Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from May, 2010

Our stop in somewhere, WV

We broke up the 5 hour drive from WV to OH. Now that we're nomads, no more long days of driving for us! We stopped somewhere on the West Virginia Turnpike. The travel plaza had two geocaches to find, so we stopped for the night. We parked in the back corner far from everyone hoping for a good night's sleep. Instead, two trucks parked right beside us and ran loudly all night. Uncool. But free, so whaddayado? The geocaches were kicking our rears, with our untrusty GPS, but as we tried the second time, we came upon a fellow hunter and found them both. So score two more for us! Yeah, that's 5 if you're keeping count. Our fellow hunter has found over 300!

4-wheeling fun!

So this is the reason Allen came home ready to buy a toy hauler and some 4-wheelers. Also the reason he has fewer clothes in his (already very limited) wardrobe. He had a blast! He also got to take Matt and Lizzy with him another day and boy did they love it! Thanks to Michael, Dottie, and Dan for the pics, Dottie for the 4-wheeler and taking the kids, and all the OAC for the fun they had! While I pouted, I mean worked back at home...

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a flying gocart?

This is what kept flying over my head in West Virginia. Yeah, it's a flying go-cart. I think they're called paragliders? Not sure, but it's a go-cart. That flies. In the sky. Crazy! And before I crack any jokes about West Virginia (cause I love West Virginia, but I'd be tempted!), I have to admit Allen and Josh rode in one at a race track in Adams County Ohio (which is kinda the same isn't it?!) We went to the preacher feature, which was very amusing. Very redneck yes, embracing our roots, but very amusing. That was in 2004, so Josh was 4, and I let him ride in a flying go-cart. Mom of the year right there. :p

Kayaking, swimming - or not, and UFC fighting at the campground (on TV anyway!)

Saturday the campground was really hopping. What a change from the silence this week. And this kind of chaos is fun! The OAC separated into what they’d run, Allen choosing the Cranberry. Which sounds pretty lame, but he said it was awesome! Creeky (so technical and fast all the way without boring parts like on a river) and really fun, even better than the New. After they left, some of the moms, wives, girlfriends, and kids went for a short hike. I also stopped at the visitor center and we got a passport to be stamped at all the national parks we'll be visiting. Then we planned to go swimming at Fayette Station (under the big bridge), but a raft bus wedged itself into one of the turns, blocking the only road down! Yes the turns are tough and it takes the busses 2-3 maneuvers, but this must have been a newbie. And yes, I took a picture. The kids were sad, so we went back up (which wasn’t easy) and drowned our sorrows in ice cream. :) Saturday night was fight night, an OAC fir

The view from my office, at the New River Gorge

This one will be hard to beat. :) Scrapthemap

Kayaking buddies for life

Friday Allen, Josh, and Dottie ran the middle New. It’s an easy paddle with two pretty big rapids at the beginning and end. Josh did great! No flips at all and Allen said he handled his new boat well. Oh yeah, we bought the kids a new (to them) boat. So now we’ll have 2 small playboats (and both will fit in the basement) instead of Allen’s playboat and the longer one hanging on the back ladder. Eric Jackson (famous kayaker guy) said (in a family class Allen & the kids were in) you can have kayaking buddies, but if you teach your kids to paddle, you’ll have kayaking buddies for life. Allen’s working in it. Matt and Lizzy swam and snorkeled for a while. If you’re wondering, no, the river’s not a good place to snorkel. But they had fun and I worked a little with the New River Gorge as a backdrop. Loved that! See the view from my office in the next post. Had to throw in a pic of the country roads... take me home... to the place... (sing with me!)

We're soooooo bored!

I worked all day Thursday so the kids played at the campground. They were miserably bored of course, because the OAC all left that morning for kayaking or 4-wheeling. And even though we’ve been alone all week, now that they have friends around, they don’t adjust well to being alone again. I did help Lizzy make a quick swing. That didn’t end well. I won’t be making more thin rope swings.

A little 4-wheeling

I’ve been blogging offline, I’m running out of internet! :) My 5gb limit’s been tested with a big work project, so I’m trying to conserve my data usage. So many posts forthcoming (sorry). Dottie got here on Wednesday and let them take a quick spin on her 4-wheelers and boy did they love it. Happy kids, oh my! Allen ended up riding Thursday instead of kayaking and had a blast. So happy Daddy too.

Found another geocache, New River Gorge audio tour, swimming, and crazy squirrels!

We found a geocache today, this time without our un-trusty GPS (or the iPhone which had no service anyway)! The clues helped us find this one (just in the nick of time before muggles came along too!) We drove down into the New River Gorge as we've done hundreds of time probably, but this time we listened to the audio tour (free from the visitors center!) and learned much more about the gorge, coal mining, the bridge, and history of the area. It's such an interesting place. Plus it has great kayaking and rafting of course! At the bottom, Fayette Station, we let the kids swim for a while and they had a ball. A bit cold, but that never stops them! When we got home, we saw two squirrels in our site and said awww, until we realized they were eating our cornhole bags! Allen said ( on his blog ) they must be Michigan squirrels because we have an OSU cornhole set. :) Scrapthemap

Dirty Ernie's Rib Pit, Fayetteville, WV

Sound good? It is! We celebrated finding a geocache today (without our un-trusty GPS even!) by ribs and BBQ at a place we discovered years ago while white water rafting down here in WV. We found the shirt (red, top right) we'd signed and left in 2005! Yes Ohio State Buckeyes, what did you expect?! :) It's a tradition and there are shirts from all over. Money too, signed and all over their walls. We opted for the shirt though. In case you're wondering, yes, they do go easy on that whole no shoes, no shirt, no service rule when you leave a shirt... :)

I won! I won!

Yay! My Women of Faith Wednesday blog entry was drawn by the WOF blog team and I won! I won the book 1001 Things Your Kids Should See & Do Before They Leave Home , by Harry H. Harrison Jr. Yeah, I think we can use that with our three! :) And I'm pretty sure as we travel the country in an RV, we'll have plenty of time and opportunity to see and do them! It'll be arriving in our mailbox (well, our forwarding service) soon! Yippee!

That's it you sneaky little geocaches!

No more will you evade our detection. No more will we frustratedly hold the Bushnell GPS (now available cheap on eBay!) and yell at it to find itself. No more will we shake the iPhone as it gets us ever so close then gets stuck just as we're almost there. No more I tell you, because as we speak, our new Garmin Oregon 400T is making its way to us (okay, to our mail drop). And once we unite, there will be no hiding from the Lundys. We WILL find you! From what I hear, this GPS will all but find the geocaches for us, and it better! Today we gave up on a simple park & grab and didn't even get to the challenging ones. So enough's enough and we're ready to once again go geocaching with our trusty new friend. As soon as we get it. :)

Crock Pot Pizza recipe

We're trying to break free from the "we're camping" mindset to the "we live in an RV" mindset, so I'm getting back to our normal meals instead of quick and easy. Of course our normal meals ARE quick and easy fortunately. Well, or else they wouldn't be our meals. But no more frozen stuff. We've had homemade pizza, chicken pot pie, BBQ chicken bake, spaghetti, and tonight was crock pot pizza. I've apparently not shared this recipe yet, and it's one of our favorites! We've tried beef and chicken and both are great. Easy meal in a crock pot, even for RVing families! Assuming you kept your crock pot. :) I was a little short on sauce so I threw in some salsa this time too. No one noticed. :) I also made Ranch bread. It was supposed to be Italian, but I had no Italian mix, just Ranch, so I figured I'd try it to see how it was. It's their new favorite! Crock Pot Pizza 1 lb ground beef or chicken 2 jars pizza sauce (16oz) –

Visited a new church, no comment

We visited a church in town today. It was very traditional and looked so much like the one I grew up in that I kept expecting to see my dad walk in. It was weird. And thinking of him reminded me of his common saying: If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all . So that's all I have to say about today. Oh, Dad would have liked it. I want to say more (I never did listen well), but Allen says I shouldn't. He's probably right. So I'll just leave you with this random tip, totally unrelated to our visit today of course. If you get to church and visitors happen to be sitting in your unspoken assigned seat, sit elsewhere. Don't sit there anyway, pushing them down, without speaking to them. And especially don't barge through and almost sit on their smallest child requiring their mom to rescue him at the last minute as your bum's about to smoosh him. That would be rude. Just a tip! I have many other tips, but I'll keep them

Rain, rain, go away!

I know Allen and his kayaker pals love rain before their weekend trips. The rivers are up, fast, and awesome. But when you live here all week, in an RV, with three children, it gets old fast! We have plenty of games, books, toys, supplies, computers, TVs, PlayStation, and GameBoys, but they want (and need!) to be outside. Fortunately, it's not been near as bad as I'd imagined. I saw visions of muddy kids fighting all over the RV and my days spent keeping them clean, apart, and occupied. But they've done well! The mess has (mostly) stayed outside. The kids have (mostly) gotten along. And they have (mostly) found plenty to do. They've enjoyed games, movies, and TV. Allen's even taken them on adventures, geocaching, and to become Jr. Rangers at the New River. Apparently national rivers do that as well as national parks. So there's plenty to do, they haven't killed each other, and life is good. I still want the rain to go away though!

Mac is back and on the TV?!

After selling probably 10 monitor cables, hitting the road, realizing we needed a monitor cable, grumbling about buying a new one, and buying a new one anyway, the Mac Mini is finally back. And on the 32" TV at that. One could really enjoy digital scrapbooking on a 32" canvas! Of course, I'm more of a PC girl, but the size may tempt me. (Shh, I don't want my beloved PC to hear that though.) Check out what's on TV, yep DSP !

WOF Wednesday - School is almost out! How will you celebrate the end of the school year?

For WOF Wednesday , they asked School is almost out! How will you celebrate the end of the school year? Easy! The same way we celebrate every day! Play, learn, laugh. Since we're homeschooling ( unschooling ), we're not stopping for the summer (or evenings, or weekends, or holidays...) Any time, all day, any day, and every day is a chance to learn and we all do, not just the kids. But the kids - wow, do they enjoy it! And they learn about things they choose that interest them, so they remember it. We're especially enjoying the history of the areas we visit as we travel the USA together . For the past few weeks, we've learned SO much about PA and WV even though we've been here many times. Now that we don't have to rush home for school or work, we can just explore and discover God's amazing country. And we are VERY grateful for the opportunity to do this! We're incredibly blessed! So we're celebrating the end of the school year, but enjoyi

Entertaining and scenic drive today through West Virginia, and some Free Bird!

We drove a whole 2 hours onto Fayetteville today and it was a beautiful drive! It was also really fun. I sat in the back so Josh could learn about navigating. He's really enjoying that right now. We played BrainQuest and learned quite a few things about different states and history. We also enjoyed all the views and talked about how the roads through the mountains were made. Lots of learning, without school, so the kids are really loving it! Of course it wasn't all educational. We had a little jam session to Free Bird. Afterward Lizzy said man, some kids are in school right now! Glad she's appreciating it!

The view from my office, at Fayetteville, WV

We have some great views here, but it's hard to capture due to our window screens. Though I love the screens, so no whiny voice here! More trees for the next 2 weeks, and a field out front for the kids to play in. Plus hills to roll down after that, and woods to hide in after that... :) Scrapthemap

Our new home (for 2 weeks) in Fayetteville, WV

We're now in Fayetteville, WV near our favorite New River Gorge . This is SUCH a pretty area. AND we have electric, water, satellite, and internet, so life is good! We're also the only ones in the campground, which we're finding very common (and welcomed!) on weekdays. Quick (and bad) pic from the top of the bridge. Under it is the fun stuff though! Pics of that later. We're at Cantrell's (formerly Rivermen) where we always stay, but our favorite spot is under construction! We were bummed. Then we found out they're redoing ALL the RV sites and had no electric. (Did you hear my heart sinking?) But the nice man working on the sites came by and there's one with electric still so we have that one. Shew! (They do plan to have the electric finished by Memorial Day weekend when our friends arrive, don't worry!) There are so many things to do around here, and I'm sure Allen and the kids will do many of them! I have a major deadline for a big (top

The view from my office, at the Weston, WV Walmart

It's Walmart, and though it's not very exciting, it's also a free night. Well, we did buy $170 in groceries! As for the view from my office, well, it's all a matter of perspective. You can look at it this way... or the way I prefer, this way... Beautiful little hills. Just pretend the cars are rocks in a river. :)

Our nice, roomy, outdoor kitchen among the Tall Oaks

Sunday night all of the OAC (and their super fun dogs) were gone and the kids were quite depressed. So we had some fun and roasted hot dogs and s’mores over the fire (despite a slight rain even). Isn’t the view great? Cell and internet’s not so great, but at least the view is! Yum, look closer. :) Yes, we have Ohio State cups. Gotta represent (plus they’re unbreakable - well, don't tell Matt that). And closer. We tried Tate Chambers’ favorite: S’mores with Reese Cups. HUGE thumbs up on that one! Thanks Tina ! Oh, and we had chocolate swirly marshmallows for some reason.

THIS is why I pick their outfits. And a free May desktop background for digital scrapbooking

This is why I choose coordinating colors when we camp and why I wish I hadn't let the kids express themselves and decide on their (very few) clothes for the next few years! Yes, I'm changing this to black/white because yes, it drives me crazy that they chose pink, red, and orange that day. Pink, red, and orange! Yes, I could change them in Photoshop, but that gets old. I'm either secretly throwing out shirts, buying new ones that will require them to throw out shirts, or maybe I'll just give them a once-over before we go out the door. Doh! On a more positive note, I do like the desktop wallpaper which you can get today for FREE in DSP's May Newsletter ! Designer Robyn Gough created this and another freebie, so subscribe if you want free digital scrapbooking stuff! I personally like the monthly backgrounds 1. for variety, 2. because I don't have to make them myself, 3. (and most importantly) to remind me what month it is! And, don't even get me starte