The Lundy 5

The campground had a New Years Eve party with a band and dancing. We watched for a bit, then ended up dancing the night away. Not Allen, since he was home nursing a black eye . Really, just avoiding all the questions he would have fielded! Fortunately, the party celebrated NYE eastern time, so it was over at 10pm! Yes, that *is* Matt on the drums. He sweet talked his way into a song! And then he used his cute super power and invited many of the ladies to dance. He charmed a lot of women tonight! We all boogied, even Josh, who at first thought he was too cool. Yep, Matt asked the band to autograph his head. With a sharpie. Then we headed back home, across the street to our spot on BLM land to have a fire and fire A LOT OF some shots at midnight Arizona time. That's New Years Eve redneck style!

We woke up to see a hot air balloon landing in our front yard! Granted our front yard at the moment is huge, and public land.

We invited the Travaglinos over for a day of fun in the desert. We had a blast (literally) and played on the random boat we found. The dogs even got to run and play. We grilled burgers and just enjoyed our beautiful day in the middle of nowhere, but right at home. More pics:

We moved across the street from our campground to some BLM land for a week so we can move back to the campground when Uncle Ryan comes to visit. (We have to leave after 3 weeks.) It's gorgeous here, with 360° views of snow-capped peaks, the red rocks of Sedona, and the beautiful desert all around us. After our 2 minute drive, we got all set up, leveled, slid, even took pictures - and THEN we found the perfect spot in a little alcove around the corner. So what would make us leave this spot??? This one!!! Now we're tucked away from the "main drag" (which isn't very "main" since it's a 4WD dirt road anyway). No one for miles, great views, the dog can run, the kids can roam, and on top of that, we have 3G, 5 bars, and unlimited data so we can stay connected, if we want to.

On Christmas morning, the kids were so happy to find what Santa brought and open their stockings. Then they spent the rest of the day playing with their new toys, well, when Allen wasn't.

Christmas was a little different for us this year since we weren't in Florida near family. Fortunately we were still around many friends in the campground with the Travaglinos and McCloskeys . We had a secret Santa gift exchange with the kids which was really fun. Then we had a great feast of a potluck dinner in the lodge! Then keeping our tradition, our kids opened their gifts from us. Then they tried to stay up all night to catch Santa, which they never do. :)

Merry Christmas from our family to you and yours! We hope all of you have a very joyous holiday season and a happy new year too! We also hope to see many of you somewhere down the road! Picture taken at Montezuma Well in Camp Verde, Arizona. Christmas Card by Elizabeth Weaver at DSP.

Allen arranged a hike for our 3 RVing families (including the Travaglinos and McCloskeys - they're still not blogging yet, I'm trying to use peer pressure). Since we had smaller children and a baby in a backpack, of course he picked an easier hike right? Yeah, no. It was a good one though, and had a great view from the top of Devil's Bridge, a natural arch not for those leery of heights! And the road TO the hike was pretty crazy too. More pics:

All 3 RVing families went to Montezuma Castle and Well . We'd seen the castle before, but not the well. It's a very cool place! It's a spring fed lake almost with cliff dwellings all around it. Where the water from the spring flows out, long ago Indians built it up into an irrigation ditch to water fields below. It was really interesting, and very pretty.

We kept seeing something like wild boar here in the campground, and found out they were javalina . Certainly new wildlife for us!

Allen made another video of our RVing travels and adventures in 2011. We went from Florida to Maryland, took an unplanned turn (nothing is ever planned!) to Missouri, then on to California. The fulltime RVing Lundy family in 2011: This year we really slowed down, spending more time in each place. We still saw a LOT and enjoyed every bit most of it. We did get stuck mid-country for the heat wave, which is why we ended up in California to cool down. Then we enjoyed it so much, we had a hard time leaving! Four months later, we finally headed to Arizona. Will we return? Who knows?! You can also see a video of our first 6 months on the road .

We went with the McCloskeys to visit Tuzigoot , where they got their first Junior Ranger badges. We checked out the hilltop pueblo village and enjoyed the gorgeous weather, then headed up the mountain to Jerome. We'd skipped this town last time, so it was nice to get to visit. It's a very interesting mining town built very literally into the side of a mountain. What the kids cared most about though was SNOW! We drove up to 6300ft and let the kids (including Allen of course) play. (Can you tell which kids are from California??) This area was beautiful this summer, but it's even prettier with the snow on the mountains as a backdrop! It was great to see the snow, but even better to drive home without it! Many more pics: