San Frantastic

It's been a while since our last blog! We have been SO insanely busy here in California, sightseeing, visiting with family and friends, and having a blast with the kids, that blogging has been the last thing on my mind (although Jonathan has continually pestered me to get one written!) 

When Jonathan finished our last post, we were in San Diego heading to meet our friends, the Sargents, for dinner (where we had insanely good pizza at a place called Urbn). They invited us to join their church the next day for an Easter egg hunt and picnic at a local park. The kids had so much fun, and Annie Jane & Jack both won a prize egg! They were thrilled! It was recommended we follow that with a local snow cone stand called Baltimore Snowball. Y'all, I'm a snow cone junkie, so I can say with some certainty that this was the best snow cone EVER! I had the piña colada which has a layer of marshmallow cream in the bottom of the cup, followed by shaved ice soaked in about half a gallon of piña colada flavoring, topped with a TON of sweetened, condensed milk, then topped with more marshmallow cream! I was in heaven for the ten minutes it took me to eat it all!

The next day was Easter Sunday. We woke up super early in order to get everyone all dolled up for church, open Easter baskets, have breakfast, then make the hour drive from our RV park across town to the Sargent's church in time for Jonathan to be there for the 9am music practice. The Easter service was beautiful; Jonathan and the praise team did an awesome job on their song, and we thoroughly enjoyed our time at The Point Church with the Sargent family.

After we got back to our RV park that evening, the kids asked if they could go play in front of the RV while I worked in the house. I let them go as long as they promised not to destroy anything (one of our children, who shall remain nameless, is prone to destroying valuable things when left to his own devices.) They all ran outside and I sat down to read a book. After about 20 min, I hard the front door slam open and Grey scream "MAMA!!! There's water EVERYWHERE!! HEEEEEELLLLLP!" He then slammed the door shut and ran to his room in a panic. I immediately heard Annie outside start to scream like you wouldn't believe, so I jumped up and ran to the door were I discovered our living room was completely soaked! I could hear water hitting our front door like it was being sprayed from a fire hose, and Annie Jane screaming her head off while banging on the door. I threw the door open and Annie and about a million gallons of water all flew through the door simultaneously! I screamed for Jonathan to come help, as I dragged Annie through the door and wrapped her in a towel. Luckily, Jonathan had his swimming clothes on already, and was able to run outside and figure out what was going on and where the torrential downpour of water was coming from. Come to find out – after a few minutes of interrogation – Grey admitted that he had tripped over the PVC pipe (poor planning on the park's part...most places have copper pipe) that housed the water supply to the site next to us, causing the pipe to snap off at the ground, and water to shoot fifteen feet in the air, soaking our site and blowing water against the door of our RV at a speed you wouldn't believe! Poor Annie had been standing on the stairs of the RV when the water started spraying, and Grey had locked her out, hence the terrified screaming. Haha Poor baby was traumatized!

Since this happened on a Sunday, there was no staff at the park to help us shut the water off, and they had no emergency number listed to call for help. Luckily some of the nice residents who live full time at the park came to our rescue and tried for over an hour to turn off the water while Jonathan had to stand and hold one of my cooking pots over the burst pipe to keep the water from soaking our RV further. After a very long soggy hour had passed, someone located the maintenance man, and someone else figured out how to turn off the water to the park. Another hour later and the deluge had subsided and the pipe was fixed thanks to the maintenance man and about 20 very helpful park residents! 

The next morning we packed up and headed to Los Angeles. We had searched high and low and couldn't find a single RV park in the LA area that would work, either because they couldn't fit our RV, they didn't have availability, or they were too expensive. Fortunately, Jonathan's Uncle Joel and Aunt Jaime very kindly offered to let us stay at their home in Corona until we could find a park that could accommodate us. They even have a space for the RV beside the house, so it was perfect! We were so grateful for their hospitality during the week we were with them! We enjoyed spending time with them, and our kids fell in love with Aunt Jaime...letting them talk to her non-stop and making them food may have had something to do with it. ;) The kids were also able to swim in their beautiful pool every day, and were so sad to leave it when the time came! While there, we were able to hang out with Jonathan's other aunts, uncles and cousins. We had a wonderful day at Steve & Donna Luce's house, barbecuing and watching the kids swim and play. Afterward, Donna insisted that we had to try a local donut shop near their house, so we all loaded up and headed over to The Donut Man, where we got some of the prettiest and most delicious donuts ever! (Not quite on Shipley's level, but definitely very close! ;)

We were finally able to locate an RV park with availability and enough space for our rig. We packed up the RV and very carefully squeezed out of Joel and Jaime's driveway without destroying too much of their property. ;) The park we moved to was just outside of Riverside, in Rancho Jurupa. It was a gorgeous area and the park was pristine with tons of great amenities for the kids to enjoy. We spent a week in Riverside while Jonathan worked in the area. While we were there, my parents came into town, and while my dad and Jonathan worked, the kids and I spent a couple of days hanging out with my mom. The next week, Jonathan had a trade show in Huntington Beach, which my parents and I were helping with, so my wonderful mother-in-law flew in and stayed with the kids. Even though it was work, we were at a nice resort and a week away from the kids was heaven!

The show ended on Thursday, but we went ahead and spent Friday at the hotel, just decompressing from the week. We both got massages, and then headed to Laguna with my parents to eat at Las Brisas, one of their favorite little restaurants by the water. That Saturday morning, we got up early and headed to meet Jonathan's mom and get the kids in time for her to fly home. Then we met my parents for breakfast so they could see the kids before they flew out. When we got back to the RV park, Jonathan went to see if we could extend our stay, but he had accidentally only booked through that day, and they didn't have any available spaces, so what we thought was going to be a relaxing Saturday turned into a whirlwind as we quickly packed up the RV and headed out. Since we were having to move, we went ahead and headed toward the coast, stopping in Santa Clarita for a couple of days. While we were there, we found an amazing little burger place called Bricks. Yum!

From there, we headed straight to San Francisco. Our park was just north of the city, about 10 minutes beyond the Golden Gate Bridge, so Jonathan drove the RV straight through the city and across the bridge. We definitely got some odd looks! We didn't arrive until evening, so after we got the RV set up, we ran to grab a quick bite to eat. As we were finishing dinner, I started having contractions. By the time we made it back home, I was still having them, and they were getting closer together. For the next hour, I was sick a couple of times, and we debated whether or not we should wait to see if the contractions stopped or if we should go to the hospital. Then I started shaking to the point that I couldn't stop, and I think it freaked Jonathan out enough that he decided to take me to the Emergency Room. I was quickly admitted, and after a few routine checks and questions, they determined that I was severely dehydrated, and that was what caused the contractions. Thankfully, both Emery and I were fine and they sent us home after a couple of liters of fluid. By the time we got home, it was almost 2AM, and we were all exhausted. We spent the next few days seeing the sites: Muir Woods (redwoods), driving up the Pacific Coastal Highway, visiting Napa and Sonoma, and touring around the city. We went into the city several times, riding a cable car, seeing the Full House house, wandering through Chinatown, Little Italy, the Mission District, Japantown, and all along the wharf. This was our first time to visit San Francisco, but it definitely won't be our last...we are in love with the city and this area! We also visited the Winchester House (if you don't know, look it up!), and stopped by Apple's Headquarters, just to see where all the magic happens. ;)

This past Saturday, Jonathan and the kids surprised me with some wonderful Mother's Day gifts! Then on Sunday we attended church at Abounding Grace, pastored by Rev. Mark Morgan, and had a wonderful service. After a great week, we headed to Yosemite a couple of days ago. We spent yesterday touring Yosemite, seeing the sequoias, El Capitan, the Half Dome, and a couple of the beautiful waterfalls in Yosemite Valley. It feels a little like Thanksgiving...the weather has been in the forties, slightly overcast, with a little rain, but it's absolutely gorgeous here!

We have some news, but I'll let Jonathan announce that in our next blog. Until next time!

-M

Beauty and Pain

It's been exactly three weeks since our last post, which is admittedly much too long, (we're sorry!) but it's been busy. We spent four wonderful days in Albuquerque and took a day trip over to Santa Fe. We wandered around old downtown in Santa Fe, enjoying the eclectic blend of local art. In Albuquerque, we visited the Petroglyph National Monument, a fantastic collection of Native American and Spanish art carved into rocks, most of which are around 700 years old. I had a few offices to visit in both cities, but we had plenty of down time to relax and enjoy the amazing weather. The temperature was in the high sixties each day and in the forties at night, but the kids did happen up a few holdover patches of snow to play in. They were in hog heaven.

On Saturday the 14th, we left New Mexico and headed to Williams, AZ, a small holdover town on old Route 66, about thirty minutes west of Flagstaff. We stayed at the Grand Canyon Railway RV Park, which turned out to be the nicest RV park we've stayed at on our trip so far. Aside from being extremely well kept and centrally located in town, it had a shuttle service, an indoor pool, an outdoor playground, and a scenic train onsite that runs up to the Grand Canyon, which was about an hour north. On Monday the 16th, I had to visit a client in Prescott, which was about an hour south, so I loaded up the whole family and we made it a day trip. After finishing my appointment, we headed over to Jerome, a crazy town situated on the side of a mountain in the Black Hills. It looks like the town's main source of revenue is now tourism, but it has retained the look and feel from it's glory days when it drew thousands of people because of it's rich copper mines. After a quick visit there, we headed over to Sedona. The red rocks, canyons, and mountains in this whole area are truly amazing, and we were treated to a beautiful ride back "home."

The next day we went to Bearizona, a unique drive-through wildlife park. We got to see bighorn sheep, wolves, bison, bears, and an assortment of other animals. After driving through the park, you get to park and walk into a fort that they've fashioned to house an additional assortment of animals, many of which you can touch and see up close. The kids loved it...and so did we!

Since Wednesday was our last day in the area, we wanted to make sure we had the chance to visit the Grand Canyon. You have several different options for viewing the Grand Canyon, either on foot or by car. Because we wanted to see as much as we could in just a few hours, we opted to drive and park along the way. As we pulled up to the first stopping point, we all just sat in amazement. Pictures never do it justice, and it would be impossible for me to describe it in a way that would accurately portray just how awe-inspiring it is. Just the sheer size is breathtaking. As you sit and stare down into the canyon and across the expanse, you can't help but admire the handiwork of our incredible Creator. We drove the 25 mile trail, stopping numerous times along the way for pictures, and ended our tour at the South Rim's watchtower, which was built in 1932 to give an unmatched view of the canyon below.

On the 19th, we packed it up and headed south to Phoenix. Well, sort of. Let me first give you a little backstory about how I find parks for a location so that you can appreciate the craziness of what I'm about to tell you. Usually two to three days before we head to a new location, I start looking for an RV park where we can stay. We're members of several different RV clubs that offer discounts (Passport America, GoodSam, Escapees), so naturally I begin by looking for parks that participate with those clubs. Passport America provides a 50% discount on nightly rates, GoodSam provides 10% off, and Escapees provides 15%-50% (but doesn't have as many participating parks). Generally, I'll look at my Passport America app and see what parks participate, then GoodSam, and so on. As I started looking through the options in Phoenix, I began noticing that all of the parks I was finding were "age-qualified," meaning that you had to be 55+ to stay there. After exhausting all of my clubs without finding one single park that wasn't age-qualified, I visited my good friend Google. After a couple of hours of increasingly frantic searching and calling parks, I finally found two parks that were  in relatively good locations that looked like they might work for us. The first one I called was completed full, and the second one didn't have space for an RV our size. However, I did learn an interesting piece of information from that first park: there are 128 large RV parks in Phoenix; of those parks, only 6 of them are not age-qualified. That blew me away! I knew Phoenix was a retirement and snowbird mecca, but still. Unfortunately for us, of the remaining 6, only 2 weren't completely full, and of those 2, one couldn't accommodate our size RV, and the other was astronomically expensive (think small apartment rent expensive...for only a week stay!). That forced me to start looking at alternatives, meaning suburb cities with parks. Needless to say, we finally found a park about 30 minutes west of Avondale, which is already a western suburb of Phoenix.

I've been to the Phoenix/Scottsdale area many times, and enjoy the town immensely, but I had forgotten how beautiful the countryside is between Flagstaff and Phoenix. About an hour and a half north of Phoenix, you'll find some of the most gorgeous valleys and mountains you've ever seen. We were pleasantly surprised with all the green, especially after spending a couple of weeks in the deserts of New Mexico and Arizona. It was a welcome sight! The week we spent in Phoenix was fairly uneventful. We were able to attend service both Sunday and Wednesday at a great church in Peoria, and lucked out Sunday by finding a free RV show to attend (like we need one...). Most of the week, I spent visiting clients in Phoenix, and one day I drove down to Tucson to visit clients there as well. With me having to work quite a bit, Molly and the kids were able to knock out a bunch of schoolwork. We did manage to visit another Rudy's while there, probably our last chance to get some good Texas BBQ until we get back home.

After we got home from church last Wednesday, we were all cleaning up to make sure everything was ready so we could roll out the next day. As Molly and I were cleaning up the living room, we heard a horrible scream of pain coming from the kids bedroom. Jack soon emerged, blood quickly filling his mouth. As I grabbed him and took a look, I could see one of his teeth sticking very far forward. My first assumption was that it was a baby tooth that he had knocked loose, but after trying to move it and see if it was loose, the tooth didn't budge. It was lodged firmly in place; he had ripped the tooth forward, gum and all, with the roots still attached. At that moment, I had that surge of adrenaline hit when all is not well. He had been attempting to extend his toy lightsaber, and when it didn't come out, he had tried to use his teeth, which obviously didn't end well. We quickly debated about what to do, then all loaded up and headed toward the nearest ER (keep in mind, this was at 11:30pm or so, and the closest ER was 35 minutes away). As we drove, Molly and I talked through what to do, and it was my opinion that they would probably just give him some pain medication and tell us to visit a pediatric dentist the next day. When we got to the ER, I decided to see if I could gather some info before admitting him. I took Jack in by myself, and was fortunate to have a doctor walk up behind the counter in the ER, just as I was asking the staff at the front what they recommended. (Keep in mind that they can't give you any advice whatsoever for fear of legal repercussions, but that wasn't going to stop me from asking.) I showed the doctor his tooth, told her what happened, and asked if they would actually treat him or simply give him meds and refer him to a dentist. She told me that she couldn't tell me what to do, but that they don't have dentists on staff, and while they can pull a tooth and treat an infection, they couldn't do any type of oral surgery. I asked if she was recommending me to simply take him to a pediatric dentist the next day, and she coyly asked me what I thought. I told her I thought that was a "yes,", and was awarded with a smile that told me I was right. We exited and headed straight to a Walgreens to get Jack some children's pain medication. I also called two local pediatric dentists and left messages, asking them to please call me back if they could get him in first thing in the morning. By this point, his pain wasn't as intense; by the time we arrived back home (around 1:15am) and he had taken some medicine, he was feeling much better. After falling asleep a little after 2am, I was jarred awake at 6:45am by one of the offices calling to let me know they could see Jack if we could get there by 7:40 (remember we're about 35 minutes away). After taking a few minutes to wake myself up (the 4.5 hours weren't enough), I hurriedly dressed, snagged Jack of the couch, and away we went. Understandably, Jack was apprehensive, and knowing how skittish he is, I was a little apprehensive myself. I could not have been more blown away by the dentist's office. It was completely decorated with a jungle theme and had arcade games and tablet pads for the kids. By the time they were ready for Jack, he hadn't even been thinking about his tooth. The chair they put him in to check him out was positioned beneath a tv on the ceiling with cartoons, which held his attention while they looked at the damage. After a quick x-ray, they took us to a private room, and after a few minutes of nitrous (laughing gas) a little numbing gel, and a local shot to make sure he was numb, the dentist came in and removed the tooth in less than 45 seconds. The beautiful thing was that his tooth needed to come out anyway to make room for the adult tooth beside it, so even though it was a little traumatic, it was necessary! The whole experience was as easy as one could hope for in a trip to the dentist, and Jack was as good as new when we left. Kudos to Hilgers Pediatric Dentistry.

After an exhausting night, we were on the move again. As soon as Jack and I got home, we were headed out to Lake Havasu, an interesting little town on the border of Arizona and California, about 150 miles south of Las Vegas. The town is located on the lake, which is fed by the Colorado River. Getting to the town requires a drive through a few windy canyons that follow the river, and it was a beautiful trek. After two quick days there, one of which included a client visit, and the other a bunch of laziness (recovery from the 4.5 hour sleep night), we headed into California.

And that leads us to this week! We arrived in San Diego this past Saturday. We attended church on Sunday at Northpoint Worship Center, pastored by our friends, Darin and Duana Sargent. I had texted him late Saturday evening to inquire about service times, and he reciprocated by texting me early Sunday morning to ask if I would sing. That led to a quick scramble to get there a little sooner than we were planning to, which is always fun when you're having to get three small children ready in addition to yourselves. After a wonderful service, we moseyed over to La Jolla for a tasty lunch at The Taco Stand. I couldn't fit in their streetside parking, and there weren't any other available spaces within a reasonable distance, so I decided to pull into the car detail place across the street and let the clean the truck while we ate. It needed it. I had to chuckle as I was walking back over, seeing my very large – and somewhat out-of-place looking truck – parked between a Bentley and a Maserati. I'm sure my truck caused a few horrified looks on some environmentally-conscience Californian faces. I didn't notice. :-)

I spent most of Monday and Tuesday visiting clients, and Molly and the kids have taken it easy, doing some schoolwork and visiting the pool. We were able to attend service last night at a church about half a mile from our RV park, and the gentleman currently pastoring preached a revival at our home church some 15 years ago. It really is a small world. We're about to walk out the door to have dinner with the Sargent's tonight, we have an Easter egg hunt with their church tomorrow, then we'll be back at their church on Sunday and I'll be singing again.

As we head into this Easter weekend, don't forget the reason why we celebrate: a risen Savior, and the hope that if the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us, we too shall rise one day and throw off these mortal bodies for life eternal.

~J