More South Dakota

     When you are a mom of five kids all the things on your list never seem to get done.

Especially a blog about your life.

So to have a some time to write, something else has to slip. Right now all five kids are mindlessly watching television, instead of doing some cute summer time arts and craft project. 

    Where did I leave off....

  

    South Dakota: What can I say about our time there? It went by quickly. The best part really was the hotel staff. When you live in a hotel the staff becomes sort of like friends. They are friendly faces and you kind of get to know each other. We knew when they were gone or had a day off and missed them when they were not there. 

     The church we went to was also great. The Young Women leaders were amazing. Malayna turned 12 the first week we were there and they welcomed her like they had been counting down all year for her to turn 12. It was the best place for Malayna to enter the young women's program. The scouting program was also a plus. Bobby and CJ both earned a few awards. 

     Seeing as were were so close to Colorado Springs (8 hours) we decided to spend Easter with the Bess family (aka our BFFs). We had a wonderful time with them as always. Lots of love, laughter, fun, learning and gospel discussion. We miss them very much. 

    We only had the three youngest for the last 2 weeks because M and B flew home with my mom after her visit. The drive home was fun. We made a few stops along the way, but the best one was Devils Gate. We learned a lot about LDS pioneers and the struggles they endured to get to the Salt Lake Valley.

      I guess its time to go for now. I can only ignore the kids pleas for lunch for so long, before I start feeling like a terrible mom. We need to have a talk, again about what it really means to be starving.

Until next time, I love you C, M, B, C, E, and L

The Stevens do South Dakota

     Welcome to Rapid City!

   

 We will spend 12 weeks in this part of the country. We have already been here for 6 weeks. That time has flown by so fast. We have been to and seen so many wonderful places and things.

     The weather here is unpridictable. One day it is snowing the next day it is sunny and warm enough to wear shorts and flipflops. As I write this I am soaking up the sunshine while the kids play at the park. Yesterday however we awoke int he morning to a ground covered in snow.  One thing we can count on is that it will be windy. The wind is always blowing, from a slight breeze to knock you over winds.

    

  The poeple here are very nice and welcoming. The ward we are in mostly military so they are use to people coming and going, not as fast as we will but they leave just the same. There is also a large Native American population here(obliously). We heard the prayer in church given in Lakota Indian!

    

  We got to South Dakota in Feburary, because of this we deciced that it would be best if we ditched the RV and stayed in a hotel. Its a good thing we did. The winds would have drove us crazy. Also all the RV parks are closed for the season. That would have been interesting having to drive the RV to fill up and dump the tanks every few days. The hotel staff is great. They know us by name and they love the kids. Best part is we are right next to an awesome indoor water park!

  We look forward to exploring this area for the next 6 weeks as the weather warms up more and we get to do more things outside.

When there is snow outside and we need something to do

Badlands

Mt Rushmore 

Learning about Devils tower.

Daddy doing nails.

School work in the lobby.

Down town Rapid City. 

Bobby and CJ at scouts. 

Playing the game of life

   

Please Be April Fools

"Someone" broke the screen/digitizer on mom's surface pro 3. None of the kids know what happened or who did it(isn't that how it always goes).

To bad it wasn't an April fools prank.

On the bright side we are impressed with our composer and patience as parents. No yelling, accusations, or threats.

Over the years of spending nearly 24/7 as a traveling family we have learned as parents that things are not as important as our relationships with our children.

As soon as we would yell they would get scared and stop listening, so what's the point. No one wins, you end up with mad parents, scared kids and no solution.

Not to say that we never yell,  because sometimes that is the only way to be heard when there are 5 voices talking at the same time.

As for the laptop, the kids won't go with out consequences. Come on it is twelve hundred dollar laptop something has to be done. They will no longer be allowed to use Mom's laptop for games, to surf the web, or even school work. They will all have to just take turns on the "kid" computer(it will extend school time) but that's what happens.

Now to figure out what to do about mom's laptop.

Until next time; I love you C, M, B, C, E and L.

Experiences Instead of Gifts

   I know that is already February but I really didn't want this to go undocumented.

   This past Christmas we did things a little differently. For Christmas instead of getting the kids Christmas presents Colt and I decided to get them experiences. They already had everything a kid could want. Clothes, toys, games, and tablets so we didn't see the point in buying more useless stuff that would eventually be given away anyways. Plus room in the RV was very limited.

We got each kid the traditional PJ'S and socks. We got them each a small gift to help them guess what their individual experience would be.

Colt and I had a lot of fun doing all these things. It was amazing to spend time with each child and focus only on them and see their smiles and hear their laughter. We made amazing memories.

Its been 2 months and they still talk about "the time when".... I don't ever remember a time when our kids were still so excited to talk about their Christmas presents even one month later.

This was the best thing we could have done for our family and we look forward to doing it again this year.


We took Eva out to lunch and then to go ice skating!! She is so good at it too!

We took Malayna to Paris, Las Vegas. We went to the top of the Eiffel Tower and ate yummy treats from a french bakery.

Bobby got to go paint balling. Him and Colt had a wonderful time. This is something I have no desire to do again.

We took CJ to see Tournament of Kings at the Excalibur. He couldn't take his eyes off the show.

Until next time. I love you C,M,B,C,E and L!!