November 30, 2016

The Giving Tour: Vista del Canon



When looking into places to volunteer in Santa Fe I emailed countless organizations. I got a response from Kirsten at Creativity for Peace. She was incredible! Thank you, Kirsten! She didn't have any opportunities for our family but was able to recommend a ton of places that might have something for us. One of those opportunities was with a sweet family managing a farm in the mountains outside of Santa Fe. We connected with the family and we scheduled a time for a visit.


November 29, 2016

The Giving Tour: Caritas of Austin

Caring for the homelss of Austin, TX
Image found on www.chicktime.com
We volunteered with Caritas through Little Helping Hands. We arrived in the downtown Austin neighborhood where the streets smelled of urine and homeless men and women lined the sidewalks. Parking the car was a much needed eye-opener for our 3 kids.


November 28, 2016

The Giving Tour: Little Helping Hands

In honor of Giving Tuesday I will be posting a bit more this week. We had Our Best Day Ever post Monday and the rest of the week I will be featuring the organizations we've served during our Giving Tour. We hope to bring awareness to each of their causes and encourage everyone to get out and help in your community. Enjoy!  

I have a special place in my heart for Little Helping Hands. The first organization to take our family of 5 in with open arms is pretty special. Ok, this is me being cheesy but it's true and we appreciate them!


inspiring community service in early childhood
Image courtesy of Little Helping Hands


November 27, 2016

Best Day Ever!

Bouquets of flowers

We had THE BEST. DAY. EVER! Today we volunteered in the morning at The Food Depot packing bags and bags of pinto beans for people in the community.  This is our 2nd go 'round with The Food Depot and this time we had help and packed over 1,000- 1 pound bags of pinto beans! YAY!

As we were leaving The Food Depot something unexpected happened.


November 21, 2016

Day Trippin' in Taos

Balloon taking off at Taos Ballon Festinval, NM

I read about Balloon Rallies in New Mexico long before we arrived. The problem? RV Parks and campgrounds that were anywhere near the big balloon rallies were so expensive we'd have to take out a second mortgage. Ok, not quite but close. Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is the most photographed event in the world so you know it's gotta be good. That being said I was bound and determined to make something work. Enter Taos, New Mexico. The first weekend we arrived in Santa Fe, Taos was hosting a balloon rally. It was nothing like the Albuquerque festival but it was beautiful nonetheless. Taos typically hosts 30-50 balloons in comparison to the 600 that participate in the Albuquerque Fiesta. We didn't care. We saw what we wanted to see. It was quite a drive but well worth it. I only wish we got there a bit earlier to see all of the balloons prepping and setting up for their ascension. We got to the field as the last one was going up. The kids wanted to go up so bad. I looked it up prior to going in hopes of taking them but at $150-$200 a person, that's going to have to wait.


November 17, 2016

Celebrating Our Travels!



Traveling the country is a big deal and we know it. We have no real timeline and no end date. We do know that at some point we will stop for these kiddos and possibly our sanity. That being said, we want to be sure we are celebrating our travels as we go. We aren't talking about going to a gift shop in every place and buying something. Trust me we've had to tell the kids we cannot do that (and yet they still ask at every store): 1. we'd go broke and 2. we don't have room for the stuff.

All that being said, I had to come up with ways on the cheap to celebrate what we are doing. Of course we got the kids involved. Here are my Top 5 Ways to Celebrate Your Travels:


November 13, 2016

RV Tour

2017 Georgetown 364TS pulling a 2014 Ford Flex

Quite a few of you have asked questions about this Big Beast (aka The Big B).

I wanted to take some time to welcome you into our home. So... take off your shoes, grab a cup a' joe or (as I prefer) a glass of wine, kick up your feet, unbutton your pants and get comfy.


November 9, 2016

One Random Place: Carlsbad, NM


Yes, this was real life. This sign kinda sums up Carlsbad, New Mexico (for me, anyways). We had just left Big Bend and all I wanted was a grocery store. A big beautiful fluorescent-lit overcrowded grocery store. We didn't find one of those but we did find a Wal-Mart. We stocked up and spent a gazillion dollars (really, we did) as we were out of everything. Anyway, all I wanted was civilization. We didn't find it in Carlsbad. It was another week of feeling like we were in the middle of nowhere. Sorry, Carlsbad.


November 6, 2016

The Big Bend


Driving to Big Bend was a nail-biter. It was a situation where one would really question if you should just turn around and head back. One might think there is a strong possibility you made a wrong turn and are in the middle of Mexico. You might wonder if you have enough gas, food, water and an emergency radio because you haven't seen any sign of life for 2 hours. Yes, it was that kind of drive. 

November 1, 2016

Dia de los Muertos



Feliz Dia de los Muertos! We celebrated with a day at the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Since we've not celebrated the Day of the Dead in the past we really didn't know what to expect. We had checked out a book about it last week so we learned a bit. Typical foods, traditions and things along those lines were covered. The museum did it right. Lots of people dressed up, they had music, crafts, face painting, food, performances and great exhibits. Did I mention it was all free? Right in our price range.