Finally On the Road: My Family's RV Adventure: Our Week in MA in Pictures and a Big Final Decision

The major thing that we have learned over this past week is that we LOVE this RVing lifestyle and as a family made a huge decision. Full-timing this summer was supposed to be a way for us to test the waters and determine if full-timing is for us or not and after only three weeks we have unanimously decided that it is. Since the kids are a go and I have been a go for almost a year now my mind is racing with all that I have to get done to make this happen. Things I am thinking about are money (first and foremost... as in where will I get it), the logistics of having to share the kids with another parent, getting a bigger and newer RV, what will we do with all of our stuff (what do we sell, what do we keep), and how do we break the news to our family (well, it looks like I just did ;-D ). I received a blessing to move forward with this from the people that I love and trust the most, so with their blessing we will get ready to move forward with this major life shift.

I know that the kids will benefit tremendously from spending a year traveling the United States... look how much they have benefitted in only three short weeks. I KNOW I will grow from this. I have been in search of a major change for my life for the past year... this is it! Our plan is to spend several months in and around the Charlotte area (not necessarily consecutively) to be near their dad, to spend a month or two at a time here in New England with our friends, to spend a month or so in Tn to be with my family (my great aunt is 95... time is of the essence), several months in the Atlanta area to be near my bestie and her new baby (she is due July 4) and to spend several months exploring out west.

I'll post more about this decision as things progress. For now, here is a summary of our week:

My days have all blurred together. Instead of giving you details day by day I am just going to post the photos from our week and caption them. While they may be out of order trust that these were all taken over a weeks time (Mon-Mon).

Of course we still had to do school work, even the smallest of us. The kids were thrilled to get to visit farm class and gymnastics class again.

School work

In addition to the classes we visited on our first trip here, the big kids participated in biography club with their friends. Averie contributed Dr Martin Luther King, Jr to the timeline. They made some new friends and definitely got to work on their social skills.

Making new friends and biography class

Appears to be deep in discussion at biography club

We visited the most amazing bridge I have ever walked across. It is a bridge of flowers and was so very pretty. I can only imagine what it will be like when everything is in bloom.

At the Bridge of Flowers in Shelbourne, MA

A gorgeous bridge of flowers... Bridge of Flowers!

Nay smelling the flowers with Ms Christy

Us at the Bridge of Flowers

We visited Salmon Falls to see the potholes left by the ice age glaciers.

The potholes are amazing... the were made by glaciers during the ice age

See for yourself

Beautiful scenery at Salmon Falls

We visited the Fish Ladder and learned way more than I thought I cared about about how fish travel to their spawning locations. It was actually fascinating and I learned a lot.

About to cross the bridge to see the fish ladder

You can see the fish ladder through the fence... the ladder helps the fish cross the dam to swim to their spawning place

View from the other side of the bridge

Heading down to the fish viewing room

Can you see the fish? They are fighting hard to seim upstream to make it to their spawning place. They travel from the ocean to the place they were born to spawn. Wow! Our natural world is amazing.

That is the size of an actual salmon... the photo does not do it any justice.

The next set of photos is of the kids catching tadpoles, newts, and turtles in Uncle Darby's pond (Uncle Darby is our friends 95 year young great uncle who lives across the street from the farm).

The girls searching for tadpoles and Uncle Darby's house that he built with his two hands

The kids also had a great time helping out on the farm, especially with the chickens. Nay was in heaven when he got to drive the tractor with Mr Josh.