we proud of her and was she nervous!
She still doesn't know how she made that table rise!

Ta ~ Da!

We were rocking and dancing in our seats (just as a family) and Kristi was dancing so much in her seat that they came up and asked if Kristi would join the Beatles on stage as their biggest fan! People all over Vegas kept coming up to us congratulating Kristi for doing so well up on stage with them! Quite an experience! She was able to take home a little tambourine with all their autographs on it!

With our pass we were able to go to the top of the Stratsophere! It was awesome! Daddy even rode the rides at the top! Yikes, we were afraid he may fall off the top! LOL! (At least the kids were!) :-)

Siegfried & Roy’s Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat

We absolutely LOVED the dolphins!

The pass also included going to the top of the Eiffel Tower!

Scenes from the top of the Eiffel Tower!

More scenes from on top of the Eiffel Tower.

The kids driving their first small go-carts!

More fun on the go-carts!

Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum with the Pirate's of the Carribean!

Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum with President Obama!

Leaving our rv park. Notice the cactus plants! There were so many animals that played around
those plants that we could stay busy watching the ground squirels, birds, and even quail!

I thought I would write this blog post because my general misconception (along with probably many other people’s misconceptions) is that Las Vegas is not a family friendly place for children. I hope you have fun looking through all the fun things that we enjoyed sharing with each other!

Ski like an Olympian!

10/26/2011 01:00:00 AM by LivingAndLearningOnTheMove

Wow! As I stated in our last post (23 Oct), we have been super busy doing our school work! So, unfortunately, even though we are on the road, things have become quite routine as we’ve been staying at home (in the RV) getting caught up with school work.

Needless to say, field trips have very much been missed! So, today we decided to go see two things in the local area – the site of the 2002 Winter Olympics and the biggest hole in the U.S. (an Open Pit Copper Mine)! I’ll write about these in 2 different posts. It was funny today as we were driving up to the Olympics site, we saw a large green ramp (for lack of better terms) going down the mountain (for the ski jumps, etc.) and I said wow, just thinking how these magnificent athletes were right where we. The kids said, “Is that it?” We laughed and said, “Yes, that’s it! Just Kidding!” Then when we were on the way to the Copper Mine which is known as the biggest hole in the U.S., the kids said now we are going to the biggest hole, is that it?! LOL!!! We were like, “Yup, we decided just to go to the biggest ramp and the biggest hole in the U.S. …. Heheheee.. too funny! LOL!

Anyway, the Olympics Park was so awesome! It was so surreal and I felt my patriotic tears coming on! It was funny because I started hearing the Olympics song in my mind as we ascended up the mountain to the location! Strange, right? *smile* As we entered the door, there were a number of different displays including different types of sleds… two for the luge and skeleton and one bobsled. We were in the moment so Frank told Brad and Kristi to go ahead and get in it… I was thinking, no, we aren’t supposed to be doing this!!! It was about this time that I noticed a sign on the other side of the wall that said it was a replica so we can go ahead and dive right into it! LOL! So here is a family picture of us in it!

Lots and lots of interesting displays throughout the Olympic Park. If it weren’t so cold, we could have taken a guided tour which takes you all the way to the top of the luge back down again, and up to the top of the bobsled run and back down again and around the museum. The memorable things throughout were a collection of medals, a large quantity of 2002 Winter Olympics pins, and a small area about the Special Olympics. It was neat because they showed the different devices that they used to help the athletes to complete each sport. Another neat area was an interactive area. This was the kids’ very part. They had an area that they could practice skiing between the poles down the slope. They do not know how to ski but they sure looked adorable trying to! If you would like to see more pictures of the 2002 Winter Olympics (in Park City, UT), click on the below link. If you would like to learn more about our fun at the Copper Mine, read the next blog post!

This was a really neat interactive system that allowed the kids to "ski down hill" and the kids sure had a blast! If you would like to see more pictures, click here: www.livingandlearningonthemove.com/2011-10-25 Olympics Park 2002

Stephen Austin

12/31/2010 05:31:00 PM by LivingAndLearningOnTheMove

Stephen Austin State Park (San Felipe, TX)

These deer were all in our pathway! It was awesome until
the buck started heading right at us! Some were even rutting...
they didn't even stop with humans near them!