O-H I-O

In November I stumbled across an incredible airline deal, so the kids and I flew to Ohio to visit family. Unfortunately it was a red eye flight leaving at 10am (3hrs past their bedtime) and arriving in Cleveland (2hrs from our final destination) at 5am! OUCH! In the days leading up, I was incredibly stressed about the logistics of transporting 2 sleeping 40lb-ers and our suitcase. Thankfully they woke up enough to walk both to and from the airplane! I think they were just incredibly excited to see Grandpa waiting at the terminal for us. He so lovingly drove the two hours to come get us and bring us to his home.

We spent much of our time at the metro parks, hiking and looking for birds. Here we 

are checking out the live creatures at Blendon Woods Park, while waiting for cousin Lucy.

Afterwards we drove out to Dawes Arboretum, on of Grandma's favorite places to walk around.

Shooting hoops in Grandpa's barn.

I think we hiked at Highbanks 4 of the 6 days that we were there. The strangest part is that I had never been to this park before. We came for birding, but had so much fun walking the trails and exploring the nature center, we just kept coming back for more. The only disappointing thing was that we didn't see any of the eagles that nest there. Well, Asher actually saw one on our drive but I missed it! We kept going back with different family members- Uncle Jason, Aunt Christen, Benji, Avery, Lucy, Grandpa, Grandma, Grammy and Memaw! I love seeing the cousins hiking together!

Asher was super excited that he and Benji matched.

Memaw had the kids and I over for a slumber party with her and Grammy. We had fun, but my mom didn't get too much sleep with the kids next to her. I slept well with Grammy and they both let me sleep in....ahhhhhh!

My kids ended up sick, probably from the flight, so unfortunately we didn't get to see friends. On our last night, I was finally able to reconnect with two of my friends, Cindi and Bob, while our kids had fun playing together in Grandpa's barn.

On our way back to the airport, Grandpa drove us up to visit with his dad and stepmom before meeting my Aunt Jane and Uncle Barry for lunch. It was so nice to catch up with all of them.

Time to head home, and yes, Asher's leaf came with us. 

And this time we were more prepared for the flight!

The horned lizard that welcomed us home at LAS.

This is what happens when you put 35 roadschooling families together....

We're part of a group called Fulltime Families, a membership based club for people living in their RV with their children. They hold a few annual rallies (gatherings for members), the latest being the "West Coast Cali Rally" at Sweetwater Regional Park near San Diego.

We attended our first rally last winter in Florida and met so many wonderful families, some that we ended up traveling with later in the year. This time we knew what to expect and how to get the most out of it. The biggest key is to arrive early and stay late. We reserved our campsite for 10 days which was perfect for the 3 day rally. Upon arrival we met a few families while just walking around the park. Wednesday night we were invited to a campfire at the Barry's site where I met half a dozen other families. Thursday morning, the rally officially kicked off with a member brunch before games and a "soup social" (potluck soup dinner). You should have seen all the Instant Pots lined up! It's an electric pressure cooker that's super popular with RVers so we can cook quickly and without more costly propane. Here's our group of 35 families together!

Friday started with a group field trip to the Rueben Fleet Science Center. We've been here before, but some of the exhibits have changed. This one was especially fun. It took a photo of you then you could drag and drop other facial features over your own. The results are pretty entertaining.

While they were there, I snuck out to the cactus garden across the street and found a few Allen's hummingbirds. 

Once we returned from the field trip, I attended an essential oils class before we all gathered for a pizza party and outdoor movie, "Inside Out". It was a bit chilly, so we all headed to bed afterwards.

Saturday was the busiest day. We began with a group chat on roadschooling. Next was the group bike ride and kids' market. Kids set up vendor booths and sold everything from balloon animals to photo ops with a (bearded) dragon! My kids didn't try to sell anything, but they really enjoyed purchasing a few items and seeing what the other kids came up with.

The Parade of Homes is always one of my favorite parts of the rally. We split into 2 groups (moms and dads) and someone (a saint) watches ALL the kids while we tour each other's RV. It's really helpful to see not only the different setups, but how people have customized it and share ideas. The campground had reserved this whole back section for our group, so pretty much all of the RVs seen here are ours.

Next we formed groups for The Amazing Race. The kids and I joined our new friend Diane, in a race that sent us running all over the campground collecting clues that would direct us to the next task we had to complete. Each task was based on a popular geographic location within the US. We had fun even though our team came in last....so last that the welcoming group at the finish line had left. Ha! Once they realized, the entire group formed a tunnel and congratulated us on completing the race.

That night we enjoyed dinner together then a luau party. The limbo and hula hoop contests were quite entertaining and had some serious competition! 

On Sunday we ate doughnuts while saying goodbye to some of our new friends as the rally was officially over. Luckily many of us were sticking around for awhile, so we continued meeting at the playground and each other's sites for nightly campfires. Families bonded and one by one we said our goodbyes. We scheduled four additional homeschool field trips to local attractions over the next three weeks. 

I think we met even more families this rally than our first that we really got to know well and would like to travel with in the future. There's three families that will likely follow us, or maybe even caravan with us to Alaska this spring! 

Sweetwater was a nice location for me to look for new birds. The kids went with me down to the reservoir one of the days. I ended up giving two birding lessons during the rally to other families that had shown an interest.

The Birding Bug

Birding is hunting without killing, preying without punishing, and collecting 

without clogging your home." -Mark Obmascik, author of "The Big Year"

While working the visitor center at Desert National Wildlife Refuge, I would daily see men of retirement age come thru carrying thousands of dollars worth of scopes and cameras with foot long lenses to the trails in search of birds. Turns out this is the number one hotspot in Nevada for birding. Part of my job included updating the refuge's "recently seen" list with birds, though I had no idea if what I was adding was typical or rare for the area. As I watched more and more birders come thru, I couldn't help wonder, "what is this birding thing all about?"

One day a woman about my age came to the refuge. Nicole and I spoke for awhile about the refuge, birding and her solo travels. The temperature that day had dropped significantly, so I offered for her to stay warm in our RV for awhile that night before camping. We stayed up late discussing our travels, faith and plans for the future. Before saying our final goodbye, she had spent three nights with us. On the last night I asked if she would take me birding with her in the morning. She excitedly agreed. We woke early and were on the trail before sunrise. If you know me, that's the first unusual thing I've done for the sake of birding. We ended up seeing 21 different species of birds. It was kind of a blur. She was so fast at identification and I couldn't see the birds as well with my borrowed binocular. I brought my camera and snapped away as she pointed them out. Once back at the RV I was able to go thru the photos and find the birds in the identification book which helped commit them to memory. I went back out by myself at sunset, and pretty much every day after.

Soon I learned all of the regular birds at the refuge as well as the rarities as they came thru. I learned the calls of half a dozen birds and could hold a conversation with the other birders that came thru the refuge. I also knew not to call them "birdwatchers" as that refers to people who sit and watch birds. They were "birders", actively on a mission to search out and find birds. Soon my own interest blossomed into obsession and I was birding in other locations and trying to increase my life list (the list of birds I've identified, also referred to as "lifers").

A black-capped night heron seemingly playing mother hen to 5 turtles at Floyd Lamb park.

To learn more about birding, I went on a walk with Red Rock Audubon to Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve. If you are at all curious about birding, joining your local Audubon group for a free bird walk is the way to go! The leader brought a high powered scope and set it up to allow everyone a close look at the birds that were spotted. I saw 14 new species that day, before catching a ride to the nearby Clark County Wetlands with another woman from the group, Sandy Brown, also from Ohio. There I added another 2 species to my life list.

In the 1800s, there was a holiday tradition of seeing who could kill the most birds on Christmas day. The resulting decline in bird populations led to the suggestion of counting them instead of killing them. In 1900, a new tradition began, the Christmas Bird Count. The popularity of it has grown and now tens of thousands of volunteers participate in organized counts from December 14 thru Jan 5 each year. Each group counts the birds found in a 15 mile diameter circle on one particular day. The information collected is used by biologists and wildlife agencies for monitoring populations and movements.

I participated in my first Christmas Bird Count at Corn Creek in December. We split into three groups. Each group had one person that would keep track of the birds while the rest of us identified and counted them. We had to be careful not to count any birds twice. The six people in my group were responsible for counting at the refuge, Paiute Golf Course and the town of Corn Creek. The team as a whole identified 82 species, which is fantastic.

The highlight was when I spotted a Red-Tailed Hawk and had just enough time to alert the others before he swooped down and caught an American Coot. After a few minutes, the coot stopped struggling and the hawk ate him!

We ran into a falconer there who stopped to talk and even brought his birds out to meet us. A falconer is someone who hunts with a hawk or falcon. They usually trap the bird then train it to hunt and to return. This falconer uses a drone for training. The whole process is very intriguing to me. It requires weighing the bird and its food daily.

The last few weeks at the refuge, I offered to lead bird walks for the public. I really enjoy sharing my love of birds with others as well explaining the resources like Ebird and identification books that make birding easier.

Asher has taken an interest to birding as well. I took him birding with me on Halloween dressed in his race car driver costume. We spoke with a few other birders and they were impressed that a child so young was interested. One of them quizzed Asher on identifying a bird call, and Asher got it right, a raven. Another day we were driving into Floyd Lamb Park when I saw a flutter to the side of our truck. Asher yelled, "Quail!", and he was correct! A Gamble's Quail. I asked him how he knew what it was because he'd never seen them before. He said, "the feather sticking up on his head. It's a male, the female doesn't have the black head." Whoa! He remembered that from the photos I showed in a couple weeks earlier. I asked him if he'd like to start his own list and he was excited about it. So now I have a four year old with a life list.   LOVE!

A few of the interesting birds I've seen on the refuge:

An American kestrel, one of my favorite birds, a small hawk 

with blue wings a reddish body and black and white stripes on its face.

A common poorwill is hard to spot. It looks like a rock.

Our resident greater roadrunner in a layer of fresh snow on Christmas morning. We watched him sneak up on a group of white-crowned sparrows in a failed attempt at breakfast.

Get off the strip- a kid-friendly guide to Vegas

Having lived in Las Vegas, Nevada for over 10 years, and now being a fulltime traveler, I'm often asked for advice on activities in Vegas, especially kid-friendly ones. So instead of repeating myself, I figured I'd just blog it for quick reference.

Everyone seems to know what is available on the strip. We actually spent very little time downtown, so I'm going to move on to the places and activities that hold my heart.

Valley of Fire State Park- ok, so I'm starting with a park that isn't actually in Vegas. It's about an hour north, but if you spend more than a couple days in Vegas and miss this, you've really missed out. Drive to Rainbow Vista for a hike thru red sandstone rocks. The views, rocks and colors here are amazing. You'll find more international travelers here than locals.

Red Rock Canyon National Recreation Area- Drive the loop thru the park. Take the time to get out and scramble around and take some photos. There is a campground across the street, though it's all dry camping and only has room for about 6 RVs. We also like to explore the fee-free area known as Calico Basin- take the road just East of the Red Rock entrance.

Mt Charleston- at just under 12,000ft, the temps here are around 20-30 degrees cooler than Vegas, so in the summer it offers a respite from the heat and in the winter, snow for sledding or skiing.

Floyd Lamb Park- An oasis in the desert, this park has stocked lakes, green grass and beautiful trees. Trails wind around the park where you'll find peacocks and rabbits roaming free. Low-cost horseback riding is available at Horses4Heroes on the south end of the park.

Desert National Wildlife Refuge- The largest wildlife refuge in the lower 48 states. 1.6 million acres to explore if you have a high clearance vehicle. If not, you can still enjoy the views from the trails behind the visitor center. This is the #1 birding hotspot in Nevada (per Ebird). There is a tent campground for those with high clearance vehicles (about 90 minutes thru the rough backcountry roads). There's room for up to 2 RVs to boondock in the first pullout on the right side of Alamo Road.  Pull over in front of the visitor center and walk up Alamo Road before driving it with an RV because if that area is full, you won't be able to turn around to get out and the roads are not safe for an RV past that. Warning- do NOT park here if any rain is expected! This is a flash flood area and the roads get washed out easily which would leave you trapped or worse!

Lone Mountain- climb this mountain in the NW for a great view to go with your exercise for the day. There's a nice park at the base of the mountain for the kids to run and play.

Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve- OK, if you're not into birding, you may not be drawn to this spot, but it is an interesting place to walk around the ponds and view the strip from a different vantage point. The bird displays in the visitor center are very educational.

Clark County Wetlands Park- Another spot that has nice trails, and a birding hotspot. The visitor center is a fun, interactive learning center for kids and adults.

Tule Springs National Monument- Recently established, there is no visitor center. The bones of mammoth, camel and lions were unearthed here. Explore this area from the parking area where Durango dead ends just north of Floyd Lamb Park.

Lake Mead National Recreation Area- So much to do here. Of course you can rent a boat or jet ski to explore the water. Our favorite is to float the canyons south of the dam! Anniversary Narrows slot canyon is our favorite hike in the area.


Our favorite activities-
Riding horses at Horses4Heroes Community Equestrian Center at Floyd Lamb Park. Low cost riding, sometimes as low as $5-10 for everyone ages 2 and up. Entrance is usually included to their barnyard area with goats, burros, alpacas, and a mini cow that you can pet and brush. They also offer classes, summer camp and day camp whenever the local schools have a day or more off.

Roos 'n More Zoo- This one is also about an hour away in Moapa, but worth the drive for a private tour which offers an incredible opportunity to hold, pet and feed many of their animals. At this time, I believe you must book a private tour. Grab your friends and split the cost. Trust me, it's worth it! Hopefully soon they will be open to walk-in visitors. Check the website for details.

Children's Discovery Museum- While this is an expensive outing, it is one of the best children's museums in the country.

The Farm- a great place to buy produce, local honey and stay to see all of their farm animals for a few dollars per person.

Westwind Drive-In- This drive in has all digital screens, doesn't charge for children under 5 (under 11 are only $1) and has special pricing on Tuesdays. Every night is a double feature, so two movies for less than the price of one in a theater and sitting outside or in the back of your truck just makes it so much more fun.

Bonnie Springs- an old west experience plus a petting zoo

Gilcrease Nature Sanctuary- a fun place that is inexpensive to visit and is home to lots of different kids of animals

Gilcrease Orchard- The largest orchard in town. Check the website for what's in season. They have a huge pumpkin patch, hayrides and apple cider donuts for fall.

Exploration Peak Park- This neighborhood park in the southwest is one of the best in town. After playing at all of the fun features, take a picnic lunch to the peak to enjoy a new view of the city.


Ok, now a couple things that we have enjoyed downtown-

Indoor Skydiving- Seriously so much fun! We went for our anniversary before kids. I believe there's a 50lb weight minimum, but as soon as my kids hit it, we're taking them!

Downtown Container Park- A large play area for the kids surrounded by little shops built inside shipping containers in the Fremont area.

Mandalay Bay Shark Tank- Aquarium in the Mandalay Bay

Watching planes takeoff and land at McCarron Airport from the viewing lot on Sunset. *You can also watch small private planes and helicopters from the 2nd story outdoor balcony at the North Las Vegas Airport. Both fun experiences.

When we stay in a hotel, we always choose a suite in the Gold Nugget's Rush Tower. The rooms are super fancy, the buffet is good, but the pool is the best part. Where else can you swim with sharks without the danger? They, along with many other fish, are in a giant aquarium in the center of the pool. There's a tube slide that actually runs thru the center of the shark tank and dumps you into the pool. Lots of fun.

Fremont Street Experience- Ok, this one is debatable. We have taken our kids to walk around Fremont during the day and it was fine, however, if you have older kids who can read, it may not be appropriate. As it grows dark, it gets more crazy (inappropriate) and crowded- sometimes to the point of having to squeeze thru the people which would be scary with children. While the light show and street performers are quite entertaining, if you're bringing the kids, I'd suggest taking them back to the hotel before dark.

In the winter, Opportunity Village decks out the Magical Forest with lights, rides and a snack bar. It's a fun night for a good cause. Check Groupon for discount tickets. The Ethel M Chocolate Factory does an amazing job decorating their desert garden with lights for the holidays. Walk thru, say hello to Santa and tour the chocolate factory all in one stop.

Outside of Vegas

Death Valley National Park- About two hours from Las Vegas, this park has so many different areas to explore. Tumble down the sand dunes, walk across the salt flats, hike the mountains. You could easily spend a week here....but don't do it in July or August. It's not called "furnace creek" for nothing!

Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge- Located just outside of Death Valley, this makes a great stop on your way to or from the park. A boardwalk will take you to natural spring pools that hold five different endangered species of fish and you just might spot some bighorn sheep at Point of Rocks.

Zion National Park- 2.5 hours away is a different hiking experience in beautiful Zion. It's worth the drive. Of course if you're going that far, you might also consider Bryce, Arches and Canyonlands. 

China Ranch Date Farm- a fun place to see where dates come from. Enjoy some date milkshakes and take some home with you. To burn off those extra calories, try hiking right from the parking lot.

Valley of Fire

Valley of Fire State Park is one of our favorite places. The orangey-red rocks are so beautiful especially at sunset. This is the kids' third time here, but they don't seem to remember the other visits. I don't know how they forgot it but it's fun to watch them see it again as if for the first time.

We camped in the Atlatl campground (seen below) which is so fun because the sites are nestled among the rocks. We always enjoy climbing right there in the campground. The kids and I climbed from our site to these rocks which gave us a nice view.

We stayed in a special camper that Daddy built for us. The idea was that we'd find a summer job in Alaska with housing provided. We'd leave the big RV and drive this little camper to Alaska making the trip there and back much more comfortable and side trips, once there, easier. Unfortunately, we were unable to find a job with housing.

It's pretty well designed with our bed on the bottom and the kids' bed situated sideways and raised above our legs. There's even enough room for the dog inside. It's well insulated and padded on the floor, has a vent with a fan on the top and windows that open. I now realize I should have taken a photo of it with all of our bedding inside. It's a cozy little camper and we're disappointed to not get a chance to use it now. Still trying to decide if we should sell it or keep it for quick trips the next time we're in Vegas.

Exploring around the visitor center. 

Our friends, Anina, Russell, Kylie, Alyssa and Wyatt, met up with us to hike the Rainbow Vista trail.

Aptly named- look at this colorful desert!

Asher found this freshly shed snake skin under a boulder!

Asher's love for this place is serious. He was so disappointed that we only stayed one night. He was practically in tears when we left and told us he wanted to stay, "for a hundred nights". This is his newest favorite place, though he thinks it's called "red rock" because, well, all the red rocks. 

Don't worry, my little one, we will return again!