As far as the East is from the West!

The last time we left you, which was quite a while ago, we were returning from our European jaunt and headed to Tampa, Florida.  We were watching a storm to decide where to go next and we decided to head to Biloxi, Mississippi.   On the way, we stopped at my brother's house in Florida and camped in the driveway for a few days and did some catching up.  We hadn't seen each other in while a while and we had a great stay.  After that we made our way to Biloxi and stayed at the Air Force Base.  

Having some family time with my brother and sister-in-law.   

Biloxi is where Kelly and I have many firsts.  We met here, first kisses here, David Lee and Kamryn were born here.  We also had an amazing church family while here.  We saw people that we needed some hugs from and also had a day out together to go to our favorite Korean restaurant.  We even saw snow while there.  One of the best things were that we got to spend Zachary's 14th birthday here and we made some great memories of it.  The weather was turning pretty cruddy but we sat for a few days.  When we thought it was safe to head out was when it became very interesting. 

Our favorite Korean restaurant.  

Seeing this young lady makes us smile.  So glad we got to see her again

We popped in to see one of Zachary's teachers.  She was quite surprised.   

Great friends from church.  

A homeschool day and "investigating" a bird out our window.  

A night out with a great friends from church.

Birthday meal!

Had dinner and a birthday celebration with these folks from Biloxi...another amazing family that we are blessed to call friends. 

Snow and ice in South Mississippi...?!?!

 We left Biloxi and knew that the major highways were closed in a part of Louisiana.  We don't travel the major highways much any more so we were fine with it.  We took a route that the Highway Patrol diverted us onto and we had to cross three bridges...that were covered with ice.  The first two were no problem with four wheel drive and inching across.  The third one, which was on a corner and therefore slanted,didn't go so well.  We bumped the bridge and it ripped the back corner of the camper open.  The truck did great but the weight of the camper pulled us to about 80 degrees and we went sideways across the bridge.  Things could have been much worse because it was a very short bridge wall and the camper could have easily toppled over the edge and pulled the truck with it.  But anyway, after some calming time and thankfulness for safety, we duck taped it shut then and there and headed to an RV park around the corner.  We sealed the hole up tight and decided to get it fixed in Tucson.  We were on our way there and had a few more stops but we decided to arrive a few weeks earlier to have our home in working order. 

The ice won.

 On our way to Tucson, we stopped to see Big Bend National Park and get another Jr Ranger badge.  We completed our 98th Park (we took a break from the National Parks for a while) and continued our trek to Tucson, Arizona.  Big Bend was great.  We crossed the Rio Grande in a row boat to have lunch in Mexico.  We also met a great couple who come each year and give clothes and support to the small village we ate lunch in.  The husband is a lifelong cowboy and was quite impressed with Caleb's roping abilities. 

Working on another badge.  

This is a natural hotspring jetting our into the Rio Grande river.  

A hike in the desert along the Rio Grande.  Can you see our vehicle off in the distance? We made it back to the truck and I told Kelly that I guessed it was about 85 degrees...it was 64.  It's hot in the middle of the desert!

Hiking along

Getting ready to row across the Rio Grande into Mexico for lunch.  

# 98 complete.  

After Big Bend we headed to El Paso, Texas to stay at Fort Bliss.  This is one of those places that we don't know why we go there but God shows us and makes it quite clear to us.  We met someone who had a brand new puppy and everyone fell in love with it.  We also saw a couple that we saw a few days before and then saw them again in Tucson!

This girl loves to cook.

We met Turbo at Ft Bliss.  His human mama was great to meet.  

They miss a puppy in the house.  

We couldn't figure out who was following whom.  All we knew is that we kept ending up in the same place!
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After Ft. Bliss we headed to the Air Force Base in Tucson.  This is the third year that we have wintered here.  This was the shortest stay of the three years, but no less eventful.  We got to see many friends again and meet some new ones.  The kids got to go to AWANA, we attended our "old" Bible study, and were otherwise welcomed with many hugs.  Kamryn and I had a Daddy-Daughter day out for Valentines day.   As a family, we attended the Valentine's Day dance again this year.   It was great and we also got the camper fixed.  The best part was that they said they complete it quickly because were a full-time family.  The kept it for five days and we took a trip to Phoenix and Mesa. 

Having our 2nd annual Super Bowl party.  We are missing a few people because they were in a different state dealing with some house issues.  

 We went to Mesa to see some great friends.  They are the kids "Canadian Grandparents".  We met them when we were on Vancouver Island, BC and they summer in Mesa, Arizona.  We stayed there a few days and then went to get a hotel room for a few days to recoop and recover from our previous few weeks.  We came back to get the RV and things were fixed and looked great.  While in Tucson, we also went to spend the day with Kelly's sister as she was on her "solo" birthday trip in Phoenix.  We had a great time at her resort playing in the pools. going to the water-park, and having a great dinner with her.  We also met a mom and her son and got to know them and even flew David Lee in for his Spring Break for a few days.  We had a great time being back in Tucson. 

Painting with Mrs. Wendy in Mesa. 

Caleb gave these hard core Cubs fans a shirt for Boaz (their new baby) to wear...It's a Cardinals jersey that all of our kids have worn.  The rival continues!

Moving on the dance floor!

A little homeschool experiment about drag and how birds fly  

When it rains it pours in Tucson.  Zachary took full advantage of it.

Daddy-Daughter date.  We had a great time.  

Friends...

The boys are together again.

A birthday dinner with Karen.  It was quite an "interesting" night!

Some more of our Canadian friends over for dinner.  

Zachary got hired to clean our neighbor's truck.  He does quite well with finding jobs.  

A hard game...

Anyone for fixing my toilet?  Fine, I'll do it myself.  

David Lee is back and we are one happy family.  

An awesome dinner with new friends.  

Now that is a crew!

We left Tucson and headed to a place that was recommended to us by friends.  We headed for the red rocks near Sedona, Arizona.   This place was amazing!  We boondocked for a few days and headed out to run from the rain.  While we were there, wee met a young couple and introduced them to geocaching and also had them over for a big breakfast one morning.   

Literally in the middle of nowhere.

Who needs electricity when you have mud and a stick?!?!?!

A little reading in the great outdoors.

No table required.  

We woke up to hot air balloons each morning.

Making biscuits from scratch for our neighbors.  

We met these folks while camping in Sedona and invited them over for breakfast.  

Geocaching and a hike.  

 After leaving Sedona, we finally convinced our camping BFF's to dry camp with us.  It's not that they didn't like it but they had a few limiting factors that were able to be overcome.  Of all places, we convinced them to meet us in Death Valley to boondock.  This is one of my top places to camp.  We also had our other camping pals come and hung out with them; we called it an RV rally because we were all together again! Last year were here at the same exact time and it was 102 degrees and sunny.  This time there was some overcast and about 35 degrees cooler.  The bad thing was that we got the wind this year.  It was horrible!  We actually had to pull our slides in because the wind was pushing them in.  We even tried to help a few people out and block a tent in between our RVs and trucks so they would blow away.  We did a number of hikes together, spent a ton of time together, played cards, and laughed and joked more than we thought we could. 

In Death Valley celebrating our our friend's two boys.  

This is OUR rally!

Hiking in Death Valley.

Overlooking Death Valley from the top of a hike.

A little pose in the wind.

We had to pull the slides in because they were moving from the wind.  

We had a number of card nights and Brian surprised me with my favorite snack.  I pigged out on corn dogs while he had pizza rolls.  Don't judge us and yes, there are 5 corn dogs on there for me!

Grilling our in Death Valley

These are the folks that we blocked in to cut the wind.  

Caleb came up with a Bible lesson, a song, and a sermon for all of us on a Sunday in Death Valley.  

 We left Death Valley and headed towards Edwards Air Force Base.  We stayed there a few days and although overpriced and in the absolute middle of nowhere, we had an uneventful stay. 

A stop at an antique store somewhere in California.  

I'm adding this up there with the tank crossing sign we have seen.  I thought it was funny...necessary to help save the turtles, but funny.  

 After Edwards, we headed out for a spot near Medera, California.  Our sole purpose for this stop was to see a friend and also meet/see the kids cousin that they had never met.  We drove to Mariposa one day and went to Tyler's baseball game, hung out and had dinner.  The kids and I had never met Tyler and Kelly only saw him as an infant once.  It was a wonderful day for all of us and am so glad that we got the spend the day with them.

Fixing his bike.

Is there a better way to fish?

Going to find a honey-hole for fishing. 

Awesome to see Viktor again.  

The cousins meet for the first time.  

Nice!

The boys invited a young ma to go fishing and had a good evening.  

 The stop at this RV park has been quite eventful.  We met a couple across the street that we have got to know; did a bit of fishing, and the kids ran and played with other kids until the sun went down every day.

Our neighbors across the street over for dinner.  

Kamryn and Caleb got invited to a party and got to whack the pinata.

Easter dinner.  Zachary said, "Eating hot dogs over the fire would be a memorable Easter dinner." So it was...

I breezed over quite a bit (to include another park in the National Park system which makes 99 for us) but you can see that our last few months has been quite busy.  I have been saying each day, "I need to do the blog" but really haven't had enough time (or connectivity) to be able to do it.  We have seen many old friends, maintained travel with our RV friends, and met new folks (and fed them most of the time!) to make the last few months quite filled with laughs, hugs, a few tears, and tons of love.



We are heading north through California and have to try and avoid some bad weather.  We are going to continue to head north to Washington and possible look for a sticks-and-brick house.  Yes, we are praying about the possibility of settling down for a multitude of reasons.  At the same time, we are considering taking another military flight outside the lower 48 but I won't get into that right now...

Again, I know it has been quite a while since the last update but I hope this one didn't disappoint. 

Until next time...