Homesick for the Holidays

  The end of November marked one year of being out of our home. Over the past year there have been very few times where I have been negative about our circumstances. Yes there have been good things and bad things but they hardly ever change my positive attitude. This particular day I let my emotions get the best of me. It was a day or two after Thanksgiving. Any moment that I was alone or just with Colt I cried, and cried, and cried some more. I was feeling lots of different things. I was feeling lost. I was feeling helpless. I was feeling alone. I was feeling frustrated. I was feeling tired. I was feeling like I was missing out. I was feeling sad.  I was feeling homesick.
   I never imagined when we bought our home that we would ever leave it. I never imagined living on the road with five kids. I never imagined that this would be my life.
  I think the timing of my little melt down was perfect. You see Christmas is my most favorite time of the year. It is the time of the year where we have most of our family traditions. It is the time of the year that I love most being in my home with my little family! We decorate the entire house the day after Thanksgiving while singing and dancing to the Christmas music that I have playing almost to the max volume! Then we turn down the music while we decorate the tree while reminiscing as we pull each special ornament out the box.... the little bride and groom, the parents to be, baby's first Christmas times 5, our family trip to Disney Land, our first home, the kids tiny hand print ornaments. After the tree we then head out side to hang the lights. Next we start to put up ALL of my Nativity sets (there are a lot). After the house is perfect we hit the movie theater to catch the new family movie. At the end of the night we sit and watch as the lights flicker on at the perfect predetermined time!
  The rest of the season is filled with music, baking, friends, family, service and love. We make a sweet homemade treat for all our neighbors on our block. We buy gifts for families that need help. We have parties with all those we love. We make tamales until our fingers cramp.
 As I thought about all the things that I felt like I was going to miss this year and as I talked to Colt about how I was feeling, I realized I had forgotten something. I had forgotten to talk to one person, so I knelt down and prayed. Once again I began to cry, but after my prayer I felt peace once again.
  I understood that even though this road life is not the life I had imagined, planned or worked for, it is the life I am BLESSED with. I was reminded that being able to be together as a family no matter where we are is a blessing. I was reminded that having somewhere to live and be safe is a blessing. I was reminded that I get to have my children with me everyday and that I get to teach them what I feel is important and that is a blessing. I was reminded that I am loved by so many and that is a blessing. I was reminded that although those traditions are very special to me, they are not what makes this my favorite time of year. I was blessed that through my moment of sadness that I was reminded of the reason I love Christmas so much!
  The birth of our Savior.  The birth of the world's Savior. The birth of MY Savior! After all this is the reason why I have so many nativity scenes. He too felt what I was feeling and through His love and grace I can be made hole in body, in mind, and in spirit. So this year we will try and keep as many traditions as we can and along the way make a few new ones.

I love you C,M,B,C,E, and L!

Our Christmas tree this year. Made out of our hands.
With a couple of ornaments from our travels.

Kids doing little holiday crafts.

Our little nativity set.

Hot chocolate.

San Diego Temple. With a beautiful nativity.

 Colt and I 

Checking out the lights at the temple

Another nativity at the temple.

Making treats for the hotel staff instead of neighbors this year!

 

Date Night Randy Style

For Thanksgiving we traveled back to southern Utah. We were able to stay for 10 days. While we were there my father in-law, Randy had planned a date for his lovely wife, Selinda. He kept all the details very hush, hush. All he told her was what time be ready and what kind of clothes to wear. My sweet sister in-law Brandi couldn't get over how on the down low Dad was being with this date. All he told her was that is was a great date and that it would be hard to do any better. Brandi couldn't help her self and asked if she could go too! LOL! To her surprise he said yes! The next thing I know Selinda comes hustling into the kitchen where I was sitting with the kids and tells me, we need a baby sitter and to be ready to go by 6pm. This gives us about 2 hours. I went right away to talk to Colt and ask him what was going on. I didn't want to impose on Mom and Dad's date, nor do I like surprises! He told me he had no idea what the plan was and to just get ready. After calling about 5 different sitters one finally said yes. So the plan was in motion and soon it was time to go. Randy finally told us where we were going. We were headed to Cedar City, UT about 40 min away, to watch a ballroom dancing show!

The girls ready to go out!

Colt and I

Brice and Brandi

Randy and Selinda

 After the show we stopped and got dinner. We had a wonderful night. The company was amazing. And Randy was right it was a great date, and if you know me (I love dancing) then you know Colt will have a hard time trying to top his Dad's date night!

Temple, Zoo, Safari Park!

So the kids and I made few mini field trips before Thanksgivings.  We made it to the zoo with some friends. A quick trip to the temple. With Colt we went to the Safari Park.

Homeschool? Fun time? Family time?......YES! All of the above!

For school a few week ago we studied cartography. If you don't  know what that is, it is map making.
We walked around our hometel and made notes about the thing we saw and where we saw them
 then we went back to our room and drew what we remembered. After that we took to the walking
 again and drew as we walked. After we were finished with that we compared our drawings
 and maps to the map that the hotel gave us. The kids did great and had a wonderful time.

P.E or fun pool time what ever you want to call it. We have been lucky enough to take the kids
swimming almost everyday for the last 8-9 months. They have grown leaps and bounds as swimmers.
 At the begging of our adventure Bobby was a very scared swimmer. CJ was not comfortable in the water
and always wore a floating device. Eva was fearless in the water but didn't have the strengthen or skill to
 swim unassisted. Lindy was just a baby floating around in the little baby seat. Now Bobby can swim with
 out fear and even likes to push his limits trying new trick and racing to beat his best time across the pool.
 CJ  now  loves the water, can swim with out a float, and even likes to dive to the bottom to collect toys.
 Eva is still fearless in the water but now I don't have to worry so much because she has built up her stamina
 and can swim across the pool unassisted. Lindy went from the baby float seat to a toddler life jacket
 to arm floats, she loves the water and loves the freedom to kick all over the pool.

After a fun night of trick or treating the Maravilla clan the kids dumped out their buckets and began to sort,
 count and trade their stashes of candy! It was a super fun Halloween.

After we studied about the history of Dia de los Muretos, we headed down to Old Town San Diego
 to go the annual festival. We had a lot of fun and learned a lot too.

Mom and CJ at the festival.

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Sugar candy skulls from the festival.

While in Old Town we stopped by the Mormon Battalion Fort. It is now my favorite church history site!
If you ever come to San Diego don't miss it! After we learned about the Mormon Battalion at the fort we
 went home and studied about it in the Doctrine and Covenants.
 The kids will never forget this history lesson!

Shutdown!

In case you were living under a rock and missed it.....the government shut down a few weeks back.
With the shut down in full swing, Colt's job got put on hold until the government reopened. We had been in San Diego for a short 2 weeks, when we had to pack up everything and load back up the car and head "home". The only problem with this is that we technically don't have a home. I  mean we are still residents of  Colorado and all of our information and our house is there, but our houses is rented out. Oh and the drive back to Colorado from San Diego would have been way to far. So because of our gypsy life style we have adopted Grandpa and Grandma Stevens' home as our "in between home" and they have so graciously welcomed us.
We spent about two weeks in southern UT during the shutdown. We had lots of fun. We were also able to get a lot of things done that we needed to. We found new doctors for all the kids. We were able to get some plans going to deal with our storage unit. We were able to get Bobby all squared away with his Cub Scouts stuff. We were able to organize and repack the right clothes that we need for San Diego.

Cub Scouts!!!! I come from a family of all girls, so this whole scouting thing is new to me. Luckily for Bobby and I, Colt is an Eagle Scout, Grandma raised 5 Eagle Scouts, and she is the Cub Scout leader in her ward!!! We worked hard and Bobby was able to earn his Bobcat while we were in UT. He was able to attend his first pack meeting and his first den meetings. I think after my quick run down of what I need to do as scouting mom, I can handle this and it will be FUN!

We were able to be in town for Grandma Gubbler's 80th birthday. It was so fun to see her with all her family and friends. People came from far and wide to wish her a happy birthday. It was also nice to catch up with extended family that we don't get to see very often.

After a the government reopened Colt went back to San Diego and the kids and I stayed for a few more days. I wanted to stay so Bobby could go to Day Camp. He had such a fun time. We also had a few doctors appointments.

We also had to make a very sad choice. Our dear sweet Lola was starting to get the short end of the stick with all of our traveling. Every time we go to UT our inside dog has to become an out side dog. When ever we left the hometel she had to come with us, but when we got to where ever we were going she had to stay in the car, because dogs aren't always allowed. She now has a new home, but thankfully she was adopted into a loving home and we will get to see her whenever we can. Thanks Nana and Tata it makes us all feel better that she will be well taken care of!

Lucky for me Colt's brother Brice offered to help me drive with the kids to San Diego. I was glad he was with me, because on the freeway there was an accident and a huge traffic jam that was backed up for a long way. We pulled out our maps (GPS) and found a detour down a back road, if he wasn't with me I would have just been sitting in the row of brake lights with 5 tired kids. We finally made it to the "hometel" at 2 am.

Lola!

Brandi, Colt and Randy.

Lindy and Aunt Brandi

Bobby putting his Bobcat pin on mom.

Bobby cutting the flag.

Bobby helping retire the flag with the American Legions.

Lindy enjoying the camp fire.

Eva and Lindy up in a tree.

Lindy helping in the yard.

Piano lesson with Julia.

Learning to work the VCR.